(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office is reporting numerous arrests from Feb. 9th through the 22nd. Five people were arrested on separate warrants for Violation of Probation, including: Tera Lee McAtee, of Glenwood; 32-year-old Kassandra Lee Shoemake, Monta Arnell Johnson, Jr., Shanna Marie Black, and Sheena Marie Griffin, all of Omaha.

Authorities say 24-year-old Jacob Lee Reafleng, of Red Oak, was arrested Feb. 14th, on a warrant for Failure to Appear on drug charges, and 46-year-old Brent William Michael, of Malvern, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia, and Driving Under Suspension.

31-year-old Ryan Jarrett Wright, of Glenwood, was arrested Feb. 11th for OWI/1st offense. 24-year-old Taylor Marie Otis Wright, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Feb. 17th for Driving While Revoked or Denied. And, 30-year-old Shialea Kay Cozad, of Omaha, was arrested Feb. 22nd, for Driving While Barred.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Members of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education met Wednesday evening at the Schuler Elementary School. The Board received updates and discussed matters pertaining to “Positive Team Culture,” and the Instructional Framework. Superintendent Steve Barber reminded the Board a Public Hearing on the 2022-23 School Calendar will be held 5:30-p.m. March 16^th. (See the tentative calendar posted below)

In addition to the school calendar hearing, March 16^th at 5:30-p.m., is also the date/time for a Public Hearing on the High School South Parking Lot Project. The Atlantic School Board moved discussion with regard to the 2022-23 Certified Budget Review from March 23 to the 16^th, also, due to schedule conflicts. Spring Break in Atlantic takes place from March 21^st through the 25^th.

The Board, Wednesday, approved a Progress Invoice Request with regard to the Atlantic Middle School Fire restoration project. Superintendent Steve Barber said the District still has not received a check from EMC Insurance but is working hard to make that happen. The Board approved an amount of slightly more than $1.7-million to First Onsight, the disaster recovery and property restoration company, once the check is received.

Barber said there are several sub-contractors still waiting to be paid, and it’s hoped that the check will come by March 16^th.In other business, the Board approved a pay application in the amount of $13,089 for the Middle School & Schuler HVAC/Aur Quality Project. The payment will come out of the ESSER funds the District has received. They also approved a bid from Camblin Mechanical in the amount of $132,135, to replace seven HVAC units. This will complete the cycle started a number of years back, and means all original units from 1995 will have been replaced at the completion of the project.

The Board’s final order of business was to approve extra options for the 77 passenger bus they approved last month, the base bid for which was $122,319.

With those added components (Luggage storage and air conditioning), the grand total comes to $135, 719. Mr. Barber said the bus was ordered after last month’s Board decision, but has not yet been built. That process will take several months.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Rescue crews from Marne and Atlantic were dispatched to the scene of a rollover accident late Wednesday night. According to scanner traffic, a 2020 Chevy Traverse rolled over near 590th and Marne Road. The accident happened a little after 11-p.m. The female driver and sole occupant of the vehicle was injured and extricated from the vehicle. She was transported to the Cass County Hospital and then flown by LifeNet3 helicopter to an undisclosed hospital.

Additional details are currently not available.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The latest COVID-19 information released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health, indicates the state’s death total has surpassed 9,000 since the start of the pandemic. IDPH reported 9,085 total deaths Wednesday, up 137 since last Wednesday. The health department reports 4,814 positive COVID-19 tests in the last seven days, down from 7,375 one week ago.

U.S. Health and Human Services data show 345 patients hospitalized with the virus in Iowa, down from 446 last week. That’s the lowest that number has been since mid-August 2021. The federal health department is reporting 38 COVID-19 patients in intensive care units in Iowa.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 1,892,672 Iowans have completed a vaccine series, or 61% of the state. The CDC reports 987,974 Iowans have received a booster shot.

(Radio Iowa) – A survey that was one of a series of recommendations aimed at strengthening efforts to protect free speech rights at the three state universities after lawsuits at all three schools was reviewed by the Board of Regents Wednesday. Regents Chief Academic Officer, Rachel Boon, says the survey found 74 percent of students were comfortable expressing their opinions on campus. “Most students do agree that they’re comfortable expressing their opinions more in campus settings than in our off-campus settings. This was an interesting finding — in fact — in classrooms is where the greatest number of them agreed they feel comfortable,” she says. The survey found 90 percent of students felt they were open to listening to different views and thought only 59 percent of other students were that open.

“We like to see ourselves in our best possible light — I’m sure present company included in that. I would note that the students judged their peers a lot more harshly than the employees were judging how students’ openness was to hearing different views,” Boon says. The survey was completed by just ten percent of the students — with the numbers split fairly evenly between the University of Northern Iowa, University of Iowa and Iowa State University.

“We had over seven-thousand student respondents and that was a big enough number that we can work with it. If you think statistically speaking, seven-thousand is a big enough number that we can feel pretty good about the results we have,” Boon says. Thirty-eight percent of the faculty and staff returned the survey. The survey was done before the free speech training on campus. Boon says these numbers right now give basic results and don’t tell the complete story.

“We can seldom answer the question of why people answer the way they do. So we see how they answered — but we don’t know exactly what was going on that made them say that,” she explains. Boon says they need to do some more analysis of the survey information to get a better idea of what is happening.

(Radio Iowa) – Two Iowa State University freshmen face charges in connection with social media posts warning people to avoid campus buildings. Eighteen-year-old Abdullateef Malallah, and 19-year-old Ty Jerman, both of Ames, were later arrested and have since been charged making terroristic threats in the case. University officials say there is no known connection between the two students and the posts were made separately. While there is no indication that either student planned to enact violence against the campus community, university officials say actions of such nature are treated as a serious crime.

Monday evening, ISU police received a report about an anonymous Yik Yak post, which referenced Carver Hall, an academic building on campus. The post contained a warning advising people not to come to Carver at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday. A second anonymous post was reported a few hours later with a warning to avoid Parks Library. ISU police, with assistance from the FBI and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, worked overnight Monday to identify and monitor the individuals responsible for the posts.

Based on information gathered during the initial hours of the investigation, police determined it was not necessary to close the university and worked with building administrators to implement safety measures as a precaution, the university said in a press release.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Thursday morning, arrested a man for Public Intoxication. Authorities say 26-year-old Daniel John Platt, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:42-a.m. in the 1200 block of Senate Avenue. Platt was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says Russian President Vladimir Putin has been testing the west and whether the U.S. would defend important American interests in Ukraine.  “I love the Ukrainian people,” Pompeo says. “I’m confident they will fight. What they need is support from their friends and allies and we can most certainly do that.”

Pompeo is in Iowa for events in three cities. He spoke with Radio Iowa early last (Wednesday) night, just before reports began to indicate the situation on the ground in Ukraine was growing more dire. Pompeo criticized the Biden Administration for letting a bad man roll around Europe and he also suggested former President Trump’s recent description of Putin as “savvy” and “genius” was being misinterpreted. “We should respect Vladimir Putin’s capabilities and his cunningness,” Pompeo said. “We should recognize he is evil and has malign intent for the west and we should work every day to protect freedom loving people. I wish, I only wish the Biden Administration had done that.”

Pompeo says Putin’s aggression is primarily a European challenge and Europe must show it can defend itself. “President Trump and I made clear to NATO they needed to do more. They needed to actually spent money to defend their own countries in ways that they weren’t,” Pompeo told Radio Iowa. “If there was ever a signal moment for them to all step up and say: ‘I’m going to actually make my 2% promise for spending…2% of GDP, I’m actually going to build out my army and my Navy, I’m going to make my helicopters fly’ — this is the moment for NATO to come together.”

Pompeo spoke at an event last (Wednesday) night hosted by a brand new group called the Bastion Institute. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst spoke, too, and warned instability in Europe has ripple effects in the United States. “Our NATO friends are asking us to step up. Does that mean sending troops in? No, it doesn’t,” Ernst says. “But what it does mean is providing more lethal aid to the Ukrainian people, using some of those sanctions against Vladimir Putin and specifically against him and all of the primary banks within Russia.”

Ernst had been calling for the Biden Administration to impose pre-emptive sanctions against Russia and she says the financial restraints Biden has announced thus far don’t go far enough. Ernst and Pompeo will speak tonight (Thursday) at a G-O-P fundraiser in Fort Dodge and another one on Friday in Davenport. Senator Chuck Grassley says the U.S. needs to draw a line in the sand with sanctions against Russia.

Grassley faults the Biden Administration for not revealing earlier what steps the U.S. would take. “If you wanted to go back to what should have been done already, I’d say these sanctions maybe shouldn’t have been put on before they invaded,” Grassley says, “but they ought to have known what they were, so it would have retarded their efforts.”

Grassley made his comments Wednesday in Atlantic, hours Russia began attacking Ukraine.

(Radio Iowa) – The family of the correctional officer murdered nearly a year ago by two Anamosa prison inmates is urging legislators to give prison employees more workplace rights and more on the job protection. Robert McFarland’s widow, Sara McFarland, spoke at a news conference in Anamosa. “No other spouse, no other family can get this call,” McFarland said, “the call that I did.”

Cathie McFarland says her son paid the ultimate price for doing his job and the employees still working in the prison system need a lot of help. “I want the people who work in there to be safe,” she said. “I want them to go home to their families.”

One bill introduced in the Iowa House has been named the Robert McFarland Act. Another is named in honor of Lorena Schulte, the prison nurse who was murdered, and staffer Lorrie Matthes, who was taken hostage. The bills require the state to provide health care benefits to the spouse and children of prison staff killed on the job and to provide up to 30 days of paid leave if a staffer witnesses a traumatic event at work.

The bills also call for employees in the Iowa Department of Corrections to have the same collective bargaining rights as public safety workers, like state troopers. Robert McFarland’s brother, Dave, says the family made a promise to do what they can to make change. “How many more officers must die or be assaulted? What will it take for people to realize this is not a Republican thing, this is not a Democratic thing?” he asked. “This is an us thing.”

The bills would increase the penalty for assaulting a prison employee to a class D felony and would increase funding for contraband screening inside prison walls. Due to last week’s deadline for action on policy bills, these proposals would have to be tacked onto other legislation in order to be voted upon this year.

(Atlantic, Iowa) (Updated 2/24) – Iowa Third-District Democrat Congresswoman Cindy Axne (D) held a Town Hall meeting in Atlantic, Wednesday evening at the Atlantic Public Library. She discussed issues she’s worked on, and continues to try and hash out with her fellow Congressmen and Senators. Like Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who spoke earlier in the day Wednesday, in Atlantic, Axne focused on the Infrastructure Bill and the money that’s coming to Iowa for: Highway Aid; Bridge Repairs; Public Transportation; Broadband service; Cybersecurity and more.

Rep. Cindy Axne (2/23/22) Ric Hanson photo

That breaks down into: $3.4-billion to address Iowa’s 403 miles of highway that are in poor condition; $432-million for repairs and revitalization of more than 4,500 bridges; $305-million to address the 40% of transit vehicles that are beyond their expected lifespan.

Axne said “It’s been a heck of a whirlwind” of activity in Congress over the past year to keep towns alive while COVID was still making its presence known. She said “I spent most of last year working on bills that would literally just ensure that Atlantic, southwest Iowa, Iowa and this great country of ours can stay afloat, and prosper.” She added, “We made it through…with more money in people’s pockets, more health care opportunities for people to get vaccinated…”

Axne spoke about the benefits to Iowans of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). During the Q&A from those who attended the Town Hall. One of the questions from a person whose brother is a severe diabetic and has trouble getting his medical equipment.  Axne said every year since she’s been in office, she and others have tried to find ways to lower the cost of prescription drugs, but “We are stopped at every turn,” according to the Congresswoman. “The Senate isn’t moving anything that we need to move.”

The best she and her colleagues can do right now, though, she says is to start with the most expensive and most used drugs, and getting those costs reduced. She spoke also about the Surprise Medical Billing Act, which was written into law and protects people covered under group and individual health plans from receiving surprise medical bills when they receive most emergency services, non-emergency services from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, and services from out-of-network air ambulance service providers.

She’s also currently working on a bill that helps provide greater access to funding from the U-S Department of Justice for small police departments (with less than 200 employees).

There are also items in the bill to provide “De-escalation training” for officers, to give communities a chance to overcome issues police have to address, like mental health and domestic issues. The bill includes support for body cameras and more.