A call about a disturbance in Shelby Wednesday evening resulted in the arrest of a man from Walnut. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports 21-year old Austin Daniel Malloy was taken into custody a little after 5-p.m., after Malloy was seen trying to make entry into the Menard’s Distribution Center. Malloy was arrested for Criminal Mischief in the 2nd degree (for damages more than $1,000 but less than $10,000), Interference with Official Acts, Public Intoxication, and Violation of a No Contact Order. Malloy was transported to the Pott. County Jail and held on bonds amounting to $5,600.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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An Iowa State University study finds a simple yet powerful way to improve your mood in just minutes. I-S-U Psychology Professor Douglas Gentile says they sent about 400 students out to walk around campus following one of three instructions: when encountering others, consider either how you’re better off than them, think of things you may have in common, or simply wish them well. Gentile says, “We found that the simple technique of walking around, wishing other people well in the world, worked for pretty much anyone who did it.”

The strategy isn’t complicated in the least and Gentile says it’s something we could all incorporate into our daily activities. While the researchers figured the least promising technique would be the downward social comparison, they had higher hopes for the interconnected option as students strolled around campus. “When they went around practicing what’s called a ‘loving kindness’ contemplation, wishing other people well, that improved their happiness, that decreased their anxiety, that increased their empathy, that increased their sense of social connection,” Gentile says, “and all of this in just about 12 minutes.”

The technique of wishing others well should work everyone, he says, where we’re in a long line at customer service, in clogged jam of traffic, or in a crowded elevator. If you do something selfish, Gentile says it might bring you short-term satisfaction but likely won’t help you in the long-term. “When we do things that are kind for others, that has both a short-term benefit and — other studies have shown — long-term benefits,” Gentile says. “So, I think that would work, whenever you’re in a frustrating situation, to recognize that these other people are just as frustrated as you and to wish them well.”

The students who had the best results from the study were instructed to look at the people they see and think to themselves, “I wish for this person to be happy,” and they were encouraged to really mean it as they were thinking it. The ISU study was published in the Journal of Happiness Studies.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10902-019-00100-2

Creston Police report one person was arrested following a traffic stop Wednesday evening. Authorities say 40-year old Dustin James Seley, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Suspended. He was released from custody on a promise to appear in court.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a DNA sample taken from a man arrested on federal drug charges has matched those taken after four Dubuque women were raped years ago. The Telegraph Herald reports that 29-year-old Martel Fountain Sr. is charged with four counts of sexual abuse and four of burglary. Court documents say Fountain assaulted three women in 2011 after forcing his way into their homes. The documents say another was raped in 2014 after Fountain forced her into her garage.

Prosecutors say a DNA sample taken from Fountain in March 2018 after his arrest in the federal drug case linked him to the four Dubuque assaults. DNA information from those four cases had been filed in an FBI database. Fountain has since been sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Officials with the Atlantic High School report an educational mock collision will take place this (Thursday) afternoon, at the High School. The general public is asked to avoid the area along E. 14th Street between the hours of 2-to 3:15-p.m., so as to not interfere with participating Emergency vehicles. No parking is allowed in the area, and the activity is NOT FOR PUBLIC VIEWING.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska woman has pleaded not guilty to stealing from a now-closed Sears store in western Iowa. Woodbury County court records show 39-year-old Sandra Martinez, of South Sioux City, Nebraska, entered a written plea last week to the theft charge. The records don’t show that a trial has been scheduled. The records say Martinez stole $400 on the first day she worked at the Sioux City store and stole $1,000 on the last day she worked there. The store closed earlier this month — one of 80 closings the troubled retailer announced in late December.

(Radio Iowa) — Closed interstate highways and submerged train tracks are creating challenges for moving grain and livestock. But Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition says washed-out county bridges and impassable gravel roads are equally important because local infrastructure connects farms to global markets. “And it’s also the system that is largely the responsibility of local and county government and these are entities that are not flush with money,” Steenhoek says.

Iowa State University livestock economist Lee Schulz says some livestock trucks early on had to take longer routes or go to different meatpacking plants. But Schulz says businesses worked together to keep up with meat processing and it may never be clear whether the flooding affected consumer prices. “It likely won’t be one that we can really isolate here is the impact — and it was a rather large impact,” Schulz says. “I think it’s something that over time we may realize a little bit but overall I don’t think it’s going to be too much of an impact on prices.”

He says prices for meat are volatile thanks to ongoing tariffs and animal diseases, so it may never be possible to tease out whether flooding affected consumer prices. Schulz says prices, especially for pork, are pretty good and demand for meat is high, despite the considerable impact on individual farms.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Senate has passed a bill that would let adult women in Iowa skip the requirement of a prescription and be able to buy birth control at the pharmacy counter. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds expressed support for this concept last fall and Senator Liz Mathis — a Democrat from Cedar Rapids — praised the senate’s bipartisan 42-to-six vote. “This is really quite a big day for the state of Iowa to do this,” Mathis said. “…I’m not excluding men here, but I think women understand intimately the issues surrounding access to birth control.”

Three first-term senators — all women — urged their colleagues to vote for the bill. Republican Senator Carrie Koelker of Dyersville was one of them. “As the mother of a daughter, I think that this is another layer of options for our women in our state,” Koelker said. “It helps with family planning and unwanted pregnancies.” Chris Cournoyer of LeClaire — another Republican who was just elected to the senate last November — says the bill will give Iowa women access to affordable birth control. “It is responsible,” she said. “It is under the supervision of a pharmacist and it has been an established, proven method of birth control that has worked for women all across this country for many, many years.”

Republican Senator Tom Greene of Burlington, a retired pharmacist, says Iowa pharmacists have had six years of intense training about proper dosage levels and will recommend a women seek a doctor’s advice if there are any concerns. “It behooves all of us to make sure that young women of today have access to proper care,” Green said. First-term Senator Claire Celsi of Des Moines, a Democrat, voted for the bill, but expressed “deep reservations” about it, partly because she had an adverse reaction to birth control. “No offense to Senator Greene, but pharmacists are not doctors,” Celsi said. “Pharmacists can refuse a woman birth control — did you know that? — if they’re ethically opposed to it.”

First-term Republican Senator Mariannette Miller-Meeks, an eye doctor from Ottumwa who’s a former nurse AND the former director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, guided the bill through the senate. She urged her colleagues to trust women to make this decision. “I’m going to rely upon my experience with women and caring for women,” she said, “that we’re intelligent, that we’re capable and we’re knowledgable.” The bill now goes to the Republican-led House for consideration.