This Saturday (Dec. 13th), Grant Community Preservationists (GCP) and The Hayloft will host a holiday event featuring Cookies and Caroling. From 4:30-7:30 p.m., GCP will provide music (caroling from 4:30-5:30 p.m.) and homemade holiday treats for sale. The event continues 5:30-7:30 p.m. in conjunction with The Hayloft’s Chicken & Fish Fry, which begins at 5:15 p.m. To top off the meal, GCP will offer homemade desserts for sale in addition to cookies and candy.

Organizers invite you to kick off your Christmas season by sharing some holiday cheer with your friends and neighbors. Share music and good food while picking up some sweet treats to prepare for your upcoming holiday gatherings.

Proceeds support GCP’s community projects, including restoring the Grant Masonic Lodge and maintaining the Grant Park. The Grant Community Preservationists was formed to help maintain Grant and its unique historic character. Designated in October 2003, the Grant Commercial Historic District is on the National Register of Historic Places.

SOLDIER, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have suspended the search for a missing western Iowa man who may have fallen through lake ice at Oldham Recreational Area. On Sunday hunters found a pickup owned by Walter Ordway near the recreation area. The Monona County Sheriff’s Office says it’s believed that Ordway took his dog for an outing to the recreation area on Nov. 17 and that the dog fell through the ice into the freezing water. The Sheriff’s Office says Ordway may have fallen into the water while trying to rescue his dog. The dog’s body was found nearby.

The 66-year-old Ordway lives in Soldier.  The search was temporarily suspended because of concerns about the safety of lake ice. The recreation area will be closed through the weekend.

With Ric Hanson.

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Four people have been arrested on unrelated charges, in Creston. According to the police report, 37-year old Justin Dean Miller, of Creston, was arrested this (Friday) morning on a Driving While Revoked charge. Miller was later released from the Union County Jail on $1,000 bond.

Late Thursday night, 20-year old Alan Hall, of Corning, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a warrant for Theft in the 2nd Degree. Hall was later released from the jail on $5,000 bond. Also arrested Thursday evening, was 14-year old Virginia Gilleland, of Creston. The teen was cited for Interference with Official Acts, and subsequently turned over to Juvenile Authorities.

And, Thursday morning, 27-year old Lee Anthony Brown, Jr., of Creston, was arrested for Interference with Officials acts. Brown was being held in the Ringgold County Jail, while awaiting a hearing.

In other news from Creston, authorities say a resident in the 200 block of Myrtle Street reported Thursday that someone had taken his wallet, containing a Social Security card, license, birth certificate and a check. The items were taken from the victims’ truck sometime between 3:30-p.m. Dec. 10th and 9:30-a.m. Dec. 11th, while the vehicle was parked near his residence. The loss was estimated at $30.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – An Iowa dentist has pleaded no contest to stealing precious metals and dental equipment while working at the Omaha Veteran Affairs Medical Center.  Fifty-eight-year-old Randall Toothaker entered the plea on Thursday without a deal from prosecutors. He originally pleaded not guilty after he was arrested in July.

Investigators say he stole more than $16,000 in dental gold and other equipment from a locked cabinet in 2013. An officer stopped Toothaker while he was leaving the property. The Omaha World-Herald reports Toothaker’s attorney says his client wants to put the case behind him. He says Toothaker now practices in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Toothaker faces up to 10 years in federal prison when he is sentenced in March. The newspaper reports neither state dental board has documented disciplinary action against him.

A South Carolina man faces a Suspicion of making a Terroristic Threat charge, after allegedly writing a threatening note on the door of a portable toilet at the Google Data Center construction site, in Council Bluffs. The Daily NonPareil reports 27 year old Samuel G. Langley of Greenville, SC was taken into custody after subcontractor employees at the construction site found the threat on Monday and alerted authorities.

After reviewing surveillance footage, investigators targeted Langley, who works for an electrical systems subcontractor at the data center, as a target. Bluffs Police Sgt. Chad Meyers said Langley was questioned Wednesday morning and reportedly admitted writing the note.

Meyers said the threat referenced returning to the site and shooting people, but he declined to get into the specifics of the note. Police searched Langley’s vehicle and found no weapons. Meyers said the suspect told police he didn’t intend to carry out the act. Langley is free after posting a $5,000 bond.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston reported this morning that a lock-down at the dorms for Southwestern Community College (SWCC) has been lifted. The dorms were put on lock down Thursday night, after a report was received about a potential threat. The threat was communicated to police by a student, after it was seen on a social media website. The school was placed in precautionary lock down while law enforcement investigated the incident.

Authorities with the Creston Police Department, Union County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa State Patrol participated in the investigation, during which no immediate safety issues were found. The investigation, which includes the gathering of electronic records from social media sites, continues.

Creston Police say they will continue to monitor activities on campus to ensure the ongoing safety of students and staff.

A special nominating convention held Thursday night in Clarinda whittled down the field of contenders vying for the Iowa Senate District 12 seat being vacated by Republican U-S Senator-elect, Joni Ernst. During the event, Republican State Representative Mark Costello, of Imogene won his party’s nomination. Clarinda area farmer Seth Watkins finished second and Montgomery County activist Margaret Stoldorf finished 3rd in the 7 person race.

Costello will face a challenge from Democrat Steve Adams, of Red Oak, and Libertarian candidate Don Brantz, a longtime Mills County supervisor and southwest Iowa social worker. The men will be on the ballot for a Special Election to be held Dec. 30th that was ordered by the Governor, and is required in order to fill Ernst’s Iowa Senate seat.

A writer and director who produced some of the most popular television shows of the 1970s is in Iowa this weekend. Norman Lear’s trip to Des Moines and Greenfield coincides with the 45th anniversary of the release of Lear’s first and only movie he ever directed. “Cold Turkey” was filmed primarily in Greenfield, as well as locations in Winterset, Orient and Des Moines.  Lear told Radio Iowa, “Everything about my experience with Iowa is amazing, including this visit.”

Norman Lear

The 92-year-old Lear credits the experience of working in Iowa in the summer of 1969 with much of his later success in producing hit TV shows. Cold Turkey was released in 1971, the same year Lear’s “All in the Family” premiered on CBS. The sitcom was ground breaking as it dealt with controversial issues previously ignored in comedy programs. “When I was making All in the Family and the network told me ‘you can’t do this’ or ‘you shouldn’t do that’ and I would ask why, the answer was always one of two things; it won’t fly in Des Moines or there will be a knee-jerk reaction in the Bible Belt,” Lear said. “Having had my experience in Des Moines, it was so easy for me to feel and say, ‘wait, don’t tell me what will fly in Des Moines, I come from Des Moines.’ Spiritually, I felt exactly that way, I come from Des Moines.”

The movie “Cold Turkey,” which features Dick Van Dyke, tells the story of a small town — Eagle Rock, Iowa — that takes up the challenge for all its residents to quit smoking for one month to win a $25 million prize. Lear, recalling the summer of ’69, remembers how Iowans “fell in love” with Van Dyke and how everyone in the cast enjoyed meeting the locals. Lear has a photo from that summer that he keeps framed in his home.  “I have a photograph of my daughter Maggie, who’s now in her mid 50s, and she’s a little girl sitting on the lap of a guy’s face I’ll never forget – a farmer. It’s a picture that graces my home office to this day,” Lear said.

The native of Connecticut has a home in Vermont, but Lear was named an “Honorary Iowan” in 1999 when he returned to Greenfield with Dick Van Dyke and others to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Cold Turkey. Lear will be a special guest tonight (Friday) at the “Celebrate Iowa Gala” at the State Historical Museum in Des Moines. Lear will be in Greenfield tomorrow (Saturday) morning for an event at the Warren Cultural Center where he’ll read excerpts from his new book, “Even This I Get to Experience.” (He’s expected to speak beginning at 10-a.m., Saturday).

(Radio Iowa)