Cass County Treasurer Tracey J. Marshall is once again reminding property owners of the deadline to pay the second-half tax payments on real estate and mobile homes. Those taxes are currently due, with the deadline for payments without penalty, next Monday, April 2nd. Payments with a POSTMARK of April 2nd will also be accepted without penalty.

You can pay your taxes at the Cass County Treasurer’s Office at the courthouse in Atlantic, or online, at www.iowatreasurers.org.  Credit and Debit cards are accepted, but there is a “convenience fee.”

ADEL, Iowa (AP) — Court records say the adoptive grandmother of a central Iowa teenage girl found starved to death has reached a plea deal. An April 6 hearing has been scheduled for 63-year-old Carla Bousman, who’d previously pleaded not guilty. She’s charged with aiding and abetting kidnapping and child endangerment and other crimes in the death of 16-year-old Sabrina Ray. The records do not say what charges are involved in Bousman’s new plea.

The girl weighed just 56 pounds when she died. Her body was found May 12 in the Perry home she shared with her adoptive parents, Marc and Misty Ray. They’ve pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges.
Her adoptive brother, Justin Ray, has been given 10 years in prison for injuring her the month before she died.

The stage is set for the June 5th Primary election in Audubon County. According to the Audubon County Auditor’s Office, the following persons met the March 28th filing deadline to have their names on the ballot:

• Republicans Duane D. Deist, Jean Hinners and Gary VanAernam, who are vying for a seat on the County Board of Supervisors.  Democrat Dwight Jessen had been a candidate, but he withdrew from the race the last week of March.
• Republican Sarah A. Jennings is running unopposed for Audubon County Attorney.
• Democrat Miranda J. Bills is unopposed for County Recorder.
• Democrat Debbie Campbell is unopposed for County Treasurer.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa agency is making a new effort to recover more than $9.4 million in defaulted private student loans, including some that date back to the 1990s. The Des Moines Register reports that the state College Student Aid Commission has entered into an agreement with the state Department of Revenue to recover more than $9.4 million in Iowa Partnership Loans.

The agreement says the Revenue Department will use a variety of methods to collect the defaulted loans from almost 1,000 borrowers, including garnished wages and withheld state income tax refunds. The Revenue Department will keep 28 percent of the funds collected.

The commission worked with the Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corp., a private nonprofit, to administer the loan program. The commission then purchased the private loans in default from 1998 to 2006.

A Wednesday morning fire caused significant damage to the Le Mars Senior Center. Le Mars Fire Chief Dave Schipper says thick black smoke was coming from the building (110 6th Avenue Northeast) when firefighters had arrived around 9:20 a-m. He says a woman inside was preparing meals and noticed smoke and fire coming from a light fixture and called the fire department. Schipper says they put out the light fixture fire shortly after arriving.

“We made entry with a team and they were able to knock that fire down very quickly with a hand line. However, a big area of the ceiling had burned and also from the debris falling down we did have some damage on the laminate as well. We did have smoke damage throughout that senior center,” Schipper says. Schipper estimates the damage to the building exceed 10-thousand dollars and may possibly go higher. No one was injured and the chief says the fire doors helped prevent the fire from spreading into the Floyd Valley Apartment complex. The center’s conference hall sustained enough damage to prevent future activities, at least for the next few weeks.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — A 2-year-old review of Falls Park that Sioux Falls officials used to defend safety protocol at the park, where a 5-year-old girl from Audubon drowned on March 18th, was actually a training exercise. Documents released to the Argus Leader newspaper show that what the city cited as an “independent review” and “safety audit” of the park was a training exercise for employees of the South Dakota Public Assurance Alliance.

The member-owned alliance helps insure more than 400 local government entities in the state. Attorney Robert Anderson says no formal safety audit of the park occurred in 2016.
City Emergency Manager Regan Smith says he erred in calling the 2016 review an audit when addressing the media on March 19.

A Council Bluffs man being held in the Pottawattamie County Jail, was served with a warrant out of Nebraska, Wednesday, for being a Fugitive from Justice. The warrant was served upon 31-year old Frank B. Cates, of Council Bluffs. Cates acknowledged the warrant and was returned to the custody of jail staff.

A traffic stop early this (Thursday) morning on a vehicle in Glenwood, resulted in the arrest of the driver on drug charges. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office say the vehicle driven by 38-year old Alan Edward Bauer, of Glenwood, was pulled over for an equipment violation at around 3:30-a.m. Upon further investigation and a search of the vehicle, marijuana and drug paraphernalia were located. Bauer was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was also cited for no valid driver’s license. Bauer was transported to the Mills County Jail without incident and held on $1,300 bond.

Glenwood Police assisted in the arrest and investigation.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 24-year old Shilo J. Major, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 2:45-p.m. Wednesday. Major was taken into custody on a warrant for Harassment by Communication. He was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on a $2,000 bond.

A check of State and area news, from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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