The Atlantic Fire Department was called at around 8:10-a.m., to assist firefighters from Brayton, who are battling a residential structure fire. The blaze was at 3144 Goldfinch Place, northwest of Brayton. No other details are currently available.

LITTLETON, Iowa (AP) — A project that will remove a dam from the Wapsipinicon River in eastern Iowa may create hazardous ice conditions for snowmobilers and ice anglers upstream. The Iowa Natural Resources Department says work is expected to begin Monday on the Littleton Dam in Buchanan County. Rock rapids are being emplaced so the water will pool to about the same level provided by the low-head dam.

Officials say water under the ice upstream will drop as the dam is removed, leaving several feet of empty space beneath. What appears to be stable ice could collapse unpredictably. The low-head dam presented a danger over the years. Nine people have died near the dam since it was built in 1934.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report the arrest Thursday night, of 29-year old Jennifer Ann Self. The Creston woman was arrested on a charge of Theft in the 2nd Degree, and was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $5,000 cash or surety bond. Authorities said also, a Creston woman residing in the 300 block of N. Sycamore Street reported Thursday morning, that sometime between 3:40-and 5-p.m. Wednesday, someone took a wedding ring out of her vehicle while she was at work. The loss was estimated at $100.

(7-a.m. News)

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) — A trial has been delayed for a man accused of killing his grandmother in western Iowa. Monona County District Court records say a judge Wednesday set Sept. 10 as the new trial starting date for 21-year-old Eliot Stowe. The trial had been scheduled to begin this coming Tuesday. Stowe has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He’s accused of fatally beating 66-year-old Cheryl Stowe at the home they shared in rural Castana. Her body was found June 27 about a mile and a half from the home.

His attorney has filed notice to the court that Stowe will use an insanity defense .

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the 215 attorneys, investigators and support staff in his agency are working under difficult circumstances due to spending constraints.  “It’s very much a make-shift operation that’s working so far, but is really tenuous,” Miller says. “…Any future cuts are potentially devastating.” Miller met Thursday with legislators who draft the budget for the Iowa Department of Justice. Miller described the various restricted accounts his agency has tapped to make up for a 37 percent decrease in state taxpayer support of his agency over the past decade. “I mean you get sort of the sense that we’re sort of putting this all together with baling wire, to some extent,” he said, “to make it work, to make it come out that we’re able to produce the kind of work that you and Iowans want from us.”

Miller’s office fields consumer complaints. Prosecutors in the Miller’s office were called in by county attorneys to handle more than 100 criminal cases in the past year, including 28 murder trials. In addition, Miller says there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of people convicted of a crime who appeal the judge’s or jury’s decision. “We have the same number of lawyers as we did four years or five years ago and we have 40 percent more cases,” Miller says, “so we have a huge workload for our criminal appeals lawyers.”

Attorneys from Miller’s office also represent more than 200 state agencies, boards and commissions. Miller says those lawyers are handling an increasing number of complicated employment cases. About 23 percent of the attorneys in Miller’s office work on child support cases.