A pest control company employee is accused of planting electronic listening devices in a woman’s home in Red Oak. 38-year old Aaron Theodore Johnson, of Red Oak, was charged with Electronic and/or Mechanical Eavesdropping (a serious misdemeanor). He also faces a felony charge of being a Felon in Possession of a firearm. Johnson was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $5,000 cash bond, while awaiting an appearance before the magistrate.

Red Oak Police say an investigation into Johnson’s alleged activities began after the Red Oak Police Department received a complaint on Monday from 29-year old Jessica Hale, of Red Oak. Hale said a recording device had been found at her home located in 400 block of north 7th Street. Upon further investigation, a second device was found in Hale’s bedroom. She told police the only person who would have had been granted access to her residence was Johnson, whose rural Red Oak residence is also the business location for RMPKA Pest Control Services.

A search warrant executed at Johnson’s home resulted in the discovery of items similar to those found in Hale’s home, along with numerous computers, hard drives and other electronic devices. During the investigation, it was determined Johnson had previously been convicted of a felony, and was in possession of numerous firearm-related items and ammunition, all of which were seized.

The investigation into Johnson’s alleged activities continues. In addition, a forensic examination of the devices seized will be conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

A Creston man was arrested Monday on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear in court on Child Support Matters. Creston Police say 40-year old Travis David Ahrens was being held in the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.

And Creston Police are investigating two incidents of theft.  Someone entered the Adams Street Apartments sometime between Oct. 26th and Nov. 2nd and took lamps, bedding, a coffee pot, radio, fans, blinds and curtains from three separate apartments. A door jam was also damaged. The loss was estimated at $120.

The other incident happened sometime between 7-am and 6-pm Monday, when someone stole a pink Mongoose girls bicycle from 801 north Elm Street, in Creston. The loss was estimated at $300.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man who was shot by a state trooper following a high-speed car chase has been sentenced to five years in prison. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports 29-year-old Michael Lee was sentenced after pleading guilty to charges including felony eluding and operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Lee says he was high on synthetic marijuana when he led officers on the 2013 chase in Council Bluffs that reached speeds of 100 mph. He says he doesn’t remember what happened before waking up in the hospital.

Authorities say Lee tried to run over a trooper who had crashed his car. The trooper fired multiple shots into Lee’s vehicle and hit him at least once. The chase ended when another trooper rammed and flipped Lee’s vehicle.

VOTING CENTER LOCATIONS
CASS COUNTY, IOWA:
On Tuesday, November 4, 2014 between 7:00 A.M. and 9:00 P.M. a GENERAL ELECTION will be held for all qualified electors of Cass County.

THE VOTING CENTERS FOR THIS ELECTION WILL BE AS FOLLOWS:
1 Atlantic 1st Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zion Lutheran Church (811 Oak St)
2 Atlantic 2nd Ward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Atlantic Public Library (507 Poplar)
3 Atlantic 3rd Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cass County Community Center (805 W 10th)
4 Atlantic 4th Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . United Church of Christ (1607 Hazel)
5 Atlantic 5th Ward . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heritage House (1200 Brookridge Circle)
6 Bear Grove, Cass Twp/City of Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lewis Public Library (412 W. Main St, Lewis)
7 Benton, Franklin Twp/City of Wiota . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Wiota City Hall (311 Center St)
8 Brighton,Grove,Pymosa,Washington Twp/City of Marne .Cass County Community Center (805 W 10th)
9 Edna, Victoria Twp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Massena Public Library (122 Main St, Massena)
10 Grant, Lincoln Twp /City of Anita. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anita Community Center (805 Main St)
11 Noble, Pleasant Twp/City of Griswold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Griswold Community Bldg. (601 2nd St)
12 Massena Twp/City of Massena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Massena Public Library (122 Main St, Massena)
13 Union Twp/City of Cumberland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Cumberland Community Bldg. (200 W 2nd)

NOTICE: Curbside Voting: Any voter who is physically unable to enter a polling place has the right to vote in the voter’s vehicle. Please contact the county auditor’s office for details (Phone: 243-4570; Email:auditor@casscoia.us).
Persons attempting to vote in the wrong precinct will be directed to the correct precinct. Persons must register in Cass County to be eligible to vote in Cass County. Persons who have changed their name and/or address within Cass Co. will be required to re-register at the voting center before being permitted to vote.
Same day registration and voting is permitted after the ‘moved’ voter presents proof of identity and residency.

Programs being offered in the new farm bill are complex and the experts say it’ll require some education for Iowa’s farmers to take part. Steven Johnson, a farm management specialist with the Iowa State University Extension, says the process starts with farmers updating their base acres and yields, which must be done by February 27th. Johnson says farmers will have to either retain or reallocate base acres on their farms.

“I’m suggesting that the producers and the landowners get this done early, as this is easy in most of the corn belt,” Johnson says. “If you can create more corn base by reallocating, do it. If your corn base would be higher by retaining the old corn base, just retain. So, don’t make this that difficult decision.”He says farmers can update to a new Price Loss Coverage, or P-L-C, yield using production records for the 2008 to 2012 growing seasons, or they can keep the old counter-cyclical yield.

“Update the yields if you’ve got the production evidence,” Johnson says. “If not, the plugs will be 75% of the county yields and those are posted on the FSA website. If we can get there by Christmas, we’ve got plenty of time to make a decision.” Johnson says farmers will have until March 31st to make either a P-L-C or and Agricultural Risk Coverage (A-R-C) election for their farm for the next five years.

“I think they’re probably more complicated now than they were six months ago with these low national prices,” Johnson says. “For 2014, we’re probably going to trigger both county ARC and PLC payments on a farm for corn base. I think there’s going to be a lot of interest in this whole ARC-PLC program.” The actual program enrollment will begin in mid-April and run through the summer months.

(Radio Iowa)

Many public opinion polls show Iowa’s U.S. Senate race is close, with a Quinnipiac University Poll released yesterday (Monday) showing the race tied. If the results tonight (Tuesday) aren’t conclusive and the candidates are separated by just a few thousand or even a few hundred votes, there is NO state law requiring a recount. In fact, to get a statewide recount, a candidate would have to file a recount request with each of Iowa’s 99 county auditors. Chance McElhaney, a spokesman for Iowa’s secretary of state, says a candidate may ask for recounts in specific precincts, too, rather than the entire county.

“There is no automatic recount in Iowa,” he says. “Basically, a candidate that has their name printed on the ballot or that gets a vote in the precinct that they’re requesting can request a recount from the county auditor.” There has been NO statewide recount in modern history, but there are often recounts in legislative races where winning margins are sometimes fewer than a dozen votes.

“Statewide and federal (race), to be honest, we really don’t see recounts in those races,” McElhaney says. But since the outcome of the race between Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Joni Ernst may determine which party controls the U.S. Senate in January, leaders of both political parties have made plans to rush lawyers and election experts to Iowa overnight if there is the possibility of a recount.

It is the candidate who requests a recount and they won’t be able to ask for one tomorrow (Wednesday). They’ll have to wait ’til each county has a “canvas” of all votes cast to certify the election results. That happens either Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. After that official canvas is done, a candidate has three days to file a recount request. If a recount is requested, each county’s auditor decides how the recount will be conducted.

“The Recount Board…could hand-count if they wanted, they can use the machines if they wanted or they could do both,” McElhaney says. On Wednesday and Thursday of THIS week, county election officials will count any late-arriving absentee ballots that have a Monday postmark and all the “provisional” ballots that were cast at precincts on Election Day. If there is a statewide recount, the Iowa secretary of state’s office will offer legal advice, but each county auditor will be responsible for the conduct of the recount in his or her county.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s largest county and the state’s fastest-growing county are key battlegrounds in the race for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat.  Polk County, home to the state’s capital city of Des Moines, is Iowa’s largest county and a key point of emphasis for Bruce Braley’s campaign because it is a Democratic stronghold. Former Governor Tom Vilsack says back in 2004, John Kerry lost Iowa to George Bush because Kerry didn’t win enough votes in Polk County.

“Polk County Democrats, you have got to deliver on Tuesday,” Vilsack said Saturday during a rally in Des Moines. “You have got to deliver a wide margin. You need to be committed to that.” As of midday Money, a record number of absentee ballots had been returned in Polk County — over 58-thousand. Nearly 29-thousand came from Democrats, another 10-thousand from independents and Democrats contend many of those are likely Braley voters.

For Republicans, Dallas County has become a G-O-P stronghold. Dallas County was the seventh fastest growing county in the entire country in 2012. It’s population grew by 62 percent in the first decade of this century. Jon McAvoy has served on the Adel City Council for 25 years and was featured in an ad for Republican Joni Ernst’s campaign.

“I think Dallas County is going to carry strongly for Joni, I really do. We’re strongly Republicans,” McAvoy says. “When we moved out there 36 years ago, it was pretty much all Democrat. All the elected people in the county, except for one, were Democrats and now it’s totally flipped around and they’re all Republicans, except for one.” As of Saturday, Republicans had a three-thousand vote edge in returned absentee ballots in Dallas County.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

UNDATED (AP) — The hard-fought Senate race in Iowa between Democrat Bruce Braley and Republican Joni Ernst could be a photo finish. One poll released over the weekend suggests Ernst has pulled ahead, while several others show a close matchup. Money has flooded the state for both candidates as Republicans seek the six-seat gain they need to take control of the Senate.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state audit confirms that a former Iowa County official stole more than $60,000 in public money. Kimberly Tanke is serving three years of probation after pleading guilty to theft in March. Tanke was twice elected county treasurer and later served as a county supervisor. She resigned a year ago.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin is apologizing for calling Republican Joni Ernst attractive, but “wrong for the state of Iowa.” Harkin, who is supporting Democrat Bruce Braley to succeed him, made the remarks at a recent Democratic dinner. In the video, Harkin says it doesn’t matter if Ernst is “as good looking as Taylor Swift or as nice as Mr. Rogers,” if she’s going to be a conservative vote in the Senate. Ernst decried the remark as sexist, saying he would not have made the same comments about a male candidate.

(Information in the following story is from: KWWL-TV, http://www.kwwl.com)

EVANSDALE, Iowa (AP) — A 14-year-old girl faces a first-degree arson charge in connection to a small fire at a middle school in northeast Iowa. Evansdale Fire Chief Kent Smock says the girl was taken into custody. The case has been sent to the juvenile court system. The small fire was reported on Oct. 22 inside a bathroom at Bunger Middle School in Evansdale. No injuries were reported.