A Taylor County man was sentenced earlier this month to nearly four-years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. U-S Attorney Nickolas A. Klinefeldt today (Thursday), announced Southern District of Iowa Judge James Gritzner sentenced 48-year old James Leroy Meek, Jr., of Bedford, to 46-months in prison.

Meek, Jr.  pleaded guilty to a charge of being a Probibited Person in Possession of ammunition in December, 2011, and agreed to turn over 4000 rounds of ammo, which was found during a search of his home in April, 2010. Meek, Jr.  had a prior conviction in Taylor County, of furnishing precursor drugs for unlawful purposes.

(12-p.m. News)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Lottery officials say someone who bought a Powerball ticket in Council Bluffs has won $1 million. The lottery said in a news release Thursday that the ticket matched five of the six Powerball numbers drawn Wednesday night: 11, 16, 29, 50 and 58. The ticket didn’t match the Powerball number of 33, so the buyer didn’t win the $50 million Powerball prize. The ticket was sold at a Hy-Vee store on the east side of the western Iowa city.

The ticket buyer has not yet stepped forward. The lottery says it’s the third $1 million-winning ticket sold since the $2 Powerball began in January. Gary Higens, of Des Moines, won $1 million on March 1. Steve Petty, of Adair, won $1 million on Feb. 20.

(updated 6-a.m. 3/30/12)

An Atlantic woman faces a serious misdemeanor charge of Invasion of Privacy-Nudity, for allegedly taking an inappropriate picture of a bathing 78-year old female resident at the Salem Lutheran Home, in Elk Horn. The incident was reported to authorities on March 22^nd.  35-year old Amanda Sedina, an employee of the nursing home, was taken into custody last Friday.

She was released Monday on $1,000 bond and was scheduled to have made her initial court appearance yesterday (Thursday). Her preliminary hearing, which had been set for April 12^th, has been continued. A new date for the hearing has not yet been set.

 Police in Harlan say they’re investigating several incidents of reported break-ins and criminal mischief. The reports were received Tuesday, and include incidents which occurred at the Shelby County Fairgounds, ball fields and private property. Officials remind the public that Crime Stoppers will pay a reward of up to $1,000 for tips leading to the arrest and conviction of persons responsible for similar crimes. 

Harlan Police report also, an Atlantic man, 22-year old Trent Bramman, was charged with 5^th degree criminal mischief, after the owner of Big House East told authorities Sunday, that obscenities had been scratched in paint on the property. 

In other news from the Harlan Police Department, 35-year old Sheila Boell, of Harlan, was arrested last week on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance/2^nd offense, and unlawful possession of prescription drugs. Her arrest was the result of a traffic stop.And, 45-year old Timothy Turner, of Harlan, was arrested Saturday, following a reported disturbance in the 900 block of Victoria Street, in Harlan. Turner was charged with domestic abuse assault and simple assault.

Sheriff’s Officials in Montgomery County say three men and one woman were arrested this week on unrelated charges. 41-year old Martha Oltmanns, of Villisca, was arrested this (Thursday) morning, on warrants for Harassment and Simple Assault. Oltmanns was taken into custody at around 9:30-a.m., and later released on a $300 bond. 

On Wednesday, 29-year old Bill Jo Gillespie, of Red Oak, was taken into custody on warrants for Domestic Assault, a Concealed Weapons violation, trespassing, and Violation of a No Contact Order. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $7,500 bond. That same day, 25-year old Eric Waldron and 21-year old Drew McKinley, both of Villisca, were arrested for allegedly Supplying Alcohol to a Minor. The men were being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond, each.

Officials with Cass County Home Care (CCHC) have announced that the company has been ranked in the top seven percent of home health agencies in the United States by a recent HealthInsight report. HealthInsight is a private, non-profit organization recognized as a leader in defining health care values, transparency and public reporting. Rankings are computed using publicly reported data from CMS Home Health Compare, a report on the quality of care provided by Medicare-certified home health agencies. 

CCHC site manager Denise Coder credits experience, knowledgeable staff and the organization’s ongoing focus on innovation with its ability to rank as one of the country’s top agencies. Cass County Home Care is a full-service, integrated home health care provider, serving patients in southwestern Iowa. Comprehensive services include nursing care, personal care and home support, rehabilitation therapy, respiratory therapy, infusion therapy, palliative and hospice care. CCHS is part of Iowa Health Home Care, which manages multiple home health affiliates throughout the state of Iowa. Iowa Health Home Care is an affiliate of Iowa Health System. In all, only eight Iowa agencies ranked in the national top 10 percent of the nearly 9,000 home health agencies reviewed.

Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation said today (Thursday), that the DOT, in cooperation with Iowa’s 99 county treasurers, will implement a 10-year license plate replacement cycle beginning April 2nd. The Iowa DOT is not implementing a new license plate design; the design of the replacement plates will be the same as the currently issued plates. The Iowa DOT first issued the standard blue and white plates with the town and country landscape in 1997. In 1999, the embossed version of the plate was replaced by a flat plate, but the design did not change. The design remains within the recommended standards for license plate function and legibility, and the Iowa DOT plans to retain and use this design well into the future.

The Iowa DOT says they ecognize, however, that because Iowa has not conducted a plate reissue since 1997, there are plates in circulation that are reaching the end of their useful life and are faded, worn or damaged, making them difficult to read. Rather than reissue all Iowa plates, as has been done in the past, the Iowa DOT is implementing a “rolling” replacement cycle replacing only those plates that have reached an age that is beyond the usual lifespan for a plate, with replacement to occur at the time of annual registration. This will replace plates that are too old, without wasting money by replacing plates that are not. 

Under the replacement cycle, all currently issued license plates will be replaced over the course of the next 10 years, with the oldest plates being replaced first. 

• ·     2012: Plates originally issued in 1996 and 1997 will be replaced. 
• ·     2013: Plates originally issued in 1998 through 2003 will be replaced. 
• ·     2014: Plates issued in 2004 will be replaced.
• ·     After 2014: Plate replacement will be on a rolling 10-year cycle. 

Specialty plates will be replaced with the current version of the same specialty plate. Personalized plates, whether standard or specialty, will be replaced with the same personalized alpha-numeric sequence. Specialty and standard plates that are not personalized will be replaced with a plate that has a new alpha-numeric sequence. Annual registration renewal notices will inform customers if their plates are due for replacement. The plates will be issued along with the registration renewal, either in person at the local county treasurer’s office or by mail.  Customers can complete the renewal online and will receive the replacement plates by mail. There is no fee for the replacement plates, but customers receiving replacement plates by mail will pay a $3 mailing fee per set of plates. 

Customers will not be required to turn in their old plates to their county treasurer’s office when they receive the new ones, but may do so if they wish. Customers that do not turn in their old plates are encouraged to recycle them. Customers that wish to replace the plates for all of their vehicles at one time, rather than waiting for each set of plates to come due for renewal, may elect to do so, but must pay the usual $5 replacement fee for each set of plates not currently due for replacement.  Although the plate design will not change, the current alpha-numeric sequence (three numbers followed by three letters) used on Iowa license plates will reach the maximum possible combination sometime later this summer. At that time, newly issued plates that are not personalized will use a reverse alpha-numeric sequence (three letters followed by three numbers). 

The Iowa DOT has already changed the color of the alpha-numeric characters and other text on newly issued license plates from dark blue to black. This change affected only the standard plates and specialty plates that employ the blue and white background, and did not affect specialty plates that employ a special color for the alpha-numeric characters as part of their design, such as collegiate plates and firefighter plates. Changing the characters to black increased the contrast with the background and made them easier to read, which is important to law enforcement. It also makes plate production more consistent and cost-effective.

A Missouri man pled guilty Tuesday to a felony burglary charge, in connection with an incident which occurred in Lenox on December 17th, 2011. The Lenox Police Department says the charge was filed against 30-year old Clint Anthony Auger on January 12th, following an investigation into a burglary at a garage in Lenox. Auger was sentenced to: A fine of $750.00 plus 30% surcharge; Incarceration with the Iowa Department of Corrections for a period not to exceed 5 years; Pay a law enforcement initiative of $125.00, and he was ordered to pay court appointed attorney fees of $1,200.

Officials with the Cass County Conservation Board say a grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ REAP Conservation Education Project, will allow a Rain Barrel Workshop will be held in Atlantic next month. The workshop is being held as a partnership between the West Pottawattamie Coil & Water Conservation District (SWCD), Iowa Western Community College (IWCC) and the Cass County Conservation Board.

“The Rainscaping Loess Soils” Rain Barrel Workshop will be held from 9:30-a.m. until Noon Saturday, April 14th, at IWCC, in Atlantic.The workshop will include a program about rainwater harvesting, and will include a chane to build a rain barrel that you can take home. The barrels work best, when connected to a downspout.

The cost to build a rain barrel is $40 for supplies. For other class dates and times, and to register for the free classes, go to www.iwcc.edu/ce/classes/GoGreen.asp . Or, for more informaton, call your local USDA-NRCS Office. Locally, information can be obtained from Cass County Naturalist Lora Schwendinger, at 712-769-2372.

The Exira-and Elk Horn Kimballton School Districts’ Boards of Education held a joint meeting earlier this week. Superintendent Dean Schnoes said the boards talked about how things were going with the Whole Grade Sharing arrangement between the districts. He says none of the board members expressed any concerns, and they plan to continue moving forward with Whole Grade Sharing, because the arrangement is working well with both the teachers and students.

Schnoes said also the districts will continue with their 1-to-1 incentives with regard to computers, and will constantly keep working to bring the faculty members from both districts together on future projects. Schnoes says there may still be some adjustments on staffing, as far as placement is concerned, but there are no big changes planned for the immediate future.

He says the process has also begun on getting together the paperwork necessary, with the intent of having the districts reorganized by July 1^st, 2014. That’s the date when money for Whole Grade Sharing will run out. The districts can still Whole Grade Share, but Schnoes says there are no incentives after that point.

The next incentive would be to look at reorganization, because the tax rates would likely go down from $5.40 per thousand valuation, but a reorganized district would see those rates dropped to $4.40 per thousand for the first year, with incremental increases each year thereafter until it reaches $5.40 again, in the fourth year of organization. He says the goal is to have the petitions completed and vote taken by July 1^st, 2014 to make reorganization official.

Schnoes said the joint boards Monday also discussed the hiring of a business manager. There are three applicants for the job, with interviews slated for next week.