Authorities in Mills County say a homeless man wanted on a warrant for a probation violation was arrested Monday evening at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office. 41-year old Kenneth Benjamin McDonald was being held in the Mills County Jail on $50,000 bond.  The Sheriff’s Office reports also the arrest Saturday (Feb. 9th) in Malvern, of 38-year old Ryan Daniel McMullen, of Malvern. McMullen was taken into custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. His bond was set at $1,300.

Deputies in Mills County are also investigating several incidents of theft and/or burglary. Three of the incidents were reported Monday, including: an Omaha man, who said a theft occurred at a location off of Peas Road in Glenwood; a California woman, who said a theft occurred at a location on Depot Street in Pacific Junction, and a Glenwood man, who reported a theft from a location along Gaston Road, in Glenwood.  Another Glenwood resident reported an incident of burglary, on Saturday. The incident happened at a location along Jabber Road. That same day, an Emerson resident reported a burglary had occurred at a location along King Street, in Emerson.

Additional details were released this (Tuesday) morning with regard to the sentence for a Cherokee man who plead guilty Monday, to several charges associated with a stabbing incident in Atlantic last September. According to online court records, 38-year old Timothy Leigh Russell faces a maximum of 25-years in prison.

In a voluntary plea agreement reached Monday, a felony charge of Attempted Murder was dropped. Russell agreed to plead Guilty to two felony counts of Willful Injury as enhanced by the use of a dangerous weapon, and one count of Going Armed with Intent. The combined prison terms for the offenses amounted to 25-years. He was given credit for time already served. Russell was also assessed fines totaling $2,750, plus the payment of court costs associated with his case. Judge Kathleen Kilnoski exonerated Russell’s bond.

Russell’s trial on Attempted Murder and the other charges was to have begun today (Tuesday),  in connection with a September 3rd 2012 incident in Atlantic, during which the unidentified victim of the attack suffered serious injuries after being stabbed by Russell with a shop tool, which was reportedly a screwdriver.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A mother and her 2-year-old child have been wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex on the east side of Council Bluffs. Authorities say the woman was putting her child into a car just before 6 a.m. Tuesday when the gunfire erupted. The woman was hit several times, and her child was hit in an arm.  It’s unclear whether the woman knew the shooter. No arrest has been reported. The woman, whose name hasn’t been released, was taken to an Omaha, Neb., hospital for treatment.

Advocates of expanding passenger rail service from Iowa to Chicago say there could be a side-benefit for trains that haul freight. Jeff Kurtz is with the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen. “If we do the infrastructure improvements necessary where passenger trains and freight can go-exist, we won’t have to worry about clearing slow-moving trains,” Kurtz says. “Delays cost money…Hopefully as a state we will move in that direction as we move to invest in rail.” Kurtz is among seven people who testified before the Senate Transportation Committee late Monday afternoon to tout the idea of expanding passenger rail service from Chicago to the Quad Cities, Iowa City, Des Moines and Council Bluffs.

Grinnell Mayor Gordon Canfield is also president of the Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers. “As our interstate highway system becomes increasingly clogged with heavy traffic or when the roadways are slick with snow and ice, many people would prefer the safety and convenience of trains to go to Chicago or Omaha and beyond,” Canfield said. Geoff Fruin, the assistant city manager of Iowa City, used to work in Normal, Illinois, a city where he said passenger rail service had been an “economic game-changer.”

“If you study the Amtrak ridership numbers, they’ve set records in nine of the past 10 years. If you dig down further and you look at the university communities in the Midwest, their ridership has grown even three or four times faster than the national level,” Fruin said. “Now, that tells me one thing, it’s that the younger generation really values passenger rail and the productivity of time and the access that it provides.”

In October of 2010, Iowa and Illinois won a 230-million dollar federal grant to expand passenger rail service, with the ultimate goal of a 110-mile-per-hour train running between Chicago and Omaha, the route for which could pass through Atlantic. However, when Republican Governor Terry Branstad took office in 2011, he raised concerns the state would have to sink too much money into the rail line. Iowa Department of Transportation staff are in the process of drafting a cost-benefit analysis. Republican legislators have also raised cost concerns, suggesting a private railroad company would already be running passenger trains through central Iowa if it were profitable.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Local governments and schools are continuing to work on their budgets, despite a lack of direction from the State on how much funding or a lack thereof, will impact those budgets. Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein said during Monday night’s meeting at the High School, there’s been no action by the Iowa House on a proposal by the Senate for 4-percent allowable growth for school districts across the State, and it doesn’t appear there will be action anytime soon. Because the lack of movement in the legislature Amstein said he’s asked District Business Manager Mary Beth Fast, to budget for the worst-case scenario, which is zero-percent allowable growth.

In other business, Amstein said he will be coming to the Board in March, with a recommendation pertaining to the make-up of three days students missed this school year due to inclement weather.  He says right now, those dates look to be May 22^nd-through the 24^th. Currently, the last day of school is May 21^st. The dates would still allow the district to end the school year before the Memorial Day weekend. He said if there are any more days missed because of bad weather, they would have to look at cutting time from Spring Break.

Amstein said also, discussions continue with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office for the use of a deputy as a School Resource Officer (SRO). Amstein says looking at the current budget, it appears to be likely the district would continue to contract with the County for the services of an SRO.

Amstein announced also, that Atlantic Senior Tom Stinn has been nominated for the Presidential Scholars Program. He said only a handful of students in each state are selected for the opportunity. They’re selected on the basis of accomplishments, school and community activities and excellence in education. Stinn is also a candidate for a National Merit Scholarship. And, AHS Senior Dalton Franken, as you may have heard, was nominated to the McDonald’s All-American Basketball Team.

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The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports a former Anita resident faces charges in connection with four burglaries and theft that took place in Anita and Atlantic, during a period spanning August 28th, 2012 through Sept. 25th, 2012. 30-year old Riley Dale Metheny, of Newton, faces three counts of Burglary 3^rd Degree and one count of Theft 2^nd Degree.  A court date in his case has not yet been set.

A facility which is designed to provide Kindergarten through 8^th grade students in the Atlantic Community School District with serious psychiatric conditions a safe and therapeutic environment for evaluation and treatment outside of a regular classroom setting, is in danger of facing cutbacks or elimination altogether. Just under a dozen people appeared at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Atlantic Board of Education Monday night at the High School, to ask the Board not to make any cuts or eliminate the Link Center Hospital School at the Cass County Memorial Hospital, which was created in the mid-1990’s.

Dr. Ivan Delgado, a child and adult psychiatrist at Southwest Iowa Mental Health Center and who provides services for the Link Center, said now is not the time to cut the school out of the district’s budget, because the State itself is facing a budget and mental health crisis, and “it’s bound to worsen.” Delgado said as an example, the number of public psychiatric beds in Iowa is back down to the levels seen in 1855, when the public began to realize they had to do something to serve the needs of psychiatric patients in a “humane” manner.  He says if there isn’t a school program in Atlantic there will be an increased need for Emergency Room visits, hospitalization, and an increased utilization of local law enforcement services in the community. He also warned of “disruptions in academic goals of students and family disruptions,” because the students will have to be transported across the state.

He warned that “psychotic, delusional patients, those with homicidal thoughts and severe mood disorders will end up being back in the school setting and disrupting the school environment.  Delgado says he’s “Not engaging in hyperbole or an alarmist rhetoric,” when he says that the program over the year “May have prevented catastrophic events in the community,” the likes of which are heard about in national media. He said “We must maintain our psychiatric services for our public school kids,” and not dismantle those resources. Cass County Memorial Hospital Assistant Administrator and CFO Steve Lewis said he understands the financial burden the School District faces, but the program at CCMH is very unique and shows that two entities that are important to the community can come together to provide services for “Some of our most delicate kids.” Roger Herring, former Atlantic High School Principal and member of the hospital Board of Trustees, suggested costs could be saved by using those services for Atlantic School District only, and eliminating sharing of the program with other school districts.

Atlantic Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein, said the district paid $404,000 out of the General Fund for the hospital school. What’s hidden from the cost, it that the district doesn’t get the spending authority for it. This year it’s anticipated the price will be $375,000, again, without any spending authority. He says continuing to fund the hospital school as it has for the past couple of years will cause the district to quickly approach $800,000 from the General Fund, which means the eroding of the “spending authority.” Amstein said there is no doubt the hospital school is not a good program, but in order to continue with it, the board needs to find a way to pay for it without draining the cash reserves in the General Fund and also losing same amount of money in the spending authority. Amstein said he would be meeting with Department of Education officials to see if the costs could be billed to the Special Education program, and, they can look at eliminating hospital school services for other districts outside of Atlantic.