URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — A woman who headed the accounting division of a private fertilizer company in Urbandale has been accused of embezzling more than $116,000. Polk County court records say 41-year-old Heidi Cook is charged with nine counts of theft, one of fraudulent practices and one of unauthorized use of a credit card. She remained in jail Monday. The court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for Cook. Prosecutors say that, from at least Dec. 10, 2018, she took 33 checks totaling more than $116,000 from Spraytec and deposited them into her own bank account.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a fatal crash that turned fiery, Sunday. According to reports, one-person died, after the vehicle they were driving rolled over a little before 6-p.m., near the intersection of Panther Creek Road and Old Highway 6. The vehicle left the road at a high rate of speed before rolling over, hitting a tree and catching fire. The name of the driver has not yet been released.

(Radio Iowa) — The 2020 census will begin with a mailing starting in mid-March. Census Bureau spokesperson Maureen Schriner says it’s important that everyone looks for and completes the census form to be counted. Schriner says the census determines our legislative representation and also determines how much money communities get from the federal government. She says the federal government decides every year on how to hand out 675 BILLION dollars in funding for services in communities.

Schriner says some people are concerned that the information they provide on the completed census forms will be readily available. She says that in information is kept confidential.”Your individual information is never shared. For 72 years it is locked down, it is confidential. It is not shared with any other governmental entities,” according to Schriner.  She says the information is only released in an aggregate form. Schriner says that would be numbers like the population of the state. “So the 2020 Census tries to go out and record the entire population. That’s what it is used for — so it is not reported out on an individual basis,” she says.

Additional information about the census can be obtained by going on-line at www.2020census.gov

A woman from Red Oak was arrested at around 3:30 this (Monday) morning, in Red Oak. Authorities say 30-year old Sara Ann Billie-Kier was taken into custody for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, a simple misdemeanor. Billie-Kier was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

A traffic stop at around 12:10-a.m. Sunday in Adams County, resulted in the arrest of a man on a drug charge. Joshua Strange, of Clarinda, was taken into custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance, after a baggy of methamphetamine was found inside his vehicle.