Officials with the City of Avoca say two, counterfeit $100 bills were recently been presented at local businesses. Local merchants are asked to report any suspicious bills to the police department.

Officials with the Omaha Foundation have issued a reminder to non-profit organizations in Cass and Audubon Counties, that you have until Sept. 1st to apply for separate grant funds in each respective county. Applications are currently being accepted online for the fall grant cycle with $27,230 available to support Cass County nonprofit organizations and community projects, and $41,515 available to support Audubon County nonprofit organizations and community projects. .

Full application details, a fact sheet, and a link to the application form can be found online by selecting Cass (or Audubon) County, under County Listing at www.swiowafoundations.org. Applications will only be accepted through the online system. Only those organizations providing services in Cass and Audubon Counties are eligible to apply IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTIES. They must be able to demonstrate broad community/county support and be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) Public Charity or a fiscally sponsored project. Requests for general operating support will not be considered.

Please contact Stacey Goodman at 800-794-3458 or stacey@omahafoundation.org or Tess Houser at tess@omahafoundation.org with application-related questions. All completed grant applications will be considered at the October Board meeting, with applicants being notified of funding decisions by the end of October.

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports a Shelby County man was arrested Tuesday on a Polk County warrant for Driving While Barred.

Stockwell

24-year old Bill Louis Stockwell, of Elk Horn, was arrested while walking along the road approximately two-miles southeast of Clarinda. Stockwell was transported to the Page County Jail awaiting transfer to Polk County as he was unable to post the $2,000 cash-only bond.

Also arrested August 13th in Page County, was 55-year old Ben G. Franks, who reported his address as homeless. Franks was arrested at Pioneer Park, located approximately 6.5 miles east of Shenandoah, off Highway 2.

Franks

Franks was arrested for OWI 1st Offense. He was transported to the Page County Jail and later released on bond, pending further court proceedings.

On Monday, Page County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 59-year old David Allen Mulkins, of Clarinda, for OWI 2nd Offense. Mulkins was arrested during a traffic stop on a vehicle he was operating southeast of Clarinda. He was transported to the Page County Jail and later released on bond, pending future court proceedings.

Mulkins

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 2-year-old child died in Des Moines after ingesting a woman’s prescription medications. A Des Moines police news release says 38-year-old Amanda Leonard-Helum was arrested Tuesday in Waterloo on a warrant for child endangerment causing death. She was taken to Polk County Jail and remained there Wednesday, pending $25,000 bail.

Police say Leonard-Helum, of Waterloo, was trying to adopt the little boy, who was a child of her former boyfriend. She’d driven herself and the boy to Des Moines from Waterloo on June 26.
She learned after they arrived that the child had swallowed some of her medications. Police say she decided to monitor him rather than seek medical care. He died overnight. Toxicology reports indicate he died of an overdose of her medicines.

(KNOD – Harlan) Three men were sentenced Monday and Tuesday in connection with the January murder of 38-year-old Council Bluffs man Adam Angeroth. 20 year old Nicholas Haner of Harlan, 21 year old Liam Stec of Omaha and 25 year old Ryan McDonald of Glenwood were each sentenced to 50 years in prison by Fourth Judicial District Judge Michael Hooper, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder charges. Haner and Stec were sentenced Tuesday, while McDonald appeared in court Monday.

Angeroth was found dead in his apartment at 35 N. First Street on Jan. 24. No one had seen him for several days. An autopsy revealed signs of blunt force trauma and knife wounds to Angeroth’s body. According to court records, Haner thought that Angeroth had him arrested on Jan. 18, which, according to Pottawattamie County District Attorney Matt Wilber, was unfounded. The trio was initially charged with first-degree murder, a Class A felony that is punishable by a mandatory sentence of life in prison, but the charges were amended to accommodate plea deals that the state, the defendants and the victim’s family were all amenable to, according to Wilber.

Wilber, along with investigators who worked the case, believed that Haner was the ringleader of the group. The fact that Haner received the same sentence as his co-defendants didn’t sit well with Wilber. All three men are required to serve at least 70 percent of the 50-year terms — a minimum of 35 years — before they will be eligible for release or parole. The fourth and final defendant in the case is Xavier Smith-Catchings, of Omaha. Smith-Catchings was 15 at the time the murder occurred, and is now 16. He will be tried as an adult. Wilber said he expects a resolution to that case to be forthcoming, but is unsure when.

(Radio Iowa) — Two people are dead following separate collisions in eastern Iowa. A pedestrian died after being hit by a vehicle in Dubuque County,Tuesday afternoon. The accident happened south of Epworth on Placid Road, shortly after 4:30 PM. The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office says an 80-year old Epworth man was driving north when he struck an 82-year old woman crossing the road. The woman died as a result of her injuries. The names of those involved are expected to be released later today. The incident remains under investigation.

And, law officers in eastern Iowa are searching for a vehicle with front end damage after a bicyclist was hit and killed on Monday.The Muscatine Police and State Patrol are asking for anyone with information about the accident to come forward. The victim is identified as 49-year-old Devin Estabrook, of Letts. Estabrook was riding his bicycle early Monday about 5 A-M on Highway 61 in Muscatine when he was struck — and the vehicle didn’t stop. Estabrook was a firefighter in the Grandview Fire Department.

(Updated) — PAPILLION, Neb. (AP) — A man already sentenced to prison for firing at Iowa officers during a chase has been given Nebraska prison time for his crimes in that state.
William Stanfill III was sentenced Tuesday at the Sarpy County (Nebraska) Courthouse in Papillion, to 30 to 45 years. The Omaha World-Herald reported that he’d pleaded guilty in June to attempted assault of an officer, two counts of felony assault and two weapons crimes. Prosecutors dropped nine other charges in exchange for his pleas.

Stanfill fired at a man who’d chased him after he sped through the man’s Bellevue, Nebraska, neighborhood on April 24 last year, authorities said. Stanfill later shot and lightly wounded a man picking up mail near the man’s home just south of Bellevue. Officers returned to the wounded man’s neighborhood the next day to look for a car believed to have been driven by Stanfill. They spotted it, but it got away after a pursuit. Police said the car returned to the area later that day and Stanfill fired two shots at officers. The car sped away again, eventually crossing Bellevue’s Missouri River bridge into Iowa and headed south.

Fremont County, Iowa, authorities said a new chase began when Stanfill fired gunshots at officers after passing a patrol car in Tabor. More shots were fired as the pursuit continued south on U.S. Highway 275. The chase ended when the car driven by Stanfill turned onto a gravel road and then a levee road before vaulting into the Nishnabotna River. Stanfill and a companion were soon arrested. Stanfill’s companion, Jacqueline Streich, later pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a felony eluding and was given two years of probation. Prosecutors dropped three other charges in exchange for her plea.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests. Tuesday afternoon, 57-year old James Martin Decker, of Omaha, was arrested after he turned himself-in to the Sheriff’s Office on warrants for Harassment in the 3rd Degree/3rd offense, and Theft in the 4th Degree. Bond was set at $2,000. 52-year old Bruce Allen Rankin, of Council Bluffs, was also arrested Tuesday, after turning himself-in to the Pott. County S/O. Rankin was taken into custody on a bench warrant for Failure to Appear on a Non-felony offense and prior to conviction/appeal.

34-year old Rachel Suzanne McDaniel, of Council Bluffs, who was already serving a sentence in the Pott. County Jail, was presented with two warrants for Violation of Probation. She was then returned to the custody of Corrections staff. And, 33-year old Nicholas James Weare was arrested at the Pott. County Courthouse, on warrants for Credit Card -ATM Fraud/with a value $1,500 for each of the three counts.