The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency has updated the fire danger warning signs in the county. Emergency Coordinator Bob Seivert says the signs will stay in the moderate category to start the week. He says showers forecasted this morning did not materialize and the winds are once again strong out of the southeast.

The winds will elevate the danger of a wild fire spreading quickly while also gaining fuel by creating drying conditions. The Shelby County EMA will update the situation again on Thursday.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a Pacific Junction man faces 2 counts of Child Endangerment. 33-year old Timothy Eugene Truhlicka was arrested Friday morning at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office. No other details were provided. Truhlicka was being held in the Mills County Jail on $2,000 bond.

That same day, 26-year old Amber Rose Pearson, of Pacific Junction, was arrested on a warrant charging her with 2 counts of child endangerment. She was also arrested for being a fugitive from justice. Pearson’s bond was set at $14,000.

On Saturday, Mills County deputies arrested 50-year old Ernest Leroy Runyon, of Hastings. Runyon was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail. And early Sunday morning, 27-year old Kristen Ann Svendsen, of Bellevue, NE, was arrested on Applewood Road.  Svendsen was charged with OWI/1st offense. Her bond was set at $1,000.

Officials with the Atlantic Police Department report the arrest on Saturday, of 48-year old Floyd Johnson. The Wiota man was charged with OWI/2nd offense, and brought to the Cass County Jail.

The A-PD reports also, an Atlantic woman was cited for Failure to obey a traffic control device following an accident Friday evening near the intersection of 7th Street and Hospital Drive. Officials say a vehicle driven by Sue Bierbaum, of Atlantic, was traveling south from the HyVee parking lot, when she entered the intersection on a red light and hit an eastbound vehicle driven by Daniel Pross, of Atlantic. No injuries were reported. Damage from the accident amounted to $20,000.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest last Friday night of a Cass County man. 49-year old Douglas Allen Bissell, of Atlantic, was arrested at around 11:30-p.m Friday, following an investigation into an accident that occurred on north Kilworth Street in Exira, Friday evening. Bissell faces  OWI/1st offense, and Failure to Maintain Control charges. He was brought to the Audubon County Jail and released after appearing before the magistrate.

Officials say Bissell was traveling east on Washington Street in Exira, when he made a left turn onto north Kilworth. As it continued north on Kilworth, Bissell’s 2011 Ford struck a legally parked 2002 Dodge owned by Alan Seehusen, of Exira. No injuries were reported. Damage from the crash amounted to $14,000.

One person was injured following a chase and crash in Pottawattamie County, Sunday night. Omaha television station KETV reports the chase began in Mills County and ended south of Council Bluffs, near the Lake Manawa exit.

The Iowa State Patrol said Mills County deputies began chasing an SUV near Glenwood. The driver lost control and crashed at around 11:40-p.m.  They were pulled from the vehicle and taken to a hospital for treatment of possible, critical injuries.

No other details have been released.

The State of Iowa will use a 250-thousand dollar federal grant to bolster a program that pays gas stations to install “blender” pumps that incorporate a higher percentage of corn-based ethanol in motor fuels. Most Iowa stations offer a 10 percent ethanol blend. Governor Terry Branstad says the goal is to boost usage of a 30 percent blend. “It’s my understanding that 30 percent is kind of the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of the best fuel efficiency with an ethanol blend,” Branstad says.

Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey says the expanded sale of E-30 will help Iowa maintain its leadership position in the ethanol industry. “Not only on the production side, but on the consumption side,” Northey says. E-30 is not approved for use in all vehicles, just the 10 percent of U.S. vehicles that are “flexible fuel” models. Some of the federal grant money will be used for blender pumps the dispense “bio-diesel” which features a soybean-based fuel additive.

Gas station operators and farm co-ops that sell fuel will be able to apply for the grants for blender pumps this spring. Representatives of Iowa’s petroleum and renewable fuels industries attended Governor Branstad’s news conference this morning (Monday) for the “fueling our future” program announcement. “Unlike Washington, D.C. where they’re always fighting and you have this big clash going on between ‘Big Oil’ and renewable energy, we actually have petroleum marketers and the renewable energy association cooperating here in Iowa, working together,” Branstad says. “And obviously that’s very beneficial to our economy, to our farmers and also to our environment.”

There are 41 ethanol plants in Iowa and 25 percent of the ethanol produced in the U.S. comes from Iowa. About 17 percent of the country’s biodiesel comes from the dozen biodiesel plants here.

(Radio Iowa)

The head of the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement says larger quantities of purer methamphetamine produced by Mexican drug cartels and trafficking organizations have been showing up in Iowa. Director Steve Dejoode recently briefed the Governor’s Drug Policy Advisory Council about trends in the meth trade in Iowa. He says the product offered by Mexican meth cooks now is different than what we saw from 1998 through 2006.

“The average purity level I think we were seeing then on methamphetamine was anywhere from 14 to 40-percent,” Dejoode says. “The purity levels that I’m seeing are from 98 to 100-percent.” Dejoode says the purer meth can potentially bring a higher price on the streets for dealers, and it raises concerns for those trying to combat the problem.

“It may have an impact on addiction and success of treatment potentially, and then the potential for overdose complications or death,” DeJoode explains. He says while Iowa meth labs haven’t gone away — as much as 90-percent of the drug sold in Iowa comes from across the border.

(Radio Iowa)

An accident involving a Lenox Volunteer Fire Department truck caused a total of $6,500 damage Sunday, but no one was hurt. The Lenox Police Department reports officers responded to the scene of the accident in front of the fire station, at around 6:30-p.m., Sunday.

Photo from Lenox P-D’s Facebook page.

An investigation determined a 1979 Dodge pickup owned by the fire department was parked outside the fire station during the annual soup supper and was on display. While looking at the truck, a child hit the gearshift into neutral causing the truck to roll down the drive before it hit a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer parked on the street.

The Trailblazer, owned by Randy Samo, of Lenox, sustained $4, 000 damage, while the fire department’s truck sustained $2,500 damage. No. citations were issued.

The driver of a vehicle which struck and killed a Shelby County firefighter two years ago on Interstate 80 is now suing the City of Shelby. The Omaha World Herald reports David L. Thies, of Boone, is suing the city for $5,000, a fraction of what the accident cost him. Thies was involved in the accident on I-80 two years ago when he struck Shelby firefighter Michael Collins who was killed while directing traffic after another accident had taken place on the interstate.

Thies claims Collins was under the influence of drugs at the time and stepped into traffic. The papers says documents inside the Iowa State Patrol’s full investigation report say Collins had THC in his system, which is the active ingredient in marijuana and a narcotic pain reliever called oxymorphone. A hearing on his claim is set to take place Oct. 21st, in Pottawattamie County Small Claims Court.

The accident that took the life of Collins happened around 6:50-pm on September 18th, 2011 as Collins was directing traffic. The patrol says Thies was traveling on the Interstate and went around the stopped vehicles and hit Collins in the left lane. No criminal charges were ever filed against Thies, as the investigators did not find his actions reckless. He was however charged with driving without proper registration.

The accident report from the Iowa State Patrol says Collins received oxymorphone from someone who had a prescription. Thies stated his expenses from the accident including medical bills are over $30,000. The City of Shelby declined to comment to the paper on the lawsuit. This was the second accident fatal accident Thies was involved in. Back in 1988, Thies was driving a motorcycle in Nebraska when it crashed and killed the passenger 20 year old Gina Pearson. He was charged with vehicular homicide and served a 17 month jail sentence.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Department reports a Missouri man was arrested over the weekend on drug and other charges. 39-year old Raymond Bartholomew Johnson, of Seneca, Mo., was arrested Saturday for Possession of Methamphetamine, Possession of Marijuana with the intent to deliver, 2 counts of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, no Tax Stamp, Driving Under Suspension, failure to have proof of insurance, registration violation, and on a warrant out of Shelby County.

And, a Tabor man, 24-year old Michael Douglas Auten, was arrested Friday in Fremont County, for Driving Under Suspension, Failure to secure a child, and failure to maintain registration.