A business in Elk Horn was broken into overnight Monday or early this (Tuesday) morning. According to reports, The Village Station in Elk Horn was hit and several items taken, including cartons of cigarettes, chewing tobacco and snuf. Station owner Gerry Greve asks for people be on the look-out for anyone with a suspicious amount of those products that they may be trying to sell.

The break-in was under investigation. If anyone has any information regarding the crime, please contact the Shelby County Sheriff’s department.

Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater reports two men were arrested on drug charges last week. 24-year old Zachary Clayton Utterback, of Greenfield, was arrested Sept. 5th, for Possession of a Controlled Substance (marijuana) and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (a glass pipe). He was released from custody later that same day on $1,000 bond. And, 38-year old Michael Ross Waddingham, of Orient, was arrested Sept. 6th on a warrant for Probation Violation, and two felony charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd or subsequent offense (marijuana and methamphetamine). He remains in the Adair County Jail on a $12,000 cash bond or surety.

Vandewater says also, that Stuart Police arrested 34-year old Jeffrey Dean McGee, of Stuart, Sept. 4th. McGee was charged with False Imprisonment, for allegedly paddle locking the outside of a door to keep a person against their will, and, for Domestic Abuse Assault/3rd or subsequent offense. The latter is a Class-D felony charge, and was with regard to McGee’s live-in girlfriend. McGee was being held at the Adair County Jail on a $5,000 cash bond or surety.

And, 31-year old Michael Wayne Edwards, of Casey, was arrested last Friday evening, on an Adair County warrant for Probation Violation. Edwards remained in the Adair County Jail after posting a $2,000 cash or surety bond, to serve the remainder of a prior sentence or court order. He was released Sunday evening.

CASCADE, Iowa (AP) – The number of organic farms in Iowa is growing rapidly, but they still constitute only a small percentage of farms in the state. Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show that Iowa has seen a 42 percent increase in organic farms from 2008 to 2015. The state had more than 670 organic farms in 2015, which was less than 1 percent of the farms in the state.

Iowa Organic Association Managing Director Kate Mendenhall tells the Telegraph Herald that a growing demand for organic products is driving the increase in organic farms. Kim and Marvin Lynch had their Cascade dairy farm certified as organic in 2009. The couple had to stop using fertilizers, insecticides and synthetic herbicides for three years before becoming certified.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation in Sioux City report railroad crossing replacement work by the Union Pacific Railroad in the Sioux City area, will require the closing Singing Hills Boulevard/Business U.S. 75 at South Lewis Boulevard to traffic, beginning at 8-a.m. Monday, Sept. 18t, through 5-p.m. Friday, Sept. 22nd, weather permitting.

Traffic will be detoured around the work zone using South Lewis Boulevard, Donner Avenue, and York Street.

Officials with the Audubon County Memorial Hospital say the City of Audubon has approved the cutting of a T1 copper line that services the Audubon County Hospital. The project begins at 3-p.m today (Tuesday), and is needed to complete a portion of the water and sewer project. Since the copper line serves as the only phone line to the hospital, the facility will be operating under their “disaster protocol” while the phone line is disconnected, until splicing of the copper line has been completed.

Officials say they chose this particular time, so as to limit the disruption to the critical functions of the hospital.  If you have an urgent need to contact the hospital during the time the phone line is down, please call the Audubon County Sheriff’s Dispatch at 712-563-2631 and they will relay the message to the hospital.  The Hospital will send out notification when the telephone service is operational again.

WALL LAKE, Iowa (AP) – A nurse has been accused of stealing painkillers from a nursing home in northwest Iowa. Court records say 50-year-old Michelle Green is charged with fraudulent practice, dependent adult abuse, tampering with records and four counts of prohibited acts. A Wall Lake phone listed for Green has been disconnected. Her preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 26.

Court records say Green kept for herself narcotic medications that she’d ordered for residents when she was working at Twilight Acres nursing home in Wall Lake between Jan. 1 and May 2.

A 10-year old male who allegedly tried to sell marijuana to another student at the Washington School in Red Oak, Monday, lead authorities to a residence and the arrest of a woman. Red Oak Police say authorities were called to the school at around 12:45-p.m. for a report of a juvenile in possession of marijuana. The student allegedly tried to sell the drug to another student, who told school administrators. The administrators notified police.

After speaking with the student, officers obtained a search warrant, which was executed at a home in the 100 block of W. Valley Street. As a result, 34-year old Erin Elizabeth Bartles, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 3-p.m., for possession of the controlled substance (marijuana).

Authorities say Bartles was cooperative during the investigation. She was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 cash bond. Police also arrested the 10-year old male for Possession of a Controlled Substance. He was referred to juvenile authorities. Red Oak Police were assisted in their investigation, by Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.

Residents of the Gulf coast states and other states affected by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, and even the tropical storms that followed, are beginning to pick up the pieces. But for many without flood insurance, the process is likely to be long, costly and frustrating. Iowans can sympathize as the destructive storm surge flooded hundreds of homes and businesses. While Iowa’s been plagued by many floods over the years, fewer and fewer Iowans qualify for flood insurance as at-risk properties are bull-dozed into green spaces.

Dave Maurstad heads the National Flood Insurance Program for FEMA and says flood plain lines are drawn to dictate who’s at most risk and who has to get flood insurance. “And if you’re on the high-risk side of that line, then you’re required, the government says you have to buy it if you have a federally-backed mortgage,” Maurstad says. “If you’re on the other side of that line and you’re just in the low- to moderate-risk area, the government’s really sending a message that you don’t need the coverage. We need to change that dynamic.”

The Houston, Texas area is still reeling from the flooding that resulted from Hurricane Harvey. At least 80-thousand claims under the flood insurance program have been submitted by policy holders in the Texas Gulf Coast area, though many thousands more homes that were damaged or destroyed did not have flood insurance.

Maurstad says, “We need to change the social paradigm where people do everything they can to avoid buying a flood insurance policy to one where it’s the individual property owner’s responsibility to their family and their community to protect their property from flooding.” So far, the National Flood Insurance Program has made more than $13.2 million in advance payments to insured survivors of Hurricane Harvey.

The damage caused by the combination of tornadoes and flooding in Iowa in 2008 was estimated at 848-million dollars. At the time, it was considered the sixth-worst natural disaster in U-S history, a list then-topped by Hurricane Katrina at more than eight-billion dollars.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County say Deputies arrested a man Monday night, for falsely reporting his 1999 Dodge Caravan had been stolen. The vehicle was located off the roadway at Highway 59 and Dogwood Road. 18-year old Tristan Michael Herrera, of Carson, faces charges that include False Reports to Law Enforcement, Interference with Official Acts, and Criminal Mischief in the 3rd degree. The vehicle sustained about $1,000 damage when a door panel was pulled off and a door handle was broken.

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

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