The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports a man a woman were arrested Saturday evening, with assistance from a bystander. Authorities say at around 6:36-p.m., the Adams County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a man identifying himself as “Jawanza Curtis,” who said he saw a media release containing his name, but that the arrested person was in fact his brother. At the Casey’s Store in Corning, Deputies located the person who had just posted bond and had been released from jail. They questioned the subject, and while attempting to place him into custody, the man attempted to flee on foot through the parking lot.

Deputies were able to take him into custody, and identified him as Kaijuan Avonte Curtis, of Council Bluffs. Kaijuan had outstanding warrants for his arrest through another agency. He was transported to the Adams County Jail and booked in on the following felony charges: A Controlled Substance Violation; Possession of Contraband, and two counts Interference with Officials Acts. He faces additional, lesser charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Providing False Identification Information.

Deputies also made contact with Kaijuan’s girlfriend, Gabrielle Hunke, of Mount Ayr, who posted bond for Kaijuan. She continued to provide deputies with false ID information for her boyfriend, and was placed under arrest for Accessory After the Fact, along with Providing False ID information. Deputies were assisted at the scene by the Iowa State Patrol. The Sheriff’s Department extends its since “Thank you” as well, to the bystander who assisted in taking Kaijuan Curtis into custody.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden launched an eight-day bus tour of Iowa on Saturday projecting confidence, ignoring his many Democratic presidential competitors and pledging that he will unseat President Donald Trump in 2020. The former vice president pledged first to win the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, despite recent polls suggesting his standing there has slipped in recent months.

“I promise you, I promise you,” Biden told a few hundred supporters outside his Council Bluff campaign office, “we’re going to win this race, and we’re going to beat Donald Trump, and we’re going to change America.” Behind the optimism, Biden aides acknowledge he must sharpen his message and bolster his voter outreach operation ahead of the caucuses that start Democrats’ 2020 voting. But his advisers also insist he has wide support and remains well-positioned to recover any lost ground.

His chief argument — his perceived strength against Trump — was on clear display Saturday. Sidestepping his philosophical tussle with progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders over the party’s direction, Biden struck a general-election posture. He added an emphasis on small town and rural America, an electoral swath where Democrats have struggled in recent elections but that could prove critical in both the nominating fight and November battlegrounds.

“We’re going to touch on what we think is a forgotten part of this campaign,” Biden said, bemoaning the effects of Trump’s tariffs on Iowa farmers and highlighting his own rural policy plans shaped with the help of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. The former Obama agriculture secretary recently gave Biden his most high-profile Iowa endorsement.

Iowa polls suggest that Biden, while a front-runner nationally, is in a jumble near the top. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, of South Bend, Indiana, appears to hold a narrow edge over Biden, 77; Warren, 70; and Sanders, 78. The senators have animated the party’s left flank, while Buttigieg joins Biden in Democrats’ center-left wing but is calling for generational change. Thus far, Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders have drawn consistently larger Iowa crowds than Biden, while some party activists criticize his campaign as insufficiently aggressive.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors plan to call an 8-year-old boy to testify against his father in an Iowa triple-homicide trial. KCCI-TV reports that the state on Wednesday filed a motion that would allow the boy to testify via a closed-circuit TV feed. The child is the son of Marvin Esquivel-Lopez of Guatemala, who faces three counts of first-degree murder in the July shooting deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son.

The killings happened in Des Moines. Court documents say the child was an eyewitness. Esquivel-Lopez pleaded not guilty. His trial starts Jan. 27. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said Escobar-Orellana is in the United States illegally and had twice been deported before the shooting. He was convicted in 2010 of illegal entry into the U.S.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — After a year that has seen some of the worst flooding ever in parts of the Midwest, concern is already rising that the spring of 2020 may bring more high water to places that still haven’t fully recovered.

Flooding ravaged much of the Missouri and Mississippi River basins earlier this year, reaching record levels in many places. Eight months later, parts of the Missouri River are above flood stage at a time of the year when river levels traditionally run low. Conditions are only slightly better on the Mississippi River.

High river levels aren’t the only worry. National Weather Service hydrologist Mark Fuchs cites two other factors: Soil is extremely saturated in several upper Midwestern states, and the long-range forecast offers a strong possibility of a wetter-than-normal winter.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Two people are dead and one person is badly injured after an accident in central Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports that the accident happened about 7 a.m. Friday in Jasper County when a Chevrolet Impala went off the roadway and rolled. Authorities are investigating to determine what caused the accident.

The driver, 23-year-old Dallis Harrison of Newton, and a 16-year-old passenger, Isaiah Eliander of Garwin, were both ejected and killed. A 15-year-old passenger, Kylie Eliander, was not ejected and was seriously hurt.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reported a pair of incidents Friday.

Just after 7:00 am, deputies received a call from an individual stating that he had located a small child sitting inside a storage tote located outside of 907 Adams Street in Corning.  Deputies took the child into protective custody until a family member was located.  The child was later identified and a safety plan was put in place as she was turned over to a designated family member.  After investigating, at about 3:00 pm, deputies arrested both James Coleman and Kaitlyn DeYoung for child endangerment.  The incident remains under investigation by the Adams County Sheriff’s Office and the DHS.

Shortly after 10:00 Friday night deputies conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle owned and operated by Gabrielle Hunke of Mount Ayr.  The county K-9 gave a positive alert to the odor of narcotics.  After investigating further, Hunke and a passenger, Jawanza Curtis, Jr. of Iowa City were both placed under arrest for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of a Controlled Substance with the Intent to Deliver and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  Curtis was also charged with Interference with Official Acts.  Hunke was also charged with Minor in Possession of Alcohol.

Red Oak police arrested 35 year old Jeremy Ray Dilocker at about 10:30 Friday night in the 300 block of Coolbaugh Street.  Police report Dilocker was charged with 3rd or subsequent offense Public Intoxication, an aggravated misdemeanor.  Dilocker was held at the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Two people accused in the shooting death of a man suspected of stealing a friend’s car are scheduled for trial next year in western Iowa. Pottawattamie County District Court records say 25-year-old Jonathan Echtinaw and 23-year-old Carissa Kendall, have pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter. They’re scheduled to go on trial Jan. 7 in Council Bluffs. Nebraska court records say they live in Omaha.

Echtinaw is accused of shooting 18-year-old Ethan Edgar, of Hutchinson, Kansas, on May 6. Authorities say Echtinaw, Kendall and other friends of a woman who’d reported the car’s theft to Omaha police went looking for it. They spotted at a Council Bluffs gas station. Authorities say Kendall stopped her vehicle behind the stolen car to help block it, and Echtinaw opened fire when Edgar put the car into reverse and rammed Kendall’s vehicle.

w/ Chris Parks

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The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Clarinda man on Thursday. At 5:00pm Deputies arrested 62-year-old Robert Wade Harbin of Clarinda for Aggravated Assault and Simple Assault following an incident in the 200 block of Central Avenue in Villisca. Harbin was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.