Police in Creston report 25-year old Michael Cox, of Creston, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on two Union County warrants. The warrants are for:

• Probation Violation on original charges of (2 counts) Burglary in the 3rd Degree, Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense, and Violation of Probation.
• Probation Violation on an original charge of Theft in the 3rd degree.

Cox was being held in the Union County Jail on a $7,000 bond.

(Included in 7-a.m. Newscast/podcast)

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — Motorists in southwestern Iowa are back to traveling a maze of detours as a new round of flooding closes portions of Interstate 29 and other highways and roads.
Those thoroughfares had only reopened in recent weeks following devastating flooding along the Missouri River in March. On Wednesday, the Iowa Department of Transportation said that I-29 is closed from St. Joseph, Missouri, to the Iowa state line at Hamburg. From Hamburg north to Pacific Junction, the interstate sees intermittent lane closures due to new flooding, significantly slowing the flow of traffic.

Highway 2 — which connects the interstate to Nebraska City, Nebraska, over the Missouri River — is again closed for flooding. New flooding has also closed Highway 34 between the Nebraska state line and I-29 near Pacific Junction. Detour routes can be found online at https://www.511ia.org/ .

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds has declared this “End Distracted Driving” week — and Sgt. Nathan Ludwig, a spokesman for the Iowa State Patrol, says a smart phone is the main distraction troopers see on Iowa roads. “People know it’s wrong, but they’re still doing it.”  Ludwig says he sees too many drivers texting while he’s on patrol AND when he’s out on the road in his personal vehicle. The state patrol has written about 100 fewer citations so far this year for texting while driving. “We hope that people are getting the message, but the bad news is that…the majority of the accidents are attributed to distracted driving,” Ludwig says. “So just because we’re not stopping the cars and writing the citations for doing it doesn’t mean people have stopped doing it, because crashes are going up.”

There 17 categories of “distracted driving” on the D-O-T’s accident form and Ludwig says drivers using a phone is the “number one” distraction. Troopers have issued 331 tickets for distracted driving since January 1st. Ludwig says the biggest misconception among motorists is a driver can read their email and text while they’re at a stoplight. “You have to be off the travel portion of the road and be at a complete stop before you can engage in any internet or texting activity,” Ludwig says.

The fine for texting or surfing the internet while driving is 100 dollars. Iowa lawmakers considered a “hands free” law for drivers this past year. Sergeant Ludwig says that would be easier to enforce.  “But that’s up to the legislature and I think it may come down the road, but you don’t need a law to tell you common sense,” Ludwig says. “We just want people to get the phone out of their hand.”

Eighteen states have laws which bar drivers from handling a smart phone while they’re driving. Governor Reynolds says that “seems like the next natural step” for the state to take, especially when considering the statistics about traffic accidents.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says she’s willing to work with lawmakers to adjust Iowa’s medical marijuana law — but Reynolds says she made it clear to legislators she had concerns about a bill that could have boosted the potency of the cannabis products sold at state-licensed outlets.  “I do not support recreational marijuana and I just felt that was too much of a jump,” Reynolds said.  The governor vetoed that bill late Friday. “It wasn’t a surprise,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds says she could have accepted all the other aspects of the bill, but allowing an Iowan to buy cannabis products with up to 25 grams of the chemical T-H-C over a 90 day period was the stumbling block. “For example, if you take a gummie that you can get in Colorado that has THC in it, that typically has anywhere from five to 20 milligrams and the bill that passed was 25 grams, which would equate to 277 grams per day,” Reynolds said.

Supporters of the bill say the limited number of Iowans who’ve gotten a doctor’s recommendation to use cannabis pills, oils and creams need higher dosages to deal with pain and other medical issues. Two Democrats in the Iowa Senate plan to hold a news conference tomorrow (Wednesday) asking their fellow legislators to reconvene in a special session to override the governor’s veto. The bill passed the House and Senate by overwhelming margins, but some House Republicans who voted for it expressed concerns after learning a state advisory board did not support the potency recommendation in the legislation. “I have to balance the health and safety of all Iowans with a program that’s providing some alternatives to individuals that feel that it is making a difference,” Reynolds says.

The top two Republican leaders in the Iowa Senate say expanding Iowa’s medical marijuana law will be a priority for them in the 2020 legislative session. Reynolds says she’ll work with lawmakers to ensure the expansion is “narrow and cautious.”