The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 31-year old Jason Paul Crouse, of Red Oak, was arrested Tuesday afternoon on a Fremont County bench warrant charging him with Violation of Probation. Crouse was turned over to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and held on a $5,000 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa —  It has come to the attention of the Iowa Department of Public Safety that an online extortion scam has been taking place where individuals pose as law enforcement officers who supervise Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Forces.

Reports have been filed in the metro area, as well as other states and appears to follow the same pattern:

• Male victim is contacted via an online dating app/website by an alleged female.  Within a few days, at the recommendation of the female, they shift from the app site to texting.
• The texting transitions from banter to more intimate messages and results in the exchange of nude photos and discussions of meeting in the near future.
• After the male receives the nude photo from the female, the male is then called form a person claiming to be the supervisor of the Iowa ICAC task force.  The imposter advises the female is underage and there is now child pornography on the male’s phone and the female’s father’s phone because she was using it to communicate with the male (victim).
• The fake ICAC supervisor then advises the male he will need to replace the father’s phone or face legal action.  Later that day, the male receives a phone call from the imposter father who advises them to send money (usually several hundred dollars) via wire transfer to replace the phone.

An investigation has revealed that the perpetrators have used phones with out of state area codes.  The fake law enforcement officer has even had a professional voicemail that has identified the person as the ICAC supervisor with the Iowa DCI.

Anyone that believes they have been victim to this or becomes victim of this is urged to call their local law enforcement agency and make a report.

FONTANELLE, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials say there could be reason to cry over the spilling of a lot of milk — at least some of which made its way into a southeastern Iowa river.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said Tuesday in a news release that the crash of a tanker hauling milk east of Fontanelle Sunday evening caused the spill. Officials say the tanker could have been carrying 7,500 gallons of milk, and that the tanker was almost empty when it was hauled away.

DNR officials say heavy milk concentrations can cause fish kills in streams. Investigators who arrived Monday found milk in a road ditch flowing into an unnamed tributary. From there, the milk ran into the Middle Nodaway River, creating a visible plume.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa independents who helped Donald Trump win the presidency see last year’s tough-talking candidate as a thin-skinned chief executive. They wish he’d show more grace.

Unaffiliated voters make up the largest percentage of the electorate in the Midwest state. Iowa backed Trump in 2016 after lifting Democrat Barack Obama to the White House in two straight elections. Ahead of Trump’s visit to Iowa on Wednesday several independents who voted for Trump expressed frustration with the president.

It’s not just his famous tweetstorms. The barrages represent a president distracted by investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and a court battle over his executive order barring refugees from majority-Muslim countries, at the expense of tangible health care legislation and new tax policy.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit Iowa this fall to serve as the featured speaker at a fundraiser for a Des Moines charity.

Bush will speak Oct. 14 at a dinner for Trailhead International Builders, a Christian nonprofit group based in Ankeny that raises money to build church and community centers in developing nations. The event will be held at the Iowa Events Center. Tickets go on sale June 30.

Bush, a Republican, was president from 2001 to 2009.

Representatives of 1st Whitney Bank and Trust are set to appear before the Atlantic City Council Wednesday evening to announce a proposal pertaining to the City’s 150th Anniversary in 2018. According to City Administrator John Lund, the proposal is for a permanent improvement, a gift to the community. No other details were released. The meeting gets underway at City Hall, beginning at 5:30-p.m.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council will hear from Nella Seivert, owner of Medivac, with regard to the services the EMS company provides to the City. And, Street Department Superintendent Derald Anderson will make a report on his department’s activities.

The Council is also expected to act on a Resolution setting the salaries of Appointed Officers and Employees of the City for Fiscal Year 2017-18 that begins July 1st. Those employees include the Police Dept. Confidential Secretary and Secretary Dispatcher, along with the Parks and Rec Dept. Tennis Coordinator.

And, City Clerk Barb Barrick will explain a new format for handling Financial Reports, which purportedly make it easier to understand how calculations are made across the rows, and showing the difference between the Clerks Report..which shows checks the City has written but not yet cashed…and, the Treasurer’s Report, which reflects the bank balances.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A third former Winnebago Tribal Council member has pleaded guilty to his role in stealing from the tribe’s casino in Iowa. The Sioux City (Iowa) Journal reports that Charles Aldrich entered the plea Monday in U.S. District Court in Omaha.

Aldrich is one of nine former council members accused of a conspiracy to siphon more than $327,000 from the WinneVegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa. Lawrence Payer and Louis Houghton pleaded guilty last month to the same charge: theft from a gaming establishment on Indian lands. They await sentencing.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Formerly unmarked graves of Civil War veterans have received new white tombstones at an Iowa city’s cemetery. The Sioux City Journal reports that 20 men buried at Floyd Cemetery in Sioux City were recently identified after city staff did some research.

Tim Tushla is the city’s cemeteries supervisor. He says the new tombstones are good progress, but there are still empty spots in the cemetery which could be more unidentified soldiers. The installation of the new tombstones is part of a larger effort to improve the cemetery. Old trees have been removed, old concrete is being replaced, and older gravestones are being repaired.

The graves will be rededicated Saturday during a ceremony with members of Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War dressed in Civil War-era military attire.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has for the first time issued a statewide order prohibiting weapons in courthouses and other public areas used by the state court system. Chief Justice Mark Cady says in the order released Tuesday that it does not affect peace officers.

It does, however, ban other visitors from carrying weapons into courthouses. The order requires the chief judge in each judicial district to work with local officials to carry out the order in all 99 counties but does not specify how weapons would be detected.

Currently 72 counties prohibit weapons in courthouses but just nine have airport-like magnetometers at entrances. The court says 27 counties have no known courthouse weapons ban. Cady says current policies are inconsistent and must be corrected, “to uniformly protect all Iowans.”