Sheriff’s officials in Union County report a Creston woman was arrested last week on four Union County warrants. 45-year old Anita Ruth Michael was taken into custody on the warrants charging her with two counts each: Possession of controlled substance, and Possession of drug paraphernalia.  Michael was being held for Union County in the Ringgold County Jail on $2,600 bond.

Three male juveniles, ages 11, 9 and 7, face charges in connection with the destruction of playground equipment at the Odebolt-Arthur/BCIG School, Friday evening in Odebolt. The Sac County Sheriff’s Office reports Odebolt Firefighters were called to school located at 600 Maple Street, at around 5-p.m, Friday.

An investigation determined the juveniles were allegedly playing with lighters, and had set wood chips on fire underneath a plastic slide. The fire got out of control and quickly spread to the rest of the playground equipment. The damage was estimated to be between $70,000 and $80,000.

The State Fire Marshal’s Office has been called-in to assist in the investigation. The investigation is ongoing, and charges are pending.

At least one insurance company is having to bring in agents from out of state to handle all of the claims from severe weather that swept across Iowa last Thursday afternoon and evening. Hundreds of customers report damage to their homes and vehicles from large hail and high winds. Chris Pilcic, a spokesman for State Farm, says a few areas had tennis ball-sized hail and there’s damage from Shenandoah to Dubuque.

“It was really statewide, in different parts of the state geographically, though we are concentrating on some of the metro areas where we’ve had the most claim volume,” Pilcic says. “In addition to the local resources who’ve been working since the day of the storm, we’ve deployed more resources to those areas.” Those include: Des Moines, Cedar Falls, Waterloo and Davenport. The company’s claims specialists report a lot of roof damage, but also dented siding to homes and shattered windows, primarily from hail, but also from wind.

“Since the severe weather in Iowa, we’ve heard from over 1,000 customers reporting damage,” Pilcic says. “The majority of claims we’re hearing about thus far is to automobiles, over 600 claims have been filed. On the homeowners’ side, we’ve heard from nearly 500 customers reporting damage to their homes.” As of this (Monday) morning, State Farm reported a total of 11-hundred-10 hail claims in Iowa from last week’s storms. In all of last year, the company had 27-hundred hail claims in the state. Given the backlog of claims, some customers haven’t yet had a personal visit from their agent and Pilcic says you shouldn’t wait to take action to protect your property.

“If you have broken windows, if you’re missing shingles or there’s a hole in your roof, if there’s really significant damage, you can take steps to make temporary repairs,” Pilcic says. “If you buy tarps or plywood or even if you hire someone to make those temporary repairs, take pictures, save your receipts, save your invoices and tell your insurance company about it. That’s going to be covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy.” If you need to hire help to make repairs, he offers some advice: Don’t pay anything up front, get everything in writing, and get references and a physical business address of the contractor.

(Radio Iowa)

A Sac City man has been airlifted to a Sioux City hospital after falling from a bridge on Sunday afternoon. Sac County Sheriff Ken McClure reports deputies responded to the scene at approximately 5:30 p.m. on a report that a man had fallen into the Raccoon River from a bridge south of Sac City. When they arrived on the scene, they learned that 48-year-old Brad Blum was reported to be sitting on the railing when he fell backwards.

Sac County Emergency Medical Services transported Blum to Loring Hospital in Sac City and he was later airlifted out.

(Radio Iowa)

A fire caused heavy damage to a home in Sioux City this (Monday) morning. Fire Marshal Mark Aesoph says they were called out just before 9 a-m. “The first unit did go on scene and had heavy fire visible at the front of the structure,” Aesoph says. “There were 10 occupants in the home at the time of the fire, as well as several pets. He says the people in the home included the couple who rented it, some friends and six kids ranging in age from one to 12. All got out without any serious injuries.

He says a couple of people were looked at and did not appear to have any issues. Aesoph says the home did have working smoke alarms. Aesoph says the fire traveled quickly through the home and that’s why having smoke alarms is important. “Without that smoke alarm and the early warning to get moving, it could have been a very different situation,” Aesoph says. Investigators are still looking for the cause of the fire.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A spokesman for health care insurer Medica says it plans to sell insurance in Iowa next year and expects to make an announcement soon. Medica spokesman Larry Bussey confirmed Monday the company has preliminary plans to remain in Iowa but the company seeks clarity on how the Affordable Care Act exchange market in Iowa is going to function.

Iowa last week applied for a federal waiver to allow federal subsidies designed to lower costs for low-income and older participants to be used to entice younger people to buy insurance in hopes of keeping Medica and perhaps attracting others back to Iowa.

Medica is the only statewide insurer left in Iowa. State insurance officials feared the Minnesota-based company might also leave, causing 72,000 people to have no choice next year.

Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman, Monday, said the CodeRED system will be ending county-wide, later this month. Hamman said “For the past several years, Montgomery County has exclusively used CodeRED as our primary emergency mass notification system. In 2015, Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management launched Alert Iowa available to all 99 counties free of charge. With our service contract ending on June 30, 2017 with CodeRED, Montgomery County will switch all emergency mass notification messages along with severe weather alerts to the Montgomery County Alert Iowa system.”

Hammon said also, “To date, approximately 556 users have signed up for the Montgomery County Alert Iowa system and over 1,000 phone calls, text messages and emails receive these notifications. All current CodeRED users must opt in to the new system to continue receiving emergency and weather alerts.”

You can sign up with Montgomery County Alert Iowa by visiting www.montgomerycountyiowa.com/alertiowa or by calling the Montgomery Co EMA office at 712-623-3749.

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County said Monday (Today), 26-year old Laron D’Pree Hampton, of Glenwood, was arrested Friday morning at the Mills County Jail, on a warrant for Sexual Abuse in the 2nd degree/3rd offense. No other information was provided. His bond was set at $75,000.

Also arrested Friday morning, was 25-year old Justin Lewis Marsden, of Red Oak. He was already at the Montgomery County Jail when he was arrested on a warrant for Revoked Pre-trial Release. Bond was set at $12,000. And, 27-year old Million Jonathan Lee, of Emerson, was arrested Friday night for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond.

Saturday morning, Mills County Deputies arrested 43-year old Kimberly Michelle Streit, of Glenwood, for OWI/1stoffense. Her bond was set at $1,000. She was taken into custody following a traffic stop on Highway 34 at around 4-a.m., Saturday.

Sunday morning, 26-year old Lucas Craig Farmer, of Red Oak, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Arson in the 2nd degree. And, Sunday night, 40-year old Joseph Lee Hastie, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension.

Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater released details Monday on a few recent arrests.

On Sunday, June 11th Deputies arrested 32-year-old Derik Wayne Bud Pickrell, of Fontanelle on a charge of Driving While Revoked. Pickrell was arrested at 1st and Maple Streets in Fontanelle and later released on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

Also on Sunday, June 11th at 5:47pm Deputies arrested 37-year-old Michael Lynn Huddleson, of Fontanelle, on multiple charges. Huddleson was arrested at 12th and Main Streets in Fontanelle just before 3-a.m., for OWI 2nd Offense, Carrying Weapons, and Theft 3rd Degree.The weapons charge stems from a Glock 19, .9mm handgun Huddleson had on his lap when the Deputy Wedemeyer approached Huddleson’s pickup truck, which he had pulled over for a broken taillight.

Seeing that the Glock was pointed in the Deputy’s direction, Wedemeyer drew his duty weapon and ordered Huddleson out of the vehicle. One the man was placed in handcuffs, the Deputy secured the weapon, which was fully loaded, with one round in the chamber. The gun was determined to have been stolen out of Clarke County. Huddleson was taken to the Adair County Jail and released later that released on a $2,000 cash or surety bond.

On Thursday, June 15th Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 38-year-old Laura Kay Welsch, of Greenfield, for Simple Assault. Welsch was taken into custody and held on $300 cash or surety bond.

A Page County Sheriff’s vehicle was damaged and a Deputy escaped injury during a rollover accident on Friday night while responding to storm damage calls. At about 10:20pm Page County Deputy Lindsey Stephens was south bound on K Avenue in the 2500 block.  Deputy Stephens had been responding to calls of structures being destroyed in that area and power lines across the roads during the severe storm.  This is approximately 3 miles northeast of Coin.  Deputy Stephens was operating a 2014 Dodge Ram 1500 patrol vehicle owned by Page County.

The T-intersection sign at 255^th& K had been blown down during the storm.  Deputy Stephens took evasive action to stop and avoid the large power pole in the ditch.  The patrol vehicle slid sideways and the passenger’s side tires dropped off the shoulder of the gravel road.  The vehicle rolled on its passenger side due to the steep angle of the ditch and then slowly rolled onto its top.  Deputy Stephens was unable to get out of the vehicle once freeing himself from the seat-belt as neither door would open.

Once the doors were opened by another member of the Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Stephens got out of the patrol vehicle.  Deputy Stephens was uninjured during the accident.  Damage to the patrol truck is estimated at over $10,000.00