UPDATE:  The memorial service for the Audubon County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Harry will be held today at the Memorial Building at 5:00 pm instead of the City Park due to the weather.

The Union County Sheriff’s Department says a rural Lorimor resident reported today (Thursday), their green, 2007 Yamaha Grizzly 4-wheel drive off-road machine, had been stolen from a farm property. The 700cc machine had a red hitch on the front. The loss was estimated at $6,000.

An investigation into an incident early this (Thursday) morning resulted in the arrest of a man charged with Impersonating a Police Officer. Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers says officers arrested 20-year old Brian Lewis Frey, of Clarinda, at around 1:30-a.m.

Officials were notified that at approximately 1:00 a.m. Frey allegedly used red/blue lights while operating a red 1998 Ford Mustang registered to him, to pull over a vehicle on State Street.  Frey and his car were located in the Clarinda Lied Recreation Center parking lot on East Main Street.

The man was taken into custody without incident and later released after posting a $2,000 bond. All reports have been forwarded to the office of Page County Attorney Jeremy S. Peterson for review and decision regarding the filing of formal charges in Page County District Court. Police Chief Keith Brothers stressed there was no danger to the public and this appears to have been an isolated incident.

The Creston Police Department received two reports of recent thefts, this week. On Wednesday, a resident on North Lincoln Street told authorities someone took several electronic items from her home, including a Dell tablet, RCA tablet, an Ipod Touch, and Ipod Shuffle. The loss was estimated at $382. The items were taken sometime between March 11th and 25th.

And on Tuesday, a resident in Creston reported to police that someone had taken his backpack that contained a Leatherman tool, Interline jacket, Eye glasses, and carabiners. The items were taken from 107 N. Division Street, sometime between 8-and 8:15-p.m., Tuesday. The loss was estimated at $200.

The 7-a.m. report from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A Central Iowa man was arrested late Wednesday afternoon, in Afton, for allegedly exposing himself to children. Afton Police Chief John Coulter reports 51-year old Walter Scott Sutton, of New Virginia, was charged with two counts of Indecent Exposure and one count of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. 

Sutton was arrested after authorities received reports that the man was in the Afton Park allegedly pleasuring himself in front of children ranging in ages 4 to 13. The incident was witnessed by at least one adult.

Sutton was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting an initial appearance before the magistrate. 

Red Oak Police, investigating an incident at the Red Oak Public Library Wednesday afternoon, arrested 22-year old Cody Dean Johnson, of Red Oak, for Breach of Peace. As officers were in the library, Johnson walked by and allegedly began using profane and abusive language toward a person the officers were speaking with.  The incident happened at around 2:30-p.m.

Johnson was taken into custody and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on $300 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have determined the death of a veteran found dead in a Des Moines park was a suicide. Polk County Medical Examiner Doctor Gregory Schmunk told the Register yesterday the death of 41-year-old Richard Miles has been ruled a suicide. He was found frozen February 20th at Water Works Park.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — One of the three dogs that knocked down and bit a woman in northern Iowa has been shot and killed. Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Kevin Pals says a person whose name has not yet been released shot the dog after it went after the woman and two other people several times on Monday. The dog’s carcass is being tested for rabies. The Mason City Globe Gazette says the two other dogs are under 10 days’ quarantine.

FREMONT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an Oskaloosa man has died in a single-vehicle crash in southeastern Iowa. The Ottumwa Courier reports 23-year-old Andrew Scholtus was killed Tuesday when his truck went off Whitwell Avenue in Fremont and hit a bridge guardrail.

NASHUA, N.H. (AP) — Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is dodging a key question in the abortion debate: What exceptions should be made if the procedure were to be banned? In an Associated Press interview this week, the newly declared Republican presidential contender wouldn’t say where, in his view, a pregnant woman’s rights begin and those of the fetus end.

A dry winter with below-normal snowfall is improving the odds for better pheasant hunting again this season. Iowa Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist, Todd Bogenschutz, says the snowfall numbers are a good predictor of how well wild birds handle the winter. “Anytime that we are kind of upwards of over 30 inches of snow or beyond, it’s generally not a good winter for pheasant or quail. We kind of had a lot of those winters from ’07 to 2011, which really depressed our pheasant numbers,” Bogenschutz says. “Here in the last couple years things have been a little bit better. This past winter we came in at about 21 inches.”

Bogenschutz says many pheasant hunters reported seeing more birds last fall after five years of winters with heavy snow and cool wet springs that hurt the numbers. The fall sightings combined with the winter numbers add up to potentially good news. “We’re thinking right now — at least I am cautiously optimistic — that we carried a good number of the hens we have out there through the winter in pretty good shape,” Bogenschutz says. The more hens that survive the winter, the more chance they’ll raise new birds this spring.

“I think the stage could be set for maybe another increase this year because we got all those hens through the winter, they’re out there, they can nest,” Bogenschutz explains. “Now we just need some good weather through nesting season — and we’ll see what the roadside counts bring.” Bogenschutz is referring to the annual August roadside counts that give an estimate on the number of pheasants. Bogenschutz says landowners can help to ensure the positive trend continues by planting shelterbelts and food plots for the birds.

“We just don’t have a lot of that type of winter cover out there on the landscape, so we’re trying to encourage landowners, you know if you are worried about pheasants or see them struggling, do you have an opportunity to do a food plot?,” Bogenschutz says. He says they also provide information about the shelterbelts, which provide cover and food for pheasants. Cost share assistance or seed for food plot establishment is available from most county Pheasants Forever chapters or local co-ops.

For information on how to establish or design shelterbelts or food plots that benefit wildlife, contact your local wildlife biologist, or go to: www.iowadnr.gov/privatelands.

(Radio Iowa)

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced Wednesday, that the committee will hold a hearing on the nation’s
asset forfeiture laws. The hearing will take place on Wednesday, April 15th, at 10 a.m. (ET) in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing will also be streamed live on the committee’s website,www.judiciary.senate.gov.

Grassley says supports the use of asset forfeiture to seize money from criminal organizations and return it to victims, but he has been concerned that the asset forfeiture program has become too much of a money-making business for the government. He said the rule of law ought to be about protecting innocent people, not padding the coffers of the federal treasury. New guidance from the Justice Department has helped, but Grassley has cautioned that loopholes have undermined efforts to improve the program’s application and legislation is still necessary.

Grassley said that the hearing will focus on law enforcement’s appropriate use of asset forfeiture to seize property associated with criminal activity and legislative reforms to that process to prevent abuses and protect the rights of innocent citizens and small business owners.

Grassley’s office says the Senator has been working on legislation that will protect innocent people from being caught up in the dragnet of asset forfeiture. The bill will enhance procedural protections for individuals whose property is seized, reduce incentives for law enforcement’s excessive employment of civil asset forfeiture, and codify the IRS’ policies that prevent use of civil asset forfeiture in structuring cases where there is no other underlying crime.

The Des Moines Register and the Washington Post have highlighted abuses of the asset forfeiture program, including the case of Iowan Carol Hinders. Hinders was a small business owner who was caught in the IRS’s asset forfeiture web without any clear evidence of an underlying crime.