A traffic stop on Railroad Highway in Pottawattamie County, Tuesday afternoon, resulted in a pursuit and the driver bailing out of the car into a cornfield off 296th Street, west of Persia, in Harrison County. Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker told KJAN News the incident began at around 1:30 or 1:45-p.m. when a deputy tried to stop a Chevy Cavalier for driving recklessly. The vehicle also reportedly had invalid or non-existent license plates.

The vehicle continued north on Railroad Highway, into Underwood before turning onto a gravel road and into Neola. The car then went north into Harrison County, where the driver abandoned the vehicle near a corn field, and took off on foot into the field. During the chase, the suspect vehicle nearly struck several other motorists.

Numerous law enforcement agencies were involved in setting up a perimeter in an attempt to corral the suspect, who was described as being a male in his late teens or early 20’s, wearing red shorts and a baseball cap. The man was not believed to be armed.

Harrison County Sheriff Pat Sears told KJAN agencies involved in the search included: Deputies with the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office; The Iowa State Patrol and Dept. of Motor Vehicle Enforcement; the Harlan Police Department’s K9 unit, Shelby and Harrison County Sheriff’s Deputies, and Omaha Police helicopter Able 1.

The search was called-off at around 4:15-p.m. Authorities suspect the man may have called someone to pick him-up. Sheriff Danker says the car was impounded, and a warrant was being obtained to search the vehicle in hopes of finding the registered owner and/or possible driver. Early reports indicate the vehicle was not reported stolen.

The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education met Monday evening, and learned from Superintendent Dr. Brett Gibbs, that their certified enrollment numbers are down this school year. Gibbs said the numbers were certified for the State on Oct. 15^th. (Click on the left side of the audio bar to listen)

Gibbs said projections indicate they’ll drop a little bit again next year, as well, but they numbers will work their way back up as their larger classes start working their way through.

Since the certified count day on Oct. 15^th, they’ve picked up six more students, and Gibbs says they can only hope they stay until next year so they can get payment from the State for them. Gibbs said the Certified Enrollment is only part of the equation his and other districts use to set their budget.

Gibbs said if there’s no increase in State Aid, with the current enrollment that would amount to a loss of almost $140,000 for the district. Without firm numbers being set two-years ahead by the legislature, he it makes it difficult to determine a budget for reductions and savings to compensate for the decline in funds.

SIDNEY, Iowa (AP) – A former city official in southwest Iowa accused of falsifying drinking water quality tests has made a plea deal for probation. Online court records say 36-year-old Mark Travis pleaded guilty Monday to knowing discharge of a pollutant. Prosecutors dismissed a charge of felonious misconduct in office. The records say Travis was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $625. He also was given a deferred judgment. Under a deferred judgment, Travis’ record will be cleared of the conviction if he successfully completes the probation.

Authorities say Travis falsified Sidney’s monthly operation reports given to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources from 2009 to 2015.

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating a case of attempted murder. Authorities say at around 9:30-p.m. Tuesday, officers were dispatched to 125 Park Avenue for a report of shots fired. Officers arrived and located several persons involved in the incident standing outside the residence. An investigation determined an unknown male arrived outside the home in a light colored four door car.  The man got out from the back of the vehicle and displayed a revolver type handgun before firing several rounds at two males standing outside the home.

One round entered the home, which was occupied by several people. No one was injured. The suspect then fled the area in the vehicle he arrived in. Detectives located the victims of the incident and interviewed them.

The investigation is ongoing by the Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with any information that was in the area at the time of this incident is encouraged to contact this Division at 712-328-4728 or they may call Crime Stoppers at 712-328-7867.

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

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Police in Creston arrested a woman on drug charges, Tuesday night. 18-year old Jazzmyn Casteel, of Creston, was arrested just after 10-p.m. following a traffic stop. She faces charges that include OWI 1st, Possession of Paraphernalia and Possession of a Controlled Substance. Casteel was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1000 bond.

And, at around 3:50-p.m., Tuesday, 27-year old Terry Hankins-Lund, of Osceola, was arrested at 901 N. Elm Street in Creston, for Public Intoxication. Hankins-Lund was being held in the Union County Jail on a $300 bond.

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

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A traffic stop on Interstate 29 early this (Wednesday) morning in Fremont County resulted in the arrest of a man from Kansas, after 69 bags of Ecstasy were found hidden in the trunk of the car. Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports a K9 unit stopped a vehicle occupied by 20-year old Graham Hosking, of Lawrence, KS.

Graham Hosking (Booking photo)

Hosking was subsequently charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance with the Intent to Deliver (“MDMA” -Methylenedioxymethamphetamine). He was being held in the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center while awaiting an initial appearance before the magistrate.

A female juvenile was also arrested at the scene, for Possession of Marijuana. Her name was not released.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Patty Judge, his Democratic challenger, will share a stage in Sioux City tonight (Wednesday) for the first of their two face-to-face debates. Grassley says he wants to “keep it on the policies” rather than the presidential personalities. “I don’t want them to keep my opponent talking all about what might be wrong with Hillary Clinton and I don’t want ’em to be asking me what might be wrong with our candidate, Mr. Trump,” Grassley says. “I want to be talking about the issues.”

Grassley says export policies, national security and U.S. economic growth are on his preferred issues list. “I’m not going to tell the moderator what they can talk about and there’s going to be some questions about the presidential race and the presidential candidates. I’m not saying I expect it to be totally what I want, but since we’re running for the senate and not for president, it seems to me it ought to be about the issues.”

Judge says Grassley’s campaign has focused primarily on three main issues. “Eating ice cream, mowing the lawn and doing push ups,” Judge says. Judge says steps that would improve the U.S. economy can’t be accomplished because of the “gridlock” in congress caused by Republicans like Grassley. “It must be very hard to quit playing politics and address problems when you are supporting Donald Trump and make no mistake about it,” Judge said, “Chuck Grassley thinks just like Donald Trump.”

Judge’s father died Tuesday morning. Her campaign issued a news release yesterday afternoon, saying Judge will attend tonight’s (Wednesday’s) debate. It starts at 7 p.m. and will air on K-T-I-V T-V in Sioux City. It will be simulcast on K-W-W-L in Waterloo, K-T-T-C in Rochester, Minnesota which is seen in northern Iowa and W-G-E-M in Quincy, Illinois which is seen in southeast Iowa.

If you want to watch online, go to www.radioiowa.com to find a link to the livestream of the event. The Grassley-Judge debate will conclude just before tonight’s (Wednesday’s) presidential debate begins.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Congressman Steve King says he’s hearing from landowners who’re complaining the government’s “eminent domain” authority has been used to seize their private property for the Bakken oil pipeline that’s being built through his district. “I absolutely do have concerns about the use and abuse of eminent domain,” King says. “And I have a complete disagreement with the Supreme Court decision from about 2005, the Kelo decision, which concluded private property could be taken for private use.”

King is not opposed to construction of the pipeline, but King suggests Iowa officials should have decided whether the pipeline was “a public utility” before granting developers permission to seize property for the project. “When they make a mistake in the court and essentially rewrite our constitution…we run into problems like this,” King says. King’s Democratic opponent is Kim Weaver of Sheldon.

“I am not in favor of the pipeline at all,” Weaver says. The first time Weaver drove by a construction site where land was being cleared for the project, she stopped to take a picture. “As a lifelong Iowan, as the great-granddaughter of people who homsteaded in South Dakota and my dad told me the pipeline is actually going through a corner of the old family farm, I’m adamantly opposed,” Weaver says.

The underground pipeline will ship crude oil from North Dakota, through South Dakota and diagonally through 18 Iowa counties enroute to a refinery in Illinois. Company officials notified the Iowa Utilities Board that nearly 60 percent of the pipeline work in Iowa had been completed by October 9th. Federal authorities have joined local officials to investigate a recent arson fire that destroyed about two million dollars worth of pipeline equipment positioned in Jasper County.

(Radio Iowa)