DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff from sunrise on Thursday, October 24th to sunset on Friday, October 25th in honor and remembrance of Jo Ann Zimmerman, Iowa’s first female lieutenant governor elected in 1986. “Jo Ann blazed a trail for others to follow,” said Gov. Reynolds. “As a nurse, school board member, legislator and Lt. Governor, she led with a caring heart and with a true passion for public service. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family and loved ones.”

Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex. Flags will also be half-staff on all public buildings, grounds and facilities throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flags at half-staff for the same length of time.

The Mills County Attorney’s Office reports NRH Appraisal Associates, LLC, the contractor conducting the appraisals for the buyout eligible properties in the unincorporated area of Mills County, will be contacting individuals on the buyout list in the next forty-eight (48) hours for assistance in completing the appraisal process. NRH will be contacting property owners via email, if an email address was provided, or by telephone. NRH will conduct a survey with property owners along with a request for any other additional information the property owners may feel would be beneficial to the appraiser.

The criteria, as determined by the Mills County Board of Supervisors, for the one-on-one discussions scheduled to occur between October 29, 2019 and October 31, 2019 are as follows: Ownership/Property Rights ▪ Does the interested party own the property (deed, mortgage, land contract, etc.)? ▪ Is the property the party’s primary residence/homestead? ▪ Are the property taxes paid and is the property free of encumbrances (other than mortgage)?

Condition of Property ▪ Is the property located in the unincorporated area of Mills County? ▪ Was the property inspected and red-tagged/condemned/substantially damaged? ▪ Was damage as a direct result of 2019 Flood? ▪ Does the property have/is the property eligible for flood insurance?

Mitigation/Repetitive Loss ▪ Was the property effected by the 2011 Flood? ▪ Does the property frequently have groundwater/seepwater flooding?

Recovery/Rehabilitation Options ▪ What programs have been/are being considered (Buyout, demolition, NRCS, etc.)? ▪ Have you or are you considering resettling in Mills County? ▪ What options other than buyouts are available (sale to neighboring landowner, partial sale, renovation, cash rent, etc.)? ▪ Is a buyout the best option for interested party? The County?

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A woman accused of running a credit card scheme while managing two eye clinics in Sioux City has been imprisoned. The Sioux City Journal reports that 36-year-old Amy Inniss-Reyes was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison. She’d pleaded guilty to theft. She was ordered to pay nearly $3,400 in restitution to Exact Eye Care.

A criminal complaint says Inniss-Reyes was managing two Exact Eye Care branches between April 19 and May 30 when she used three of her credit cards to obtain fraudulent refunds. The complaint says she also told investigators that she made copies of 20 patients’ personal records, intending to use them to obtain loans. The copies were recovered from her home.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police have caught a man who says he wanted to steal home plate at the city’s minor league baseball park. Polk County court records say Daniel Igel, listed as homeless, was arrested Friday morning at Principal Park, home of the Iowa Cubs, a Chicago Cubs affiliate. He’s charged with felony burglary. Igel’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

A court document says Igel was found after he climbed a fence to get into the park. He told officers he was trying to steal the plate and had scaled the fence the night before and tried to break into the press box. He says he hid in a dugout to evade officers who responded to a security alarm.

(Radio Iowa) — From superheroes to spooky creatures, Iowans are snapping up new costumes for this weekend’s Halloween parties. Jenny Mally, marketing director for the Theatrical Shop in West Des Moines, says the movies are a big influence this year. “‘Joker’ has been a big request, ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Beetlejuice,’ ‘Adams Family,'” Mally says. “We’re getting lots of requests for clown costumes and I don’t know if that’s because of the last ‘It’ movie and even ‘Wizard of Oz.'”

The younger Halloween shoppers are looking for a certain type of movie character.  “All of the superheroes are really popular for kids, Spiderman, Batman, Wonder Woman,” Mally says. “Also for kids, Forky from ‘Toy Story,’ and we’ve got this costume called the Cemetery Bride, which is a combination between a ghost and a vampire. That’s also been popular this year.”

Mally says interest in political costumes is slow even though the first-in-the-nation Iowa Caucuses are about three months away. “We haven’t seen a lot of that,” she says. “We do have Trump wigs and that kind of thing available but there really haven’t been a lot of requests for that.”  Many Iowans are holding Halloween parties this weekend as October 31st falls on a Wednesday this year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s first female lieutenant governor, Jo Ann Zimmerman, has died. Her daughter Beth Boland said Wednesday that her mother was 82 when she passed away Tuesday night at a hospice in Des Moines, surrounded by her family. Boland says Zimmerman died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, which had been diagnosed seven or eight years ago.

Zimmerman was elected lieutenant governor as a Democrat in 1986 and served alongside the Republican governor, Terry Branstad. She was defeated by Republican Joy Corning in 1990. Before the 1990 state election, the governor and the lieutenant governor ran separately. In 1992 Zimmerman helped found the Democratic Activist Women’s Network to help support female candidates.

Boland describes her mother as fearless, saying that “when she saw an injustice or something that she didn’t think was fair, she went about to fix it.”

The Creston Police Department reports a Creston man was arrested Tuesday afternoon. 37-year old Ed R. Wysocki was arrested on an Adams County Warrant for Failure to Appear. Wysocki was released to the custody of the Adams County Sheriff’s Department.