The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports an investigation into a vehicle stolen from Pottawattamie County resulted in the arrest on Wednesday, of 36-year old Ryan Joel Castle, from Griswold. Castle was arrested for Felony Theft 2nd Degree. He was taken to the Cass County Jail and held on $5,000 bond.

Also arrested Wednesday, was 20-year old Tyron Lee Franks, of Council Bluffs, who was taken into custody on a District Court warrant for Probation Violation. Franks was transported to the Cass County Jail and released Thursday (today), on his own recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission issued fines to five casinos for violations of regulations at their meeting today (Thursday). The Hard Rock Casino in Sioux City was fined 20-thousand dollars for allowing a minor onto the gambling floor — where he gambled and also consumed alcohol. Hard Rock General manager Doug Fisher spoke to the commission.

“Hard Rock Sioux City takes responsible gambling very seriously and deeply regret this incident,” Smith says. “Our security team is well trained, and new security team members undergo a thorough three-week training program before being allowed on the gaming for by themselves,” Smith says the security guard who let the minor in was fully trained but failed to follow through.

“Unfortunately when the minor approached the turnstile he made a motion to retrieve his wallet and the office just waved him through without checking his I-D,” Smith says. He says the officer was fired for not following their policies. He says the casino has increased and improved its training. He says they are conducting quarterly retraining and all personnel must take an I-D check and training every 90 days. Smith says they have also installed a webcam that allows them to take a picture of a minor who is turned away and send that picture to all officers.

The Wild Rose Emmetsburg was fined 10-thousand dollars for allowing a person who had banned themselves from gambling to get into the casino. They also failed to download an update of the banned gamblers withing the required seven days. Steve Cody is the casino’s general manager. “There were some mistakes made, there were some procedures that weren’t followed and we apologized for them. I guess in this industry you’ve got a lot of people involved and there’s going to be a lot of mistakes that happen,” Cody says. He says they have updated and improved their policies to prevent future problems.

“I think that we have some good procedures in place now — and hopefully I am not up here again for a very long time,” according to Cody. The Wild Rose in Jefferson was fined five-thousand dollars for not downloading the banned list in the required time. General Manager Travis Dvorak explained the issue to the commission.  He says it was a miscommunication between them and the vendor when they were changing their casino management system. Dvorak says they had the information in time but did not get it downloaded in time. He says they did do an audit during that period of time and there were no mailings sent out to anyone on the self-ban list.

The T-V-G Network, which conducts online wagering, and FanDuel, which conducts online games, were also each fined five-thousand dollars for not meeting the download deadline.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors met 9-a.m. Tuesday (July 7th), with all members present. During their session,  County Engineer Trent Wolken reviewed current road projects. Afterward, the board entered into a closed session for an evaluation/review of Wolken’s performance since he was hired for the position, as required in his contract. About 50 minutes later, they returned to an open session, during which County Attorney Vanessa Strazdas reviewed current legal activity.

Auditor/Board Secretary Dale Sunderman reports also, County Sheriff Darby McLaren has submitted payroll change notices to classify two deputies as sergeants with supplement pay of $1/hour.  The Board discussed the request as to who has final approval authority; whether or not the union agreement applied; whether or not this was supplement pay; etc.  The County Attorney remarked that there was nothing in Iowa Code that stated the board of supervisors had to approve supplement pay; and nothing in the union agreement prohibiting adding a rank/classification or supplement pay.

A union representative present virtually (electronically), remarked that it may be necessary to approve a memorandum of understanding to add the classification to the current contract.  She also asked the board to consider extending the contract for additional year/s with an option to renegotiate wages annually.  Two Board members, the Sheriff and a union representative will meet in the near future to discuss the issues.  After due discussion, action was postponed until a future meeting.

Officials with Mills County Public Health said Thursday (today), three additional positive cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Mills County. The cases are adults: One is 18-to 40-years of age, two are 61-to-80 years old. All three contracted the virus through community spread.

Authorities remind residents “It is more important than ever to practice physical distancing, wash your hands frequently with soap and water for at least 20 second, cover your coughs and sneezes, and stay at home when you are ill.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Revenue woes have led the board of Linwood Cemetery in Dubuque to turn ownership over to the state of Iowa. The Telegraph Herald reports that the Linwood Cemetery Association made the decision when it became clear that it was running out of money. Association board member Ken Miller says the board wanted to act before the cemetery was forced into receivership.

The Iowa Insurance Division will oversee the transfer of control of the cemetery to the state. Division spokesman Chance McElhaney says the agency will determine new revenue sources and ways to reduce expenses. The receivership process should take several months.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A federal appeals court says a Davenport officer who stomped on the ankle of a suspect used unreasonable force but nonetheless cannot be held liable. The 2015 stomp by officer Brian Stevens allegedly broke the ankle of suspect Juan Shelton, who was pinned down by five officers at the time.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals says that Stevens enjoys qualified immunity and therefore cannot be sued for excessive force. The court says that it was unreasonable for Stevens to stomp on Shelton’s ankle under the circumstances, but that officers cannot be held liable for such split-second decisions.

The Atlantic Chamber Ambassadors were hosted by Cass County ISU Extension on Thursday, July 9, 2020. The Ambassadors heard from Kate Olsen about the many ongoing programs and how those programs have been modified and developed thought COVID-19 including the Cass County Fair. Kate shared that even with the many changes in the fair programming the numbers of 4H participates is just a little shy of normal which is “very encouraging” said Kate Olson.

Ambassador’s Pictured Left to Right: Brad Pellett, Ruth Sears, Bill Saluk, Brian Ruge, Steve Anderson, Lauren Tigges, Rich Perry, Krysta Hanson, Jim Kickland, Dawn Marnin, Kelsey Beschorner, Brigham Hoegh, Wendy Richter, Kate Olson, Shelby Van Horn, Morgan Barkley, Hannah Richter, Lori Anderson, Kerry Jepsen, Michelle Heath, Allen Ladd, Dr. Keith Leonard, Lana Westphalen, Janet Cappel, Donnie Drennan, Jen McEntaffer, Barb Wollenhaupt, Colt Doherty, Dolly Bergmann. (Photo submitted)

The Ambassadors were introduced to Wendy Richter as PROSPER Project Coordinator whose goal is to facilitate interventions specifically aimed at middle school‐aged youth and their families, with an emphasis on building youth competencies, improving family functioning, and preventing conduct problems, particularly substance use. Ambassador’s were also introduced to Brigham Hough in her role as the Cass County Wellness. Brigham is involved in many programs around Cass County such as Grown Another Row, Produce in the Park, Healthy Cass County, Mobile food Pantry and others.

For more information regarding programs and resources, contact 712-243-1132 or visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public’s help regarding any information regarding a fire that burned an unused corncrib at 62635 610th Street (northeast of Lewis) on July 8, 2020, at around 1:16 p.m.

If you saw any activity at or around that location about the time of the fire, please contact Sheriff Darby McLaren by phone at (712) 249-2206 or email at dmclaren@casscoia.us.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies and numerous rescue crews responded to a call for help early this (Thursday) morning, about a man who was floating on the East Nishnabotna River who had become unresponsive. The 9-1-1 call to the PageComm Dispatch Center came in at around 1:12-a.m., from a 44-year old female. The woman said she had been floating with a 53-year old man on the river since 8-p.m. Wednesday. She said that they were north of Essex.

Numerous agencies were dispatched to this large area. It was determined from the phone calls that the female and the male were on the East Nishnabotna River between the bridges on 110th ST and D Avenue,  north of Essex. Due to accessibility issues associated with the area, the rescue operation took some time, as there is no boat access within several miles.

When the woman and her companion were located at around 3-a.m. Thursday (today), the man was deceased. The Page County Sheriff’s Office was assisted in the search /recovery effort by the Essex Fire & Rescue, Red oak Fire & Rescue, Corning Fire & Rescue, Mt. Ayr Fire & Rescue, Clarinda Fire & rescue, Shenandoah Police Department, Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery County EMA, Page County EMA, Midwest Regional Dive Team, Iowa DNR as well as local citizens with knowledge of the river in the area.

The incident remains under investigation at this time. The name of the male was being withheldpending notification of relatives. More information will be released at a later date.

(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of trade unions is putting up a 100-thousand dollar reward for tips that lead to an arrest in connection with a noose found hanging at a construction site in Altoona. Earl Agan is president of the Central Iowa Building Trades. “There’s absolutely, positively no place for this kind of behavior in the union construction industry,” Agan says, “and anything at all we can do to help bring whoever’s responsible for this to justice — and send a clear message to everybody else that this is not acceptable — we’re going to do.”

The noose was found at the Facebook Data Center. Investigators believe it was put there on Juneteenth, the holiday that marks the end of slavery in America. “There’s no way shape or form anybody should have to put up with this at the workplace,” Agan says, “and we don’t want anybody to feel unwanted when they come to work in the union construction industry.” The reward money comes from dues paid by construction workers across the country. “The general presidents and business managers of this area just felt strongly enough about it that we felt it was the right thing to do,” Agan says.

The Altoona Police Department is investigating the incident.  Agan says 50-thousand dollars will be paid if a tip leads to the arrest of a person or persons. The other half of the reward will be paid if there’s a conviction. The reward offer expires September 1st.