(Des Moines, Iowa) – Auditor of State Rob Sand, today (Friday), released an audit report on Guthrie County.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS:
The County’s revenues totaled $19,612,679 for the year ended June 30, 2022, a 2.8% increase over the prior year. Expenses for County operations for the year ended June 30, 2022, totaled $14,213,357, a 10.0% decrease from the prior year. The increase in the revenues is due primarily to an increase in property tax revenue and the significant decrease in the expenses is due primarily to a decrease in rock and sand inventory purchased in fiscal year 2022.

AUDIT FINDINGS:
Sand reported seven findings related to the receipt and expenditure of taxpayer funds. They are found on pages 92 through 98 of this report. The findings address issues such as lack of segregation of duties, material amounts of accounts payable, prepaid expenses and infrastructure and capital asset additions not properly recorded in the County’s financial statements. Sand provided the County with recommendations to address each of these findings.

Five of the seven findings discussed above are repeated from the prior year. The County Board of Supervisors and elected officials have a fiduciary responsibility to provide oversight of the County’s operations and financial transactions. Oversight is typically defined as the “watchful and responsible care” a governing body exercises in its fiduciary capacity.

A copy of the audit report is available for review on the Auditor of State’s website at Audit Reports – Auditor of State.

(Radio Iowa) – Lakeside Casino in Osceola is paying a 40-thousand dollar penalty for allowing two minors on the gambling floor in separate instances in January. One cases involved a 12 year old who got onto the floor with his mother, and the other involved a 14 year old who got onto the floor with her mother and played a slot machine. Lakeside general manager David Monroe told the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Thursday security measures were not followed. “The incidents that occurred in January are the result of a couple of employees failing to follow the training and guidelines that they had committed to,” he says. “In both instances, the minors would not have gained access if the employees and just to even a marginal job.”

Monroe says they took a number of steps to ensure there is not a repeat. “First of all, we did the obvious we retrained every employee on property and had them sign an acknowledgment that they understood that it’s everybody’s responsibility on the property, not just security’s. And we went back and retrained the security officers on turnstile responsibilities,” Monroe says. “And we added a step where the security manager and assistant security manager were the only two that could approve somebody work in those stations. So not only do they have to demonstrate

IRGC (Radio Iowa photo)

the ability to verbally stay, they understood the job.” He says they reviewed the entry area and put in a new turnstile at the entrance to the gambling floor.

“The new turnstile has a physical arm barrier that requires a security guard to push a button that says I’ve acknowledged and I won’t let you in. We upgraded our I-D scanning system to a state of the art system which gives our security guards a better opportunity to identify fraudulent I-Ds,” he says. Monroe also apologized to the Commission. Commission member Allen Ostergren says his first thoughts on the violations involved a possible license suspension.” I can tell you in my mind, when I first read this, I was extremely punitive in my thoughts as to what should happen,” Ostergren says.

He says there was a lot going on in the one case with a mother bringing a 12 year old to the casino near midnight. Ostergren says the measures taken by the casino made him decided to go along with the fine. “But I can tell you and I want to tell other licensees, had there not been this level of remedial measures taken, I would have, I would have had a very hard time agreeing to just this kind of financial penalty, it would have been a lot more or something that would have hurt a lot more,” Ostergren says.

The Commission unanimously approved the 40-thousand dollar penalty.

(Corning, Iowa) – Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies responding to an alarm call last week, in Corning, ended-up arresting a juvenile on several charges. The Sheriff’s Office, Thursday (Nov. 16th), said incident investigation began at around 1:17-a.m. Friday, Nov. 10th, following a call from the Casey’s General Store at 204 6^th Street, in Corning.

Upon arrival, Deputies did not observe anything, but shortly after 2-a.m., Adams County Dispatch received call from a Casey’s employee who said they heard glass shattering. Upon further investigation, Deputies charged a 12-year-old with Minor in Possession of Alcohol, Theft in the 5^th Degree, Criminal Mischief in the 2^nd Degree (A Class-D Felony), and Burglary in the 3^rd Degree (a Class-D Felony).

The juvenile was not identified because of their age.

**Sheriff’s Office disclaimer: “Any potential criminal charges identified above are merely allegations, and any defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.“

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A woman from Red Oak was arrested Thursday night on an Assault charge. Red Oak Police report 31-year-old Makayla Dawn Hudson was taken into custody in the 1100 block of Kelly Circle at around 10:45-p.m., for Assault causing bodily injury. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s another tick to be on the look-out for, especially if you raise cattle or horses in Iowa. The Asian longhorned tick has been found in 19 states, including Missouri. Veterinarian Grant Dewell says “They can bite humans, but they tend to prefer livestock.” Dewell is with Iowa State University Extension, and his research specialty is beef cattle.

The Centers for Disease Control has issued a warning about these ticks due to recently published research about three Ohio cows that died after being bitten tens of thousands of times by Asian longhorned ticks. This tick species was first found in the U-S in 2010. Dewell says a female can produce on her own. “A single female will produce several thousand eggs…so they can really expand exponentially their numbers once they get into a population,” Dewell says, “They can really overwhelm an animal in some cases.”

Asian longhorned tick (Iowa State University Extension photo)

Researchers in Ohio concluded the cattle there died of blood loss. Dewell says it’s important to keep grass cut around feedlots and make sure animals are grazing in pastures, because ticks prefer to live in areas with tall grass.”We’ll see how far north it spreads,” Dewell says. “It is somewhat cold tolerant, but it doesn’t love the cold either. We have ticks in Iowa, but they’re not as severe as in Missouri and Arkansas and those types of (warmer) places.”

While Asian longhorned ticks seem to prefer cattle and horses, they have been found on dozens of animals in the United States. A man from New York is the first known human to be bitten in the U-S by this species of ticks. That happened in June of 2018.

(Radio Iowa) – Three of the four Iowans who serve in the U-S House are calling on a fellow Republican to resign immediately. Congressman Zach Nunn of Bondurant says a report from the House Ethics Committee shows New York Congressman George Santos has not lived up to the ideals of honesty and transparency that Americans deserve from their elected representatives.

Congresswoman Ashley Hinson of Marion says Santos conduct was illegal and unacceptable. The ethics panel’s report found Santos blatantly stole from his campaign fund and lied about his background. Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks of LeClaire says if Santos doesn’t resign, the House should vote to expel him.

Nunn, Hinson and Miller-Meeks posted their statements on social media shortly after the House Ethics Committee released its report today (Thursday). Congressman Randy Feenstra of Hull has not commented publicly on the report. At the beginning of the month, all four Iowans who serve in the U-S House voted against a resolution to remove Santos from office — joining the majority of House Republicans who said they were waiting on the Ethics Committee report before making a judgment.

Santos has said he will not seek reelection in 2024, but he has refused to resign.

(Radio Iowa) – A-C-T scores among Iowa high school students who took the test dropped slightly from a year ago and far fewer students are taking the test.

The average A-C-T composite score for seniors who graduated from an Iowa high school last spring was 20-point-eight. That compares to a score of 22 for the 2014 graduating class in Iowa. Nine years ago, 68 percent of high school seniors in Iowa took the A-C-T. Just under half took it this past year.

Iowa, Iowa State and U-N-I no longer require students applying for admission to take the A-C-T.

(Radio Iowa) – The trial of the Sioux City woman accused of committing election fraud in elections when her husband’s name is underway and expected to last into next week. Kim Taylor is accused of filling out ballot request forms AND absentee ballots for several Vietnamese residents in the Sioux City area.

An Iowa State University student testified that when he tried of file his absentee ballot from Ames, he discovered someone had already cast a vote in his name. His mother, who testified through an interpreter, said Taylor called her to see if she needed help voting and Taylor completed the paperwork, but Nguyen signed the ballot. She also testified Taylor told her it was o.k. to complete ballot request forms for her son and daughter, but she never would have done that if she knew it was a crime.

Kim Taylor and her husband Jeremy Taylor have denied the charges.

(Radio Iowa) – Even though temperatures are in the 50s and 60s today (Thursday), there will be a time down the road, perhaps soon, when snow arrives in Iowa — and lots of it. Meteorologist Chad Hahn, at the National Weather Service in Johnston, says they’re launching new guidelines which stipulate how winter storm watches and warnings are issued, based on the amount of snow that’s predicted to fall.

For Iowa and all points north, Hahn says it’ll be six inches or more of snow, but as you go south, that criteria decreases to account for climatological differences. Hahn says the changes won’t be all that noticeable for the winter storm forecasts that are being issued in Iowa.

The old system used time restraints, so much snow over so many hours, and he says now, it’ll simply zero in on a winter event.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A federal grand jury in Des Moines returned an Indictment today charging an Ames man with fifteen counts of sex trafficking by fraud and coercion, one count of sexual exploitation and attempted sexual exploitation of a child, and one count of possession of child pornography.

According to the Indictment, Carl Dale Markley used and attempted to use fraud and coercion to cause 14 victims to engage in commercial sex acts. The sex-trafficking charges allege that Markley began trafficking one victim as early as 2004, and between 2004 to April 2023, Markley trafficked or attempted to traffic each of the fourteen victims. In addition, the Indictment states that from August 2020 to October 2020, Markley sexually exploited (or attempted to sexually exploit) one 15‑year-old minor by using the minor to create child pornography, and that Markley knowingly possessed child pornography.

Markley made his initial court appearance today before a United States Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Markley is charged with seventeen offenses in total. Each of the sex trafficking charges carries a 15-year mandatory minimum prison term, and a maximum term of imprisonment of life. Sexual exploitation of a child carries a 15‑year mandatory term of imprisonment and a maximum term of 30 years in prison. The charge for possession of child pornography carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

United States Attorney Richard Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Ames Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation are investigating the case.

Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of youth under the age of 18 for commercial sex; the exploitation of adults for commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion; and the exploitation of any individual for compelled labor. Human trafficking does not require the transportation of individuals across state lines, or that someone is physically restrained. Signs that a person is being trafficked can include working excessively long hours, unexplained gifts, physical injury, substance abuse issues, running away from home, isolation from others, or having a person in their life controlling them or monitoring them closely. Victims particularly susceptible to being trafficked include those with criminal histories, a history of physical or sexual abuse, uncertain legal status, and dependency on controlled substances.

Anyone who suspects human trafficking is occurring, be it a minor engaging in paid sex acts, or anyone being coerced into prostitution or labor, is urged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. If anyone has information about this case, they are urged to call the Ames Police Department, FBI, or Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation, or call the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.