A little more than two-years after the Iowa Board of Corrections approved the appointment of Sheryl Dahm as Warden of the Clarinda Correctional Facility, the Board today (Friday), appointed her Warden of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women, in Mitchellville. Dahm succeeds Patti Wachtendorf, who was appointed today (Friday) as the first female warden of Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. The Iowa State Penitentiary has had a man in charge since it opened 178 years ago.

The ICIW is a medium/minimum security prison that houses offenders in dorm-like living units and celled housing. The correctional facility provides educational and vocational services to offenders,  and emphasizes responsibility and accountability in preparing women offenders for successful Re-Entry to the community.

Dahm has extensive administrative corrections experience with proven leadership in the management, supervision and treatment of adult offenders. She has more than two decades experience counseling prison inmates with substance abuse and mental health issues, and became Warden at the Clarinda facility in Nov., 2015.  The Clarinda facility houses around 800 offenders.

Deputy Warden Stephen Weis is appointed acting warden of the Clarinda Correctional Facility in the interim, until a full-time person is approved for the post.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A northern Iowa woman must pay more than $6,000 in restitution that authorities say she took while working for the U.S. Postal Service. Prosecutors say DeAnn Lewman also was put on probation for five years and fined $500. She pleaded guilty to one count of making a false entry. Prosecutors dismissed two counts of misappropriation of postal funds and 41 counts of making a false entry in exchange for her plea.

Lewman had been postmaster in Nora Springs. Prosecutors say that between May 2014 and January 2015, Lewman took nearly $3,000 in cash and stamps and took nearly $3,100 that was meant to buy Postal Service money orders in December 2014 and January 2015.

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County say a Glenwood man was arrested Thursday afternoon, on a warrant for Failure to Appear (in court), on a charge of Leaving the Scene of an Accident. 33-year old Zachary Dean Anderson was being held in the Mills County jail on $160 bond.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Lorimor man was arrested Thursday night on a warrant for Violation of Pre-Trial Release. 27-year old Caleb Benjamin Fredrickson was arrested at around 10-p.m.,  at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on the Union County warrant. Fredrickson was being held in the Union County Jail on $50,000 bond.

Progress continues on the Nishna Valley Trails, Inc. (NVT) Troublesome Creek Connection Trail. Dave Chase, NVT President, says the trail projects are carried out in increments because of the costs involved, not to mention the engineering aspect of the entire project. Chase said donations help to make progress on the trail possible, including the recent funding from TS Bank in Atlantic, through their Community Support Program.

TS Banks provided a $7,500 donation, which will allow for the engineering and construction of a 150-yard section connecting existing trails. He said the Troublesome Creek Trail is basically done. The whole idea is to link up with the trail system at the Atlantic Municipal Utilities well head site. The TS Bank donation will allow for engineering and development of the trail along Olive Street that leads to the AMU trail, which will be hard-surfaced. When that’s completed, there will be a contiguous, 6-mile loop on the north side of Atlantic.

Chase says later this Spring, a kiosk will be set-up across the street from the KJAN Studios that will provide information about the area trails and their locations. So far, nearly two-miles of paved trail have been created to connect the two trails, including a 162-foot long pedestrian bridge that spans Troublesome Creek behind the KJAN Studios. The project began about 7-years ago, and is expected to be finished later this Fall.

If you’d like to contribute funds for the trails, send your checks to: Nishna Valley Trails, P.O. Box 496, Atlantic, IA 50022.  You can also contact Dave Chase (712-243-2444) if you’d like to donate or find out more about the trails project.

An Iowan who’s an agricultural advisor for President-elect Trump’s transition team is urging Trump to “block” some “mega-mergers” in the ag industry. Bruce Rastetter, of Alden, says the pending mergers of “agrochemical and seed giants” like DuPont and Dow Chemical will mean higher prices for farmers. “There will be bundling of services, so if they combine chemical and seed and only those seed traits can take a certain chemical sold by that company, it’s naturally going to increase costs,” Rastetter says.

Rastetter also cites the proposed merger of St. Louis-based Monsanto and Bayer, which was founded in Germany more than 150 years ago. “So concern about competition, concern about then the lack of innovation, lack of multiple companies we have and the concern for choice for farmers,” Rastetter says.

If Trump’s Administration doesn’t step in, Rastetter says the four largest seed and ag chemical suppliers in the country will become just two mammoth companies — controlling between 60 and 70 percent of the U.S. corn and soybean seed market. “Those two both start selling chemicals and seed, when they primarily did one or the other before and so the market share becomes very large, in a variety of different crops,” Rastetter says.

With two rather than four major companies, Rastetter says there will be less research to boost crop yields. He says smaller companies developing new plant varieties and traits are struggling to bring new products to market. “The root cause of this is government regulation. It costs $150 million to create a new seed trait. Think of that. How many small businesses can do that? And then, not only the $150 million, but an uncertain timeline for when or if the government’s ever going to approve it,” Rastetter says. “So if we really want to get serious about this, yes, the mergers shouldn’t go through, but we should to fix the government problem and I believe Donald Trump will do that.”

Rastetter is an entrepreneur who has made millions by raising pork and producing ethanol. His “Summit Agricultural Group” has partnered with a Brazilian company to build Brazil’s first corn-only ethanol plant. Rastetter says those experiences give him a platform to raise the alarm about these two agribusiness mergers. “As a businessman and as a farmer on two continents, in Brazil and the U.S., I have a unique perspective on it,” Rastetter says. “And also I have been concerned that commodity groups have been tentative about saying something on this situation.”

Rastetter says Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley shares his concerns about these mergers. Rastetter predicts Grassley will bring up the merger issue next week when Trump’s nominee for attorney general appears before the senate committee Grassley leads.

(Radio Iowa)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Board of Regents is requesting a significant funding boost for the state’s public universities despite the possibility of budget cuts and an expectation that lawmakers will have limited revenue to work with in the upcoming legislative session.

The Press-Citizen reports that the board is asking for a 2 percent increase in state funding for the 2017-18 academic year. The regents have said that if they receive that level of funding, they would hold resident undergraduate tuition increases to 2 percent for the next two years.

Regent officials are waiting to hear from the governor’s office on how much and where the state will make budget cuts. Democratic Sen. Jeff Danielson of Cedar Falls says he thinks it would be possible to fulfill the regents’ request.

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

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WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa company has settled a Medicaid billing dispute for $1 million. The Des Moines Register reports that the West Des Moines-based company was known as Ultimate Nursing Services when the bills were filed from 2011 into 2013. It’s now known as Universal Pediatrics.

Federal prosecutors said Thursday that the company bills included entertainment and travel costs unrelated to its care of children with disabilities. The settlement did not include any admission of wrongdoing. The company’s lawyer, Stephen Locher, says the issues stemmed from errors in complying with Medicaid rules.

The Creston Police Department reports one person was arrested and later released from custody, Thursday. 24-year old Codie Cook, of Creston, was pulled over at Walnut & Page Streets in Creston at around 7-a.m., Thursday. He was arrested for Driving Under Suspension and later released from the Union County Jail on $300 bond.