IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 23-year-old woman has been accused of stealing from an Iowa City church. Authorities say Markell Leach, who lives in Iowa City, is charged with felony theft and unauthorized use of a credit card. Records say Leach was issued a church credit card while working for First Baptist Church from June 2016 through April this year. She’s accused of making about 1,400 unauthorized and fraudulent personal transactions totaling around $50,000.

A Nebraska man was arrested at around 9-p.m. Monday on drug charges, in Fremont County. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports the Fremont County K9 unit stopped a vehicle driven by 18 year old Hunter Bickle, of Nebraska City, NE., for a traffic violation.

Hunter Bickle

During the course of the stop deputies found Bickle allegedly trying to conceal a controlled substance. He was arrested for possession of a controlled substance 2nd offense and transported to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center. A records check indicated Bickle is currently on probation for the same charge. His bond was set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) — The top two Democratic leaders in the state legislature say they’re open to considering changes to when Iowa voters may cast “absentee” ballots, but both say they will resist wholesale changes. Janet Petersen of Des Moines is the Democratic leader in the state senate. “My concern is that the clean-up language doesn’t make it harder for people to have their votes counted,” she says.

The rules for counting absentee ballots are at the center of a disputed northeast Iowa legislative race. Absentee ballots are to be mailed the day BEFORE the election, but the Postal Service no longer guarantees mail gets a postmark showing when it was mailed. Bar codes on a batch of UNCOUNTED ballots show they were mailed by the deadline. Representative Todd Prichard of Charles City is the new leader of House Democrats. “All of these 29 disputed ballots were mailed by the information put on the envelope, so it would be nice, maybe, to clarify, but I think the law is pretty clear,” Prichard says.

Prichard and Petersen made their comments this weekend during an appearance on Iowa Public Television. A state senator has introduced a bill that would allow county auditors to determine when absentee ballots are mailed by “any means of tracking” offered by the U.S. Postal Service. The attorney representing the lawmaker who won the northeast Iowa House race by nine votes argues the 29 uncounted ballots do not have the legally required “intelligent bar code” that can only be tracked through a subscription service — and the Winneshiek County auditor did not pay for that subscription.

(Radio Iowa) — A southeast Iowan is the youngest state legislator to take office in decades. Twenty-one-year-old Joe Mitchell of Wayland took the oath of office a week ago and now represents district 84 in the Iowa House. Mitchell graduated from Drake in December with a degree in business administration. “I graduated a semester early in order to serve up here in the legislature,” he says.

That means Mitchell was a college student when he ran against three other competitors in the June 2018 primary. And Mitchell took his final college exams more than a month AFTER he won the November election. “Having a college experience, but also going out and knocking on doors and going to forums and different events and stuff like that,” Mitchell says, “but it was rewarding and I’m glad I did it.”

Mitchell replaced 77-year-old State Representative Dave Heaton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant who announced last year that he would not seek reelection. Mitchell says his generation of so-called “Centennials” brings “a fresh, new perspective” to politics. “People my age, conservatives, and people on the other side alike think a little bit different about a lot of different issues,” Mitchell says. “…I’m on the Judiciary Committee and so I’m looking forward to working on the criminal justice bill that, hopefully, we’ll be bringing up and maybe helping non-violent drug offenders.”

Mitchell credits his parents with getting him interested in politics. “Instead of watching the newest family sitcom on ABC, we’d watch the news,” Mitchell said. “I kind of just got interested in issues going on in the political scene and started writing papers about that in high school.”

Mitchell spent the last half of his senior year in high school working as a page in the Iowa House and Mitchell chose Drake for college so he could continue working in the state capitol. He worked during two legislative sessions as a clerk for a state senator. He’s been an intern in Governor Reynolds’ office and in Senator Ernst’s office and Mitchell did a brief stint working for a lobbying firm — all of this while going to college. State Representative is now at the top of that resume. “It’s been a great experience and I’m glad I did it,” Mitchell says. “I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

Mitchell, however, is not planning to make politics his full-time career. Mitchell is joining his family’s business in Waylon. The company makes braces for babies born with club feet. “They have about 30 employees there and I plan to go back and work in some kind of management role with my dad,” Mitchell says, “so I’m excited about that, too.”

Mitchell may eventually return to college for an M-B-A. “Right now I’m kind of taking a break from school, since I got the undergrad degree, and kind of glad that I don’t have to take any more tests for a while,” Mitchell says, “but they’ll still be a lot of reading and writing here at the statehouse, obviously.” House Republican Leader Chris Hagenow of Urbandale says Mitchell is part of a group of 22 new House members.  “He’s asking the right questions and hit the ground running,” Hagenow says. “I’ve been very impressed with him so far.”

Representative Matt Windschitl of Missouri Valley was the youngest member of the Iowa House when he was first elected in 2006 at the age of 22. Windschitl turned 23 right before he took office and he’s passed along the advice he got as a rookie lawmaker. “Be a sponge and soak up everything that you can. Take in the information so you can make fully-informed decisions for your constituents back home. You don’t have to go out and try and raise the flag in the first day or the first week or the first the first month on any particular issue. Take your time to get your feet underneath you and learn from everybody around you,” Windschitl says, “whether they be a Republican or a Democrat, a representative or a senator.”

The Iowa Constitution says members of the Iowa House must be at least 21 years old. Twenty-one-year-old Reid Crawford, a Republican from Ames, was elected to the Iowa House in 1972, but he turned 22 in February of 1973, soon after he took office. Mitchell is about 11 weeks younger than that. He will turn 22 on April 23rd.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:15 a.m. CST

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — A father and his 8-year-old son died but two other children were rescued after their vehicle broke through the ice on a northwest Iowa lake. Buena Vista County Sheriff Kory Elston says the family came to Storm Lake to play at an indoor waterpark Sunday afternoon. He says investigators don’t yet know why the man decided to drive out on to the nearby lake after leaving

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawyers pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of lottery customers nationwide are seeking to interview the jailed insider who allegedly rigged jackpots for himself and others for years. The lawyers said in a court filing they want to take the deposition of Eddie Tipton at the prison in Clarinda, Iowa, to gather information for their case against the Multi-State Lottery Association. The case involves customers who bought tickets for roughly 20 drawings that were allegedly tainted by Tipton.

ADEL, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa school district official has been given three years of probation for embezzling nearly $217,000 over the course of several years. Dallas County District Court records say 35-year-old Melissa Lantz was given a 10-year suspended prison sentence at a hearing Friday in Adel. The judge also ordered her to pay restitution and perform community service. Lantz had pleaded guilty to theft from Woodward-Granger Community School District.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) — Court records say a man accused of killing his grandmother in western Iowa will use an insanity defense. Monona County District Court records say 21-year-old Eliot Stowe has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. He’s accused of fatally beating 66-year-old Cheryl Stowe at the home they shared in rural Castana. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 12.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s Board of Directors, Monday, approved a bid from APEX, LLC. Environment Consultants out of Urbandale, for work on a Bio-swale water quality project at the Nishna Park. The Atlantic High School and Cass County Extension serve as partners for the project, for which there were two bids, with a third being disqualified be submitted after the bid deadline.

Parks and Rec Director Seth Staashelm said the grant was for up to $41,000 with a 50-50 match. The Parks Department’s share is $3,500. APEX comes highly recommended by officials with IDALS (The Iowa Dept. of Ag and Land Stewardship). The Board agreed to accept the company’s bid contingent upon a review of the contract by City of Atlantic Attorney Mark Bosworth.

In other business, the Parks Board learned the west restroom at the Schildberg Recreation Area should be delivered and set in-place with a crane next week, weather permitting. Later this year, electricity for inside and outside lights will be installed. The west playground equipment is still in storage, waiting for a Spring or early Summer installation with community members who will be supervised by a playground company expert. And, the Schildberg Campground bathhouse designs, specifications and cost estimate from Snyder Engineering should be ready for the Board’s next meeting.

The Board approved a Memorandum of Understanding for Operation Re-Leaf. The Iowa DNR has taken over the program and asked the City serve as a host site for one of their sales points. The City will be paid $1,000 for administration and $7,000 for tree stock. The City will then sell the trees on behalf of the DNR. The goal will be to try and sell 100 trees for a couple of months during the Spring. The trees would be available for pickup April 25th.

The Board approved the services of an American Red Cross Aquatic Examiner for the Sunnyside Pool, who would do a walk through of the facility and make sure the lifeguards are up-to-date on training and other facets of the pool are safe and ready to go this summer. In other news, Seth Staashelm said the Sunnyside Ice Rink is open, by the ice is “very hard” after the recent hard freeze. It may not be the smoothest surface to skate on, so beware. He said also, the Schildberg Campground is closed as are the roads to Sunnyside Park, but the park remains open for winter activities.

The Iowa State Patrol reports a woman from Atlantic was injured during a head-on collision this (Monday) morning, north of Cumberland. 23-year old Megan Magers was driving a 2001 Ford Taurus northbound on County Road N-28 (690th Street) at around 7:30-a.m., when her car crossed the centerline of the road about one-half mile north of Oxford Road, and continued in the south bound lane.

27-year old Samuel Cutler, of Massena, who was driving a 2004 Dodge Ram 2500 was traveling southbound, and tried to avoid the collision but the vehicles collided head-on. Magers, who was wearing her seat belt, suffered severe injuries and was flown by LifeNet to the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Cutler was transported by private vehicle to the Cass County Memorial Hospital.

Massena and Cumberland Fire and Rescue, Medivac and the Cass County Sheriff’s Department assisted at the scene.

(Radio Iowa) — The Iowa National Guard helped seize illegal drugs that were worth tens of millions of dollars in 2018. Iowa National Guard Adjutant General Timothy Orr has the totals:  “More than one pound of fentanyl, which equates to more than 180,000 fatal doses, and nearly 15 pounds of heroin, were seized and taken off the street in Iowa and in 2018, more than $63 million in drugs and $3.5 million in cash and assets were seized from drug dealers in Iowa with the assistance of the Iowa National Guard’s Counterdrug program,” Orr says.

That’s a 20 million dollar increase in drug seizures by Guard soldiers compared to the previous year. The federally-funded “Midwest Counter Drug Training Center” is located at Camp Dodge in Johnston. Orr says local law enforcement can get training at the center at no cost to the agencies where they work. “In 2018, the Counterdrug program trained 824 law enforcement officers across the state to properly administer Narcan, the antidote for opioid overdoses,” Orr says.

Narcan is the brand name for Naloxone. An injection of Naloxone can reverse the effects of an overdose in as quickly as two to five minutes. Training is key, however, as some opioid users require more than one injection of Naloxone to reverse an overdose.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawyers pursuing a class-action lawsuit on behalf of lottery customers nationwide are seeking to interview the jailed insider who allegedly rigged jackpots for himself and others for years.

The lawyers said in a court filing Friday they want to take the deposition of Eddie Tipton at the prison in Clarinda, Iowa, to gather information for their case against the Multi-State Lottery Association.
Judge Michael Huppert recently granted class-action status to the case, which involves customers who bought losing tickets for roughly 20 drawings between 2005 and 2013 that were allegedly tainted by Tipton’s software.

Tipton worked for the Iowa-based lottery association, where he built and installed random number generators that picked winning combinations. He’s serving a prison sentence after admitting to installing code that allowed him to predict winning numbers on certain days of the year, and working with his brother and others to buy tickets and win jackpots.

The City of Atlantic’s Personnel & Finance Committee will meet 5:15-p.m. Wednesday, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On their agenda is discussion with regard to a proposal to sell the Atlantic Senior Center. During last week’s City Council meeting, City Administrator John Lund said there is a buyer interesting in purchasing the Senior Center. The facility, he said is in need of approximately $36,000 repairs, due to a leak in the roof that occurred last summer.

The Personnel and Finance Committee will pass along their recommendation to the Council during their next regular meeting. The P&F Committee will also discuss and make recommendations with regard to the fee the City charges on Long-Term Delinquencies requiring property assessment and Extending Employee Benefits that are granted to Union members, to Non-Union employees.