Des Moines, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, Monday (today), said two Polk County men were sentenced Friday (Nov. 18th), for their roles in the distribution of a controlled substance that resulted in death. Authorities say 39-year-old Michael Allen James  was sentenced to 20-years in prison. 38-year-old Gregory Michael Williams was sentenced to 14-years in prison. Both Des Moines men were sentenced after pleading guilty.

On November 8, 2020, Williams purchased two Oxycodone pills from James. Williams then distributed the pills to C.C.. Later, C.C. and his fiancée, K.F., ingested the pills, and both overdosed. C.C. was revived on scene and survived. K.F. was brought to the hospital and later pronounced dead. The Oxycodone pills were counterfeit and contained fentanyl.

Investigators with the Des Moines Police Department Vice-Narcotics Unit reviewed phone records and conducted interviews, including of the victims’ friends and family, which led officers to identify Williams and James. In November 2020, Williams was arrested in possession of a firearm after he held his children at gunpoint. In December 2020, officers executed a search warrant at James’ house and located marijuana, cash, and 100 rounds of ammunition. James was prohibited for possessing ammunition because he is a felon.

U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The investigation was conducted by the Des Moines Police Department. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mallory E. Weiser, with assistance from Victim Witness Specialist Charlotte Kovacs.

(Radio Iowa) – The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party says two well-known Iowans in the DEMOCRATIC Party need to speak out to help keep their party’s Caucuses first-in-the-nation. Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann says former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack need to use their clout. “Stand up and help,” Kaufmann says. “Where in the world is Vilsack? Where in the world is Harkin?” The REPUBLICAN National Committee has voted to have the Iowa Caucuses kick off the G-O-P’s presidential nominating process in 2024, but a group of national DEMOCRATS will meet next week to consider other state’s vying to go first in their party’s process.

“This is ridiculous that we don’t have a current secretary of ag advocating for us in the most vociferous way,” Kaufmann says. A former Iowa Democratic Party chairman says Vilsack’s role as U.S. Ag Secretary restricts his political activities and Harkin doesn’t want to detract from his bipartisan work through the Harkin Institute. Iowa Democrats face what appears to be an uphill battle to keep their caucuses first in the nation and Kaufmann says he’s willing to do what he can to change those odds.  “Maybe my head’s in the clouds here, but I’m not ready to give up on it yet,” Kaufmann says. If the Democratic National Committee decides to schedule presidential primaries in another state before Iowa’s Democratic Party Caucuses, Kaufmann vows to do whatever it takes to ensure both parties’ caucuses are held on the same day — and are first.

“We will back the Iowa Caucuses up as far as we need to back them up in order to be first,” Kaufmann says. “By golly, we’ll have our Caucuses on Halloween if we have to.” In 2008 and 2012, other states rescheduled their primaries to try to leapfrog the Iowa Caucuses and New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Primary — so Iowa Republicans and Democrats held their Caucuses on January 3rd.

ATLANTIC, IA (November 21, 2022) – Harvest Market 2022 is today, Monday, November 21 from 3-7 PM at the Cass County Community Center (805 W. 10th St. Atlantic, IA 50022). This year, Pim’s Thai Food Truck will be set up outside the Community Center selling Thai food to go. Inside the building, over 25 local food and craft vendors will be selling at today’s market. Just inside the door, new vendor, Spirits of the Faire, will be selling gourmet hot cocoa for shoppers to enjoy while the browse. The market offers lots of late fall produce such as a variety of squashes, sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, spinach, and lettuce, in addition to a great selection of local meat including beef, chicken, lamb, and pork.

Holiday farmers markets offer lots of desserts and sweet treats. Expect to find pastries, cookies, cupcakes, jams, holiday popcorn, sweet breads, freeze-dried candy, caramel apple bites, chocolate covered cherries, and more. Customers looking for pies are encouraged to show up early. Artisan and craft vendors at today’s market will be selling lots of items that prepare your home for the holidays and make for great gifts. There will be lots of seasonal candles, soaps, and beauty products, in addition to jewelry, wood crafts, holiday ornaments, children’s books, potted plants, tie blankets, knitted hats and scarves, and more.

Harvest Market is sponsored by Cass County Tourism, Deter Motor Co., First Whitney Bank and Trust, Cass Health, Cass County Farm Bureau, the Atlantic Community Promotion Commission, and the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce. For the latest information on all Produce in the Park farmers markets, follow Produce in the Park on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProduceInThePark) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/produceintheparkatlanticia/) or sign up for the Produce in the Park newsletter at www.produceintheparkatlanticiowa.com.

Harvest Market 2022 Final Vendor Lineup:

Food truck: Pim’s Thai Food; Atlantic Atlas Cinema – Gourmet Popcorn; Bridgewater Farm – Organic Produce, Meat, Eggs; Brun Ko Farm – Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Herb Salts; Claire’s Cinnamon Rolls (preorder only) – Frosted Cinnamon Rolls and Caramel Pecan Rolls; Corn 4 a Cause – Popcorn on the Cob; DezaRae Farm Soaps – Goat Milk Soaps; Donna’s Jewelry – Jewelry and More; Frosting Inc.  – Cupcakes, Cookies, Holiday Treats; Harrisdale Farmstead – Sweet Potatoes; Holaday Baking – Homemade Baked Goods, Jellies, and Holiday Crafts; Hygge Cottage – Children’s books; Imagine at Zellmer Century Farm – Fairy Garden Items, Potted Plants, Holiday Ornaments; JD Crafters – Handcrafted Culinary and Ornamental Products, as well as House/Barn Quilts; Johnna Joy Designs – Jewelry, Prints, and Original Art; Kringle Man – Danish Kringle, Pastries, Letters, Cream Horns, Stroopwaffels, Rye Bread, Krispies; Matilda Dawn Creations – Homemade Greeting Cards, and Customized Wall Scrabble Tiles; Midwest Candles by Brit – Candles, Wax Melts, Bath Salts; Miss NiNi’s Fine Desserts (preorder only) – Handcrafted Cheesecakes, Layer Cakes, Pies, Flourless Chocolate Torte, and Raspberry Danish Butter Cookies; Noble Provisions – Beef, Pork, and More; Piper’s Brae Farm – Aronia berries and Aronia Products; Rolling Acres Farm – Squash including varieties Small Butternut, Acorn, Delecata and Spaghetti; Smudge – Bath and Body Products and Candles; Spirits of the Faire – Gourmet Hot Coca; Sue’s Country Garden – Jams (taste tests!), Sweet Breads, Crisps, Tie Blankets, Potholder/Towel Combo, and More; Sweet Sisters Vegan – Vegan Health and Beauty Products; Unicorn Clouds – Freeze-dried Candies; Viether Creations – Knitted Hats, Dish Clothes, and More; Wud Bi Tek – CNC Router Carvings and Laser Art.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Police Department reports two people were arrested in connection with the theft of packages from a residence in town. The Police Department received a report on November 18th, of packages that had been stolen. The reporting party also provided officers with video footage of the incident. While on patrol later in the day, officers located a vehicle that matched what they had seen in the video. Officers subsequently made contact with the vehicle and its occupants. Through the investigation that followed, officers were able to recover the stolen items.

The occupants of the vehicle, 35-year-old Casey Kirchner, of Rockwell City, and 56-year-old Melissa Beyerink, of Sac City, were arrested and charged with Theft in the 4th degree. Both individuals were brought to the Cass County Jail where they were booked and held. If you have information regarding the incident, please call the Atlantic Police Department at 712-243-3512.

Note: A criminal charge is merely an accusation and defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report one arrest and two incidents of vandalism occurred late last week. At around 6:35-p.m. Friday, 58-year-old James Chandler Sash, of Creston, was arrested at his residence, on a Union County warrant for Indecent Exposure – a Serious Misdemeanor. Sash was brought to the Union County Jail and later released on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

Last Thursday (11/17), two men, one from Minnesota, the other from Shenandoah, reported to Creston Police, that the back windows of their trucks was broken out. The steering column in the vehicle from Minnesota, was broken. The incident happened while the vehicles were parked at the Quality Inn, in Creston. Nothing was reported missing in either case. The damage was estimated at $500 and $300 respectively.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Cass County will begin their meeting Tuesday at 9-a.m., with a Public Hearing. The hearing is with regard to a proposed amendment to Zoning, changing McCunn Specialty Firearms, LLC from a Business District to Light Industrial, for the purpose of assembling firearms.

That’s Zoning Administrator Rich Hansen, who spoke during the Supervisor’s meeting on Oct. 25th. At the time, Hanson said letters would be going out to nearby landowners with regard to the proposed zoning change.

In other business, the Board will hear from Wendy Mueller, Executive Director of West Central Community Action. They’ll act on approving a Resolution to approve bids for two bridge projects, and an application for Family Farm Eligibility. The Cass County Supervisors meet, as always, in their Board Room inside the Cass County Courthouse, in Atlantic.

The meeting will be broadcast on Zoom, through a link found HERE.

(Atlantic, Iowa) The Director of the Atlantic Public Library provided an Annual Report to the City Council, last Wednesday. Michelle Andersen updated the Council on the Library’s mission statement from over the past year, and set a new strategic plan. The Mission Statement, she said, sets the framework for talking about the services offered by the Library, last year.

Another part of their Mission Statement, is connecting people to resources, which you would probably think of as traditional library services .

While still not at pre-Covid levels, Andersen said they are on the way back to what the use was before Covid. One of the more interesting resources the Atlantic and other affiliated libraries in Cass County have utilized over the past year, is the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Atlantic Public Library (Kathy Somers, photo, via www.atlantic.lib.ia.us)

When the child gets their 5^th birthday book through the program, they are invited and encouraged to get their very own library card. On another note, Michelle Andersen said they received a grant in the form or a Public Library Collaboration Award, from the Network of the National Library of Medicine to use for mental health resources. The collaboration was between the libraries of Cass County and Healthy Cass County to accomplish three goals.

The other part was buying mental health resources shared across Cass County, and mental health programming.

During the fiscal year 2022, there were over 38,000 visits to the library, and 300 programs attended by 3,595 people. Revenues were funded approximately 86% from the City, with the rest through various other sources, including grants. Andersen pointed out the “Fees do not run a library. Fees are a part,” that help them recoup some of the cost of what it takes to do things associated with their programs and necessities.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa/KJAN) – The holiday travel season is upon us. Americans will be making their way over the river and through the woods…to see distant – and not so distant relatives, by plane, train and automobile. If you’re traveling on the road to make your destination, be advised law enforcement agencies across the State will be watching to ensure drivers obey the rules of the road, and making it there and back, safely. Last year in Iowa, 11 people lost their lives on the State’s roads between November 15^th and the 28^th, which is the holiday traveling time-frame. State Patrol Trooper Ryan Devault with District 3 in Council Bluffs , says to-date, there have been 302 fatalities statewide since the beginning of the year.

Devault says seat-belts save lives. Since the beginning of the year also, 27 traffic-related deaths have occurred in the nine-county region Post 3 covers south of I-80 in southwest Iowa. That’s one more than the number of fatalities that occurred last year. The Iowa State Patrol, Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB), and other law enforcement agencies across the State, are working together to keep the Thanksgiving travel tradition alive, but reminding motorists of some simple tips.

The number of reckless, impatient and aggressive drivers have been increasing since the COVID virus began to wane and more motorists take to the road. Trooper Devault says over 90 crashes involve some sort of bad driver behavior, such as weaving in-and-out of traffic, tailgating and brake-checking other drivers.

Inattentive driving is another factor in many crashes. There are number of things that can make a driver want to take their eyes off the road, including conversations with people inside your vehicle. Devault offers this piece of advice…

And, of course, if your holiday plans involve an alcoholic beverage or two, don’t drive impaired.

In 2020, one-person was killed every 45-minutes in a drunk or impaired driver crash on the nation’s roads.

(Radio Iowa) – The La Nina weather pattern will influence Iowa’s climate for the winter ahead, likely bringing wetter and colder-than-normal temperatures. It’s the third winter in a row for La Nina, but observers do -not- expect it to make a fourth appearance. Meteorologist Doug Kluck, the climate services director for the central region of the National Weather Service, says they see La Nina fading early next year. “As time goes on, into the spring, we see a lessening of the chance of La Nina to sustain itself,” Kluck says, “better chances for something we call neutral, sort of in between La Nina and El Nino, that are chances for that kind of middle period.” Kluck says they expect cooler, wetter weather for the region during December.

“There’s better chances, leaning towards below-normal temperatures across the far north, really, the entire area except for Colorado,” Kluck says, “and then for us, it’d be the Missouri Basin being above-normal in terms of chances for precipitation.” Kluck says the expectation for December through February is similar. “We have that below-normal temperatures extending from the Great Lakes west to the coast. That’s a very, very, very strong La Nina-esque picture,” Kluck says. “That’s precipitation above-normal across the northern tier and Ohio River Basin. A lot of those places need the water, and so we hope they get it.”

With La Nina fading, Kluck says the expectation is for more normal weather trends across North America.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop in Red Oak early this (Monday) morning, resulted in an arrest. According to Red Oak Police, Officers stopped a vehicle for a traffic violation in the area of 2nd and Nuckols Street at around 12:32-a.m.  Upon further investigation, they determined 44-year-old Chad Michael Hill, of Red Oak, had a suspended license through the State of Iowa. Hill was taken into custody and held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $491.25 bond.