MADRID, Iowa (AP) – A central Iowa nursing home faces federal fines of at least $64,000 for care problems found during inspections. The Des Moines Register says state inspection reports that led to the fines suggest many of the issues cited stem from staffing shortages at the Madrid Home for the Aging. A lawyer for the nursing home denied the allegations and says the owners are appealing the fines.

Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals spokesman David Werning says the nursing home was hit with unusually strong punishment because inspectors had found similar problems there within the past year. In August the home was sued by a woman who says she found her 74-year-old mother naked and soiled on the floor of an unfinished room at the facility. Her mother has since died.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Transportation Security Administration officials say they have released a man after a loaded handgun was found in his carry-on bag at an Omaha airport. The TSA says the Taurus Slim 40 pistol loaded with seven rounds was discovered during a checkpoint screening on Wednesday afternoon at Eppley Airfield. Omaha Airport Authority police confiscated the weapon and interviewed the passenger.

No charges have been reported. The passenger’s identity hasn’t been released. Authorities say it’s the 13th firearm discovered during a screening at the airport this year. The TSA can levy a civil penalty of up to $11,000 for people who bring guns to checkpoints.

Two Pottawattamie County men were arrested Monday on theft charges, following an investigation into the theft of a tractor from a farm near Hamburg, in Fremont County. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope said Thursday (Today), his office received a report Monday evening about a 1967 John Deere 3020 tractor that was stolen from a farm on 240th Avenue.

Less than 10 minutes after the report was conveyed to law enforcement, the Sheriff saw a suspicious vehicle traveling in the 1100 block of 300th Avenue. Aistrope contacted his deputies and followed the vehicle, which then took off at a high rate of speed. The vehicle ran a stop sign at 300th Avenue and Waubonsie Avenue.

During the pursuit, the Sheriff noticed a tractor stuck in the mud in the 1100 block of 292nd Avenue. The tractor matched the description of the one reported stolen. The vehicle was eventually stopped by a marked Fremont County patrol car near the intersection of 310th Street and Paddock Avenue, in Mills County.

Following an investigation, 55-year old James Sarver and 46-year old Leroy Tichota, both of Council Bluffs, were arrested for Theft in the 1st degree.  Both men were being held in the Fremont County Jail on $10,000 cash only bond, each. Additional charges are pending.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office was assisted during the incident by officers with the Tabor Police Department and deputies with the Mills County Sheriff’s Office.

A man from Adams County was arrested late Wednesday night in Montgomery County on a drug-related offense. The Sheriff’s Department says 19-year old Brandon Robert Pafford, of Nodaway, was stopped at 7th Avenue and 3rd Street in Villisca at around 11:24-p.m., for a traffic offense.

Pafford was subsequently arrested for OWI-drugged/1st offense. He was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $1,000 bond.