(Harlan, Iowa) – Officials with the Harlan Fire Department say firefighters and other emergency personnel were dispatched at 11:34-a.m.  Friday (today) for a large gas leak within the city of Harlan. Upon arrival, a very large leak was discovered. Harlan Municipal Utilities (HMU) crews were already on scene when fire personnel arrived.

Fire crews began evacuating the area. Avoca and Westphalia were dispatched for assistance with gas monitoring and evacuation. Fire fighters were tasked with having a charged hand line on the HMU employees and monitoring the air within several buildings to verify that there was no danger of gas within the building.

Photo from the Harlan Fire and Rescue Facebook page,

The “all clear” was given at approximately 4:45-p.m. Harlan Fire thanks HMU for their swift response to mitigate the situation. Thanks went out also, to the Avoca and Westphalia Fire Departments, Shelby County Sheriff’s Department and EMA for their assistance.

Citizens and businesses in the affected are of Harlan were thanked also, for complying with the mandatory evacuation.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A state-certified caregiver has been convicted of sexually exploiting a minor while employed by an Iowa nursing home. According to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, the defendant in the case, Martell Guider, is a 37-year-old male certified nursing assistant who has been accused of sexual impropriety at three Iowa nursing homes located in Audubon, Correctionville and Kalona. The most recent case, and the only one in which criminal charges were filed, involves Guider’s employment at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona.

Prior to his arrest in the Pleasantview case, Guider was fired from two other Iowa nursing homes amid allegations of sexual impropriety. The first of those cases dates back to April 2023, when a female caregiver at Audubon’s Friendship Home filed a complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing about Guider’s behavior.

The woman – who filed similar complaints with management at the home and with city police – alleged Guider had been making suggestive remarks to female coworkers, had sent them photos of him pleasuring himself, had recorded video of one worker as she provided care for a resident, and had invited some of his female colleagues out to his car where he kept a bottle of Seagram’s Crown Royal.

Martell Guider, a state-certified nursing assistant. (Photo courtesy of the Washington County Jail)

Audubon police have acknowledged they fielded at least two complaints about Guider’s conduct at Friendship Home but didn’t pursue the matter. Audubon Police Chief Coby Gust said the complainants provided text messages and photos and expressed concern that the man’s behavior could spill over into his interactions with vulnerable residents. “It kind of just fell off the radar as far as anything being pursued,” Gust told the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

According to the complainant in the Friendship Home case, officials at the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing rejected her complaint about Guider in April 2023, allegedly telling her the issues she raised were best addressed by management at the home since they involved worker-to-worker conduct that had no actual or potential impact on residents.

The complainant provided the Iowa Capital Dispatch with screenshots of Guider’s alleged text messages, which include two photos of a man’s genitals and two photos of a man holding a bottle of Crown Royal inside a vehicle.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa, today (Friday), said a Council Bluffs man was sentenced Thursday (Dec. 12th) to 120 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

According to public court documents, 31-year-old Kyle Robert Smith was found in possession of a distribution quantity of methamphetamine in April 2024. After his arrest, Smith directed a co-conspirator to retrieve two pounds of methamphetamine and sell it. In March 2024, Smith was found in possession a loaded handgun. Smith is prohibited from possessing firearms because of a prior domestic violence conviction.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Smith will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The case was investigated by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Council Bluffs Police Department.

(Radio Iowa) – It appears Governor Kim Reynolds soon will reveal who she’s selected to be Iowa’s next lieutenant governor.

In mid-2017, Reynolds chose Adam Gregg to be here lieutenant governor. Gregg resigned September 3rd and he’s now president and C-E-O of the Iowa Bankers Association. Reynolds told reporters this fall she would wait until after the election to begin interviewing candidates for the vacancy.

The governor’s office has released an advisory that she will make a “special announcement” on Monday.

(Des Moines, Iowa) -Several opponents of the proposed Summit Carbon Solutions carbon sequestration pipeline have received letters on behalf of the company threatening lawsuits over perceived defamation, an environmental group representative said.  The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Jess Mazour, a conservation program associate with the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, said in a press release Thursday she received a letter from the company, “threatening to sue for compensatory or punitive damages if statements were not retracted.”

The letter, dated Nov. 12, 2024, directed Mazour to cease and desist from “interfering” with and making any “further false and defamatory statements” about the pipeline project. The letter was sent from Jason Torchinsky with Holtzman Vogel law firm in Washington, D.C. and Todd Lantz with Weinhardt Law Firm in Des Moines.

The letter points to a quote from Mazour in a nwestiowa.com article from August 2023, where she said Summit Carbon Solutions was in “in collusion” with the Iowa Utilities Board (now Iowa Utilities Commission) to “take away democracy and people’s rights.”  The letter called the statement “false and defamatory” and said it, combined with Mazour’s “explicitly stated goal” to stop the pipelines, exposes her to “significant legal liability.”

Opponents of a proposed carbon sequestration pipeline gather for a rally outside of the Iowa Capitol on Oct. 8, 2024. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

The letter then stated Summit Carbon Solutions and investors have $1 billion invested into the project to date and Mazour should “issue an immediate” public retraction of her statement to avoid legal action. Mazour said in a call with Iowa Capital Dispatch that she and Sierra Club counsel believe Summit has no “grounds to stand on” with the threatened lawsuit.

Representatives from Summit Carbon Solutions did not respond to requests for comment or to verify the letters were sent on the company’s behalf.  According to the press release from Mazour and the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, at least six people have received similar letters. Trent Loos, who hosts several rural broadcasts, has also publicly stated he received a similar letter about comments he has made.

Mazour said the intention of the letters is “intimidation” and urged Iowans to “stand strong when companies take this kind of action.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Fire and Rescue was paged-out to a single-vehicle, multiple-injury accident this (Friday) afternoon. The accident was reported to Cass County Dispatch at around 3:30-p.m. It occurred just west of 610th Street (Chestnut St. in Atlantic), and Keystone Road. The vehicle was reportedly in a ditch. Initial reports said three people were hurt.

Additional information is currently not available.