(Radio Iowa) – Mahaska County Attorney Andrew Ritland is urging the state legislature to update Iowa’s criminal laws on pornography to address the use of new technology. “With the increase of artificially generated images online, either videos of still images, there’s been an increasing problem with individuals taking images of real children and adapting a pornographic image to make it appear that child is involved in a pornographic act,” Ritland said during a House subcommittee hearing.

Ritland told lawmakers there are already such cases in Iowa, but under current law they’re difficult to prosecute. Ritland supports a bill that expands the definition of sexual exploitation of a minor by making it a crime to produce or possess these kind of manipulated images. “In this way we hope to further protect the children of Iowa against these new technological threats and hold perpetrators accountable,” Ritland said.

Mahaska County Attorney Andrew Ritland and Kelly Meyers, lobbyist for Iowa County Attorneys Association, at an Iowa House subcommittee hearing. (RI photo)

Ritland is urging lawmakers to pass another bill dealing with so-called revenge porn that uses artificially manipulated images to harass, intimidate or annoy adults or minors. “Technology is not going to stop, right? The convincing nature of these photos and videos is going to get better and better until it’s indistinguishable to the human eye,” Ritland said. “…We need to get out in front of this issue as soon as we can before we get into a situation where we have to play catch up.”

Both bills have cleared initial review and are eliglble for votes in the Iowa House Judiciary Committee.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Des Moines man was arrested on Sunday, January 21, 2024, and made his initial appearance before a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.

Sharmarke Omar Mohamed, 35, is charged in a criminal complaint filed in the Southern District of Iowa with one felony drug offense: possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.

According to the allegations in the unsealed complaint, as part of a Des Moines Police Department investigation, Mohamed was located traveling toward Des Moines from Arizona when the Iowa State Patrol conducted a traffic stop of his vehicle in Decatur County, Iowa. Pursuant to a federal search warrant for Mohamed’s vehicle, approximately 30,000 counterfeit pills suspected of containing fentanyl, weighing approximately 3,182 grams, were located in the luggage area of the vehicle.

This case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Des Moines Police Department is investigating the case, with the assistance of the Iowa Department of Public Safety, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the Iowa State Patrol, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ankeny Police Department, and the Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force.

A complaint is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports 24-year-old Tyler Bascue, of Glenwood, was arrested today (Wednesday, Jan. 24), on a Mills County warrant. Bascue was being held in the Mills County jail on a $5,000 cash-only bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill under consideration in the Iowa Senate would let drivers operate all-terrain vehicles at higher speeds on some Iowa roads. A law passed in 2022 lets A-T-Vs travel on county roads and two-lane state highways at no more than 35 miles an hour. Senator Mike Klimesh, of Spillville, says A-T-Vs can be a hazard when they’re moving at 35 miles an hour. “If they’re about to travel at speed and desire to travel at speed and matches the speed on the highway it eliminates some possible concerns about folks having to go around them that maybe, on the spur of the moment, that was not in their best interest,” Klimesh says.

State law also allows A-T-Vs to travel on gravel roads if they’re being used for farming. Klimesh says A-T-Vs driving at 35 miles an hour or less on a gravel road are at risk of being rear ended. “If I’ve traveled that gravel road every day of my life going to and from my farm unit or going to and from work, I come upon a dust cloud, I’m assuming that that dust cloud is traveling at 45 or 50, which is an average speed for gravel roads I would say for gravel roads throughout the state, except in springtime,” Klimesh says, “then I encounter something that’s limited to 35 miles an hour I don’t know it because it’s inside of a dust cloud.”

Alyson DeMoss, a lobbyist for the Iowa Motorcycle Dealers Association, says the group supports letting A-T-Vs drive up to 35 miles an hour on some roads, but not at higher speeds. “It is our opinion that this raises an increased safety concern in this state. The machines are not made to go at those speeds,” DeMoss said. “…If a machine is able to go those speed limits, oftentimes they have equipment that is not rated to do that. The tires can be rated much less than that.” Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, says he’d like to let Iowa’s largest counties with the most traffic say no to letting A-T-Vs move at higher speeds.”How really important is it we move this speed limit if it risks one child, one young person being killed?” Bisignano asked. “We drive these roads, too, and us being in a car and seeing these vehicles flying at 50 miles an hour.”

The bill cleared a Senate subcommittee this (Wednesday) morning and is eligible for a vote in the Senate Transportation Committee.