The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests occurred Thursday afternoon. At around 4:40-p.m., 34-year old Kyle K. Kennedy, of Council Bluffs, was arrested following a traffic stop, in Underwood. Kennedy was taken into custody on a warrant for Violation/Contempt of Court, with regard to a No Contact/Protective order. He was being held without bond in the Pott. County Jail. And, at around 4-p.m. Thursday, a female inmate at the Pott. County Jail was served with a Sarpy County, NE. warrant, for being a Fugitive from Justice. 37-year old Carrie M. Guthiel, of Council Bluffs, who was being held on a Probation Violation and Theft in the 3rd Degree charges, was presented with the warrant and returned to the custody of Corrections Staff. She was being held on a $15,000 bond for the Probation Violation, and No bond on the Fugitive charge.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — An investigation has found that a former secretary at an Iowa soil and water conservation district embezzled roughly $20,000 by writing unauthorized checks to herself. Outgoing State Auditor Mary Mosiman said Friday the case marks her office’s fourth investigation into misspending at one of the state’s 100 water districts in the last five years. The latest focused on Jessica Rutter, who was an office assistant for Jasper County’s district until her June resignation. A report issued by Mosiman says Rutter acknowledged to investigators that she wrote checks to herself that would typically double her pay.

Auditors found 23 unauthorized checks were issued between 2015 and 2017 that amounted to nearly $20,000. The report found a couple thousand dollars more in spending for personal and other improper expenses. Rutter, 39, has not been charged but the findings were forwarded to law enforcement agencies. A listed number for her was disconnected.

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — A January trial has been scheduled for the mother of a baby whose lifeless body was found in an infant swing in northeast Iowa. Chickasaw County court records say 21-year-old Cheyanne Harris has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and child endangerment resulting in death. Authorities have said the body of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn was infested with maggots when found Aug. 30 last year in the swing by deputies and medics called to his parents’ Alta Vista apartment.

The child’s father, Zachary Koehn, was convicted Nov. 6 of first-degree murder and child endangerment. He is seeking a new trial. Harris’ trial is set to begin Jan. 29 in Le Mars. The trial is being moved to Plymouth County because of pretrial publicity.

(Radio Iowa) — As the Christmas shopping season hits full stride an expert says its time to be sure your on-line purchases are properly protected. The spokesman for the Johnston-based SHAZAM, Patrick Dix, says you should review how you are buying items on-line. “This a great opportunity for consumers to take stock of where they shop on-line and make sure that they are changing their passwords. That they are not using passwords — they are using pass phrases,” according to Dix.  A pass phrase is a familiar line that you can make a few adjustments to and still remember. “A song lyric or a quote that you might like,” Dix explains. “And then what you do is you take letters out of the pass phrase and you use special characters. For instance, you might use a dollar sign for an S, a hashtag for an H or the at symbol (@) for an A.”

He says this should easily give you a strong pass phrase that won’t be hacked. “If you replace a couple of letters — two special characters at least — and then at least 12, probably 15 letters total in the pass phrase that you will always remember, that’s a really good way to make your password much more secure than your address, or your dog’s name,” Dix says. Dix says your address and dog’s name and other personal information are not that hard for someone who wants to hack your accounts to find out. “The fraudsters are using social engineering. They’ll get on your Facebook page and find out your mother’s maiden name very easily, or your old address, or the high school you went to or the college mascot or whatever it was” according to Dix. “All of those things are very hackable where random phrase or lyric from a song mixed with special characters is not.”

Another key to preventing the theft of your identity online is to keep your devices current.  “Update the software on your computer or your phone to make sure that you have all of the latest security patches so you are protecting yourself,” Dix says. “These are the things if we are going to be shopping on-line — that old password that we’ve used forever on Amazon or Netflix –needs to be changed. And it needs to be changed about every 90 days.” Dix says a lot of problems that people have with getting hacked are because they didn’t do enough to make it hard to find out their passwords.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has reached settlements with three satellite T-V companies that resulted in refunds to customers. A-G spokesman Lynn Hicks.  He says all three violated the consumer fraud act and the door-to-door sales act. One settlement involved First Choice Communications from Mesa, Arizona, which sold packages at the 2016 Iowa State Fair.”One consumer in particular signed up and complained to our office because he thought it was going to be 90 dollars a month for two years. That was August at the fair and by December he was getting a bill for 160 dollars a month,” Hicks explains.

X-cite (excite) Satellite was another company which got into trouble for the way it sold its packages. “They were selling both Direct-TV and Viasat services and they were misleading customers into believing that they were with A-T&T or Dish Network. They were telling them things like you are in a red zone and your rates are going to be going up soon and you might want to consider changing your provider,” according to Hicks. IKONIK (Iconic) Satellite of Utah was the third provider to reach a settlement after the Attorney General’s Office found the made misrepresentations to customers over contracts, improperly assessing cancellation fees, and failing to provide a three-day notice of the customer’s right to cancel. Hicks says you should never be pushed into signing a satellite contract. He says if someone is trying to rush you into something, you can always ask for time to consider a purchase and under the Door-To-Door Sales Act, you should get written and oral notice that you have three business days to cancel a purchase for any reason.

He says you should also ask questions about what you are getting. “Be very clear about who you are dealing with. Are you actually dealing with DirectTV or are you dealing with a third party seller?,” Hicks says. “And where are they doing business, how do you get ahold of them if you have problems. And also, another thing, make sure you understand just what a provider is offering and charging. If this is a teaser rate, how long does it last?”

The settlements were negotiated earlier this year and Hicks says customers should have already heard from the company. He says if anyone who is a customer of the three companies and hasn’t heard from them, then you can contact the Attorney General’s Office. The companies also paid a total of 52-thousand dollars to the state for the Consumer Education and Litigation Fund.