Police in Creston are investigating an incident of vandalism and theft. Officials with the Southern Iowa Trolley at 215 east Montgomery Street in Creston, reported early this (Thursday) morning, that someone had broken into the building by breaking the glass on the front door. Inside, the burglars stole candy bars with a combined value of $10. Damage to the door was estimated at $200. The incident occurred sometime between 4-p.m. Wednesday and 5-a.m., today (Thursday).

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The final remnants of Sioux City’s former riverboat casino will remain in the river for up to a year. The Sioux City Journal reports two large moorings in the Missouri River are all that is left at the former site of the gambling boat. The reddish-orange moorings protrude about 15 feet above the surface near the shoreline.

The Argosy riverboat casino closed in July after the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission ordered it to cease operations because it wasn’t partnered with a state-licensed local nonprofit group as required by Iowa law. An Illinois marine business bought the riverboat and other assets, which it plans to sell.

A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman says the business has until December 2015 to remove the moorings.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a traffic stop at around 9:30-p.m., Wednesday in Villisca, resulted in the arrest of 18-year Kai Jacob Ballinger-Knoke, of Carson. Ballinger-Knoke was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia, and then released from the scene on a citation.

One-half hour earlier, 58-year old Stanley Mark Armstrong, of Villisca, was cited for Possession of an Open Container of Alcohol. The incident happened in the 700 block of south 7th Avenue, in Villisca.

The state’s economic development director says two announcements are coming soon about a “big project” for Iowa. Iowa Economic Development Authority director Debi Durham says the groundwork for the deal she expects to be announced this Friday was laid a year ago during a trade trip she and the governor made to Europe. “And there was one that we worked on in New York a year ago that’s a really large announcement,” Durham says. “…The deal’s done, it’s just a matter of whether the board of directors wants it announced.”

Durham made her comments during a public hearing in the governor’s office this week. Neither Governor Branstad or Durham are revealing which companies will be making these expansions, but Durham says they show trade missions do yield results.  “It takes a long time to close a deal, as you know,” Durham told the governor this week, “but I tell you what, we win a lot more than we lose.”

This afternoon (Thursday) Durham and other officials from the Iowa Partnership for Economic Progress will release the results of an 18-month-long study of Iowa’s economic development efforts.

(Radio Iowa)