Sheriff’s Deputies in Montgomery County, Thursday evening, arrested 70-year old Jerry Lynn Pontow, of Hastings (IA), on a charge of Indecent Exposure. The man was taken into custody a little before 7-p.m., following an incident at the Pilot Grove County Park in northern Montgomery County. Pontow was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

Police in Red Oak, Thursday, arrested 27-year old Michael Todd Archer, of Red Oak, on a charge of Simple Assault. Archer was taken into custody at around 12:20-a.m. in the 1900 block of E. Summit Street, and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $300.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has rejected a measure to repeal parts of former President Barack Obama’s health care law, after a night of high suspense ended in a big defeat for President Donald Trump’s agenda. Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona cast a key vote against the measure. Trump sent a Twitter post saying “3 Republicans and 48 Democrats’ let the American people down.’

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, issued a statement after Senate consideration of legislation to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Ernst stated in a Press Release, “As I’ve said throughout this debate, ObamaCare is not sustainable in Iowa and we have to act. Iowans in the individual market have seen their choices vanish and have seen massive rate increases.”

She said also, that “Throughout [her] 99 county tour, [she] hear[s] countless stories from Iowans facing these premium increases, as well as increases in other out of pocket costs like deductibles and co-pays that they simply cannot afford. We don’t have the option to sit back and do nothing; Iowans are demanding relief from ObamaCare.”

Ernst went on to say “I am disappointed that the Senate was unable to advance important changes to this flawed law. We must now continue to find ways to work on behalf of Iowans and the American people who have been negatively impacted by Obamacare to find affordable, patient-centered solutions that work for them.”

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A trucking company linked to a recent deadly human smuggling case in Texas had long promoted itself as a family firm whose hard-working drivers helped keep the U.S. economy running. But according to public records and interviews with former drivers, Pyle Transportation was a cutthroat business that flouted laws. One of the company’s contract drivers is charged in the deaths of 10 immigrants found in a sweltering trailer in Texas. The firm says it knew nothing about the human smuggling operation.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Court records say an Iowa woman accused of trying to flush her newborn down a toilet and then leaving the baby for dead in a trash can intends to change her plea. A plea hearing is scheduled Aug. 11 in Iowa City for Ashley Hautzenrader, who’s already pleaded not guilty to attempted murder. The records don’t say how she’ll plead and to what charges. Police say the child was found alive in the trash.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Drought conditions are increasing in several states, and extreme heat and weeks with little rain have begun to stress corn, soybeans, wheat and livestock in some areas. The weekly U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln says nearly 11 percent of the continental United States is in moderate drought or worse.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man has been sentenced to more than a year in federal prison for escaping last year from a federal halfway house in western Iowa. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 28-year-old Keith Wayne Page, of Omaha, was sentenced Thursday to 16 months in prison for escape, to which he pleaded guilty in January. Officials say Page failed to return to CH Inc., a residential re-entry center in Council Bluffs, in early September.

A special investigation by the state auditor’s office has concluded a deputy sheriff in Carroll County and a staffer in the sheriff’s office improperly split at least 128-thousand dollars’ worth of fees for gun safety classes. Starting January 1st of 2011, Iowans who proved they had completed a gun-handling course and met all other legal requirements automatically got a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

The man who was Carroll County’s sheriff at the time asked Deputy Tom Fransen to start teaching the gun safety classes — but State Auditor Mary Mosiman says the fees for the classes “belong to the county.” The classes were taught in the courthouse in Carroll, county equipment was used, plus the sheriff’s office phone number was listed as the primary point of contact on the materials advertising the classes. Fransen and Shanna Balukoff — a clerk in the Carroll County sheriff’s office — split the fees that were collected over a five-and-a-half year period.

The auditors’ review says the two may have pocketed MORE than 128-thousand dollars in fees because not all receipts in the sheriff’s office were properly recorded. The auditors’ report has been forwarded to state and Carroll County prosecutors as well as the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

(Radio Iowa)