Several individuals filed nomination papers for the City Elections in Cass County, today (Friday). According to the Cass County Auditor’s Office the following submitted papers and will have their names on their respective city ballots:
Julianne M Adams-Griswold City Council
Mark Harris-Anita City Council
Rick Sanny-Lewis City Council
Kathy Somers-Atlantic Ward 2 City Council (Incumbent)
Brad A Rhine-Griswold Mayor
There’s less than a week to go now before the filing deadline (Sept. 21st at 5-p.m.)
A traffic stop on Highway 71 near 130th Street in Audubon County at around 1-a.m. today (Friday) resulted in the arrest of two people on drug charges. According to the Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, 39-year old Nancy Beth Nelson, and 30-year old Dustin Douglas Williams, both of Audubon, were taken into custody.
Nelson was charged with: Intent to Deliver Methamphetamine over 5 grams: Possession Marijuana; 3 counts of Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drugs; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, No Insurance and Insufficient number of headlights. Williams was charged with Intent to Deliver Methamphetamine over 5 grams, Possession Marijuana, and two counts of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Nelson and Williams were transported to the Audubon County Jail and held. K-9 Axel assisted at the scene and detected narcotics in the vehicle. The incident remains under investigation.
A businessman and farmer from Atlantic received notice Thursday that was nominated to be a Member of the Farm Credit Administration Board, Farm Credit Administration.
Glen R. Smith (Photo courtesy Fischer Photography)
The nomination of Glen R. Smith, of Atlantic, was announced Thursday by the White House Press Secretary. The nomination has been sent to the U-S Senate for confirmation, and Smith will appear before the Senate Ag Committee later this Fall for a hearing, prior to any action on approval.
Smith is currently the President of Smith Land Service, Co., and owner/operator of a corn and soybean farm in western Iowa, in partnership with his wife Fauzan and son, Peter. He told KJAN News the process of being nominated began “By happenstance.”
After a brief conversation with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, Smith said his curiosity led him to apply to the Trump transition team website. It wasn’t long afterward that he was called to Washington, D-C and interviewed at the White House at the end of April.
He says they called back in May and “Passed the mustard,” as far as receiving clearance checks in July. Since then, he’s been waited for word on whether or not he would be nominated.
If he is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, Smith will serve on an advisory policy and rates Board for the Farm Credit Administration, an independent Federal agency that regulates and examines the banks, associations, and related entities of the Farm Credit System (FCS). FCS is the largest agricultural lender in the U-S, and is a nationwide network of lending institutions that are owned by their borrowers. It serves all 50 states, and Puerto Rico.
The advisory Board members, Smith says, typically serve a six-year term, but he would be filling the term of a board member who died in March. Therefore his term would expire 2022. If he is appointed, Smith says he’ll need to make accommodations for himself and his family in Washington, D-C.
(That includes trying to find a residence there, along the lines of a modest condominium or apartment. They will continue to maintain their home in Atlantic.)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa farmland values have increased this year, reversing several years of declines, but industry experts say the change likely isn’t a signal that the agricultural economy is improving. Steve Bruere is president of Peoples Co., a farm management and brokerage firm. He tells The Des Moines Register that a lack of farms on the market has driven up the value.
The Realtors Land Institute’s Iowa chapter says farmland values climbed nearly 3 percent to almost $6,700 an acre for the year ending in September. Farm prices dropped in 2011 after a drought increased corn and soybean prices. Iowa agricultural income has dropped nearly 70 percent since 2013, bringing in $2.6 billion last year.
Bruere says if a downturn in the farm economy continues, farm sales may increase and values would be reduced.
The former Navy Seal most often credited with killing Osama Bin-Laden was in northwest Iowa Thursday night. Robert O’Neill told the crowd gathered at the 32nd Annual Siouxland Chamber of Commerce Banquet that he took part in roughly 400 combat missions, but the one most people are interested in hearing about is the May 2011 shooting of the founder of al-Qaeda. “That one sunk in right away, not because we got (Bin-Laden), but because we lived,” O’Neill said. “It’s never not interesting to go through that one.”
Bin-Laden was said to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people. The 41-year-old O’Neill recalled meeting family members of 9/11 victims. “Everyone was crying, people with heads in their hands, and they told me ‘there will be no closure for 9/11, but this helps with the healing – a real face and a real name, someone who was there and saw (Bin-Laden dead), there’s no conspiracy about it.’ That’s when I started to realize if I can help this many people in this room, I could help thousands,” O’Neill said.
Robert O’Neill in Sioux City
In his book, “The Operator,” O’Neill wrote about the Bin-Laden mission and others he was involved in – including the 2005 rescue of Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell. O’Neill told the group in Sioux City the lessons learned in his combat training can be applied to business and everyday life. “Even if I had a decision already made when I was a team leader, I would always ask for input from others anyway, to make sure they knew they were apart it,” O’Neill said. “I talk a lot about stress management and how stress is in your mind, it’s a choice and you can drop it anytime you want. You can only get as stressed as you allow yourself.”
O’Neill joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 19, one year after graduating from high school in Butte, Montana. He left the Navy in 2012 and now works as a public speaker.
A new report shows the drought zone in Iowa has greatly expanded. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 70 percent of Iowa is abnormally dry or in some form of drought. A week ago, the report indicated about half of Iowa in those conditions. The area of extreme drought has expanded as well. All or parts of seven counties in south central and southeast Iowa are now in extreme drought.
Rain is falling in western Iowa this morning. More than three inches of rain falls, on average, in Iowa during the month of September. So far this month, there are significant sections of the state that have had NO rain.
An Army veteran from central Iowa has embarked on a journey to run across the state — from west to east — as a way of drawing attention to veteran suicide and P-T-S-D. Josh Jorgensen left Council Bluffs on Thursday and plans to spend ten days running the 330 miles to Burlington. Jorgenson, who’s from Adel, is a member of Team Fidelis, a national group that’s working to end the epidemic of veteran suicide.
Jorgensen says, “I found this to be a way to raise awareness for our organization and also to reach out to the veterans themselves who maybe don’t think there’s a finish line there, that are struggling at the moment.”
Jorgensen, who served in Iraq as a member of the 101st Airborne, says he’s been planning the run for more than a year but was thrown a curve ball when he was told he had to have open heart surgery six months ago. “I wasn’t going to let that be a barrier if it didn’t have to be,” he says. “When I got wheeled in to my operation, I told the doctor, ‘Hey, make sure I get off the table and I’ll do the rest.'”
While he knew he could postpone the run because of the surgery, he decided to go ahead with it as the cause is so important to him. To further challenge himself, Jorgensen is making the border-to-border run across Iowa while wearing a military-issued gas mask which covers his entire face. He says the mask helps him to start conversations about veteran suicide and P-T-S-D.
“We can create the awareness of the help that we’re trying to get for other veterans and the struggles they’re going through,” he says. He plans to run about 33 miles a day across Iowa and should reach the Mississippi River next weekend. (More info. at www.teamfidelis.org)
1st- Sean McDermott, Madrid
2nd- Brycen Wallace, Nodaway Valley
5th- Skyler Rawlins, Nodaway Valley
6th- Justin Ambrose, Boyer Valley
7th- Josh Baudler, Nodaway Valley
11th- Brett McGee, Tri-Center
13th- Kade Jensen, Audubon
15th- Tyler Breheny, Nodaway Valley
16th- Ben Breheny, Nodaway Valley
Girls Team
Panorama 43
AC/GC 91
Tri-Center 96
Girls Individual
1st- Kate Crawford, AC/GC
2nd- Ella Waddle, Panorama
3rd- Payton Pogge, Tri-Center
6th- Payton Sporrer, IKM-Manning
12th- Mallory Kuhns, Nodaway Valley
14th- Sophia Broers, Nodaway Valley
17th- Zoey Hasty, CAM
19th- Erin Weber, Boyer Valley