One man was injured after a fight involving a knife on Saturday night in Farragut.  The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports the incident occurred on Saturday night at 9:21pm in the 800 block of Hartford Avenue in Farragut.

Upon arrival at the scene deputies arrested 42-year-old Tom Murphy of Farragut for Brandishing a Weapon During a Assault and 3 counts of Child Endangerment.  An adult victim was treated and released by Farragut Rescue with minor injuries and a minor victim was uninjured.

Murphy was taken to the Fremont County Jail and held without bond.  The Shenandoah Police Department and Farragut Rescue assisted the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of an Omaha woman early Saturday morning after a traffic stop.  At 3:30am officers stopped a vehicle at the intersection of Highway 48 and Highway 34 in Red Oak for a traffic violation.

After a brief investigation officers arrested 44-year-old Christina Deloris Welch of Omaha, NE for OWI Drugged 1st Offense (A Serious Misdemeanor), Possession of a controlled substance Methamphetamine 2nd Offense (An Aggravated Misdemeanor), and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (A Simple Misdemeanor).  Welch was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating an alleged theft of money. Officials say at around 4:05-a.m., Saturday, officers responded to the American Inn for a reported Robbery. Officers determined during the preliminary investigation that a Robbery had not occurred. The victim, Amber Max had left the motel and was located in the area by officers.

Initially, she denied any knowledge of the incident, but eventually told officers that she was staying at the American Inn and that the suspect her ex-boyfriend, was also in the motel room. The woman indicated that she had approximately $900 in cash lying on the bed and that the suspect grabbed the cash off the bed and fled the area in an unknown direction. Max indicated to police that no weapons were involved and no assault had occurred. The suspect was not located by officers.

The case remains under investigation by the Criminal Investigation Division.

Current members of the Griswold School District’s Board of Education will meet Monday (Sept. 21st) to hold what for some, will be their last meeting. The board convenes at 5:45 in the Central Office at the Middle School/High School Building, in Griswold. During their session, they will act on approving Board Policies in the 401 series, and review the Sept. 8th School Election results, prior to adjourning.

New Board members Ericka Kirchhof (representing District 1) and Heather Pelzer who is serving as the At Large member, along with Scott Hansen (who was re-elected to his District 2 seat), will then be sworn-in. The new Griswold School Board will act on administrative matters to come before them, and hold the first reading of several Board Policies.

A drug prevention specialist who works with teenagers suggests students are the best ambassadors of the “just say no” approach to drug use. Katie Brown meets with students and student athletes in schools in both Jasper and Polk Counties. “Students listen to other students a lot more than they listen to adults,” Brown says. Brown is warning parents and school administrators about so-called “pharm” parties where students take prescription drugs they’ve stolen from home, dump them all into a bowl, mix the pills up and then take out a handful.

“Which is very, very dangerous,” she says. “We know there are lots of side effects to those (prescription drugs).” A federal report issued this week found about two percent of teenagers surveyed in 2014 had abused prescription drugs. That continues a decline in the abuse of narcotic painkillers over the past decade. Smoking rates among teens are dropping as well. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health did find a drop in the number of teenagers who see marijuana use as dangerous.

(Radio Iowa)

As state health officials strive to make Iowa the nation’s healthiest state, a new study finds more than half of all Americans are either diabetic or pre-diabetic. Dr. ViJay Shivaswamy, an endocrinologist in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says 14-percent of study participants had the disease while another 38-percent were growing dangerously close. What does it mean to be pre-diabetic?

“Blood sugar numbers are not normal but it’s not high enough to be called diabetes,” Dr. Shivaswamy says. “It’s also a state where you are at risk for developing diabetes. If you don’t intervene at this point, then you have a very high likelihood of getting diabetes.” Heredity does play a role in developing diabetes but taking steps can help prevent further complications. Of the people surveyed who were deemed pre-diabetic, more than a third of them had not been diagnosed. He says people in that pre-diabetic category need to take action so it doesn’t escalate.

“You can exercise or do the nutrition but if you don’t actually get the weight loss, you don’t get the benefit of preventing diabetes,” Shivaswamy says. “It’s very important to, at least in the first six months to a year, target for 7% weight loss and increase your activity to at least target 150 minutes a week or 30 minutes a day.” Shivaswamy works at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

(Radio Iowa)

“Dealing with Life’s Little Leaks: Bladder Health as We Age” is the title of the next session of Healthy U series of events in Atlantic, set for Thursday, September 24th at noon, in Conference Room 2 at Cass County Health System. Kim Kopp, BSN, CWOCN, CFCN will present information about bladder health and incontinence.

Kim Kopp

Kim has worked at Cass County Health System for 32 years, and she has been a certified Wound, Ostomy, Continence (WOC) Nurse for 20 years. WOC nurses provide direct care to people with abdominal stomas, wounds, fistulas, drains, pressure ulcers, and/or continence disorders.

Healthy U is a free educational series offered by Cass County Health System that focuses on a different health topic each month. Attendees receive a healthy sack lunch in addition to an educational program presented by medical professionals. Future topics will include medications, nutrition and diabetes.

For more information, or to make a reservation for the September 24th Healthy U, call 712-243-7479.

The City Administrator in Atlantic reports “In order to follow precedent on interviews and remain transparent,” he has “scheduled a full Council meeting for the City Attorney Interviews.” John Lund says the City Council will meet 6-p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 22nd in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall, and, after approving the agenda, go into a closed session for the purpose of conducting interviews with the three candidates being considered for City Attorney.  Once the interviews are completed, the Council will return to their chambers and adjourn for the evening.

During the Council’s regular session on Wednesday (Sept. 16th), they discussed, but took no action on the appointment of a City Attorney, the search for which began early last month after Jamie Arnold announced his resignation. The City’s Personnel and Finance Committee declined to make a recommendation to the Council on the three applicants for the job, choosing instead to let the Council discuss the matter first.

After some discussion, the Council decided to let the Personnel and Finance Committee take written questions from the Council for each of the candidates, with members of the Council sitting in on the interview process with the Committee as observers.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a Tabor an was arrested Thursday evening on a warrant charging him with animal abuse. 30-year old Andrew David Ethofer was being held in the Mills County Jail on $2000 bond.

And, 30-year old Jennifer Lee Norton, of Bellevue, NE, was arrested Thursday afternoon for Possession of Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond was set at $1,300.

Fans of smoked meats can get their fill this weekend in Denison. The west-central Iowa town is hosting the 2nd annual Tri City BBQ Festival, which opens tonight (Friday) and runs through tomorrow (Saturday). Evan Blakley is executive director of the Crawford County Chamber and Development Council.

“The first Tri City BBQ Fest was an enormous success and it definitely exceeded our expectations,” Blakley said. “The estimates were that we saw up to 10,000 visitors to the festival per day. So, it was fantastic and our vendors did very well.” The street festival will be bigger this year — covering more space and likely drawing more people.

“We’re a nonprofit event and we rely on our community to raise the funds. We got pretty ambitious this year and said we’d like to increase the scope and budget of the event by 50-percent,” Blakley said. “What we were able to do with that was market further out into the metros and bring in larger name entertainment.” The musical acts on Saturday night include rock bands Fuel and The Verve Pipe, both of which enjoyed success in the 1990s. Tribute act Hairball plays tonight (Friday). There will be an Iowa Craft Beer Tent and 18 food vendors.

“Our vendors are coming from as far away as Chicago and then we have some professional barbeque vendors from around Iowa as well,” Blakley said. “We have lots of locals who’ve stepped up too. We like that, we like impacting our local businesses more than anything.” The event also serves as a “State Championship” BBQ competition.

“The winner of our event gets to move on to the highest level national event of BBQ, what they call the World Series of Barbeque in Kansas City,” Blakley said. “So, there’s a lot on the line, $10,000 in prize money as well.” There are kid-friendly activities too, including inflatable attractions, a petting zoo and pony rides. Admission to the festival is free, but tickets are required to see the entertainment.

(Radio Iowa)