Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A Lincoln man has been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for a string of bank robberies in Nebraska and Iowa. U.S. Attorney Deborah R. Gilg says in a news release that 53-year-old Cameron Mitchell will be required to pay more than $74,000 in restitution for the robberies. Prosecutors say Mitchell robbed seven banks in Omaha, Lincoln, and Council Bluffs between June and August of 2012. Mitchell was accused of walking into bank lobbies armed with a handgun, and taking money from teller drawers.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Ames man has been accused of displaying a handgun during an argument with a driver near Iowa State University. ISU police say 22-year-old Patrick Allen Stall followed a car Monday to a parking lot near the campus athletic center. Witnesses told police that Stall flashed his car lights, honked his horn and gestured toward the other vehicle. When the car he was following stopped, Stall is accused of displaying a handgun from under his coat. Stall later surrendered to county authorities.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A legislative panel has approved a measure limiting the use of restraints on pregnant inmates. A subcommittee approved the bill on a 2 to 1 vote yesterday, and it now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would ban correctional institutions from using restraints on known pregnant women, particularly during labor, delivery and postpartum recovery, except under certain circumstances.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have apprehended an inmate who briefly escaped from a work release facility in Davenport. Corrections spokesman Fred Scaletta says 35-year-old Shawn Eugene Leewas placed on escape status yesterday morning after an unexcused absence from the Davenport Work Release Facility. A news release says he was captured a few hours later.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican state Sen. Brad Zaun says he’s running for the U.S. House seat being vacated by retiring Rep. Tom Latham. Zaun announced his campaign Tuesday afternoon in Clive. Zaun, a former mayor of Urbandale, has served in the state Senate since 2005. He previously ran for Congress in 2010, losing to former Democratic U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell.

Latham, a Republican, announced last month his plans to retire after finishing his 10th term. Several other candidates have already announced plans to run in the GOP primary race for the seat.

A U-S District Court judge in Council Bluffs has sentenced a Missouri man to prison for his role in the June 2012 robbery of a bank in Hamburg. 48-year old Nathan Wayne Smith, of Lexington, MO., was sentenced Tuesday by Judge James Gritzner to 77 months (or nearly 6 1/2 years) in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for bank robbery.
On October 18th, 2013, after a three day trial, the jury found Smith guilty of robbing the Great Western Bank of Hamburg. The evidence produced at trial showed that on June 11th, 2012, Smith traveled from his home in Lexington to Hamburg, arriving at the Great Western Bank around 9:30 a.m. Smith approached a teller in the bank, placed a plastic bag on the counter in front of her and told her to fill the bag with money. After obtaining the money from the teller, Smith ran from the bank. Smith was identified as the party responsible when Buckner, MO. police officers recalled stopping a vehicle on the afternoon of June 11tg, 2012, that matched the description of the vehicle disseminated after-the-fact by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Buckner, Missouri, is located approximately 150 miles away from Hamburg.
The investigation was conducted by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, the Buckner, Missouri Police Department, the Lexington, Missouri Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Officials with ASIC (The Atlantic School Improvement Committee) issued a statement Tuesday afternoon concerning their plans for a petition calling for a bond election related to Capital Improvements within the District.   The statement said:

“Due to the 2015 budget discussions at the January 27th Atlantic Community School Board meeting, the Atlantic School Improvement Committee is withdrawing the petition to obtain a bond for the proposed facility changes at Washington Elementary and High School buildings. The Committee still feels the need exists. However, they also feel that these discussions are essential and in the best interest of the tax payers to occur before any bond is brought forth.”

Atlantic Schools Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein said Tuesday the school board would not accept a petition to put the $19.9-million school bond issue before the voters in a special election, until they get a better picture of what next year’s budget will look like. He cited the school’s spending limit with regard to the cash reserve levy and unspent budget.

ASIC had planned to present the petition before the school board during its Feb. 10th meeting.

In an update to our story last week about a rollover accident near the Cass/Audubon County line, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday the driver of a 2000 Dodge van faces  multiple charges associated with the accident. 36-year old Timothy Orville Welch, of Red Oak, was ultimately charged with felony OWI 3rd Offense, three counts of Child Endangerment and Driving While Barred (both Aggravated Misdemeanors), Possession of a Controlled Substance and Driving While Revoked (both are Serious Misdemeanors). Welch was also cited for Failure to Obey Stop Sign, No Proof of Insurance, and Failure to Maintain Control. He was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains on $14,000 bond.

The accident happened January 23rd, as Welchs’ van was westbound on 350th Street/Akron. Authorities say when Welch ran a stop sign, he swerved to avoid the tree in the middle of the road at that location. The van rolled onto its side in the west ditch of 710th Street. A female passenger in the vehicle, 31-year old Louisa Fay Homan, of Red Oak, was transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital by Anita Rescue. Three children in the vehicle were uninjured.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, issued a report on arrests covering the period of January 20th through the 27th.

Last Sunday (1/27) deputies arrested 45-year old Michelle Lynn Burton, of Atlantic, on a felony charge of Theft 2nd Degree. Burton was taken to the Cass County Jail where she was released the following day on her own recognizance. On Thursday (1/23), deputies arrested 40-year old Kellie Lynn Thies, of Avoca, on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Theft 5th Degree. Thies was taken to the Cass County Jail where she was released later that day on $500 bond. And, 26-year old Lacey Faye Dorris, of Atlantic, was arrested on a Sheriff’s Office warrant for OWI 1st Offense (Serious) and three counts of Child Endangerment (Aggravated). Dorris was taken to the Cass County Jail where she was released the following day on $7000 bond.

On Wed., Jan. 22nd, 24-year old Daniel L. Hart, of Fort Dodge, was arrested on a District Court warrant for Failure to Appear. Hart was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remained until his sentencing and release on January 28th. On Jan. 21st, 48-year old Richard Alan Wehrli, of Atlantic, was arrested on a District Court Warrant for Pretrial Release Violation and a Cass County Sheriff’s Office warrant for OWI 1st Offense. Wehrli was taken to the Cass County Jail where he was released the following day on $1000 bond.

And, on January 20th, deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office arrested 37-year old Thomas Otto Williamson, of Griswold, on two District Court Warrants for Failure to Appear to Serve Jail Time. Williamson was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains until completion of service of jail time.

MAPLETON, Iowa (AP) – A western Iowa nursing home has been fined after staff removed a disabled Navy veteran from the facility and left him in an unfurnished apartment with no food or medication.  The Des Moines Register reports  staff from Elmwood Care Centre in Onawa dropped off 65-year-old John Chedester on Nov. 1 at an apartment building in Mapleton. He was hospitalized after a neighbor and local police intervened. The nursing home says Chedester, who suffers from several ailments, was involuntarily discharged because he was unable to pay his bill.

Chedester is back at Elmwood. The federal government fined the home more than $5,700. A spokeswoman for the facility’s management company says the company does not condone how the situation was handled. A DHS spokeswoman said the department cannot discuss the case.

A former Glenwood Police Officer faces a felony charge of Carrying Weapons on School Grounds, following an accidental shooting last week. KETV in Omaha reports the Mills County Attorney’s Office charged Douglas Trent Good in connection with the incident which occurred last Friday afternoon in near the West Elementary School, in Glenwood. Good accidentally shot himself in the leg with a .9-mm handgun, while waiting in a vehicle to pick up a student.

Good has a valid permit for the gun and he’s a former police officer, but Iowa law says only on-duty law enforcement personnel, military personnel, correctional officers are authorized to carry a firearm on school property.

Good, who is listed in good condition at the Nebraska Medical Center, is expected in court Feb. 11.

No injuries were reported following a rollover accident Monday night in Montgomery County. Sheriff’s officials say a 2001 Chevy Impala driven by 18-year old Dylan Brown, of Red Oak, was traveling south on K Avenue about 4-miles northeast of Red Oak, when the car went out of control on the gravel road, just south of 150th Street. The vehicle slid into the west ditch and rolled over, coming to rest on its top, on a fence owned by Roger Pendleton. The accident happened at around 10-p.m.

Damage from the crash amounted to $3,700. Brown was cited for Failure to have Insurance.

Representatives of the propane industry warn if temperatures don’t go up and demand doesn’t go down soon, Midwest propane supplies actually may run out. Jeff LaPan (luh-PAN) is an account manager for a Minnesota company that sells propane on the wholesale market. He says last week Midwesterners used about one-point-two million gallons of propane and there’s about five million gallons left in the region.  “At that pace, we potentially could run out of propane…sometime potentially mid- to the end of February,” La Pan says. “It’s a potential.”

LaPan testified Monday afternoon before a group of lawmakers in Des Moines, many of whom are hearing horror stories from families who’re using space heaters and closing off sections of their homes to try to deal with the high price of propane, plus the shortage of supply. LaPan told legislators a combination of factors led to this year’s shortage — the shutdown of a key pipeline, below-average supplies on October 1st, higher demand for propane to dry the 2013 harvest and higher demand from homeowners due to frigid temperatures.

“Now I’ve committed to not say, ‘Perfect storm,’ but let’s just say that many events happened all at once to create the situation that we’re in. This is an anomoly,” LaPan said. “This is not our normal propane demand.” Brent Vander Leest of Sully Transport has more than 20 trucks headed to Houston, Texas, now to pick up propane and haul it back to Iowa.  “If everybody in the surrounding states do that, there’s liable to be 200 trucks in line, making it a 24-hour line,” Vander Leest says. “Our emergency hours of service exemption is due to run out in Texas, where we have to have a special exemption to pull out of there.”

Vander Leest says Iowa’s governor needs to lobby the governor of Texas to renew that exemption, which expires on Wednesday of next week. Some legislators say they’ll press to put an extra million dollars into the state program that provides grants to low income Iowans to help pay their heat and electric bills. Governor Branstad sent a letter to President Obama Monday, asking the president to ease or waive whatever federal regulations he can that might make it easier to get propane to market.

(Radio Iowa)