FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – Police say a man killed a woman at an Iowa home about an hour after officers went there to check on a domestic dispute but left without making an arrest or removing anyone from the tense scene. Mark Russell is charged with murder in the beating death of Angela McLeod. Police say officers couldn’t determine who was the aggressor, and McLeod and her daughter didn’t ask that Russell be forced to leave. Russell and McLeod told the officers they could resolve their problems without criminal charges. Police say he used a golf club to kill her after the officers left.

Sheriff’s Deputies in Page County, Tuesday, arrested a Clarinda woman on Forgery & Theft charges. 37-year old Amanda Jean McDowell was taken into custody at the Buchanan County, MO. Jail, on two Page County warrants charging her with four counts each of Forgery, and 5th Degree Theft. McDowell was transported to the Page County Jail, where her bond amounts to $5,300, pending further court proceedings.

Amanda McDowell

(Radio Iowa) — Climate observers are renewing their warning of conditions that could lead to another round of widespread flooding this spring, especially in the Missouri River valley. Doug Kluck, the Central Region climate service director for the National Weather Service in Kansas City, says there is a lot of water locked up across the region. “It’s hard to get rid of a lot of water during this time of year,” Kluck says. “We don’t have a lot of evaporation, the plants aren’t growing. Whatever was there in October and November and December and now January isn’t going very far. The rivers keep flowing to some degree, some are frozen up. This is an accumulation time of year.”

Kluck says the updated forecasts are not optimistic as they predict a continued cold, wet winter. “The outlooks aren’t helpful from that perspective,” Kluck says. “Below normal temperatures will close things down in terms of freezing and not melting. The above-normal precipitation signatures, if that were to come true, aren’t helpful either.” Kluck says if snowfall for the remaining two months of winter is relatively average, that may also spell trouble. “Even normal precipitation this time of year through spring and early summer, normal kind of ramps up,” Kluck says. “So normal precipitation probably wouldn’t be a great thing either for most of the north-central part of the U.S. either.”

Significant flooding started in northwest Iowa in March of last year and some residents of the area still haven’t been able to return to their homes — after ten months.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 28-year old Jennifer Elaine Schraft, of Malvern, and 59-year old Michael Earl Gillenwater, of Bellevue, NE., were arrested on drug and other charges Tuesday afternoon, in Malvern. Both were charged with two-counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, Drug Stamp Criminal Penalties, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Schraft’s bond was set at $7,300. Bond for Gillenwater was set at $15,300.

The Audubon School Board has set February 7th at 6-p.m. in the Audubon High School Board Room, as the date, time and place for a Public Hearing with regard to the Middle School/High School Building Project and the related $7.5-million dollar bond referendum vote set for March 3rd. District officials are asking patrons to vote in favor of the bond issue, which would fund the remodel, repair, and improvement of the middle and high school building, including HVAC, electrical, and plumbing improvements. The Board and Administration have stated the Middle and High School has important facility needs that must be addressed soon to ensure students in the Audubon Community School District continue to have access to a top-quality educational experience. (Additional information about the Bond referendum can be found here: https://www.audubon.k12.ia.us/page/3153)

PROJECT SCOPE
HVAC Upgrades: System replacements (AC throughout); Controls Upgrades, Electrical Infrastructure Upgrades
Space Improvements & Modernization: Auditorium, Classrooms & Media Center, Band & Music Rooms, Science & FCS Rooms, Kitchen & Teachers’ Lounge, Hallways & Corridors, Restrooms & Locker Rooms, Cafeteria, Industrial Tech, Weight Room, Office Suites, North Gym & Hallway
Safety & Security: Fire Protection System (sprinklers & fire alarms), Secure Entry, Egress Lighting

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds is going to meet with staff at the Glenwood Resource Center this (Wednesday) afternoon. It’s the governor’s first visit to the facility that cares of patients with severe intellectual disabilities since she fired Glenwood’s superintendent in late December.  “I’m actually going on site as part of the discovery process,” Reynolds says.

The phrase “discovery process” refers to the collection of evidence and interviews with witnesses in a legal proceeding. Reynolds has hinted her trip also may be related to another firing. This past summer, the governor fired Department of Human Services director Jerry Foxhoven. Reynolds says Glenwood staff may have complained to Foxhoven about the facility’s superintendent, who is now under federal investigation — accused of using patients for human experiments. “I believe the former (DHS) director did receive some correspondence from individuals there,” Reynolds says, “but that will all be part of the discovery process as well.”

The governor says her NEW Iowa Department of Human Services director is putting the right policies and procedures in place to respond to the situation at Glenwood, but Reynolds says the staff at the facility need to hear that directly from her.  “There’s a lot of state employees that work hard every single day down there to take care of some of our most vulnerable Iowans,” Reynolds says, “and I want to thank them for the work they’re doing, I want to let them know that we take this very seriously, that the allegations are unacceptable and we’re making changes to address them.”

Federal officials are investigating physical injuries and allegations of improper nutrition for patients at Glenwood. The former superintendent has been accused of using patients for a sexual arousal study.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.3MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Iowa Department of Transportation reports (via 511ia.org), that roads in parts of southwest and western Iowa are either partially or completely covered with snow/slush this morning, and bridges may be icy.

Roads i light blue are partially covered w/snow-slush; Roads in pink are compeletly covered

The completely covered roads include:

• Highway 6 (Whitepole Road) from I-80 to Highway 48
• Highway 71 from Templeton to Grant
• Highway 92 from Griswold half-way to Winterset
• Highway 173 from Highway 83 to Kimballton
• Highway 83 (Marne Road) from Atlantic to Marne
• Highway 48 from Highway 6 south, to Essex
• Highway 34 from Emerson to Creston
• Highway 59 from Henderson to Emerson
• Highway 25 from Bayard south to Highway 2

MOUNT PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) –  Democratic White House hopefuls are campaigning in the more than two dozen Iowa counties that went from supporting Barack Obama in 2012 to supporting Donald Trump in 2016. They hope showing up in counties Democrats lost will help prove they can take on the Republican president this year. Their visits may also help Democrats win back these counties in November by energizing Democrats and engaging disaffected Republicans. And they hope to win some delegates by focusing on these counties across the state. Iowa is home to more counties that pivoted from Obama to Trump than any other state.

DAKOTA CITY, Neb (AP) – An Iowa woman has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide for fatally striking a pedestrian in northeast Nebraska’s Dakota County. The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal reports that Maria Gonzalez-Diego, of Sioux City, Iowa, entered the plea Tuesday. Prosecutors dropped a charge of failure to stop at the scene of a fatal accident. Her sentencing is scheduled for March 10. South Sioux City police have said Gonzalez-Diego’s northbound vehicle hit 62-year-old Antonia Lopez De Ramirez the night of June 24 as she walked across a street. Police say Gonzalez-Diego’s vehicle continued north. A Sioux City, Iowa, officer later found Gonzalez-Diego and arrested her.