The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports a Nebraska man was arrested early Saturday morning on Public Intoxication and Disorderly Conduct, charges. 24-year old Blake Daniel Johannes, of Omaha, was arrested at around 12:30-a.m. and brought to the Audubon County Jail. He appeared later before a magistrate, and was released.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported during four separate accidents over the past holiday weekend. Two of the accidents happened on July 3rd. Officials say at 2:50 a.m., deputies responded to a report of a car-vs. deer collision on Interstate 80 westbound, near mile marker 52. 37-year old Vijayakuma Murugesan,  of Omaha, was driving a 2009 Honda Odyssey that sustained an estimated $4,500 damage during the incident.

Friday evening, deputies in Cass County responded to a two-vehicle accident on 690th Street at Memphis Road. Officials say a 2000 Honda Accord driven by 17-year old Alec Lee Hayes, of Atlantic, and a 2004 Chevy Suburban owned and driven by 45-year old Douglas John Becker, of Pleasant Hill, were both southbound on 690th Street when Hayes attempted a U-turn and failed to yield to Becker’s vehicle. In the process, the Suburban hit the Accord it in the front driver’s side and forcing the car into the southwest ditch. Hayes was cited for Failure to Yield.

The southwest Iowa native who’s considered one of the world’s top espionage novelists released her tenth book last week, called “The Assassins.” The Gayle Lynds thriller is a stand-alone novel and her second involving the character Judd Ryder, a former military spy, who’s pulled into an international adventure that keeps him in the crosshairs of multiple master killers. Lynds says she loves writing about Ryder’s exploits.

“All of us have some kind of power within us and his verges on violence,” Lynds says. “That’s an issue that he has to constantly deal with, that, and the issue of where the law ends and justice begins and what his position is in society.” Ryder was first introduced in Lynds’ previous novel, “The Book of Spies.” Lynds is a graduate of the University of Iowa journalism school, where one of her lit teachers was acclaimed writer Kurt Vonnegut. After working as a newspaper reporter, she was hired in what’s now referred to as a government think tank and had top-secret clearance, which further sparked her interest in fiction writing, or “lying for a living,” as she puts it. Publishers Weekly has released a list of the top 15 spy novels of all time, with titles like “The Bourne Identity,” “The Day of the Jackal,” and “The Spy Who Loved Me.” It ranks Lynds’ first book, “Masquerade,” at number-eight.

“What a thrill to see my book on that list because I’ve read every book on there, years ago,” Lynds says. “I’m in pretty amazing company there, aren’t I?” Lynds grew up in Council Bluffs but spent many years living in southern California. A few years back, she got married and moved cross-country to coastal Maine. She say the change in latitude has been healthy for her attitude — as a person and as a novelist.

“I’ve lived in cities all my life and I’m so accustomed to when I hear a sound outside, it’s a siren or it’s a car door slamming or somebody arguing, and now when I hear a sound outside, it’s a bird singing,” Lynds says. “That’s pretty cool and it’s a wonderful place for a writer.” Loyal fans of the television show, “The X Files,” which was huge in the 1990s, know the program is being brought back to T-V for a six-episode run starting in January of 2016. Lynds is also an X-phile and has written an adventure for F-B-I Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

“There is an anthology coming out, I believe at the end of July, an X Files anthology,” Lynds says. “I don’t know the title, but my husband, John, and I have a short story in it. It’s a collection of short stories and it’s the very first collection of all-original X Files short stories.” Earlier in her career, Lynds co-wrote three books with legendary spymaster Robert Ludlum. When she tried to pitch her first novel under her own name in the male-dominated espionage genre, “Masquerade” was repeatedly rejected, with one publisher saying no woman could have written the book. Lynds was asked if she was ever tempted to use that publisher’s name in a future book and kill him off.

“Actually, it was a woman, not a man, and I did!” Lynds says. “I put her in as the chief of CIA in one of my books, and not a very nice one.” The original book was eventually picked up by a publisher and “Masquerade” went on to become Lynds’ first best-seller — and she’s since sold more than six-million books.

(Radio Iowa)

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A yearlong exhibit at a museum in Waterloo is designed to share what veterans experienced while they were in Vietnam. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the exhibit is called “365 Days and Counting: Iowans in the Vietnam War” and will open at the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum in Waterloo on July 14. Vietnam veterans will be on hand that day to talk about their experiences.

In another salute to veterans, a welcome home parade is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on July 17 in downtown Waterloo. All Vietnam-era veterans are being invited to participate. Rick Reuter is one of the veterans working on the exhibit, and he says it is “going to show family members what Vietnam was like.”

Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, today (Monday) reports a Creston woman was cited for drug-related offenses last week. 23-year old Alison Dawn Iiams was cited for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. The citation was issued in the Morman Trail Lake tent area on July 2nd. The woman was released after receiving the citation.

Saturday afternoon, 28-year old Brandon Kristian Snyder, of Clinton, IA, was arrested following a traffic stop on Interstate 80 eastbound in Adair County. Snyder was taken into custody for Driving While License Suspended or Revoked, and for Violation of a No Contact Order. He was subsequently released on those Adair County charges, but held on warrants for his arrest issued out of Iowa County.

And, 55-year old Thomas Joyner Smith, of San Francisco, CA, was arrested Saturday evening on I-80 in Adair County, by the Iowa State Patrol. Smith was wanted on warrants issued elsewhere, but the agency issuing the warrants said they would not come to extradite him, so Smith was cited and released.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Seven people have been arrested in Creston, four of them on drug charges. Creston Police report 20-year old Michael Phelps, 19-year old Trevor Bacon and 19-year old Jeremy Ebrecht, all of Creston, were arrested just before 1-a.m. today (Monday), at 102 S. Sumner Street. The men each face a Possession of Controlled Substance/Marijuana, charge. They were being held in the Union County Jail on $1,000 bond, each.

Friday evening, 52-year old Kirby Konkler, of Creston, was arrested in the 400 block of N. Vine Street, on charges of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession of a Controlled Substance, and Violation of a Protection Order. He was being held in the Ringgold County Jail, on $2,000 bond.

Also arrested in Creston, was 27-year old Julian Allison, of Greenfield, who was charged Friday night with Driving While Revoked. He was later released from the Union County Jail on $1,000 bond. Earlier that evening, Diane Woodhull, of Creston, was arrested for Violation of a Protective Order. Her was being held in the Ringgold County Jail on $300 bond.

And on Sunday, 48-year old Karen Perez, of Cudahy, WI., was arrested on a 4th Degree Theft charge. Perez was being held in the Ringgold County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

The 7:06-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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DES MONINES, Iowa – With the Fourth of July holiday now in the books, it’s straight ahead to Iowa’s hottest days of summer and that has parents being reminded of the dangers when it comes to children, vehicles and heatstroke. There are children who die every year after being left in the heat in a vehicle unattended and while the voices that follow always exclaim, ‘not me.’ Janette Fennell, president and founder with KidsandCars.org says “The worst mistake you can make is to think this can’t happen to you or someone in your family,” she says. “We are human and sometimes our memories let us down. So if we realize everyone is capable of having something like this happen to them, we will put the correct safety measures into place.”

Fennell says those safety measures include always looking before you lock or leaving an important item, such as your cell phone or handbag, in the back seat so you have to open the back door to retrieve it every time you park. On average, 38 children die each year from heat-related deaths after being trapped inside motor vehicles.

While most of those deaths are from parents leaving or forgetting their child is in the back seat, Fennell says about a third are from a child climbing into a parked car unnoticed. She says you should always keep your vehicle locked even if it’s in your driveway or garage. “Another thing that’s very important is to make sure you have keys that are out of reach of children,” says Fennell. “So many of them have remote openers and the kids want to use those and they make noises and the trunk pops open and all of those fun things, but it could be a death sentence in the hands of a child.”

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, temperatures inside a car can rise more than 20 degrees in only 10 minutes and even with an outside temperature of just 60, the temperature inside a car can reach 110 degrees.

(Iowa News Service)

Authorities in Montgomery County say one man was arrested and another cited on separate charges Sunday, in Red Oak. The Sheriff’s Office says 42-year old Lester Michael Ballard, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 5:45-p.m. on a charge of Driving While Suspended. His bond was set at $566.

And, at around 5:30-p.m., 58-year old Michael Loren Kelly, of Elliott, was cited for Urinating in Public following an investigation by Red Oak Police into a report of a man exposing himself in public. The incident allegedly occurred in the 900 block of E. Hammond Street.  Kelly was cited for the Simple Misdemeanor offense and given a date to appear in court before a magistrate.