(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Friday (Today) said Deputy arrested 41-year-ol Michelle Theisen, of Griswold, on Oct. 29th, for driving while barred. Theisen was taken to the Cass County Jail and was later released on her own recognizance.

And, on Oct. 31st, Deputies arrested 36-year-old Eric Huddleson, of Atlantic, for OWI 1st offense. Huddleson was transported to the Cass County Jail and was also later released on his own recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – A northeast Iowa judge and jury have declared a Manchester man who’s been missing for nearly eight years legally dead. Brian “Farmer” Burns was last seen December 19, 2013 at his home northwest of Manchester. He was reported missing by a family member a few days later. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office asked for the public’s help in locating Burns, but he was never found. On Thursday, a jury trial was held in Delaware County District Court, with his brother, Randy Burns, appearing with his attorney to petition for the legal declaration of death.

Brian Burns. (KMCH photo)

The court says from this day forward, it should be presumed that Burns is deceased. Sheriff John LeClere says even though Burns has been declared legally dead, his case will still remain open.

As is required in this kind of infrequently used legal proceeding, the jury reached a unanimous verdict that there is sufficient evidence that Burns is dead and the judge concurred. Burns was 55 years old at the time of his disappearance.

The news at 8:05, with Ric Hanson.

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(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department say two people were arrested on separate charges, Thursday. Just before 11-a.m., 44-year-old Kari Lynn Wilkinson, of Red Oak, was arrested at the Creston Walmart Store. She was charged with having outstanding warrants for Failure to Appear. Wilkinson was transported to the Union County Jail and subsequently transported to the Adams County Jail, where her bond was set at $600 after serving a two-day jail sentence.

And, a little before 7-p.m. Thursday, 53-year-old James Leroy Jones, of Creston, was arrested at his residence on charges that include: Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense; Interference with Official Acts, and Tampering with a witness or juror. He was being held without bond in the Union Jail, pending an appearance before a magistrate.

A woman from Creston reported to Police, Thursday evening, that her purse had been stolen. The purse was last seen at around 4:30-p.m. Thursday, outside the Iowana Hotel, in Creston. The loss was estimated at $1,460.

The 7:07-a.m. Newscast, with Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents got a detailed look Thursday at the numbers behind what has been a five-year decline in enrollment at the three state universities. Analyst Jason Pontius, says they’ve looked at a lot of numbers. “The big story here honestly is no college. More and more of our high school graduates are choosing not to go to college after graduation,” Pontius says. He says that does raise a concern looking ahead. “And one of the areas that is probably most concerning is that this is all pre-COIVD numbers. We had seen over a six-year period a five percentage point decline in the percentage of the high school classes that are deciding to go to college,” Pontius says.

There’s been a concern that a drop in births will catch up to states for high school and college enrollment –but he says Iowa shouldn’t see as big an impact as other states. He says the numbers are going to go up and then come back down again, but there won’t be a big difference from where they are at now. Pontius says another question is whether more Iowa grads are going to college in other states. “Pretty definitive answer there is no,” according to Pontius. “We’ve consistently kept about 87 percent of our Iowa high school graduates, and signs are that we are actually improving on that a little bit.”

He says there was one exception to the out-of-state loss of students. “You can see at one point there was a big uptick for students going to South Dakota. Most of those students are in the western part of Iowa,” he says. “That happened when South Dakota started offering in-state tuition (to Iowans). And those numbers are coming back down again.” Pontius says the three schools have also lost some foreign students. He says recent small sophomore and junior classes also contributed to the decline in enrollment. But, he says all three schools saw an increase in first-year students this fall and that is a good sign. “It’s going to take a little bit of time, but if we can keep the growth on these first-year classes coming in — we are going to start bringing those numbers back up again,” Pontius says.

Iowa State’s overall enrollment dropped three-point-five percent this fall, the University of Northern Iowa saw a three-point-one percent drop, and the University of Iowa’s fall enrollment fell one-point-three percent.

(Ft. Madison, Iowa) – Officials in southeast Iowa report an arrest has occurred in connection with the fatal shooting Wednesday evening, of a 15-year-old male. Police in Fort Madison say 17-year-old Dimari D.J. Meredith, of Ft. Madison, faces a felony charge of Murder in the 1st Degree in the shooting of the unidentified victim, who died at the hospital, from a single gunshot wound.

Meredith was arrested at the scene of the incident at a residence in the 4200 block of Avenue L. He was questioned and later transferred to the Lee County Juvenile Detention Center, pending arraignment. Pursuant to a search warrant, a weapon was recovered from the victim’s home, along with other items of evidence. The Iowa DCI is now assisting with the investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa office of the U-S Small Business Administration is reporting the just-ended fiscal year saw upturns in both the amount of money lent and the number of loans made. District director Jayne Armstrong says the Iowa S-B-A made 263-million dollars in loans, an increase of almost 30-million, while the number of loans rose to 476, a boost of 43 loans over the previous year.

“It’s a nice surprise to see the increase, especially the large number of startups and business acquisitions that we’re seeing,” Armstrong says. “It’s a sign that the economy is really rebounding.” The S-B-A loans created more than two-thousand Iowa jobs, she says, while retaining another 34-hundred. There were no trends as far as rural versus urban, Armstrong says, nor were there any particular business types that sprang up or expanded in the past fiscal year.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work in underserved markets where there were gaps before,” Armstrong says. “Working with immigrant entrepreneurs and minority-owned businesses and everything that we traditionally do, too, with veterans and women-owned businesses and across the board with every sector we work with.” Armstrong says she’s thrilled with the work of her staff in providing so many traditional business loans, while at the same time administering all of the federal pandemic programs, like P-P-P and the Economic Injury Disaster loans.

“That really helped a lot of businesses with their cash flow to get through the tough months of the pandemic,” Armstrong says. “It really helped them to keep the lights on and to make it through it. It may’ve been the worst year that they’ve ever had but they’re still standing.” Polk, Linn and Black Hawk counties had the most loans during the year, while Polk County also had the highest amount of loans at more than 53-million dollars, followed by Linn and Scott counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s once-a-decade redistricting process has officially concluded. Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the lengthy bill that explains which county borders, highways, streets and roads are the new boundaries for Iowa’s congressional and legislative districts. The legislature overwhelmingly approved the new maps a week ago and Reynolds quickly announced she’d do so, too, whenever the bill reached her desk.

Governor Reynolds signs the redistricting plans into law. (photo from Governor’s Twitter feed.)

“I think it’s an indication that the process worked,” Reynolds says. “Lots of fear-mongering about gerrymandering that certainly didn’t play out and never really could in the State of Iowa.” Reynolds made those general comments about redistricting during a news conference on Wednesday. The new maps for Iowa’s four congressional districts, 50 state senate districts and 100 Iowa House districts will be used for the 2022 election, all the way through the 2030 election.

The redistricting process will start all over again in 2031 after the next U.S. Census.