A Red Oak man serving time in the Montgomery County Jail for prior burglary and theft charges, was arrested again late Thursday morning on three additional charges of Burglary in the 3rd Degree. The latest charges against 35-year old Kim Jack Douglas Trost stem from incidents of burglary March 19th at The Greenhouse in Red Oak and the Burlington Northern-Sante Fe (BNSF) Railroad, and theft of a vehicle from the BNSF on March 11th.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a southwest Iowa man’s appeal of his conviction for robbery, carjacking, obstructing justice and witness tampering. The court notified 49-year-old Tiran Casteel Thursday it would not hear his case.  Casteel, of Coin, (Iowa), is serving 27 years in prison for the 2008 robbery of Darlene Eitzen at her rural Page County farm.

Prosecutors say Eitzen was held at gunpoint while Casteel and his son, Devan, robbed her of a rare coin collection her late husband left her. While awaiting trial Casteel attempted to have Eitzen killed prompting obstructing justice and witness tampering charges.

Casteel’s conviction was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2013. He’s at a federal prison in Kansas. His son, Devan, is imprisoned in Texas, scheduled to be released in 2021.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Omaha-Council Bluffs metro area is edging closer to having a population of 1 million after eclipsing 900,000 people for the first time last year. The World-Herald reports that U.S. Census Bureau data places the metro area’s population at an estimated 904,421 people. The Omaha metro area includes Douglas, Sarpy, Cass, Washington and Saunders counties in Nebraska; and Pottawattamie, Mills and Harrison counties in Iowa.

David Drozd of the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Public Affairs Research and chamber of commerce officials say there are benefits to hitting the one million mark. According to them, some larger businesses and high-end retailers will only consider locating to cities with more than a million residents.

According to Drozd, Omaha, which is the 60th-largest metro in the United States, should reach 1 million by 2023.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa youth softball coach accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old friend of his daughter has been convicted of four counts of sexual abuse. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 47-year-old John Osborn, of Council Bluffs, was found guilty Thursday of third-degree sexual abuse in a nonjury trial. He faces up to 40 years in prison at his May 1 sentencing hearing.

Council Bluffs police say the girl and Osborn began exchanging text messages in June and had phone conversations about sex. Court documents show the girl reported that she and Osborn engaged in sexual acts in July when the girl stayed at Osborn’s house for a sleepover with his daughter.

Osborn has denied willingly touching the teen and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a very brief, Special Session Thursday evening, the Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education ratified the 2015-16 tentative agreement with the district’s Non-Certified Employees Association.

Board President Kristy Pellett opened the meeting by acknowledging that during their last, regular meeting on March 15th, they opted not to ratify the agreement at that time because they needed additional information. The information necessary to make the decision was available to the Board for the Special Session.

Board member Phil Hascall, who was vocal during the last meeting about not wanting to ratify the agreement, made the motion to reconsider at Thursday’s meeting. The motion was seconded by Rod Hartwig, and passed unanimously. Superintendent Mike Amstein said the agreement that was tentatively agreed to by the district’s negotiating team will cost the district $87,584. That’s the same amount mentioned during the March 15th meeting, and the same increase in pay for the affected staff.

Amstein says “We feel that [the amount] comes within the range that we had looked at. That it is a 3.26 [percent increase], based on new money and the reductions that we’ve made, and also with no increase to our insurance, we believe that [the] amount is acceptable, and I recommend the tentative agreement with our non-certified folks.”

With no further comments having been made, the Board heard a motion and second to approve the agreement, and it passed without objection.