(UPDATE 10/4/17–  The truck was found by a Clearfield resident. It is no longer missing. Thanks for keeping an eye out!)

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Creston man’s pickup was stolen sometime between 8-p.m. Monday and 6-a.m. today (Tuesday). The red, 2011 Ford Ranger pickup with Iowa license plate 023 YXL was taken while it was parked at the man’s residence located in the 2300 block of High & Dry Road, in Creston. The pickup has a silver toolbox mounted in the bed. The loss was estimated at $10, 500. If anyone has any information with regard to the theft or location of the vehicle, please call the Union County Sheriff’s Office at 1-641-782-8402, or your local law enforcement agency.

This is the truck that was stolen.

A vehicle ended-up in a Union County Lake Monday night, after the driver, who authorities say was speeding and operating in a reckless or careless manner, lost control of the vehicle he was driving. The Union County Sheriff’s Office says the accident happened at around 11:17-p.m., Monday, as 20-year old Darian Scott Stone, of Davenport, was driving a 2004 Ford Taurus.  Stone was traveling around the McKinley Lake gravel spillway in Creston, when he lost control of the car, which entered the lake on the west side. Stone, and his passenger were not injured during the incident. Damage to the car was estimated at $5,000. Stone was cited for Failure to have a valid driver’s license.

A traffic stop on a speeding SUV Sunday morning in Pottawattamie County, resulted in the arrest of a Minnesota man on a drug charges. A Sheriff’s Deputy stopped the SUV on Interstate 80 eastbound a little after 9-a.m. Sunday, near Council Bluffs. Authorities say a “free air sniff” by a Police Service Dog around the vehicle, resulted in the animal alerting to the presence of narcotics inside the vehicle. A search was conducted, during which 10.8-pounds of marijuana was found in the cargo area of the SUV. The weed was in several containers located in a black duffle bag. The driver of the vehicle, 47-year old Michael Steve Gudowski, of New Hope, MN., was placed under arrest for Possession with the Intent to Deliver or Distribute, Marijuana.

And, a man from Oakland was arrested at around 9:15-a.m. Monday, after Deputies investigated a reported Theft from the Casey’s Store, in Oakland. 18-year old Tristan Michael Herrera allegedly took a can or dispenser of Butane valued at $2.39. Herrera was arrested for Theft in the 5th Degree.

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

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GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) – A December trial has been scheduled for a southwestern Iowa mother accused of giving her 8-year-old daughter fatal amounts of an antidepressant drug. Mills County court records say 34-year-old Misty Frazier, of Glenwood, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, child endangerment and giving prescription drugs to a minor without a prescription. The trial is set to begin Dec. 12th.

Prosecutors say an autopsy showed the girl died of an overdose of the antidepressant amitriptyline, commonly sold under the brand name Elavil.

The Governor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Advisory Council shared the results from its 2016-2017 independent evaluation Monday and reports that they are making progress in advancing STEM education across the state. The president of Accumold in Ankeny,Roger Hargens, is co-chair of the STEM Council.
“It’s really interesting to know that nine out of ten Iowans see STEM as a priority — that means that they are engaged — which we are really interested in seeing that. Parents need to understand that there’s great careers with STEM education,” Hargens says.

He says the annual report shows that the growth in STEM jobs across Iowa is outpacing other occupations and there are more than 12-thousand vacancies. Hargens says some of those jobs are at his company. “My message here is to become involved, we want parents, education involved. We’ve really got to look at this as an economic development tool, not just an economic undertaking,” according to Hargens.

The executive director of the STEM Advisory Council, Jeff Weld, showed a chart that detailed some of the changes in stems jobs across the state beginning in 2011. He says there were 300 professionals working in the STEM network in 2001 to well over 700 in 2017 working in the Stem network.  Governor Kim Reynolds says the state needs to continue working with the STEM Council as it is showing results. She says they want to expose young people to the career opportunities that exist in the state, so they can find their passion. “They are more success if they love what they’re doing,” Reynolds says.

The Stem report says students involved in STEM programs scored an average of three percentage points higher in National Percentile Rank on the Iowa Assessments in mathematics and reading, and four percentage points higher in science compared to all students statewide.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Creston report two people were arrested Monday afternoon on separate charges. At around 2:25-p.m., 28-year old Caleb Fredrickson, of Lorimor, was arrested at 600 Sheldon on charges of Theft 5th and Possession of a Controlled Substance 3rd or Subsequent offense. Fredrickson was being held in the Union County Jail on a $5,300 bond. And, at around 4:20-p.m., 37-year old Monica Belew, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a charge of Urinating in Public. Belew was subsequently released on a Promise to Appear in court.

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

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AMES, Iowa (AP) – Campus visits have been scheduled for the four finalists in the search for the next president of Iowa State University. The Des Moines Register reports that the first person is set to be in Ames on Monday, the fourth on Oct. 12. Their identities are being kept secret until a day before their visits.

Officials say 64 people applied to the job, which was left vacant when Steven Leath left to take the top job at Auburn University in Alabama. Benjamin Allen, a former Iowa State provost and past president of the University of Northern Iowa, has been interim president in Ames.

The finalists are scheduled to answer questions from students, staff, alumni and others during one-hour public forums. Live video of each forum will be available at www.presidentsearch.iastate.edu .

A delegation of grain buyers, scientists and government officials from South Korea recently visited several farming operations in Iowa, including the row crop and hog farm of Denny Friest, in Radcliffe. Friest is a fourth generation farmer and says the international visitors got a good look into Iowa agriculture at his family farm near Garden City.
“We were just sharing how our farms work and what our farm is like,” Friest says. “I gave them a general farm tour to show how we grind feed on our farm, utilize corn, soybean meal and dried distilled grains into our rations. We showed them how we do things to encourage them to be buyers of our corn, buyers of our ethanol, buyers of our distilled grains, buyers of our soybeans.”

Friest is a director on the Iowa Corn Growers Association and says the organization focuses on finding global markets for unused commodities. “Twenty-five percent of the corn, 25% of the soybeans, roughly 25% of the hogs, and 25% of the beef that we grow in this country, we have to find another home for because we cannot consume that,” he says. “We work real hard as corn growers to develop markets overseas.”  Friest says the delegation of South Koreans was taken aback by Iowa’s agricultural capabilities. “They were suprised at how much independence we have as producers on how we did things,” he says. “We touched on all kinds of things we do to be conservationists and economists. They were surprised about the investment in the machinery and the value of some of the machinery we had to be able to be a farmer, too.”

Other stops included at the Iowa Corn Office in Johnston, a cow and crop farm, the Quad County Processors ethanol plant in Galva and the Golden Grain Energy ethanol plant in Mason City. South Korea is the third largest importer of U.S. corn and distillers dried grains, and also purchased more than 42-million gallons of ethanol in the past year.

(Radio Iowa)