OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — A former southern Iowa county attorney accused of driving while intoxicated is scheduled to begin trial April 8. Clarke County court records say 42-year-old Michelle Rivera pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charge and a related crime. She’d been arrested last month in Osceola. Rivera lost her re-election bid in November after she was arrested in October on suspicion of being drunk on the job in a Clarke County courtroom. A sheriff’s deputy said in a criminal complaint that he noticed Rivera “slurring her words and stumbling on her feet” in the Osceola courtroom. He arrested her after she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with public intoxication. Rivera eventually pleaded guilty and was fined $65.

(Radio Iowa) — The annual University of Okoboji Winter Games kick off today (Thursday), bringing a huge winter boost to the Iowa Great Lakes area. Tourism generated about 286-million dollars for the region in 2017. Blain Andera, C-E-O of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, says the summer season is the main tourism driver, but the winter games run a close second. “On a typical year, the winter games will draw between 20- and 30,000 people to the area toward the end of January, where we don’t usually have a lot going on,” Andera says. “We’re thought of a summer tourist destination, and there’s a lot more to do here than just the summertime.”

Andera says the games draw people from all over the country and they’ve grown a lot since first being held in 1981. “It started with some folks who had cabin fever, wanted to get outside, started a broomball tournament,” Andera says. “Now, we’re up to four days of fun events with everything from broomball, to flag football, to softball, to polar plunge.”

Events also include scavenger hunts, ice fishing and a kite festival, which is something new this year. Kiting professionals will fly 16 kites through the air, measuring from 20 to 100-feet long. The games run through Sunday.

(Radio Iowa) — The question in Marshalltown the past 24 hours is — “Where is Corey Brown? The Marshalltown teen left his home late Tuesday night, apparently after an argument with his parents and hasn’t been seen since. Marshalltown Police Chief Mike Tupper says the search is continuing, adding every piece of information that can be shared with the police is important. “What we’re asking from the public is to help spread the info we pushed out on social media far and wide. If anyone out there in the community has any thoughts or ideas on where this young man could be, please call us so we can follow up on the information,” Tupper says.

Corey Brown

The 13-year old Brown is described as five feet tall, brown hair, weighing 98 pounds. Home security video showed he was wearing a red shirt, black pants, gray tennis shows with a lime green Nike logo, a black and lime green coat and a Seattle Seahawks stocking cap when he left home Tuesday night. Tupper says a search yesterday of the area on the south end of Marshalltown didn’t turn up anything and there is no evidence to show he has been out in the winter weather since leaving home “We’re hopeful that he is with somebody he knows and maybe he’s just apprehensive about coming home right now. If he’s listening, we want him to know that everybody’s worried about him and it’s okay to come home and everybody just wants to help him,” according to Tupper.

Many folks on social media have asked why an Amber Alert has not been issued. Chief Tupper says this situation does not meet the guidelines for an Amber Alert. There is no vehicle to search for, no license plate number, nor is there any evidence that a crime has been committed or that Corey Brown is in imminent physical danger.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Officials in eastern Iowa have decided to spend more than $10,000 on new public benches that don’t have center armrests after an extended debate about whether benches installed earlier were hostile to homeless people. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the Iowa City Council has decided to replace 14 benches in a downtown pedestrian mall with seating that doesn’t include center armrests.

Nichole Novak is an organizer with Iowa City Catholic Worker House, a shelter that led the effort to change the benches. She says the idea is to make “a public space that is welcoming to all.” Cady Gerlach is the director of strategic operations and resource management of Shelter House. She says the money for the benches could’ve been better spent in other ways to help the homeless.

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s 511ia.org reports some crashes on area roads are slowing traffic.

• I-80 eastbound, just east of the Highway 148 interchange at Anita, is blocked in the left lane due to a crash.
• A semi tractor-trailer is jackknifed on Interstate 80 near the Walnut exit due to the icy road conditions. And a westbound pickup spun out and ended up in the ditch in this same location.
• I-80 in Council Bluffs, the southbound I-29 ramp is partially blocked due to a crash. Open as of 8:52-a.m.

Many area roads are partially covered with snow, due to blowing snow. Tow bans are in effect for Mills and Montgomery Counties.

BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) — A Bettendorf counselor has pleaded guilty again to kissing and touching a client against the woman’s wishes. The Quad-City Times reports that 46-year-old Aracely Schutters filed a written plea Wednesday. The charge: misdemeanor sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. Schutters’ sentencing is scheduled for March 7. Schutters initially pleaded guilty in February, but a judge later allowed her to take back the plea after learning Schutters was not informed of some of the plea’s ramifications, including being required to register as a sex offender.

An arrest affidavit says the incident happened Dec. 4, 2017, when Schutters invited the client to her home to talk about the client’s problems. The client reported getting into Schutters’ hot tub, where the counselor reportedly kissed and touched the client. The client then got out of the hot tub and left Schutters’ home.

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

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

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OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) — Police say a train struck and killed a pedestrian in Ottumwa. Officers sent to check a report about a train accident around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday found the body of 22-year-old Duane Heifort. He lived in Ottumwa. Officials have not yet reported on what actions led to Heifort’s death.

(Radio Iowa) — Another proposal to alter the state’s “bottle bill” has emerged in the Iowa Senate. For decades, legislators have debated making changes in the system that charges a deposit fee on bottles and cans of alcohol and carbonated beverages. For years, the stores that sell those beverages have objected to being the place customers go with their empties to get their nickels back. Pam Mackey-Taylor, a lobbyist for the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club, says the group opposes major changes. “We like the convenience of the grocery stores and convenience stores and the accessibility throughout the state, including in rural communities,” she said.

But a bill that got its first hearing at the statehouse yesterday would let grocery stores and convenience stores exit the redemption business. Brad Epperly, a lobbyist for the Iowa Grocery Industry, says retailers spend a lot to process the empties. “We devote square footage. We devote people. We have to do extraordinary cleaning measures…because this is where you buy your groceries,” Epperly said. “There are convenience stores in this state that have to rent space because they have no where to put them.”

The proposal a panel of three senators reviewed would raise the fee paid to recycling or “redemption” centers from one penny to two pennies out of the five cent deposit on each can. Troy Willard owns the “Can Shed” with locations in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. He says that increase in the handling fee is badly needed. “I would say most redemption center owners also have that concern about convenience,” he said, “as far as whether there would be enough redemption centers pop up to replace retail.”

The businesses that bottle and distribute the pop and beer also say the current system is unfair, but they oppose the bill. Senator Mark Segebart, of Vail says going 40 years without making improvements to the “bottle bill” makes no sense.  “As a farmer, you have to adjust things all the time,” he said. “The rule is don’t overadjust. If you adjust 10 things on a piece of equipment, you don’t know what you did that fixed it, so this is a fairly simple bill. It’ll fix a couple of little pieces. It won’t fix everything. But guess what? I’ll be back next year.”

Segebart, gesturing with a nearly empty can of pop, told the crowd at Wednesday’s hearing there will be adjustments in his bill. And groups involved in this decades-long debate over the “bottle bill’s” fate say they’re working to develop other alternatives, too.