Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report the second of two ATV’s stolen from a property in rural Red Oak, Thursday, was recovered early this (Saturday) morning, with the assistance of the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office. The 2014, red Honda TRX 450ER was found in Fremont County. The second stolen ATV, a yellow Honda 450Ex, was recovered Thursday morning. Authorities are still asking for your help in finding a suspect in the theft of the ATV.

The suspect wanted in connection with the incident, 36-year old James Leonard Burson, of Council Bluffs, fled from authorities on the red Honda 4-wheeler, early Thursday morning. Burson is a white male, 6-feet tall, about 210-pounds. He has brown hair, brown eyes. If you see Burson or know where he is, contact the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 1-888-434-2712.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office thanks the Mills, Fremont and Adams County Sheriff’s Offices with assistance in the investigation leading to the recovery of the two stolen ATV’s.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports a south central Iowa man was arrested late Friday night on drug charges, following a traffic stop. Deputies responded at around 10:30-p.m. to a report a car was driving west on Highway 34 with no tail lights.

Dakota Dyer

Following a traffic stop of the vehicle less than 30-minutes later at the 57 mile marker, the driver, 18-year old Dakota James Dyer, of Osceola, was placed under arrest for Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Dyer was also cited for driving without a valid driver’s license. He was being held in the Adams County Jail on $1,300 bond.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office said also, 32-year old Serena Sims, of Fontanelle, was arrested just before 1-a.m. Friday for Driving While License Suspended. Sims was also cited for Open Container. She was brought to the Adams County Jail, where her bond was set at $300.

Four fully-restored original warplanes from the World War Two era will be flying over Iowa next week, making one stop in the state for tours and flights. Michael Dober, volunteer coordinator for the Collings Foundation’s Wings of Freedom Tour, says it’ll be a rare opportunity to see the historic aircraft. “We’re bringing the B-24 in again, the last fully-restored J-model flying,” Boder says. “The B-17, the P-51 Mustang and this year, we get the B-25 also. It was the plane made famous in the raid on Japan.” Dober says these aircraft are the “real deal” and appear like they just came off the flight line in the mid-1940s.

“They have some bombs in the bomb racks, obviously not live,” he says. “The waist guns, you can pull up a pin and target whatever you want to as you’re flying over.” Visitors can walk through the aircraft or take a flight, for a fee. Dober says you’ll see how the planes were all business and had few comforts built in for the crews. “When these flew in World War II, you were in the heat, you were in the cold, you were in the rain, you were in the snow,” Dober says. “Then, throw in the anti-aircraft fire. These were warbirds. Their job was to end the war and you need to reflect back on it and just think, my God, these guys were true heroes.”

The tour will be setting up at the Ankeny airport, just north of Des Moines, on Monday through Wednesday. For more information, go to: http://www.collingsfoundation.org/event/ankeny-ia/

(Radio Iowa)

State, county and local government leaders announced plans for another massive data center Friday, that’ll be built in West Des Moines. Microsoft will build a four-phase center that will end up being nearly two million square feet by the time it is done in 2022. It’ll cost between one-and-a-half and two billions dollars and sit in Warren and Madison County. It will be the third data center in the city along with one in Altoona and one in Council Bluffs. Governor Terry Branstad says the new data center will create construction jobs as it is built and then eventually some 130 permanent jobs.

The governor says the history of the other three data centers helped sell Microsoft on the new center. “Once they saw the benefits of Iowa and the fact that we have low-cost reliable energy, we’re a good low-cost place to locate. And then it’s renewable — we lead the country in terms of renewable energy — over 31 percent of our energy generated by wind,” Branstad says.

West Des Moines Mayor Steven Gaer says a lot of planning went into getting the center in his city and it was not a given Micrsoft would build here. Known as “Project Osmium”, it will be the largest data center Microsoft has ever built in the United States. Gaer says the city did not offer any property tax rebates to the company to keep with its longstanding policy. That means the company will pay more than 12 million dollars in property taxes once the data center is completed.

Waukee has been one of the fastest growing cities in the state, and Gaer says that means they have to be prepared. He says they have to plan ahead and meet frequently to map our what the city is going to do from a planning and investment standpoint. The state Economic Development Board approved four-point-seven million dollars in tax benefits for the project. The announcement of the new data center comes on the same day that state unemployment numbers showed another increase to four percent. Manufacturers lost more jobs last month and Governor Branstad says that is a concern.

Branstad says it all has to do with the loss of farm income as farmers are not buying equipment and manufacturers like John Deere, Kinzee and Vermeer have to lay people off. He blames the Obama Administration and the cutting of the amount of renewable fuels required to be sold as a major reason for the drop in the farm income.
Branstad returned from the Republican National Convention in Cleveland for Friday’s announcement and says he talked with Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump about the R-F-S and its importance to the farm economy.

(Radio Iowa)