The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is looking for the owner of a decorative bear lawn ornament. The item was found at the Lewis Cemetery and turned in at the Cass County Sheriff’s Office last week. Please contact the Sheriff’s Office if you think you may be the owner.

A U-S District Court Judge has sentenced a woman from Page County to nearly one and one-half years in prison for Mortgage Fraud. 34-year old Mandy Lea Whipple (formerly Mandy Lea Johnson), received her 18 month sentence last Friday, from Judge Stephanie Rose. The Judge also ordered Whipple to serve five years of Supervised Release.

On June 9th, Whipple entered a guilty plea to the charge of Mortgage Fraud, for falsifying mortgage loan papers to purchase a house in Fremont County. The investigation began with a report of delinquent payments on the purchased Fremont County residence, leading to the discovery that Whipple had falsely obtained a Veteran Administration’s loan to purchase the home, using the name and identifiers of a military veteran that employed her.

As part of the sentence, the Court ordered Whipple to make restitution to the Veteran’s Administration in the amount of $41,675, to J.G. Wentworth Mortgage Home Lending, LLC, in the amount of $28,904.27, and to Discover Financial Services in the amount of $5,780.04.

The investigation was conducted by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Fremont County Attorney’s Office, Department of Veteran Affairs-Office of Inspector General, and prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Sheriff’s Officials in Taylor County report an investigation has resulted in two people being arrested on three felony counts each of Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree. 34-year old Ben Reece and 28-year old Joanna Marie Gray, both of New Market, were arrested Friday. Their cash bonds were set at $75,000 each. No other information was provided concerning the circumstances of their alleged activity.

Ben Reece

Joanna Gray

The Iowa Governor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Advisory Council, in partnership with NewBoCo in Cedar Rapids, set the stage today (Monday) for Computer Science Education Week by bringing coding to thousands of young Iowans.

The opportunity, referred to as “Code Iowa,” localizes Code.org’s “Hour of Code,” an international effort to introduce millions of students around the world to at least one hour of computer coding. In Iowa, more than 500 schools and organizations, amounting to thousands of students, will take part in coding beginning today (Monday) through December 11th. Among the students participating, are those at the Tri-Center Middle School, in Neola. Their opportunity to code comes Wednesday, from 1-to 1:43-p.m.

Dr. Jeff Weld, executive director of the STEM Council, says “Every aspect of young people’s lives involve computing—how they communicate, learn, entertain, travel, indeed how they stay healthy with fitness trackers and food apps and more. Code Iowa’ takes them behind the screen to produce rather than to merely consume technology, launching lifelong interest we hope in the great IT careers that await across our state.”

Many of Iowa’s participating schools and organizations competed for technology awards as part of “Code Iowa.” Thanks to the generous support of Google and Verizon, one $3,500 award in each of the six STEM regions will be presented across Iowa this week. Awards were based on how applicants plan to implement an hour of computer coding into this week’s curriculum or activities.

All schools and organizations in Iowa that registered for the “Hour of Code” are recognized as Certified Code Iowa Partners through the STEM Council and will receive information about free Computer Science educator workshops in 2017. For more information on Code Iowa, visit www.IowaSTEM.gov/CodeIowa.