(Creston, Iowa) – In an update to our previous post, a family member of Alexia Fannon, of Creston, reports the girl was found safe. Additional information was not immediately available.

Earlier in the day, Friday (Today) officials with the Creston Police Department posted on social media they were requesting the public’s assistance in locating the missing juvenile.

Alexia Fannon

(Atlantic, Iowa) – A student from the Atlantic High School, Wednesday, signed a Letter Of Intent to pursue a skilled trades career after graduation. Officials with iJAG (Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates) say the event occurred during a special ceremony known as ‘Signing Day.’  Josh Hass has committed to participate in an apprenticeship program with the Allensworth Heating & Cooling starting in May. Hass was accompanied by his future employer and family.

The ceremony was held during “Build My Future,” an annual event that provides more than 100 hands-on learning activities related to welding, plumbing, HVAC, electrician work and other skilled trades. The event is held annually by Iowa Skilled Trades at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. Hass was one of more than 1,600 “iJAG” students that participated in Build My Future.

Signing Day. Photo submitted by iJAG.

Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG) is a nonprofit organization that delivers year-round career education and programming to select middle school and high school students statewide. iJAG helps students discover their purpose and passion while contributing to increased graduation rates and transitions to postsecondary education. “Build My Future” is one of several events that iJAG students can participate in throughout the year.

CORNING, Iowa — According to a report published in the Creston News Advertiser, a Principal for the Southwest Valley High School has resigned. Anthony Donahoo, who is also a football coach, will step down at the end of this year.

The news follows an incident of a threat of violence that was known two-weeks before school administrators and law enforcement were made aware of the alleged threat. The student in question is no longer allowed at the school.

Deputies with the Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office are providing extra security at the school for the rest of the year, as a precaution.

(Creston, Iowa) – Police in Creston report the arrest at around 5-p.m., Thursday, of 40-year-old Mark Anthony Weems, Jr., of Creston.  He was charged with 2-counts of Fraudulent Practice/2nd Degree. Weems was being held in Union County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

And, Thursday night, 41-year-old Jamie Neubauer, of Creston, was arrested at the Creston Wal-Mart store, for Theft in the 4th Degree. Neubauer was cited and released from the scene on a Promise to Appear.

CLIVE, Iowa — Two central Iowa man joked that they may be the world’s tiniest lottery office pool, but they still hit big. Randy Ferriss of Nevada and Colton Snyder of Huxley on Thursday (April 20, 2023) claimed a $1 million Mega Millions^® prize they won two days earlier. The long-time employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Ames said they’ve pooled their money for years to play the lottery, and at different times, there were more members in the group. Ferriss, who buys their office pool tickets, said they won their $1 million prize with smaller winnings from recent tickets. He bought the $1 million-winning ticket a Casey’s, store. in Nevada. Their ticket came within one number of having a share of Tuesday’s $20 million Mega Millions jackpot, matching the first five numbers but missing the Mega Ball.

Their ticket was one of four in the country to win a $1 million prize in Tuesday’s drawing, with the others in California, Maryland and Ohio.Ferriss and Snyder are both 52 and have worked together for 26 years. Both planned to take time to decide what to do with their winnings. Ferriss said that he and his wife will probably pay off their house and then “kind of figure out where to go from there.” Snyder has some house projects in mind. The two said they plan to keep playing the lottery together in their office pool, but just this once, they won’t let their winnings keep rolling. Ferriss and Snyder claimed the third sizeable lottery prize won in Iowa this month.

On April 10, a Dubuque man claimed a $40.03 million Lotto America^® jackpot, while on April 11, a Davenport man claimed a $500,000 top prize in an Iowa Lottery scratch game.The Iowa Lottery emphasizes the importance of players checking their tickets, and two situations in central Iowa demonstrate why that matters.

The Casey’s in Nevada that sold this week’s big winner is the same store that sold a ticket winning a $1 million Powerball^® prize that expired without being claimed in April 2019. The Iowa Lottery gave players another shot at the winnings through a promotion that same year, and a group of 34 co-workers at a Cedar Rapids company ended up splitting the prize.

In addition, a $1 million Mega Millions prize won in nearby Ames has now been unclaimed for nearly eight months. That winning ticket was purchased at Gateway Expresse (also known as The Filling Station), at 2400 S. University Blvd. in Ames. It matched all five white balls but missed the Mega Ball to win at the game’s second prize level in the drawing on Sept. 6, 2022. The winner or winners of the Ames prize have until the close of business on Sept. 6, 2023, to claim it.

(Radio Iowa) – Mitigation efforts are underway in Algona to try and save as many ash trees as possible from the destruction of the emerald ash borer, which was first discovered in Kossuth County in 2022. Deputy City Administrator Barb Smith says the city hired a local tree care company to examine every ash tree on city property. “They measured and ranked each tree on a zero to five scale — zero meaning worst, five meaning the best, so then we sorted that listing…We knew that we could budget for so many trees,” Smith says. “We went out to bid to take down approximately 75 ash trees.”

Smith says the bids for the tree removal came in lower than anticipated, so they will be able to remove more ash trees. “All of the trees that are coming down needed to come down because they either already have the emerald ash borer or they’re in very bad shape,” Smith says. The trees that will be taken down this year are in what’s called the “right of way” — it’s the area between a sidewalk and a city street. Smith says replacing trees in the exact same spot could be difficult.

“There are very few places in right of ways that you can plant trees any more due to all the utility lines, but the city does have a program,” Smith says. “A property owner may plant a tree either on the right of way or their personal property and the city will reimburse half of the cost of the tree, up to $150.” That funding for new trees is a joint effort between the city and Algona Municipal Utilities.

The city will provide financial assistance for trees that are replanted within the right of way, while the utility will provide assistance for trees replanted on private property. A total of 788 Ash trees are currently on city property and those destined for removal have been marked with a white X on the trunk.

(Radio Iowa) – Most Republicans in the Iowa House have voted to block the state auditor’s access to some types of personal or confidential information — and the bill forbids the state auditor from going to court to get access to state government records. The bill would set up a three-member arbitration panel to decide whether state agencies or state officials must turn over material for an audit or investigation. Representative Michael Bergan, a Republican from Dorchester, is the bill’s floor manager.

“The Auditor of State, a member of the executive branch, should not sue another member of the executive branch,” Sand says. “The cost and time involved in such an endeavor is a poor use of public funds.” House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans believe State Auditor Rob Sand has sought information that’s out of bounds. “The bill is not intended to go after the ability to perform audits,” Grassley says. “The bill is intended to protect things like personal health statuses and other things…we consider outside of what the scope of an audit should look like.”

Iowa Auditor of State Rob Sand

Sand, the only Democrat in statewide office, says the bill would let any agency or state official hide records. “This is the greatest perversion of checks and balances in Iowa history,” Sand says. Sand says the bill follows Republican efforts in other states to limit the authority of elected Democrats. “Let’s be clear about this. This is the destruction of democratic norms. It’s continuing in Des Moines. That’s what this is,” Sand said. “The people of Iowa elected me and now they’re changing the rules for how this office operates because they didn’t like what I did in my first term and they didn’t like the fact that the public did like it.”

Sand was first elected state auditor in 2018 and re-elected last November. Sand thanked the six House Republicans who voted against the bill. In March, the 34 Republicans in the Iowa Senate voted to make some types of documents, like tax returns, off limits to the state auditor’s office.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the House and Senate have agreed on a final version of legislation originally proposed by Governor Kim Reynolds. It bans instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in elementary schools and parents must be notified if their child asks to be known by a different name or pronoun at school. Republican Representative Skyler Wheeler of Hull led debate as House members considered the G-O-P compromise.

“Parents are going to be informed if something drastic is happening with their child at school,” Wheeler says. “The school does not have a right to keep secrets from them.” Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, voted against the bill. “The idea of penalizing teachers for who affirm a student for who they are could not be more hurtful or dangerous,” Matson said.

The bill passed the House Thursday with the support of 57 Republicans. Four Republicans and 34 Democrats opposed it. The Senate passed the plan Wednesday on a party line vote. Senator Ken Rozenboom, a Republican from Oskaloosa, says the bill provides reasonable guardrails. “This bill just matches up with what most schools are doing right now and with what parents expect their school to be doing,” Rozenboom said.

Representative Skyler Wheeler

The bill calls for removing books that describe or depict sex acts, however the Bible, the Quran and the Torah could stay on the shelves. Senator Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says it means literary classics must be removed. “Dracula, Lady Chatterley’s Lover…they’re out,” Weiner said. “That’s not education. That’s censorship.”

The bill outlines sanctions for educators who do not follow the policies in the bill.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Senate has confirmed two new members to the state board that will decide whether proposed carbon pipelines get built in Iowa. Attorney Erik Helland, a former Republican member of the state legislature, was confirmed to serve as chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board on a 39-11 vote. After two terms in the Iowa House, Helland worked in Alaska’s state government.

During a Senate Commerce Committee meeting on Helland’s nomination, Republican Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig said Helland was “working on process and was actually an efficiency driver (in Alaksa)…by looking at how state government worked and finding efficiencies and increasing productivity of case management.”

Some Democrats like Senator Herman Quirmbach of Ames said Helland doesn’t have the right qualifications to be on the utilities board. “The electric utility industry has some very complicated issues these days with regard to engineering and how to incorporate non-point sources of electric generation, wind generation, etc.,” Quirmbach said today on the Senate floor. “There are also some very complicated economic issues.”

Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood, called Helland “a great fit” for the Utilities Board. “I had maybe some concerns as well about not having a lot of background in the utilities industry,” Dickey said during Wednesday’s Commerce Committee meeting, “but I also think on this issue that may be a good thing because he comes in without expectations and may be more open to looking at the processes and the different things that face the Utilities Board whether it be with the pipeline or regulations or rates and whatever things that will come in front of him.”

In a separate vote today, all 50 Senators supported confirming Sarah Martz, the director of engineering for utilities on the Iowa State University campus, to the Iowa Utilities Board. Martz has degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering.

“Sarah has spent her career in the energy industry, spending time at Alliant Energy optimizing power plants, researching solar performance in the Midwest and piloting new technologies like energy storage in Iowa communities,” Senator Waylon Brown, a Republican from St. Ansgar, said late this morning.

Quirmbach said Martz has “superb” qualifications. “Her expertise and experience will catapult her into a leadership position in the Utilities Board,” Quirmbach said. “She should, in fact, be the chair.”

The other member of the board is former state Representative Joshua Byrnes, the former general manager of Osage Municipal Utilities.

[Council Bluffs, Iowa] – The open burn ban that has been in place for Pottawattamie County has been lifted effective today, Thursday, April 20th, 2023. Pott. County Emergency Management officials say recent rounds of precipitation combined with warm soil moisture will promote a quicker greening of dry fuels. Additionally, as planting season is underway many fields are being worked which also contributes to the elimination of fire fuels in our cropland areas.

Although the ban has been lifted, citizens are urged to continue minimizing their open burning activities and always use caution when conducting an open or controlled burn. Always have an emergency plan when burning; clear combustible materials from the area of the fire, ensure you have an accessible water source near the fire area, and always contact the Pottawattamie County 9-1-1 on their non-emergency number (712-328-5737) to report the location of your burn before ignition and after the fire is out.