(Radio Iowa) — Kansas and Arizona authorities have issued a “silver alert” for a missing Sharpsburg, Iowa man. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation and Arizona Department of Public Safety say 90-year-old James Lewis Larson was last seen November 13th near Lawrence. Additional information from Arizona authorities says Larson’s cell phone was pinged 30 miles outside of Yuma, Arizona on November 16th. Authorities say Larson was traveling from his home in Iowa to Yuma, but he never arrived. Larson is described as a white male, approximately 6-feet tall, 220 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes with eyeglasses. He was last seen driving a 2017 Ford Edge 4-door hatchback with Iowa license plate ASG 448. Anyone with information is urged to contact their local law enforcement office.

(Radio Iowa) — A judge has temporarily halted plans to execute a north-central Iowa drug kingpin for the 1993 murders of three adult witnesses and two children. Dustin Honken of Britt was convicted of the July 1993 murders of 34-year-old Greg Nicholson, 31-year-old Lori Duncan, as well as Duncan’s two children, 10-year-old Kandace and six-year-old Amber, at Duncan’s Mason City home. Honken was also convicted of murdering another informant, 32-year-old Terry DeGeus, four months later. Their five bodies were found buried in a field southwest of Mason City in the fall of 2000.

Honken was one of the Midwest’s early large-scale producers of methamphetamine and was sentenced in 1997 to a 27-year term for making and distributing drugs. Honken’s girlfriend Angela Johnson was also convicted in connection with the murders and was sentenced to death, but her punishment was reduced to life in prison in 2014. US Attorney General William Barr announced in July that he had directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to clear the way to resume capital punishment after a nearly two decade lapse. Honken was scheduled to be executed on January 15th at the federal prison in Terre Haute Indiana.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan put the cases of Honken and four others on ice while the challenge plays out. She said in a Wednesday evening ruling that the public is not served by “short-circuiting” a legitimate judicial process. Barr told the Associated Press on Thursday that he would take the issue all the way to the US Supreme Court if necessary.

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County report a Council Bluffs man was arrested Thursday evening on a Fugitive from Justice warrant. 21-year old Michael B. Birkelbach, Jr., was transported to the Pott. County Jail. A call about a disturbance southwest of Walnut, Thursday evening, resulted the arrest of 75-year old David Lynn Johannes, of Honey Creek. Johannes was taken into custody for Assault with a Firearm, Harassment in the 1st Degree by threatening a forcible felony, and Harassment in the 3rd Degree by communication or personal contact. His bond was set at $4,300.

Thursday night, 32-year old Jesse Lee Cody, of Carson, was arrested at the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office, where he was to be served with a protection order. Cody was taken into custody for being a Fugitive from Justice. Thursday afternoon, 22-year old Gage Michael Surita was arrested at the Pott. County Courthouse, on a valid warrant for Domestic Abuse Assault with a dangerous weapon/1st offense. Surita was transported to the jail.

A little after 9-a.m. Thursday, an inmate at the Pott. County Jail, who faces Criminal Mischief charges associated with incidents earlier this week where he damaged a sprinkler head and TV in his cell, was charged with Criminal Mischief in the 2nd Degree, for additional damages amounting from $1,000 to $10,000. 24-year old Robert Frederickson Durham, of Council Bluffs, was subsequently returned to his cell. His bond was set at $6,000.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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DES MOINES– Gov. Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa to fly at half-staff from now until sunset today (Friday, November 22nd), to honor fallen Marine Corps Reserve Private Channing R. Whitaker.  Whitaker, from Granger, was killed in action on November 22, 1943. Pvt. Whitaker was a member of Company A, 1st Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, Fleet Marine Force (FMF), which landed against stiff Japanese resistance on the small island of Betio in the Tarawa Atoll of the Gilbert Islands, in an attempt to secure the island. Whitaker’s remains were accounted for on May 29, 2019.

Pvt. Whitaker will be buried with full military honors during a Memorial Service 2-p.m. today, in the Glendale Cemetery, in Des Moines. Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex. Flags will also be half-staff on all public buildings, grounds and facilities throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

(Updated) — Police in Creston report 45-year old Jason Schlapia, of Creston, was cited Thursday evening, for attempted Theft. He was cited at the Dollar General Store at around 6:30-p.m., and then released. 26-year old Hannah Marie Jackson, of Afton, was arrested Thursday morning at the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston. She was taken into custody for Theft in the 4th Degree, and later released on $100 bond. 32-year old Shaune William Tindle, of Creston, was arrested late Thursday morning at the Union County Courthouse. Tindle was taken into custody on a Ringgold County warrant and transported to the Ringgold County Jail, where his cash-only bond was set at $5,000.

And, Thursday night, 23-year old Keegan Wayne Williams, of Creston, was arrested at the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston, for Theft in the 5th Degree. His bond was set at $300.

Iowa 3rd District Congresswoman Cindy Axne will be in Cass County this Saturday, November 23rd.  Axne will hold a “Connect with your Congresswoman” event in the Media Center at the Atlantic High School (1201 E 14th Street), from 4-until 4:45-p.m. The event is open to the public.

Congresswoman Axne also has stops planned for Saturday in:

Union County – A tour of the ASPIRE Before & After school/Learing Center/Thrift Store/Food Pantry (211 Grace St. in Afton/Union County Fairgrounds) from 9:15-until 10-a.m.

Ringgold County – 10:30-to 11:15-a.m. at Jamie’s Coffee Mill & Deli (118 W. Adams St., Mt. Ayr)

Taylor County – Noon until 12:45-p.m. at Hedgies’ Books, Toys and More (414 Main St., Bedford)

Adams County – From 2:15-p.m. until 3-p.m., for a Freedom Creek Conservation tour (15566 Sycamore Ave., in Prescott)

Adair County – 6-to 6:45-p.m. at the Olive Branch Restaurant in Greenfield ( 108 E. Iowa St.)

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — University of Iowa researchers are partnering with schools in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to study how children learn words and form a vocabulary. Bob McMurray, a U-I professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, says the effort is called the Growing Words Project, and it uses sophisticated infrared cameras that carefully track a child’s eye movements. “We know that if you show a child a word or if you say a word to them, it takes about a half-second or more for them to figure out what you mean,” McMurray says. “What are they doing in that half-second? Growing Words is investigating that using eye-tracking where we can trace out, every four milliseconds, what a child is thinking as they listen to or read words.”

Starting in January, the program will be testing about 300 elementary school children in Cedar Rapids and another hundred in Iowa City. The child will place his or her chin in a harness in front of a computer screen rigged with cameras. “They might hear a word like ‘wizard’ or maybe they read it, and on the screen, they see several pictures, things like a wizard, a window, a lizard, and maybe something that’s completely unrelated like table,” McMurray says. “All they have to do is click on the wizard, but they have to find it first and that means they have to start looking around. What we do is we ask, what are they looking at and when?”

Between 12 and 16-percent of Iowa children have some type of learning or reading disorder. “Part of their problem might be that they know the words, they know the letters, but they can’t use that information fast enough to understand a whole sentence or to read a whole sentence or to read a book,” McMurray says. “What we want to do is try to understand how those children — but also how their typically-developing peers — manage to do this so quickly and how they get better at it.”

The program will study about 400 children a year over the next four years using a $2.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. More volunteers are needed in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids at all reading levels in grades one through three. Contact McMurray through the website: https://growingwords.lab.uiowa.edu/

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Airline passengers will soon have the option to take a non-stop flight from Des Moines to Miami. The Des Moines Register reports that American Airlines will offer the summer seasonal service starting June 3. Flights will leave Des Moines on Saturdays and Sundays, and return flights are scheduled for Fridays and Saturdays. It will be the first direct flight from the Des Moines International Airport to Miami International Airport.

Airport communications director Kayla Kovarna says more than 52,000 passengers already travel to the Miami airport from Des Moines each year. The route will help passengers connect with tropical destinations in Jamaica. Tickets are scheduled to go on sale Nov. 25.