Police in the northwest Iowa town of Sheldon responded at around 2:36-a.m. Saturday, to a report of a man laying in the middle of the street in the 1100 block of south 3rd Avenue. Upon officers’ arrival, they found an unresponsive male and began life-saving measures, but those attempts were unsuccessful.  The male, who was later identified as 32-year old Joshua Andrew Rook, of Sheldon, was transported to the Sanford Sheldon Hospital by the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team where he was pronounced dead.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was contacted and responded to assist the Sheldon Police Department in the investigation of Rook’s death.  An autopsy will be performed by the State Medical Examiner’s office on a future date.  The investigation into the incident is ongoing and law enforcement has no reason to believe that the public is in any danger.  More information will be released as information becomes available.

The Sheldon Police Department was assisted by the O’Brien County Sheriff’s Department, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Sheldon Community Ambulance Team, the Sheldon Fire Department, and the O’Brien County Attorney’s office.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa woman is facing charges that she took $71,000 from the company where she worked as a part-time bookkeeper. The Scott County Sheriff’s Department says 42-year-old Jennifer Michele Farmer-Thiesen is charged with an ongoing criminal activity and first-degree theft, both felonies.

Deputy Eric Roloff says in an arrest affidavit that from June 2015 to December 2017, Farmer-Thiesen used her company’s credit cards to make personal purchases totaling $71,000.

The Quad-City Times reports Farmer-Thiesen allegedly concealed the purchases by altering the company’s Quick Book’s software.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating a report of a sexual assault at Iowa State University. Deputy Chief Carrie Jacobs says a woman reported the assault to campus police Thursday evening but further details were not immediately available.

Jacobs says the woman is not a student and it’s unclear if she was assaulted on or off campus. Authorities were notified of the case while she was at a hospital.
No suspect information was released Friday.

The Des Moines Register reports that in a separate case, a 20-year-old Sioux City man was charged in late March with three counts of third-degree sexual abuse in late March after authorities said he sexually assaulted an Iowa State student in September in her dorm.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The owners of a former Sioux City riverboat casino have agreed to pay $1.5 million to a nonprofit group that had filed a lawsuit over unpaid revenue-sharing funds. The Community Action Agency of Siouxland and the Belle of Sioux City reached a settlement last month, the Sioux City Journal reported. Belle operated the Argosy Sioux City riverboat casino.

The nonprofit sued Belle and Penn National Gaming Inc., the Belle’s parent company, in Nov. 2016 for monthly revenue-sharing payments that the companies withheld from the Missouri River Historical Development Inc. The MRHD collected and distributed the casino’s gambling profits to charitable and civic organizations.
Belle stopped making the payments, which were 3 percent of the boat’s adjusted gross revenues, in May 2013 after it sued MRHD for breach of contract.

“I feel this money was owed to our community, and I’m proud to have played a role in recovering that money. I think it’s going to make a big difference for some of (the nonprofit agencies),” said Jean Logan, executive director of the Community Action Agency. More than 50 agencies can claim a $10,000 share of the settlement, Logan said. The settlement shares don’t have restrictions, so agencies have the freedom to decide how they spend the money, she said. “It’s not very often that money comes to us as nonprofits without a lot of strings attached,” Logan said.

Penn National Gaming is pleased the matter has been settled, said Jeff Morris, vice president of Public Affairs and Government Relations at the company. The breach of contract lawsuit involving MRHD is pending in Polk County District Court.