Iowa Senator Charles Grassley will be at the center of today’s (Monday’s) confirmation hearing for the man President Trump has nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. Grassley has been a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee since 1981, his first year in the U.S. Senate. He became the panel’s chairman in 2015, when Republicans took control of the Senate. It means Grassley will be a sort of ringmaster as Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch answers senators’ questions during a hearing that could last for days. Grassley was at the White House when Trump announced Gorsuch was his pick to fill the vacancy on the nation’s highest court. During an interview that night Grassley called Gorsuch a “principled, mainstream conservative.”

A coalition of progressive groups that go by the name “Why Courts Matter Iowa” argue Gorsuch would be a “threat” to women’s rights. Another group called the “Main Street Alliance of Iowa” says Gorsuch — as a federal judge — has “repeatedly rewarded big business” in his rulings. Grassley has said he expects “high interest” in his committee’s hearing this week. Grassley also notes “with television and internet coverage, social media…people everywhere should be able to witness Judge Gorsuch’s testimony.”

The hearing is scheduled to begin today (Monday) at 10 a.m. Iowa time.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Creston are reporting six arrests and one incident of theft/fraud occurred over the past week. Sunday night, 47-year old Robert Johnston, of Mt Ayr, was arrested following a traffic stop in Creston. Johnston was charged with Possession of Paraphernalia, Driving While Barred, OWI/1st offense, and Possession of a Controlled Substance – 3rd Offense. He was later released from the Union County Jail on a $5,000 bond. Early Sunday morning, 54-year old Ronald Brammer, of Afton, was arrested in Creston forDriving While Suspended. He was later released from the Union County Jail on a $300 bond.

Three men were arrested early Saturday morning, in Creston. 21-year old Lucas Clark, 37-year old Jason Carleton, and 21-year old Jeffrey Hicks, all of Creston, were arrested at around 1:30-a.m. Saturday, for Public Intoxication. Clark and Carleton were released on $300 bond, while Hicks was released from the Union County Jail on time served.

Last Thursday morning, Creston Police arrested 39-year old John Burgoyne, of Creston, at the Law Enforcement Center. Burgoyne was taken into custody on a Union County Warrant for the charge of Theft 2nd. He was later released on a $5,000 bond.

And, Sunday night, the Creston Knights of Columbus reported that sometime between March 3rd and March 13th, their checking account information had been hacked and 4 checks were printed in 4 different states to 4 different individuals, 2 of those checks were cashed. The loss was estimated at a little more than $3,970.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a West Des Moines junior high teacher is facing two drug charges. Court records say 38-year-old Katherine Seiberling is charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. She was arrested Thursday night after an officer pulled her over for a headlight problem on the car Seiberling was driving.

The officer wrote in a criminal complaint that he could smell marijuana as he spoke to Seiberling and that she admitted having some pot with her. The officer says he found less than a gram of pot inside a pill bottle in the car.

School records list her as a language arts teacher at Stillwell Junior High.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A leader of the Islamic Center of Des Moines plans to meet with authorities to discuss a threatening note found in the center’s mail. Dr. Samir Shams is president of the center, and he says he found the handwritten note Sunday morning. The writer said Muslims were a “vile” people and said President Donald Trump would “do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.” The note was signed only “Americans for a Better Way.”

Shams says Muslims have to take such notes seriously. He says he plans to meet Monday with the FBI. The Iowa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called in a news release for a hate crime investigation. The council says similar messages have been sent to other mosques in Iowa and other states.

Police in Red Oak, Sunday afternoon, arrested 49-year old Jeffrey Allan Westlake, of Red Oak, on a charge of Public Intoxication. Westlake was taken into custody in the 400 block of E. Coolbaugh Street at around 4:20-p.m., and held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

Action by a citizen who witnessed an alleged drug transaction Sunday night in Red Oak, resulted in a Pottawattamie County man being arrested on drug charges. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a citizen’s complaint about the transaction which allegedly took place in the 1300 block of N. 3rd Street, in Red Oak, led Police to arrest 28-year old Jason Rolfe Aherns, of Carter Lake. Aherns was taken into custody at around 7:35-p.m. and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana. His bond was set at $1,000.

The Sheriff’s Office said “The citizens of Montgomery County are encouraged to call law enforcement any time illegal activity is witnessed, or [there is] an ongoing problem in their neighborhood. They call call the Red Oak Police Department at 712-623-6500 or the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office at 712-623-5107.

An Afton woman has been sentenced to 25 years in prison in connection with a January 2016 crash in Union County that killed one woman. Sixty-two-year-old Donna Jo Spare of Afton pleaded guilty to the charge of vehicular homicide in February. The accident happened in mid-January of last year, on Highway 34 about three miles east of Creston.

Investigators say Spare was drunk when the car she was driving crossed the center line and crashed head-on into another car, killing another woman. Union County Attorney Tim Kenyon says driving while drunk is a risk no one should take. “I would compare it to, as one judge has said, it’s like shooting a loaded fire arm into a crowd of people,” Kenyon says. “The likelihood that someone will die or be injured is substantial.”

In addition to the prison sentence, Spare has been ordered by the judge to pay 150-thousand dollars to the estate of Deanne Hoffman. “As far as justice being served, I believe it has been,” Kenyon says. Hoffman was 49 when she was killed in the crash. She was married, with two adult sons, and worked as a certified nurses aide.

(Radio Iowa)