The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two men were arrested this (Friday) morning on drug-related charges in Malvern. 18-year old Ryan Nicholas Griener, of Silver City, and 19-year old Darryk James Leu, of Malvern, were arrested at around 12:30-a.m. in the vicinity of 15th and Main Streets, in Malvern.

Both men were charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance. Their bonds were set at $1,000 each.

The Danish Villages of Elk Horn and Kimballton are celebrating the 34th annual Tivoli Fest this weekend. The theme this year is “Denmark on the Prairie, Let the Festivities Begin.” Tivoli Fest begins at 8-am Saturday, with the M & M 5k Fun Run. Registration is held at the Danish Windmill in Elk Horn. The race ends at the Little Mermaid Fountain in Kimballton.

Lisa Riggs from the Danish Windmill says there is something new this year at Tivoli. “We are hosting the Iowa Craft beer tent which is a large trailer that boasts and promotes the new phenomenon Iowa Craft beer breweries in Iowa and they also feature Carlsberg beer from Denmark. And that’s going to be at the Elk Horn Fire Station. That opens at 11am on Saturday until midnight.”

The beer tent is a fundraiser for the Elk Horn Fire Department and will be open again on Sunday. Riggs says the children can participate in a new activity as well. (“The Museum of Danish America is having the ringridning bicycle competition. It’s actually used to be in Denmark it is on horse with spears and they go at a fast pace to try to get the spear in a ring and they will do that on bicycles this year.”

The Elk Horn Library is another spot for children as a Life-Size Legoland Game will be set up from noon to 3pm Saturday. All the Danish museums in Elk Horn and Kimballton will be open during the festival and the local restaurants will be serving traditional Danish treats all weekend. The Elk Horn City Park will host the Firemen competition from 2 to 5pm Saturday as well as a volleyball tournament.

Activities for Saturday night include live music, Tivoli Feud and fireworks after dark. On Sunday, Tivoli Fest embarks with the 6th annual Tour De Tivoli. Riggs says “You start out at the Windmill registration at 8am and you go out to Prairie Rose and around through Kimballton. It is a beautiful ride. With the registration, you get a t-shirt, refreshments and an ebleskiver meal goes with the price of admission.”

The Danish festival will wrap up on Sunday at the Veteran’s Memorial Park on Main Street with Run for the Fall and Walk of Honor and Five Star Ceremony at 2-pm. The American Legion Post 322 and the Elk Horn Chapter will present a patriotic ceremony with live music. The Walk of Honor from Little Mermaid Trail from Union Street to the Museum of Danish America will contain pictures of local veterans and their military biographies. The full list of the 2014 Tivoli Fest event can be found online at http://www.danishwindmill.com/.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

A high speed chase expanding through two western Iowa counties ended in rural Monona County Thursday morning. The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office reports a deputy had observed a vehicle acting suspiciously in a residential area near Sergeant Bluff around 7am. Lieutenant Charles Hertz said the vehicle was in an area it should not have been “When the vehicle saw law enforcement drive by, they immediately left the area and pulled into a private residence. Deputy Brand continued to monitor the vehicle and notated it spent a very short time in the driveway before backing out.”

A traffic stop was initiated by the deputy where the three individuals in the car, two males and a female, were asked to get out of the car. Hertz said “The vehicle already had damage on the driver side and the driver was unable to exit through the driver door. There was a female front seat passenger. She was requested to exit and did so. A male passenger in the back seat tried to exit the vehicle and the driver pulled off, abandoning the female passenger on the side of the road.”

The high speed pursuit began at that point with Deputy Brand following the vehicle through Sergeant Bluff and Salix on Highway 75. Authorities believe at some point during the chase on Highway 75, the occupants were throwing items believed to be narcotics. The chase continued south of Sloan on Highway 141 where stop sticks were deployed east of Hornick.

Lt. Hertz said during the chase the driver called 911 threatening harm to himself if the deputy did not back off. Speeds topped out around 80 to 90mph during the chase. He says about an hour into the chase a pit maneuver was made. “A Sergeant was able to execute a pit maneuver and caused the vehicle to lose control. The vehicle subsequently crashed and the two occupants were taken to Burgess Memorial Hospital.”

The occupants were identified as David Whitlock, who was the driver and the male passenger was Randell Durand, both of Sioux City. An update on their condition was not given. The abandoned female passenger was identified as Felicionna Ruies, of Sioux City. Charges are currently pending as drugs were found inside the vehicle and authorities were searching for the items thrown from the vehicle.

Lt. Hertz says the chase may not have happened at all without the STEP initiative. “The deputy that initiated the pursuit was working the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau traffic grant under the Click it or Ticket campaign. That was the reason he was out and had that extra deputy not been out, this would not have occurred.” The Woodbury County Sheriff’s were assisted by the Iowa State Patrol, Monona County Sheriff’s, Mapleton PD, Mapleton Rescue and Ute Fire Department.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad says he’ll sign a bill legalizing the use of oil derived from marijuana to treat chronic epilepsy but hasn’t made a decision on legislation that could change the scope of greyhound racing in the state. Speaking on the public television program “Iowa Press” on Friday, Branstad promised to sign the marijuana bill next week.

Branstad says he also intends to sign bills to regulate the use of drones and ban the sale and use of e-cigarettes for minors. He says he’s still considering legislation to end greyhound racing at a track in Council Bluffs but allow it to continue in Dubuque.

Branstad plans to sign his Home Base Iowa initiative, which offers tax and job incentives to veterans, on Memorial Day.

State and local law officers are beginning a “Click it or ticket” effort Saturday that will carry through this Memorial Day weekend. Iowa Highway Patrol Trooper Vince Kurtz says they goal is simple. He says the goal is to make sure that people are using their seatbelts as he says they want to see the seatbelt use numbers continue to go up.

Iowa currently has a 93-percent statewide, daytime seatbelt average, ranking Iowa in the top ten in the nation. The nighttime seatbelt average is only 39-percent. Trooper Kurts points to an accident that happened on the bypass in Sioux City recently as a good example of why they want everyone to buckle up. During that accident it was determined a female driver who was not wearing her seat belt and was ejected from the vehicle and fatally injured.

“I believe the number is about 75 percent of the people who are thrown from a vehicle in a crash are killed. You are much safe inside that vehicle and the seatbelt is the one thing that is going to keep you inside that vehicle during a crash,” Kurtz says. It is the start of the summer driving season and that leads to more vehicles on the road, and the possibility of more accidents.

“Last year in 2013 there were three fatality crashes over the Memorial Day Holiday — two of those which were alchol related,” Kurtz says. He says other years there have been more fatal accidents, and the main point is that you need to take precautions like using your seatbelts to avoid becoming one of the statistics. The campaign begins Saturday (May 24) and runs through June 4th.

(Radio Iowa)

Above-normal runoff is expected over the coming weeks in the Missouri River system, but officials with the U-S Army Corps of Engineers say -no- flooding is anticipated. Jody Farhat, who heads the Corps’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Office in Omaha, says more water will be pouring into the waterway but it shouldn’t cause a problem as it’s been so dry. Farhat says, “Runoff this year is expected to be above-average and flood control remains our primary consideration, however, drought persists across much of the lower basin and storage in the Missouri River main stem reservoir system remains below normal due to the 2012 drought.”

Kevin Stom, a Corps engineer in the water management office, provides more details about the expected run off.  “The 2014 calendar year runoff forecast is 31.7-million acre feet, which is 125% of normal, above Sioux City, Iowa,” Stom says. “April runoff of 2.8-million acre feet, or 96% of normal, is 0.6-million acre feet below the April forecast.” Corps engineer Mike Swenson says they have plenty of storage space in the upstream reservoirs to handle additional water from runoff.

“Reservoir system storage is currently at 54.6-million acre feet and is 1.5-million acre feet below the top of the carryover multiple use zone,” Swenson says. “This 1.5-million acre feet of storage is in addition to the 16.3-million acre feet of flood control storage that is normally available at the start of the runoff season.”

Swenson says releases from Gavins Point Dam have been increased to 30-thousand cubic feet per second, and release levels will go higher as needed later in the season to support downstream navigation.

(Radio Iowa)

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is holding a public meeting to discuss the results of a study completed on the quality of water in Beaver Lake, located west of Des Moines in Dallas County. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. June 10 at the Raccoon Valley Bank in Adel.

The 34-acre Beaver Lake is on the state’s list of impaired waters because it has high levels of algae cause by too much phosphorous which impacts the recreation at the lake. The plan explores the amounts and sources of phosphorus and offers potential solutions to reduce those levels. High phosphorous levels often result from runoff of fertilizers from farmland.

After gathering comments, the DNR will forward a final plan to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for approval.

The Council Bluffs Daily NonPareil reports a former Harlan doctor accused of sexually abusing a 10-year-old girl 15 years ago at Myrtue Medical Center, plead Not Guilty Wednesday, in Shelby County District Court. 81-year old Wing Tai Fung, of Scarborough, Ontario, Canada, was charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a Class B felony, for an alleged incident in January 1999. He allegedly molested a girl he was treating for a knee sprain at the hospital, according to a criminal complaint. If convicted, Fung faces up to 25 years in prison. A court date is pending.