Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety said today (Friday), investigators with the State Fire Marshal Division and the Mills County Sheriff’s Office are looking for 30-year old Jason Anthony Vasquez.

Arson/burglary suspect Jason Vasquez

  Vasquez is wanted on an arrest warrant for 2nd Degree Arson and 2nd Degree Burglary, after an incident that occurred on February 12th, 2011 at approximately 7:06 AM.

On February 12, 2011, a manufactured home located at 516 Indian Avenue in Hastings, Iowa was broken into, and its contents intentionally set on fire.  The investigation revealed that two subjects, brothers 32-year old Domingo Ace Vasquez, and Jason Vasquez, were involved in an argument with family members in Council Bluffs in the early morning hours of February 12, 2011.  The brothers then returned to the home in Hastings where those family members were storing personal belongings, and ignited the personal items.

Warrants for the arrest of both Domingo and Jason Vasquez were issued in Mills County on Thursday, January 19, 2012.  On Friday, January 20, 2012, Domingo Ace Vasquez was arrested by the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.  He is now in custody at the Mills County Jail, facing charges of 2nd Degree Arson and 2nd Degree Burglary.

Jason Vasquez remains at large and is believed to be in the Council Bluffs/Omaha area.  Anyone with information on Jason Vasquez’s whereabouts should immediately contact 911.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether the details of disciplinary cases against public employees should be available to citizens who ask.  The court on Thursday said it would review an October decision from the Iowa Court of Appeals, which ruled 2-1 that the Atlantic Community School District did not have to release the level of discipline taken against high school employees responsible for improperly strip-searching several teenage girls.   The court ruled that discipline cases were exempt from the state’s public records law except in the case of firings, dismissing a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa.  The group had argued the public’s need to know how an assistant principal and a guidance counselor were punished outweighed their privacy interests.

Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Michael Amstein told KJAN News today (Friday), that if the Iowa Supreme Court determines the matter needs to be determined at that level, he would “Certainly defer to the wisdom of the State Supreme Court to make that decision.” Amstein says “Other than that, all of arguments have already been made,” and right now they’ll just have to “Wait and see. I think that it’s an important case, but I think the district still stands on the orginal merits of that case, and we believe that employee discipline records are confidential.”

w/ Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (8.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Miller and his K-9 partner “Francisco” have scored another drug bust. Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Dwayne Riche told KJAN news this (Friday) morning, that Deputy Miller stopped a 2011 Ford Escape for excessive speeding on eastbound I-80 at mile marker 8 near Council Bluffs, at around 2:40-p.m. Thursday.

The deputy asked for but was denied permission to search the SUV, but the driver allowed Miller to conduct a perimeter search of the vehicle with his k-9. When “Francisco” alerted to the presence of illegal substances in the hatchback area of the SUV, Miller conducted a “Probable Cause” search that area of the vehicle and discovered 22-pounds of marijuana in 3 bags. 41-year old John Rolle, of River Pines, CA, was taken into custody on charges of Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Deliver, Prohibited Acts, and for a violation of the Drug Tax Stamp. The man was booked into the Pott. County Jail.

At the beginning of the month, Miller and “Francisco” recovered 45-pounds of marijuana from a vehicle Miller stopped on I-80 just three miles from where Thursday’s arrest took place. Two men, one from California, the other from Minnesota, were arrested on similar charges.

w/ Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.0MB)

Subscribe: RSS

A study by the Iowa Bicycle Coalition has determined that the economic and health benefits of cycling amount to nearly 365-million dollars of direct or indirect impact on the state. Coalition executive director, Mark Wyatt, says the direct impact involves a lot of things. “It’s people spending money on bicycle gear and equipment, and it’s people taking trips and enjoying unique trails, or having the opportunity for hotel stays, and things like that that really add up in dollars very quickly,” Wyatt says. He says the impact is bigger than they expected. “That’s a million dollars per day that’s spent on bicycling…averaged out over the year,” Wyatt says. The study estimates that bicycling saves the state 73-point-nine-million dollars in healthcare costs for those who cycle recreational, and it shows another 13-thousand-266 dollars in health care costs saved by those who commute to work. Wyatt says the impact of the states bike trails could be even bigger.

“I think there’s a huge opportunity for tourism, and one of the things that this study didn’t address was out-of-state tourism dollars coming into the state,” Wyatt explains. The survey was released on the heels of the annual Iowa Bicycle Summit, which is Saturday in Des Moines.  Wyatt says the summit has been an education session the past eight years, but this year they’ve expanded it to a consumer expo. “People can come and look at bike gear and talk to people who’re running bike trail events, and all sorts of trends and what’s great about bicycling,” Wyatt says. There are some 50 vendors who will be at the summit. The event runs from 8:30 a-m until 4:30 p-m at Veterans Auditorium in Des Moines. You can find out more at: www.iowabicyclecoalition.org.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer said Thursday, a Clarinda man cited last month for trespassing while hunting near Hepburn, and arrested five days later for illegally possessing a firearm, is in trouble again. The Sheriff says 29-year old Donald Ernest Runyon was arrested at around 2-p.m. Thursday, on a warrant charging him with two counts of Failure to appear on the original charge of Dominion / Control of Firearm / Offensive weapons by a person convicted of Domestic Abuse Assault. Runyon appeared before the magistrate, posted a $5,000 bond, and was released from custody.

The Iowa DNR had cited Runyon on December 17, 2011, for trespassing while hunting near Hepburn. He pleaded guilty January 4th and paid nearly $400 in fines and court costs. Five days later, he was arrested after officials realized he should not have had a gun in the first place. Runyon was once convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, which prohibits him from possessing firearms. A violation is a Class D felony. He was later released on a $5,000 cash bond.

The Iowa Department of Transportation says the scheduled closure of the westbound Interstate 80 rest area, located between Adair and Casey at milepost 80, is being extended into Friday, Jan. 27th, to complete work underway at that location.  The facility had been scheduled to re-open today (Thursday), at 5-p.m.  The rest area is closed to allow two large cranes to install a 148-foot tall, vertical wind turbine blade.

The blade will essentially serve as sculpture, and will join several other pieces of art and plaques at the rest area that highlight Iowa’s wind energy industry. Last year, Iowa became the first state in the nation to generate at least 20 percent of its electricity from wind power. Iowa currently has nearly 2,900 wind turbines creating 4,500 megawatts of electricity.

The Iowa House has given final legislative approval to an emergency allotment of one-point-three million dollars ($1.3 million) that will cover tuition costs for Iowa National Guard soldiers who’ve enrolled in college courses. Representative Chris Hall, a Democrat from Sioux City, has heard from a number of soldiers in his district who saw their individual benefits cut by 13-hundred dollars for this semester. “During the first week of the legislature, I know that I received emails from several of our Guardsmen from the 185th Air Refueling Wing,” Hall says. 

The Iowa Senate approved the bill last week, but Republicans delayed action in the Iowa House to ensure the Guard indeed needed that much money to fulfill its tuition grant promises. Representative Royd Chambers, a Republican from Sheldon who is a member of the Iowa Air National Guard, says Republicans were just going their “due dilligence” in checking the numbers. “We are, of course, all in support of supporting our National Guard members,” Chambers says. “But we also must remember that we are responsible for spending our tax dollars wisely and efficiently.” 

Legislators set aside the money for the program last year, before about three-thousand Iowa National Guard soldiers came back to Iowa after active duty in Afghanistan. The Guard announced in December that Education Assistance grants to its soldiers would be cut because there wasn’t enough money set aside to cover the tuition grants for the 14-hundred Iowa National Guard soldiers who’re enrolled in college. Governor Branstad has indicated he’ll sign the legislation. In other action this morning, the Iowa House approved spending three-million dollars in state money to help restore the U-S-S Iowa, a World War II era battleship that will be docked in Los Angeles as a floating museum. The Iowa Senate approved that level of spending on the project last week.

(Radio Iowa)