Genelle Deist, Chair of the Audubon County Community Foundation, has announced $45,590 in grants was awarded to Audubon County nonprofit agencies. With the grants monies, the Audubon County Community Foundation has distributed over $1.7 million in grants and scholarships over the last 20 years.

The following nonprofit organizations, which submitted applications to the Audubon County Community Foundation by the September 1st deadline, were awarded grants by the Audubon County Board of Directors:

Audubon Chamber of Commerce – Maintenance of “Albert the Bull”, $3,000
Audubon County Fair Board – Campsite improvements, $10,000
Audubon Recreation Foundation – Complete racquetball & basketball courts at new recreation center, $6,340
Brayton Community Club – Remodel Brayton Legion Park bathroom, new roof, door, paint, $5,000
Exira Fire & EMS Association – Portable fire ground monitor, $2,000
Exira Public Library – Remodel work area for students & patrons, $750
Friendship Home Foundation – Renovations, $10,000
Gray Community Betterment Corporation – Playground improvements, $2,500
The Children’s Nest – Safety equipment, $6,000

The amount available included $2,000 for the Exira area from the Leon and Iva Milliman Endowed Fund, $2,500 from the Charles T. and Kathleen K. Manatt Endowed Fund, $900 from the Audubon State Bank/Stephen Garst Endowed Fund, $1,000 for the City of Audubon area from the Audubon Masonic Association Endowed Fund, $445 for the City of Audubon from the Fred and Evelyn Nissen Endowed Fund for Audubon, and $445 for the City of Audubon from the Merle and Norma Petersen Endowed Fund.  The amount also includes an additional $5,000 in the form of a donation from the Estate of Milo and Dolores Clemmensen.

All grantees met the criteria as Audubon County nonprofit agencies or organizations with charitable missions in the areas of civic, cultural, health, education and social services. Only organizations providing services in Audubon County were eligible. Audubon County agency representatives received their checks on Oct. 26th. During brief check distribution activities, Deist commended the nonprofit agencies for their individual efforts to provide a better quality of life for the residents of Audubon County.

The Audubon County Community Foundation was established in 1997 and works with individuals, families, businesses and organizations to create permanent funds that address the changing, vital community needs and interests. Donating to a permanently endowed fund helps your neighbors today AND you help build a stronger community tomorrow. Not only that, you’ll be eligible to receive a 25% Endow Iowa Tax Credit for each donation, in addition to any Federal tax benefits for which you may qualify. The Audubon County Community Foundation invests and administers these funds and distributes grants to deserving, qualified nonprofit organizations. “This has grown from an annual event to twice a year, with one grant cycle in the spring and another in the fall,” said Deist.

Board members of the Audubon County Community Foundation are: Chair, Genelle Deist of Audubon; Vice Chair, Joel Hoegh of rural Brayton; Secretary/Treasurer, Barbara Johnson of Audubon; Shelley Burr, Audubon; Steven B. Hansen of Audubon; Daryl Olsen, DVM, of Audubon; and Joseph T. Rasmussen of Exira. For information about donating or establishing an individual foundation/fund, please contact any of the Board Members, or call Dennis Nissen, Iowa Foundations Director, at 800-794-3458.

Midwest Partnership Economic Development is working with Western Iowa Advantage to bring Economic Development 101 sessions to each of the region’s counties.  The sessions will provide an overview of what economic development is, the basic concepts and principles of the economic development process, how it works, and the role elected officials and community members play in the process. They should prove to be especially beneficial to County Supervisors, City Council members, Mayors, City Clerks and community development leaders.

Sessions have been scheduled in Greenfield, Audubon, and Guthrie Center, 5:30 – 6:30 pm.  The sessions are free, but RSVPs are requested, as dinner will be provided for attendees.

The session schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, Nov. 14th, 5:30-6:30-p.m. – Hotel Greenfield (110 E. Iowa St., Greenfield).
• Wednesday, Nov. 15th, 5:30-6:30-p.m. – Audubon County Economic Development (ACED) office (800 Market St., Audubon).
• Thursday, Nov. 16th, 5:30-6:30-p.m. – Guthrie County/ISU Extension (212 State St., Guthrie Center).

For more information or to RSVP, contact Sarah Gomez at sgomez@midwestpartnership.com or (515)523-1262

WESTFIELD, Iowa (AP) — A theft charge against a former city clerk in northwest Iowa has been dismissed. Angela Sorensen, of Westfield, has been accused of stealing nearly $9,000 from a city of Westfield fundraising account that was being amassed for a public park and T-ball complex.

Plymouth County prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the theft charge against Sorensen because more time was needed for an investigation. The judge granted the request Monday, but the charge could be refiled later. Sorensen resigned her city post in August.

A coalition of more than 60 farm and commodity groups is asking federal lawmakers to double the funding for agricultural research in the next Farm Bill. Johnathan Hladik (LAW-dick), the policy program director with the Center for Rural Affairs, says that additional money is needed for research to be able to help feed a growing world population. “When you look at the landscape, you look at the charge of agriculture in the coming years, we need to feed more and more people, in some cases, with less land and fewer resources,” Hladik says. “What’s going to get us there is sound research and good science. We took this opportunity to express our support for making sure we have the dollars and support from the federal government there to get this done.”

The requested doubling of federal research funding would take the figure to six-BILLION dollars. “It sounds like a significant chunk of change,” Hladik says, “but this is the type of research that pays off for generations to come and it’s smart to make that investment now, upfront, rather than trying to catch up later on and dealing with what could end up being a significant food shortage.” He says private companies in the U-S have contributed to ag research but the advantage in federal funding is that the research tends to be unbiased. “Over the past decade or so, it’s private companies really stepping up and filling that gap and that could be a really big positive but in a lot of ways that can also tailor the research in a certain direction or limit its scope,” Hladik says. “When you have more general non-partisan dollars that are going to work, it can open up the amount of issues you can look at.”

Hladik says the U-S should look at the commitment China has made to ag research. China is now the world leader in such funding, passing the U-S — which is now in second place. The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says President Trump “should let the special counsel do his job.” That was Grassley’s comment to reporters in Washington, D.C. soon after the revelation that the man who served as Trump’s campaign chairman for five months was indicted. Grassley has released a written statement after a briefing about the indictment of Paul Manafort. Grassley said: “As always, it’s important to let our legal system run its course.” Grassley did not mention the president’s power to pardon those accused of crimes. Grassley said he and other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will continue their work “to ensure that the Justice Department and F-B-I are functioning free from inappropriate influence.” Grassley added that it is “a dirty little secret” in Washington that the Justice Department has had “lackluster enforcement” of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Grassley said it’s good to see the Justice Department taking that responsibility seriously.

Republican Joni Ernst, Iowa’s other U.S. Senator, has issued a written statement, too. Ernst says “it’s important that we let the Special Counsel and bipartisan congressional investigations continue in earnest.”

(Radio Iowa)

Council Bluffs Police this past Saturday (October 28th) participated in their 15th “Operation Medicine Cabinet” (DEA sponsored) National Drug Take Back Event, as a result of which 353 people anonymously dropped off their unused, expired prescription or over the counter drugs. Combined, those drugs, comprised of miscellaneous pharmaceuticals, weighed 594 pounds.

Officials say to date, the Departments “Operation Medicine Cabinet” events have resulted in 5,540 pounds of miscellaneous pharmaceuticals being collected and over 3,075 individuals participating.

The Department credits success the events to the collaboration of several community
organizations, volunteers, and the Council Bluffs Recycling center.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new computer algorithm is helping the FBI identify bodies found years or even decades ago. The agency has looked at fingerprints from about 1,500 bodies and succeeded in making 204 matches to prints previously on record. The new system is able to make matches from low-quality prints or even a single finger or thumb. The unit is now urging local authorities to search through other old case files and send in smudged or partial prints that couldn’t previously be matched.

LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a murder charge filed against an Akron woman at the request of prosecutors who want more time to investigate the case. The Sioux City Journal reports District Judge John Ackerman on Monday granted the request to dismiss a second-degree murder charge against Becky Hebert. She was arrested after the Oct. 6 shooting death of her husband, 40-year-old Jeremy Hebert. Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond sought more time to investigate medical reports and cell phone records.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Magazine publisher Meredith Corp. is suing the federal government claiming the Internal Revenue Service forced the company to overpay federal income tax by $12 million. The publisher of Better Homes & Gardens, Martha Stewart Living and Family Circle asked the court to force the government to refund the money in a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Des Moines, where the company is based.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Polk County judge has dismissed a lawsuit that claimed members of the Iowa Board of Regents violated the state open-meeting law by gathering privately with the man they later chose as president of the University of Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports the judge Monday dismissed the lawsuit filed by former university employee Gerhild Krapf. Krapf alleged that five of the nine-member board inappropriately met with former business executive Bruce Harreld by holding multiple gatherings.

LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a murder charge filed against an Akron woman at the request of prosecutors who want more time to investigate the case.

The Sioux City Journal reports District Judge John Ackerman on Monday granted the request to dismiss a second-degree murder charge against Becky Hebert. She was arrested after the Oct. 6 shooting death of her husband, 40-year-old Jeremy Hebert.

Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond sought more time to investigate medical and lab reports and cellphone records.

The attorney for the 34-year-old Hebert didn’t resist the motion.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by one of Iowa’s largest public workers unions that challenged the state’s new collective bargaining law.

The ruling Monday by District Court Chief Arthur Gamble concludes the law’s new classification for public safety workers is rational. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Iowa Council 61 argued in its lawsuit that the classification — which allowed some workers to keep bargaining over working conditions taken away for others — violated the state constitution.

AFSCME Council 61 President Danny Homan says in a statement the union is considering its legal options, including an appeal.

The decision comes after a separate judge dismissed a similar lawsuit filed by the state’s largest teachers union. Iowa State Education Association says it’s considering an appeal.

Three separate accidents were reported in Cass County over the past few days. The Sheriff’s Office says at around 8-p.m. last Friday, a two-vehicle accident occurred on I-80 eastbound at the 58.25 mm. A 2010 Honda CR-V owned and driven by 70-year old Linda Ustad Waters, of Sioux Falls, SD, was eastbound on I-80 on the inside lane when her vehicle was struck in the left rear by a 2015 International tractor/trailer driven by 74-year old Kenneth A. Cochran, of Wellsville, OH, that was in the outside lane. The collision resulted in Waters’ vehicle to spinning around and coming to rest in the median. No injuries were reported. Damage to Waters’ vehicle is estimated at $4,000; damage to Cochran’s vehicle is estimated at $800. Cochran was cited for Log Book Not Current.

At around 9:30-a.m. Saturday, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report of a one-vehicle accident on Marne Road approximately ¼ mile east of 590th Street. A 2003 GMC Sonoma pickup driven by 34-year old William Joseph Bullock, of Walnut, was eastbound on Marne Road when Bullock fell asleep and drove into the north ditch, striking a sign and coming to rest a the bottom of the embankment. No injuries were reported. Damage to the vehicle is estimated at $1,000. Bullock was cited for No Valid Driver’s License.

And, at around 6:47-p.m. Saturday, a single-vehicle accident happened on Highway 71 at the I-80 underpass.  A 1995 Ford trailer driven by 69-year old Larry G. Neiswinger, of South Charleston, Ohio, was northbound on Highway 71 when the grain dump box on the trailer struck the overpass, causing the box to become separated from the truck and block the one of the northbound lanes of Highway 71. No injuries were reported. Damage to the trailer is estimated at $5,000; no damage was noted to the bridge.