SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU-TV) — While learning construction and the skilled trades are typically reserved for high school and college students, in northwest Iowa, Girls Inc. participants are wrapping up a building project where they made sheds this summer.

Local contractors and businesses are donating their time and supplies to help the girls build two “She Sheds.” In that process, they learned valuable skills such as plumbing, electrical skills and construction skills. The project is set to finish at the end of summer. With their new knowledge, organizers hope the girls can use what they were taught in their futures.

Girls Inc. of Sioux City Executive Director Mandy Engel-Cartie, says it’s a chance for the organization to help the community, and help the girls grow into independent, economically sufficient adults. She says even if the girls aren’t interested in skilled trades, it gives then a great set of skills to have throughout their lives.

Once the sheds are finished, Girls Inc. plans to hold an event where they will auction-off the sheds to anyone who is interested.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Kansas man was sentenced Wednesday (July 24, 2024), to 235 months (19 1/2-years) in federal prison for transportation of child pornography.

According to public documents and evidence presented at sentencing, Derek Levi Hendrickson, 33, transported three internet capable computer devices across state lines in September 2022 when he moved to Waukee, Iowa. Those devices – two cell phones and a laptop computer – contained thousands of images and videos of child pornography. At the time of his offense, Hendrickson was a registered sex offender due to a 2015 Kansas state conviction for possession of child pornography.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Hendrickson will be required to serve five years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Hendrickson was also ordered to pay $38,000 in restitution.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the FBI Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Task Force, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Nebraska State Patrol.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department say two people were arrested on drug charges late Thursday night. Authorities says 34-year-old Stewart Russell Anderson and 28-year-old Jeremy Wayne Elbrecht, Jr., both of Creston, were arrested a little after 11-p.m., Thursday, at 507 N. Division Street. Both were charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. They were cited and released from the scene on a promise to appear in court.

And, at around 4:45-p.m., Thursday, police in Creston arrested 40-year-old Yarioska Rondoncama, of Brooklyn, NY, at the Creston/Union County Law Enforcement Center. Rondoncama was taken into custody under the authority of a Union County warrant for failure to appear on an original charge of Driving while license Denied or Revoked. He was taken to the Union County Jail and posted $1,000 bond before being released.

(Des Moines, Iowa) –  A report from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources shows an ethanol-producing facility in northeast Iowa expelled excessive pollutants into the air for several years that can cause cancers and other health effects. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports the DNR recently issued an administrative order with regard to the POET Bioprocessing plant near Shell Rock. The Order says “Actual harm to the environment and public health likely occurred” at the facility, which makes about 140 million gallons of ethanol each year, along with other products from the leftover materials of the fuel production. The excessive pollution was tied to one of those additional products: a protein ingredient for animal feed.

The facility’s previous operator, Flint Hills Resources, installed the equipment that is used to extract the protein and began operating it in July 2020, the DNR order said. However, part of the system lacked sufficient pollution controls, which was discovered by POET in August 2023. POET had purchased the facility about two years earlier, but did not sample the emissions. Mark Fields, a unit leader for the DNR’s Air Quality Bureau, said Flint Hills had underestimated the amount of pollutants in the ethanol-production leftovers that are used to produce the protein. Those pollutants were then expelled during the protein processing.

The POET facility near Shell Rock produces about 140 million gallons of ethanol each year and other products. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth)

Fields said the issue was discovered with a similar system in another state, and POET shut down the production line and notified the DNR. The company later routed those emissions into an existing pollution-control system at the plant and fixed the problem. But emissions tests after the production line was reactivated revealed the extent of the excessive pollution in the previous years: Its volatile organic compounds emissions were 27 times its permitted limit, and emissions of a hazardous, cancer-causing compound — acetaldehyde — were nearly nine times the limit.

POET agreed to pay a $10,000 administrative fine, the DNR order said. It also will pay nearly $43,000 in fees that it owed the state for its under-reporting of emissions in 2021 and 2022.

(Radio Iowa) – Enjoy the weekend weather as the forecast calls for a return to unseasonably hot conditions to start the new week. National Weather Service Meteorologist Andrew Ansorge says temperatures will return to less comfortable levels. “We’re looking at you again temperatures being into the 90s there were parts of the state starting really Monday Tuesday into Wednesday,” he says.

The humidity will make it seem worse. “Humidity will combine to create heat indices that will probably be above 100 at times in portions of the state. That probably won’t be until sometime Monday afternoon will be the first time that maybe occurs and that could then continue on Tuesday as well as into Wednesday,” Ansorge says. That’s going to be around ten degrees above average. “Anywhere from the low to middle 80s is kind of a typical late July temperature,” he says.

Ansorge says there is the possibility of some storms being generated by the warmer conditions.

(Radio Iowa) – The wet spring could lead to a drop in the number of pheasants in Iowa. Iowa D-N-R wildlife research biologist Todd Bogenschutz says the switch in the weather pattern can really impact pheasant. “We went from major drought to major flooding in a pretty short time frame, and unfortunately it coincided with peak in nesting,” he says. Bogenschutz says several factors make wet springs tough on nesting pheasants. “We’re just not sure if the hens aren’t quite as attentive, maybe less of the eggs are fertile if they get chilled. You know and then we think in wet years you know, obviously predators,most to predation occurs by smell and when you have wetter conditions, scenting conditions are better, and so that could be part of it,” he says.

Bogenschutz says the wet spring can also cut back the food source for young birds. “Wetter cooler springs could impact the number of insects that are out there too, probably maybe suppresses it a little bit. So maybe the chicks don’t have as much forage base as they do and we tend to have our good years which tend to be warm and dry,” Bogenschutz says. He says hunters had their best harvest last year since 2007. The relatively mild winter helped more pheasants survive, so it’s hard to tell what their fall pheasant survey will show. “It was a really good fall last year. So I think people were thinking, holy cow, we could be phenomenal if everything lined up,” he says. “but you know that didn’t quite come to fruition. The roadside counts will be interesting, I expect we will maybe show some small increases in some areas, but I think especially up in northwest and north central where we got that heavy rain, that our counts are probably going to be lower.”

Bogenschutz says lower counts doesn’t mean hunters won’t find pheasants. “We’re still gonna have birds out there. You know, we had reports of broods early and actually fairly large, a little bit earlier than I normally get them. We definitely did have some early hatch because of I think the mild winter and how quickly it went away this year,” he says.

The annual roadside pheasant surveys are held in August and the results on pheasant numbers will be released in September.

(Radio Iowa) About a dozen Iowa firefighters are helping battle wildfires in other states — across the Rocky Mountains, on the West Coast, and in the Pacific Northwest. Ryan Harr, supervisor of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources’ Fire Program, says they’ve dispatched Iowans to help extinguish dangerous flareups in California, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming — and one crew just returned from fighting wildfires in South Dakota. “A number of folks are on hand crews where they’re just working on the fire line, preparing new lines, helping burnout, those sorts of things,” Harr says. “We have several people who are attached to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fire engines, so they’re actively out doing the initial attack, catching those smoke reports when they come in, and out chasing the fires.”

Iowa is also dispatching E-M-Ts and logistical planners to points west. Most of their assignments are for two weeks and Harr says it can be both grueling and rewarding. “They will spend a lot of time just out on the line working 10-, 12-, 14-hour days. Other folks, like some of our EMTs, are supporting firefighters on the line. Other folks are just on patrol and those sorts of things,” Harr says. “So they’re long, hot days. They do train for it. There is a rigorous national standard of physical fitness that folks have to meet to be deployed on a national assignment.” While Iowa has gotten a reprieve from several years of drought with heavy rain in recent months, Harr says the western U-S has seen just the opposite.

A mixed Iowa DNR and US Fish & Wildlife Service crew works a hand line in Wyoming last week. (Photo from Iowa DNR)

After a year or two of generally wet conditions, he says much of the region is drying out rapidly this summer. “The national need for firefighters across the nation varies from year to year,” Harr says. “The last two seasons haven’t been too busy in the western, southwestern and southern United States. Previous to that, it was quite busy, so we do send firefighters every year, but the number ebbs and flows over time.” Harr says the D-N-R will continue to support its federal partners by providing firefighters and support staff throughout the summer and early fall. “The folks we’re deploying are gaining valuable skills, training in different states, in different areas, with different government agencies, and they bring those skills back home to Iowa, back to the Iowa DNR, back to their local counties, their local volunteer fire departments,” Harr says. “From prescribed burning to volunteer departments doing wildfire suppression and brush fires, we know they’re important skills for folks to go out and bring back to Iowa.”

Every year, Harr says the D-N-R certifies about ten of its own staff and another 35 Iowans from partner agencies, volunteer fire departments, and other organizations to be available for national fire incident assignments.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Royalty was crowned Thursday evening during the 75^th Cass County Fair, in Atlantic, wrapping-up day one of the Fair. Atlantic High School graduate Claire Pellett was crowned Queen of the 2024 Fair. She one was of eight young ladies vying for the title. Claire is a member of the Pymosa 4H club and the daughter of Brad and Kristy Pellett. She also won the title of Miss Congeniality. As Fair Queen, Pellett will represent Cass County at the Iowa State Fair in August.

Jack Brahms was crowned 2024 Cass County Fair King. Jack is a member of the Union Leaders 4H Club, and a CAM High School graduate. He is the son of Steve and Diane Brahms, and one of five candidates for the title.

Other royalty announced during the Fair, include:

• Jace Thomsen – Cass County Fair Prince. Jace is the son of Jeff and Rana Thomsen
• Makayla Atkinson – Cass County Fair Princess.
• The title of Little Miss went to Molly Schuler, daughter of Josh and Cecilia Schuler.
• Oliver Zellmer was named Little Mister.
• Jace Thomson won the title of Mr. Congeniality.

Following the King & Queen Contest, Thursday, was Senior Recognition and a Youth Dance. The Cass County Fair continues through Tuesday, July 30^th.

Check-out the complete schedule HERE.