Clarinda Police, Thursday evening, responded to the Dollar General Store at 200 East Glenn Miller Drive in Clarinda, to investigate an alleged shoplifting incident. Officers arrested 47-year old Wendy Sue Wood, of Clarinda, for theft by means of shoplifting, with additional charges possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia used to inject methamphetamine. Wood was being held on bond in the Page County jail.

Reports concerning the incident have been submitted to the office of Page County Attorney Carl M. Sonksen for review regarding the filing of formal charges.

Shelby County Emergency Management Coordinator Alex Londo reports, personnel with FEMA will be out in the county going door-to-door, to get people who were affected by the floods to register to receive assistance. All of the people going around will have identification on them to show that they work for FEMA. The crews will be out over the next week to two weeks.

If you have questions, call Alex Londo at 712-755-5160.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says the flood damage estimate the State of Iowa submitted to the Federal Emergency Management Agency in March will be increased. The original one-point-six BILLION dollar estimate of damage in western Iowa was developed a month ago. “Then FEMA came in, with the National Guard and counted rooftops,” Reynolds says. “…I made it very clear in what I submitted that this was initial damage and there more than likely be additional damage and the dollars would increase moving forward.”

The Iowa Farm Bureau has estimated 127-thousand acres of Iowa cropland has been affected by the flooding and ag-related damage alone is two BILLION dollars. The governor says the repair costs for many of the busted levees along the Missouri River cannot be determined now because the water is still high in key areas. “That’s one of the things I talked to FEMA about when I met with acting director Gaynor, to just say: ‘Please don’t shut this incident down because we are still vulnerable right now. We don’t know the extent of the damage,'” Reynolds says. “We need some time to get those numbers to them.”

On Friday, March 22nd, state officials pegged major and minor damage to flooded homes at more than 400-MILLION dollars. Damages to businesses and commercial property was estimated in the range of 300 MILLION. The FINAL damage estimates are key for each county, as it determines whether federal disaster assistance will be made available to individuals — and whether federal money will help rebuild facilities owned by the state, city and county governments.

The SEVEN western Iowa counties of Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Pottawattamie, Shelby, and Woodbury already have been declared federal disaster areas. For individual residents, it means they may apply for federal grants and low-interest loans to cover home repairs or other disaster-related expenses. In addition, federal food assistance is available to residents in those seven counties who had high-water or lost power in their homes — or who had reduced work hours or lost their job because of the flooding.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Waterloo officials have identified parts of three city parks as potential candidates for sale. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that council members broached the idea of selling portions of parks for development. The thought is such sales could reduce maintenance costs, generate sales revenue and grow the tax base with new homes built on the land.

Neighboring property owners have resisted the idea in past discussions about selling park pieces. They feared losing direct sightlines and access to the parks or losing spots for recreation.
Leisure Services Director Paul Huting told the council earlier this week that if a portion of the sale proceeds were to be used for park improvements, the park neighbors might be happier with such sales.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Woodbury County officials have been discussing plans for a new county jail and a bond issue to pay for it. County board chairman Keith Radig told the Sioux City Journal on Thursday that it makes more sense to build a jail that could cost between $35 million and $50 million than pay $12 million to $14 million for repairs on the current, 234-bed facility. It opened in 1987.

Radig says a new jail with 300 to 440 beds would provide extra space to accept federal detainees. The county could contract with federal immigration officials and receive around 80 inmates a day on average. The resulting hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue could possibly eliminate the need to pay back construction debt with property taxes.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A woman from Colombia has been sentenced for her role in an email scheme that defrauded companies in Iowa and other states. Prosecutors say Karina Henao was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to 13 months in prison. Henao also was ordered to pay more than $297,000 in restitution. She pleaded guilty in November to wire fraud. Prosecutors say she’d been living in Florida.

A court document says Henao admitted that from September through November 2017 she participated in a scheme to infiltrate or otherwise gain access to email systems in order to divert money from the businesses’ bank accounts.