OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has been sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to charges related to the misapplication of casino funds.
U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Monday sentenced 63-year-old John Blackhawk to five years of probation and 150 hours of community service. He also must pay $36,000 in restitution.
Blackhawk pleaded guilty in September to theft from an Indian gaming establishment.

During 2013 and 2014, Blackhawk took unauthorized disbursements from the WinnaVegas Casino and Resort in Sloan, Iowa, totaling $36,000 in the form of gift certificates.
Blackhawk is one of nine former council members accused of a conspiracy to steal money from the casino.

An Iowa State University rural sociologist has identified a dozen small towns in Iowa where the quality of life is thriving despite losses in population. Among them are Elk Horn, Hamburg, Pacific Junction and Sac City. Dave Peters calls them “shrink-smart” towns. He says a high quality of life doesn’t depend so much on a strong local economy, but rather on solid social connections. “People in shrink-smart towns tend to be more frequently involved in community improvement projects and they were members of a lot more local organizations in the community,” Peters said.

Iowa State has been tracking life in towns with fewer than ten-thousand (10,000) people in each of the state’s 99 counties since 1994. In these shrink-smart towns, citizen have managed to bridge divides created by economic class, ethnicity and gender. “People in these towns rated their communities as having a culture of openness and support,” Peters explained. “So, residents said they felt safe in their towns, they felt they could trust their neighbors, and they felt the community was supportive of themselves and others.”

The shrink-smart towns Peters identifies range in population from 460 in the Mills County town of Pacific Junction to around 21-hundred (2,100) in Sac City. Nine of the 12 towns named by Peters to the list have populations fewer than one thousand (1,000). The shrink-smart towns, in alphabetical order, are Allerton, Bancroft, Correctionville, Elk Horn, Elma, Everly, Grand Mound, Hamburg, Mediapolis, Pacific Junction, Radcliffe and Sac City.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)

Many Iowans will be making their year-end donations to charities soon and the experts say you’d better look closely before you give. Teresa Fritz, with the Better Business Bureau, suggests Iowans do some research before donating even a dime. Fritz says the bureau evaluates many hundreds of charities at the website Give-dot-org based on 20 different factors, with one of the biggest being accountability.

Fritz says, “We look to see if they are using their money wisely and that it’s going to actually run the organization and not just paying for the administration.”  Many charities receive one-third of their annual donations during the holiday season, so these year-end gifts are important. Fritz says sometimes the names of organizations will sound alike, but their support is very different. “Before you give, be sure you have the exact name of the charity to avoid a case of mistaken identity,” Fritz says. “Sometimes, charities that do not use their money wisely will try to have a similar name.”

If you get a phone call from a charity you’re not familiar with, don’t give, especially if someone is pressuring you. When you’re making a gift, she suggests plastic may have advantages over cash or a check. “We encourage people to use their credit cards, because you do have some assistance and safety with using your credit card,” she says. “If you would find out the organization is a scam, you can stop the donation on your credit card or stop a check, if you can talk to your bank right away.”

Anyone can access the Better Business Bureau’s Give-dot-org website for free. It’s part of the Wise Giving Alliance. (give.org)

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Republican senator says his comments were misinterpreted when he defended GOP efforts to scale back the federal estate taxes because it helps those who invest rather than people who spend their money on “booze or women or movies.” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says his point regarding the estate tax was taken out of context and the government shouldn’t “seize the fruits of someone’s lifetime of labor after they die.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Severe thunderstorms raked portions of the Plains as a cold front swept away warm weather and replaced it with conditions more typical of December. Temperatures fell behind the front, but not before hail and high winds crossed much of the nation’s midsection Monday. Snow fell in the northern Plains, where a blizzard warning was posted for Monday evening.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has been sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to charges related to the misapplication of casino funds. U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Monday sentenced 63-year-old John Blackhawk to five years of probation and 150 hours of community service. He also must pay $36,000 in restitution. Blackhawk pleaded guilty in September to theft from an Indian gaming establishment _ a casino in Sloan, Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Navy says it will give a posthumous combat medal to the family of a northeast Iowa sailor on the 76th anniversary of his death on the battleship USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Aloysious H. Schmitt, who carried the rank of chaplain lieutenant junior grade, has been awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action.