The murder trial of a Council Bluffs man has been moved to late June. The Daily NonPareil report 36-year old James Cain Harris faces first-degree murder charges stemming from the 2003 stabbing of Nelson Alvarez-Hernandez. The Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office told the paper Harris’ jury trial is set to begin on June 24th.The trial was originally slated to begin Wednesday morning.

CARROLL, Iowa (AP) — Officials in western Iowa are investigating the theft of hundreds of metal flagpoles used for the Memorial Day holiday. The American Legion in Carroll says it reported the theft of a trailer from its property Monday morning. The trailer had about 300 flagpoles that were supposed to be placed with American flags to line the roads of the city cemetery. The Legion says a second trailer with a few hundred more flagpoles was stolen Monday night.

The Carroll Daily Times Herald reports the trailers and flagpoles were later recovered, though no arrests have been made in the case. Legion officials believe the thief or thieves were trying to sell the flagpoles for scrap metal. A least two Carroll area salvage yards refused to buy the roughly 550 flagpoles.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CARROLL, Iowa (AP) — Officials in western Iowa are investigating the theft of hundreds of metal flagpoles used for the Memorial Day holiday. The American Legion in Carroll says it reported the theft of a trailer from its property Monday morning. The Daily Times Herald reports the trailer had about 300 flagpoles that were supposed to be placed with American flags to line the roads of the city cemetery.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A former treasurer for a Dubuque police unit has pleaded not guilty to theft in connection to missing funds from the volunteer organization. The Telegraph Herald reports 26-year-old Allen Berger entered his plea Tuesday on a charge of second-degree theft. Berger is accused of taking funds from the bank account of the Dubuque Auxiliary Police unit and transferring them into a personal account. Police believe Berger misappropriated nearly $4,000 between April 2012 and February 2014.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowans can fish without a license during an annual free fishing weekend being held June 6th through 8th. Although a license isn’t necessary on the free-fishing weekend, other regulations remain in place.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa says wide receiver Blake Haluska will miss his senior season and that receiver A.J. Jones and running back Barkley Hill have left the program. Haluska, a Carroll, Iowa native, is out for next season with a shoulder injury. He joined the Hawkeyes as a walk-on in 2010 and played three games last year without a catch.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Federal agents say they have exhausted all leads in the search for a man suspected of fatally shooting an Oregon county road weighmaster before possibly fleeing to the Midwest. A U.S. Marshals spokesman says a driver spotted the vehicle believed to have been driven by 41-year-old Dirck White of Edgefield, Wash., on April 5 near Des Moines, Iowa.

Dirck White (Clackamas Co., OR Sheriff’s Dept. photos)

The witness told police a man was firing a handgun from the car. The Iowa State Patrol responded, a state patrol spokesman said, but couldn’t find the suspect’s car or the person who made the call.

Suspect vehicle

A Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office spokesman says the witness called on a disposable phone, which required police to search for more than a month to track down the witness who made the call.

The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed information KJAN received from the Roland Funeral Home late Tuesday night, with regard to an accident Tuesday afternoon that claimed the life of an Atlantic man. Authorities said late Wednesday afternoon, that 68-year old Dennis Oathoudt, of Atlantic, died when the truck he was driving experienced a mechanical malfunction..apparently a blown tire…and crashed into the wall of a building at a private airport near Dallas Center.

The accident happened at around 1:45-p.m. Tuesday, at the privately owned Husband Field about three-miles west of Dallas Center.  Officials say the truck driven by Oathoudt hit a cinder block wall, causing him to suffer fatal injuries. The accident remains under investigation.

Sheriff’s officials in Cass County report the arrest on Sunday of an Atlantic man. 45-year old Richard Dean Fineran was taken into custody on a charge of Driving While Suspended. Fineran was brought to the Cass County Jail, pled guilty before a magistrate on Monday, and was then released.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a Page County man was arrested today (Wednesday). 41-year old Merlin Glenn Lininger, of Clarinda, was arrested at around 7:30-a.m. in the Page County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Driving While Barred. His bond was set at $2,500.

Iowans are being warned about pre-recorded calls that promise a free home security system in exchange for putting a sign in your yard. Consumer advocate Jerad Albrecht says the calls don’t appear to be from a real company and are very likely a scam. “These are unsolicited sales calls, they are illegal and from what we can tell, they’re not legitimate in any way,” Albrecht says. “If anyone gets these calls, you’re asked just to hang up.” The calls offer the option of pressing a button to talk to an operator or to be removed from the contact list, but Albrecht says both options are bad choices.

“You don’t really want to do either of those,” he says, “because either action, any key you press during the call, will tell the scammers that your number is active and it could lead to continued scam calls in the future.” The best option, he says, is to just hang up — and not to worry about offending anyone, since it’s just an automated call. Catching the crooks, Albrecht says, is no easy chore.

“Unfortunately, these calls are often made by autodial by computer, often from overseas,” he says. “It’s extremely difficult, certainly at a state level but even from the federal level, to attack it.” If you do decide to talk to an operator, Albrecht warns they’ll eventually get around to needing your personal information, banking information or some sort of downpayment for that “free” security system.

(Radio Iowa)

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Park officials are asking Iowa campers to burn all their firewood to slow the spread of the emerald ash borer. In Black Hawk County, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports park staff began making that request to Memorial Day weekend campers in hopes that wood carrying the insect wouldn’t be moved from place to place. The insect has been found in nine Iowa counties: Allamakee, Des Moines, Jefferson, Cedar, Union, Black Hawk, Wapello, Bremer and Jasper.

Vern Fish, the Black Hawk County Conservation Board’s executive director, notes the insects don’t travel far on their own, but “they’re carried in the back of a pickup truck.” Emerald ash borers destroy ash trees over several years. Some Iowa communities already have begun cutting ash trees in anticipation of the insects’ arrival.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold their regular weekly meeting Thursday morning, in Atlantic, beginning at 8:30. The Board is set to act on a contract for the reconstruction of the lower floor at 707 Poplar Street, for use as a 9-1-1/Communications Center. They’ll also hear a report from County Environmental Health Dirctor Stephen Patterson, with regard to Radon rules.

At 9:30-a.m. Thursday, the Board will hear from Atlantic City Administrator Doug Harris, with regard to the City of Atlantic’s Animal Shelter, and possible participation by the County in funding the facility or billing the county for animals brought to Atlantic from other communities.

The issue of a County-wide animal shelter was discussed about seven-years ago, and was brought up again at a recent Atlantic City Council meeting, and is with regard to the number of abandoned or stray animals that end-up in Atlantic from other parts of the County.