Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation in Sioux City report railroad crossing replacement work by the Union Pacific Railroad in the Sioux City area, will require the closing Singing Hills Boulevard/Business U.S. 75 at South Lewis Boulevard to traffic, beginning at 8-a.m. Monday, Sept. 18t, through 5-p.m. Friday, Sept. 22nd, weather permitting.

Traffic will be detoured around the work zone using South Lewis Boulevard, Donner Avenue, and York Street.

Officials with the Audubon County Memorial Hospital say the City of Audubon has approved the cutting of a T1 copper line that services the Audubon County Hospital. The project begins at 3-p.m today (Tuesday), and is needed to complete a portion of the water and sewer project. Since the copper line serves as the only phone line to the hospital, the facility will be operating under their “disaster protocol” while the phone line is disconnected, until splicing of the copper line has been completed.

Officials say they chose this particular time, so as to limit the disruption to the critical functions of the hospital.  If you have an urgent need to contact the hospital during the time the phone line is down, please call the Audubon County Sheriff’s Dispatch at 712-563-2631 and they will relay the message to the hospital.  The Hospital will send out notification when the telephone service is operational again.

WALL LAKE, Iowa (AP) – A nurse has been accused of stealing painkillers from a nursing home in northwest Iowa. Court records say 50-year-old Michelle Green is charged with fraudulent practice, dependent adult abuse, tampering with records and four counts of prohibited acts. A Wall Lake phone listed for Green has been disconnected. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Court records say Green kept for herself narcotic medications that she’d ordered for residents when she was working at Twilight Acres nursing home in Wall Lake between Jan. 1 and May 2.

A 10-year old male who allegedly tried to sell marijuana to another student at the Washington School in Red Oak, Monday, lead authorities to a residence and the arrest of a woman. Red Oak Police say authorities were called to the school at around 12:45-p.m. for a report of a juvenile in possession of marijuana. The student allegedly tried to sell the drug to another student, who told school administrators. The administrators notified police.

After speaking with the student, officers obtained a search warrant, which was executed at a home in the 100 block of W. Valley Street. As a result, 34-year old Erin Elizabeth Bartles, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 3-p.m., for possession of the controlled substance (marijuana).

Authorities say Bartles was cooperative during the investigation. She was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 cash bond. Police also arrested the 10-year old male for Possession of a Controlled Substance. He was referred to juvenile authorities. Red Oak Police were assisted in their investigation, by Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

Residents of the Gulf coast states and other states affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and even the tropical storms that followed, are beginning to pick up the pieces. But for many without flood insurance, the process is likely to be long, costly and frustrating. Iowans can sympathize as the destructive storm surge flooded hundreds of homes and businesses. While Iowa’s been plagued by many floods over the years, fewer and fewer Iowans qualify for flood insurance as at-risk properties are bull-dozed into green spaces.

Dave Maurstad heads the National Flood Insurance Program for FEMA and says flood plain lines are drawn to dictate who’s at most risk and who has to get flood insurance. “And if you’re on the high-risk side of that line, then you’re required, the government says you have to buy it if you have a federally-backed mortgage,” Maurstad says. “If you’re on the other side of that line and you’re just in the low- to moderate-risk area, the government’s really sending a message that you don’t need the coverage. We need to change that dynamic.”

The Houston, Texas area is still reeling from the flooding that resulted from Hurricane Harvey. At least 80-thousand claims under the flood insurance program have been submitted by policy holders in the Texas Gulf Coast area, though many thousands more homes that were damaged or destroyed did not have flood insurance.

Maurstad says, “We need to change the social paradigm where people do everything they can to avoid buying a flood insurance policy to one where it’s the individual property owner’s responsibility to their family and their community to protect their property from flooding.” So far, the National Flood Insurance Program has made more than $13.2 million in advance payments to insured survivors of Hurricane Harvey.

The damage caused by the combination of tornadoes and flooding in Iowa in 2008 was estimated at 848-million dollars. At the time, it was considered the sixth-worst natural disaster in U-S history, a list then-topped by Hurricane Katrina at more than eight-billion dollars.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County say Deputies arrested a man Monday night, for falsely reporting his 1999 Dodge Caravan had been stolen. The vehicle was located off the roadway at Highway 59 and Dogwood Road. 18-year old Tristan Michael Herrera, of Carson, faces charges that include False Reports to Law Enforcement, Interference with Official Acts, and Criminal Mischief in the 3rd degree. The vehicle sustained about $1,000 damage when a door panel was pulled off and a door handle was broken.

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

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – An October trial has been scheduled for one of three people accused of trying to pass counterfeit cash at Sioux City’s Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Court records say 29-year-old Brittany Derby entered a written plea of not guilty to a forgery charge last week in Woodbury County District Court. Her trial is set to begin Oct. 31.

Police say Derby, Kurt Jones and Jackelen Hartsock made several cash transactions at the casino on Aug. 5. Police say the bills were later found to be counterfeit. Jones and Hartsock also have pleaded not guilty.

Creston Police report the arrest early this morning of 32-year old William McKinley, of Winterset. McKinley was taken into custody at the Law Enforcement Center on a Union County Warrant for the charge of Theft 2nd. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

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

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