Two people were arrested on Theft charges, and one person was arrested on a drug charge Monday, in Creston. According to Police, 51-year old Ronald Lee Griffin III, of Creston, was arrested just before midnight, for Possession of a Controlled Substance. Griffin was being held in the Union County Jail on $5,000 bond.

And, 20-year old Fransisco Martinez, along with 36-year old Ryan Rinehart, both of Creston, were arrested Monday night on separate warrants for Theft. Martinez was taken into custody on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 4th degree, while Rinehart was arrested on an Adams County warrant for Theft in the 5th degree. Rinehart was released from the Union County Jail on $300 bond, while Martinez was released on $1,000 bond.

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

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Some veterans have given themselves a new mission: restore the cannon at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City. Veterans of the Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force met Friday at the cemetery to brainstorm ways to save the 4-ton artillery piece. The wooden wheels and spindles on the gun carriage are rotting, and some spindles are missing. Rust is found under the peeling paint on the metal.

The Sioux City Journal reports that the U.S. War Department awarded it in 1942 to the Sioux City chapter of the Military Order of the Purple Heart after the cannon’s World War I service. The chapter no longer exists.  Kie Ahrens is commander of American Legion Nash Post 140 in Kingsley, and he says the cannon is “something to be proud of.”

Cass County Extension in partnership with Cass County Health System will offering two opportunities for youth ages 11-to 15 to participate in a Babysitting Basics and Beyond course. The course will be instructed by Atlantic native, Bethany Clark of New View Training in Omaha.

Two sessions will be offered to accommodate schedules: May 23rd & 24th, from 5:30-until 8:30-p.m., or, June 21st, from 10-a.m. until 4-p.m. All classes will be held at the Cass County Community Center in Atlantic. The training is encouraged for any youth who are interested in starting a babysitting business.

Beth Irlbeck, Extension Youth Coordinator, says “This course will provide an opportunity to learn about many aspects of babysitting, including safety, first aid, age appropriate play activities and much more!” A $25 registration fee covers all class materials and snacks. Registration forms can be picked up from the Cass County Extension office or at the Cass County Hospital information desk or Educational Services office.

Registration forms are also available online at www.extension.iastate.edu/cass to print and return. Pre-registration is requested by May 18^th for the May classes, June 15^th for June classes. Each class is limited to 10 participants. For more information, call the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132 or email irlbeth@iastate.edu.

Police in Council Bluffs are looking for a man suspected of robbing a convenience store early this (Tuesday) morning. Officers were called to the D & S Express at 2924 N. Broadway St., at around 5:18-a.m., with regard to a panic alarm being pushed from the cash register “hold-up” button. Upon arrival and making contact with the clerk, it was determined the store was robbed by an unidentified white male, who entered the business and demanded money from the cash register.

The suspect did not display a weapon, but told the clerk he had one in his pocket. The clerk gave the suspect an undetermined amount of cash from the register. The suspect then left the area in an unknown direction of travel. He was described as wearing a striped shirt and blue jeans.

Surveillance video was not available at the time of press release about the crime.

Iowans may soon be paying less for eggs at the grocery store as egg production operations across the state and elsewhere are recovering from last year’s outbreak of bird flu. That outbreak sent egg prices skyward, but the number of laying hens nationally is now approaching pre-flu levels. As a result, U-S-D-A economist Annemarie Kuhns, says retail egg prices are dropping.

Kuhns says, “Really, what we’ve been seeing is just, we’re expecting a recovery more quickly than we initially anticipated, a recovery from the highly-pathogenic avian influenza last year.” She says the U-S-D-A expects retail egg prices to fall nine-to-ten-percent this year compared to the average 2015 price. Some 34-million birds on 77 Iowa farms had to be destroyed after contracting the virus last year.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County arrested a man on serious domestic abuse assault and obstruction of emergency communications charges, Monday night. 41-year old Justin Wade Woods, of Stanton, was taken into custody at around 8:55-p.m. in the 200 block of Center Street, in Stanton. Woods was being held without bond, in the Montgomery County Jail.

Three southwest Iowa residents were arrested on separate drug charges Monday, in Adams County. The Sheriff’s Office reports at around 11:30-a.m., 27-year old Adam John Cross, of Corning, was arrested for Possession of Marijuana and drug paraphernalia, along with charges that include: Possession with Intent to distribute marijuana and meth on Real property; Gathering where controlled substances were unlawfully used, trafficking of stolen weapons, and a felony charge of failure to affix a drug tax stamp. His bond at the Adams County Jail was set at $5,000.

Cross’ arrest followed the execution of a search warrant at 1022 9th Street, in Corning, where deputies found a 5th wheel RV located on the property. Inside, they found 355 grams of marijuana, packaging materials, and numerous items of drug paraphernalia, as well as a weapon stolen from the Taylor County American Legion.

And, at around 6:45-p.m., Monday, deputies in Adams County arrested 59-year old Timothy Jones, along with 53-year old Teresa Jones, of Bedford, for: felony Possession of Meth with the intent to deliver; Possession marijuana with the intent to deliver; Possession of prescription drug; and felony charges of Failure to Affix a drug tax stamp, as well as bringing a controlled substance into a detention facility.

The couples’ arrest took place after deputies responded to a reported suspicious vehicle parked in the Mini-Mart parking lot. An investigation resulted in the recovery of meth, marijuana, and hydrocodone pills, as well as a scale and plastic bags. The couple was being held in the Adams County Jail on $5,000 cash bond, each.

This is “Arson Awareness Week” in Iowa.  John Ticer, a special agent in the Iowa Fire Marshal’s Office says “There’s very rarely a week that goes by that we don’t have an arson fire somewhere results in a lot of property damage.”  According to Ticer, “Fires actually cause more damage in any given year than all the other natural disasters combined, and arson represents a significant amount of that.”

Last year, 36 percent of the fires Ticer and the rest of the staff in the Iowa Fire Marshal’s Office investigated were determined to be intentionally set. One of the goals for “Arson Awareness Week” is to encourage the public to report specific activity. “A significant number of our fires, when we solve them, are actually attributed to the public’s help that we get, just like any other crime, but our crime is more difficult than others to prove,” Ticer says. “Unlike a lot of other crimes where you’re got a knife or a gunshot wound that’s manifested right away, oftentimes the crime of arson isn’t noted until sometimes hours, days or weeks later.”

The Iowa Fire Marshal’s Office is hoping to get the public’s help in solving some “cold” cases.”A lot of our evidence gets destroyed in the process of the fire, so it makes our cases much more difficult sometimes,” Ticer says, “and so when the public comes forward and helps on these cases, it just makes our job that much easier — and easier to prove in court.” Arson fires caused an estimated two-and-a-half MILLION dollars worth of property damage in Iowa last year.

Ticer says some of that is insurance fraud, but there are a variety of other causes for arson fires, including revenge. “Those are actually our most deadly fires,” Ticer says. “We’ve investigated a number of fires over in southwest Iowa over the years that have involved fatalities that are caused by the spite/revenge fires…We always have fires that are the result of bad drug deals or people who are high on an illegal narcotic at any given time who may not be thinking clearly and then, yes, we do every year have fires that are related to people who just simply like fires.”

State officials like Ticer urge parents of children who seem to have a compulsion to set fires to get those kids into treatment, so they don’t turn into pyromaniacs as adults. “As adolescents, their fires will be relatively small,” Ticer says. “When they move into their adulthood, those fires will continue to get bigger and bigger and eventually affect whole communities through the setting of actual buildings on fire.”

State and local authorities say a kid with a cigarette lighter set the fire that destroyed a sale barn in Stuart last month.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:40 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa dental school is apologizing for accidentally exposing more than 100 child patients to potentially unsafe levels of nitrous oxide. The school says 124 patients who underwent procedures at its pediatric dentistry clinic between March 1 and April 20 face an “extremely small risk” of suffering any health effects. A school official says the university is unaware of what any long-term effects would be, but that it wanted to be cautious, nonetheless.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Prosecutors say DNA and surveillance video prove a Pittsburgh man robbed and killed his neighbors _ two sisters of an Iowa state lawmaker. But the attorney for 45-year-old Allen Wade says he’s the victim of a “sloppy investigation” and a rush to judgment. Wade faces the possible death penalty if convicted of killing Sarah and Susan Wolfe inn February 2014, the sisters of Democratic Iowa state Rep. Mary Wolfe.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 24-year-old man has died in a Mason City house fire that was started by unattended food cooking on a stove. Mason City Fire Department officials say Ackhasenh Cavan died as a result of the accidental Sunday morning blaze. Firefighters found Cavan outside the house when they arrived. He was given medical aid before being taken to a Mason City hospital, where he was declared dead.

STRAWBERRY POINT, Iowa (AP) — Officials say two students have been taken to a hospital after an eastern Iowa school bus was involved in a crash. The crash happed just before 8 a.m. Monday on Iowa Highway 3, west of Strawberry Point. Starmont School officials say a car driven by a student crashed into the back of the bus carrying 35 students. The driver of the car and a student on the bus were hospitalized.