An Audubon County Sheriff’s Deputy and his K-9 partner were injured during an accident late Friday night. The Iowa State Patrol says 25-year old Deputy Shawn Young, of Audubon, who was wearing his seat belt, was transported by Exira Ambulance to the Audubon County Memorial Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, while his k9 partner suffered life threatening injuries, and was transported to a vet clinic in Atlantic.

Officials say the accident, which remains under investigation, happened at around 11:12-p.m. near 345th Street and Lark Avenue. When a Trooper arrived on the scene, he found a 2012 Chevy Tahoe in a field drive on the southwest corner of a curve.

No other details were released.

The state’s unemployment rate continues on its downward trend with February dropping down to four-point-one percent from January’s rate of four-point-two percent. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson, Kerry Koonce, says it’s the fifth straight month with a drop. “We continue to see drops in the number of people who are unemployed. We are down four-thousand from a year ago for the number of people who are unemployed,” Koonce says. “And our number of people who are actually receiving unemployment insurance is down almost 12-thousand from last month as well.”

The number of unemployed dropped, even though the state lost some jobs in the month, the first decline in jobs since September.”We dropped 400 jobs, which isn’t very big. Most of that being in the trade, transportation and utilities area. We saw a larger growth in that last month than really was expects, so I think that was just some leveling out,” according to Koonce. “We saw nice growth in manufacturing, nice growth in education and health services — so those really helped the state as well,” Koonce says.

Workforce Development figures show manufacturing added 12-hundred jobs, the education and health care areas increased jobs fueled entirely by gains in private education of one-thousand jobs. The number of unemployed Iowans dropped to 70-thousand-100 in February from 71-thousand-800 in January. Koonce says warmer weather should lead to more job gains.

“Because you will have a lot of those people who are on temporary unemployment coming back to work. And we saw some gains in construction this month, the biggest gains are coming in industrial, which is good, because that shows overall growth,” Koonce says.

The national unemployment rate was five-point-five (5.5) percent in February.

(Radio Iowa)

No injuries were reported following two separate accidents in less than 10-minutes Thursday, in Atlantic. The A-PD reports both collisions happened at 14th and Plum Streets. The first occurred at 7:49-a.m., when a vehicle driven by Dawson Walter, of Atlantic, crossed the centerline of the road and collided with a vehicle driven by Brandon McConkey, of Atlantic. Officials say Walter was blinded by the sun as he was traveling east on 14th Street. The left sides of both vehicle struck each other,  causing a total of $1,600 damage. No citations were issued.

The second accident at about the same location, happened at 7:59-a.m. Thursday, when a vehicle driven by Cain Stuart, of Atlantic, rear-ended a vehicle driven by Heather Schorle, of Atlantic. The collision occurred as both vehicles were traveling east on 14th Street. When Schorle stopped for traffic ahead of her, Stuart didn’t see her until the last moment and failed to stop in time. He was cited for Failure to Have Control. Damage from the mishap amounted to $2,700.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has suspended the law license of the former Madison County Attorney for 18 months for violating attorney rules of ethical conduct including having sex with a client and then assaulting her when the relationship deteriorated. It was significantly more lenient than an attorney disciplinary board’s recommendation of a four-year suspension.

Court documents filed Friday say 57-year old Anthony Zane Blessum engaged in a sexual relationship with a client in 2011 and was convicted of repeatedly striking her in 2013. He also was found to have improperly handled client funds. Blessum was the Madison County attorney from 1986 to 1997. He recently has practiced law in his own office in Des Moines.

The 8-a.m. Newscast w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston say a resident of the community was arrested Thursday morning on a Union County warrant for Probation Violation. 30-year old Nick Wilkinson, of Creston, was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

The 7:06-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A wrongful-death lawsuit has been filed against the Woodbury County sheriff and other officials, saying their failure to treat a jail inmate for substances abuse withdrawal led to his death more than two years ago. The federal lawsuit was filed by Tony Josta, of Homer, Nebraska, representing the estate of his son, Anthony Josta. The lawsuit says 35-year-old Anthony Josta “was subjected to defendants’ deliberate indifference to his medical needs.”  Anthony Josta was found dead in his cell on March 26, 2013, three days after his arrest on a warrant for contempt of court.

Woodbury County Sheriff Dave Drew told the Sioux City Journal that he welcomes the chance to offer sworn testimony in defense of the jail’s procedures and explain the conditions and decisions officers face daily.

A Red Oak man serving time in the Montgomery County Jail for prior burglary and theft charges, was arrested again late Thursday morning on three additional charges of Burglary in the 3rd Degree. The latest charges against 35-year old Kim Jack Douglas Trost stem from incidents of burglary March 19th at The Greenhouse in Red Oak and the Burlington Northern-Sante Fe (BNSF) Railroad, and theft of a vehicle from the BNSF on March 11th.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a southwest Iowa man’s appeal of his conviction for robbery, carjacking, obstructing justice and witness tampering. The court notified 49-year-old Tiran Casteel Thursday it would not hear his case.  Casteel, of Coin, (Iowa), is serving 27 years in prison for the 2008 robbery of Darlene Eitzen at her rural Page County farm.

Prosecutors say Eitzen was held at gunpoint while Casteel and his son, Devan, robbed her of a rare coin collection her late husband left her. While awaiting trial Casteel attempted to have Eitzen killed prompting obstructing justice and witness tampering charges.

Casteel’s conviction was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2013. He’s at a federal prison in Kansas. His son, Devan, is imprisoned in Texas, scheduled to be released in 2021.