The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of two individuals and the recovery of a large amount of Methamphetamine after a traffic stop near the Highway 25 and Highway 34 intersection at 2:05am Wednesday.  As a result of the investigation during the traffic stop deputies arrested Eulalio Garcia for Possession of a Controlled Substance.  Also arrested was 22-year-old Anastasia Imsland of Lenox for Possession of a Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine and Marijuana), Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Distribute, and Possession of Paraphernalia.  Deputies recovered 16.02 grams of Methamphetamine from the vehicle.  Garcia’s bond was set at $1,000. Imsland’s bond was set at $100,000.

Two Red Oak men were arrested early Thursday morning on Robbery charges. The Red Oak Police Department reports at 2:30am this morning they arrested 42-year-old year old Jeffery Dean Etter of Red Oak and Bryan David Sapp Jr. of Red Oak on valid Red Oak Police Department Warrants for Robbery 2nd degree. Both men were arrested in the 300 block of N 8th Street in Red Oak and taken to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center.  Both men are being held on $1,000 cash bond.

A state audit has found millions of dollars worth of state grants and loans to businesses that promised to build or expand operations in Iowa have so far yielded a fraction of the jobs that were promised. The audit covered an 11-year period. State officials signed almost a thousand contracts with businesses, awarding nearly 310-MILLION dollars to companies during that time frame.

The businesses promised to create or retain more than 57-thousand jobs in return. The audit found about 80 percent of the promised jobs have not materialized yet. Plus, the audit noted state officials need to do a better job verifying whether businesses are actually creating new jobs. State Auditor Mary Mosiman said “We do recognize that the Iowa Economic Development Authority is continuing to improve its tracking and verification procedures. But it is important that they verify that these jobs — that they are reporting — are actual jobs either being created or retained and are not jobs being shifted within a company, particularly for a large corporation with multiple geographic locations.”

A spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority says the audit includes the years of “the great recession” and the administrations of three different governors and six agency directors. The audit released Wednesday is a follow-up to a 2007 audit evaluating state economic incentive programs. Mosiman is recommending that the Iowa Economic Development Authority consult with the legislature to improve the tracking and verification of its grants and loans.

“For purposes of transparency, accountability and to be able to effectively evaluate the program, it is important that they include totals,” Mosiman says, “…and make sure there’s no errors, so that the report matches their database.” For example, the audit raises questions about whether the Iowa Economic Development Authority is getting state grant money back when businesses fail to fulfill job-creation promises.

Fewer than 12-thousand jobs have actually been created or retained by the companies that got state grants and loans from mid-2003 through the middle of 2014. Tina Hoffman of the Iowa Economic Development Authority says “a lot of individual projects have been successes” and others “in the building phase” will account for more jobs. Mosiman says policymakers — not auditors like her — are the ones who’ll decide whether these economic incentive programs are effective.

“I think that’s not something that our office would attempt to gauge whatsoever,” Mosiman says.The spokeswoman for the Iowa Economic Development Authority says her agency is constantly looking for ways to make state incentive programs more effective. And she notes the agency recently has been using state tax credits more often as part of its incentive portfolio.

(Radio Iowa)

Health rankings released by the UnitedHealth Foundation give Iowa an overall rank of 8th when it comes to the health care provided to women, infants and children. The lowest individual ranking put Iowa at 22nd in the country for infant health. The Chief Medical Officer for UnitedHealthcare, Ana Fuentevilla,, says the lower ranking for infant care was due in part ot where the kids are born.

“The study looks at how many infants or babies are born at baby friendly facilities,” Fuentevilla says, ” and for Iowa there’s a low percentage being born in baby friendly facilities.” Information from the foundation says a facility is considered baby friendly if it institutes a ten-step program to successfully teach breastfeeding and passes an evaluation. Only around eight percent of the facilities nationwide are designated baby friendly under that definition according to he foundation.

Iowa’s health care for women ranked 7th, and one of the negatives cited is a high prevalence of excessive drinking in women, especially women who are pregnant. “It can lead to poor outcomes for the baby,” Fuentevilla. Doctor Fuentevilla says it’s an issue the state should focus on. “While women’s health overall is ranking very good at number seven, there’s still opportunity to improve that further by addressing the high prevalence of excessive drinking in women in Iowa.

She says Iowa has a lot of positives, including a low number of unintended pregnancies (#4 in the nation), low neonatal mortality rates (#2 in the nation), and a high rate of high school graduation (#1 in the nation). Fuentevilla says Iowa mirrors other states which show some variation in the three categories. She says having women’s health ranked seventh is great, but says the infant health at 22 is not good, while the children’s health ranking is also high at number five.”So the state overall could focus on what things can we do to improve the overall health of our infants.”

Massachusetts was at the top of the overall rankings, while Mississippi ranked at the bottom.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke to a cheering crowd of more than a thousand supporters in Council Bluffs Wednesday afternoon, just hours before Thursday’s (today’s) launch of “early” voting in Iowa. “You need to start voting immediately,” Trump said, to cheers. “Don’t forget early voting. You have to knock on doors. You have to pick up that phone.” The crowd joined Trump in reciting his campaign slogan. They cheered when he again promised to “build the wall” along the southern border with Mexico. And they chanted “lock her up” when Trump mentioned Clinton’s email controversy.

“Hillary Clinton is an insider fighting for her donors and her insiders, mostly fighting for herself,” Trump said. “I am an outsider fighting for you. We’re fighting together.” Trump briefly mentioned Monday night’s debate. He pointed to online polls taken afterwards. Trump argued the “corrupt corporate media” is ignoring his “landslide” victory in the event by focusing instead on a C-N-N poll.

“Then I have to sit back and you have to sit back and hear how those polls don’t mean anything, but when they poll 300 people, that means a lot, right? And so we won every single online poll — hundreds and hundreds of thousand voters — and then you sit back and you hear how she did so well in the debate. I don’t think she did well in the debate at all,” Trump said, with supportive catcalls from the audience. Trump called Clinton “unserious”, “petty” and “a globalist.”

“I’m not running to be president of the world. I’m running to be president of the United States and we’re going to protect your interests,” Trump said, to some of the loudest cheers of the afternoon. And Trump again questioned Clinton’s stamina and the days she to raise money, prepare for the debate and recover from pneumonia.

“Then she can’t even make it to her car. Isn’t it tough?” Trump asked, getting laughter from the crowd. “All those day offs. Right? Boom. Did you ever see her chart? She won’t be campaigning today…I’m campaigning and I’m saying: ‘What’s going on?’ Now in all fairness, she’s spending all of that Wall Street money on commercials, whereas I’m doing it the old-fashioned way, right? So you have six weeks to make every dream you’ve dreamed for your country come true.”

On Wednesday, the Trump campaign released a list of Christian conservatives in Iowa who are backing him. Steve Scheffler, the president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, is also a member of the Republican National Committee who cast his vote for Trump at the G-O-P’s national convention in July. He often calls Clinton “pathological.”   “My personal view of Hillary Clinton is she is a borderline evil person,” Scheffler said. “She is a pathological liar.” Scheffler told about 600 members of his group this past weekend that if Richard Nixon were alive today, he’d be owed “an apology” and “nominated for sainthood” because Clinton’s transgressions are worse.

Hillary Clinton talked with officials from Cedar Rapids by phone on Wednesday, saying her “heart goes out to the families and businesses” affected by this week’s flooding and Clinton promised as president she’d work with Cedar Rapids leaders to erect new flood protection barriers along the Cedar River corridor. Clinton is due to headline a midday rally in downtown Des Moines to mark today’s (Thursday’s) start of early voting in Iowa. Democrat Tom Miller, Iowa’s attorney general, went to Council Bluffs Wednesday to declare’s Trump’s “temperament” unfit for the presidency.

(Radio Iowa)