An observant Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy, Thursday, arrested a man he knew to have been driving without a valid license. Deputy Brandon Ramsey saw a pickup driven by 50-year old Kenneth Peavy, Jr., of Council Bluffs. He pulled the vehicle over at around 10:20-p.m., and determined the man was still barred from driving.

When asked if he had any weapons on him or in the vehicle, Peavy stated that he did have brass knuckles. Upon further investigation, though, Peavy was arrested for carrying weapons, including a concealed gun. He was also cited for driving while suspended.

A traffic strop Wednesday evening in Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest of an Avoca man. The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office says 23-year old Brandon Bradley Pospisal was taken into custody at around 9-p.m. for Probation Violation, after the vehicle he was a passenger in, was pulled over for having an improper rear license plate light.

A records check on Pospisal indicated he had an active warrant for probation violation. He was placed under arrest and brought to the Pott. County Jail.

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

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Police in Creston, Thursday morning, arrested 30-year old James Jack Clark, of Pleasant Hill, for Failure to Comply with the State’s Sex Offender Registry/1st offense. Clark was transported to the Union County Jail, and later released on $2,000 bond. Also arrested Thursday morning in Creston, was 42-year old James Raymond Mcfail, of Creston. He was taken into custody at the Adult Probation Office in Creston, on a Page County warrant for Possession of meth and of a firearm by a domestic assaulter.  McFail was transported to Page County Jail.

Authorities in Creston said also, a resident of the 300 block of Maple Street, reported that sometime between Aug. 10th and Aug. 25th, a toolbox was stolen from his shed.  The loss was estimated at $100.

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

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HORNICK, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say the wife of a 73-year-old man fatally injured in a Woodbury County collision also has died. Iowa State Patrol Lt. Jay Smith says 70-year-old Kay Crowl died Thursday at Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City. The Sioux City Journal reports that she and her husband, Mark Crowl, were driving east near Hornick around 8:15 p.m. Sunday when their vehicle collided with a westbound vehicle driven by 17-year-old Shayna Schelm.

The patrol says Mark Crowl was pronounced dead soon after reaching the hospital. Schelm was treated there for minor injuries. Schelm lives in Hornick, as did the Crowls.

A prison inmate, serving time for the death of a child, is listed as an escapee in eastern Iowa. Thirty-nine-year-old John Mohr failed to return from his job to a work release facility in Davenport, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections. Mohr was sent to work release back in April. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 1997 for the death of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old son in Clinton. Mohr was 19 at the time. The child was the victim of shaken baby syndrome.

John F. Mohr

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The task force recommending a $10.75 minimum wage in Polk County also is recommending that employers would have to pay only 85 percent of that wage to workers younger than 18. The task force voted for the recommendation Thursday. The plan now goes to the county Board of Supervisors.

The proposal would boost Polk County’s minimum wage to $8.75 in April. It would reach $10.75 by January 2019. Some task force members sought the lower wage for young workers because of limitations placed on the teens’ duties and hours. Polk County Assistant Attorney Roger Kuhle had told task force members the separate youth wage would put the county’s ordinance on “thinner ice” legally, because state law applies the minimum wage for workers 14 and older.

A celebration of local foods and farms will take place in the KJAN listening area, Saturday. Organizers of a “Farm Crawl” say you’ll have a chance to meet three area farmers who are growing and selling local, seasonal produce, learn about what each grows and how they do it. Each of the farms will offer guided tours at 1-p.m., 2-p.m., 3- and 4-p.m., but you’re welcome to visit the farms anytime between 1-and 5-p.m., Saturday.

Produce and/or other goods may be available for you to purchase, and there’ll be displays, along with food-related activities. The farms are located on or within a mile of Highway 173, between Atlantic and Elk Horn. Look for signs along the highway, or find them on Facebook by searching for Local Food & Farms Celebration (www.facebook.com/events/1803307203239320/)

The Farms include:

• The Harrisdale Farmstead (60182 Dallas Road), north of Atlantic
• Rolling Acres Farms (59624 Chicago Road),  north of Atlantic
• Brun Ko Farm (532 Highway 173), near Elk Horn.

For more information, call Emily Paulsen at 712-249-3187.

An event designed to combat human trafficking is scheduled for today (Friday) at Des Moines University. The panel discussion aims to educate the public on recognizing and combating the enslavement of people for the purposes of forced labor or sex work. One of the panelists is Cathy O’Keefe, director of the Quad Cities-based Family Resource’s “Braking Traffik” program. She says human trafficking exists in all forms in Iowa.

“It can target adults and children, men and women, people of any race or ethnicity. It targets citizens and noncitizens,” O’Keefe says. “There are no bounds to this crime and there’s no community that’s immune to this crime. Until we really start to understand that, we are going to continue to miss identifications.” Earlier this year an anti-human trafficking office was established within the Iowa Department of Public Safety. O’Keefe hopes it will help curb such the trafficking.

“We have human trafficking through the agricultural industry, through factories, so those could be in rural communities,” O’Keefe says. “We also have to remember that there’s a demand for prostitution, a demand for sex trafficking everywhere, in all of our communities. And because a lot of sex trafficking is advertised online, really it’s everywhere.” O’Keefe says it’s difficult at times to identify trafficking. But when it comes to labor trafficking, immigrants can fall victim when they are underpaid or denied healthcare. The event at DMU is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m.

(Radio Iowa)