(Creston, Iowa) –  A woman from New York was arrested at around 8-a.m. Thursday, in Creston. According to the Creston Police Department, 30-year-old Davia Douchell Morrison, of Watervliet, NY, was arrested at 116 East Adams, in Creston. Morrison was charged with Trespass 1st Offense, Disorderly Conduct, and Interference with Official Acts. She was taken to Adams County Jail.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Council Bluffs Police Criminal Investigation Division Captain Todd Weddum says that beginning on Monday, September 25th, 2023, the Council Bluffs Police Department (CBPD) began receiving reports that residents in the Council Bluffs area were being targeted by a group of suspects who were posing as law enforcement officers in order to fraudulently obtain money. The suspects used technology to “spoof” their phone numbers and make it appear that citizens were receiving calls from a legitimate law enforcement agency.

Once on the phone, the suspects identified themselves as local law enforcement officers and aggressively told victims that they had warrants for their arrest and that they needed to meet these “officers” to pay “bail money” in order to stay out of jail. It appears that the thieves targeted multiple people in the medical profession. In the days that followed, investigators believe that these same suspects perpetrated this same scam in multiple jurisdictions in Iowa, including Council Bluffs, Carroll, Sioux City and Iowa City.

The CBPD, in cooperation with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), are requesting that anyone who may have been contacted by persons claiming to be law enforcement and asking for bail money contact investigators to make a report. Citizens of Council Bluffs can call 712‐890‐5400, Option 5 to make a report. Outside of Council Bluffs, citizens can call
the Iowa DCI at 712‐322‐1585.

As a reminder, law enforcement officers will not contact you by phone and attempt to arrange for payment to clear an arrest warrant.

(Washington, D-C) – The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) has announced that U.S. Army Air Forces 2^nd Lt. Max E. Dailey, 21, of Cherokee, Iowa, killed during World War II was accounted for June 22, 2023.

2nd Lt. Max E. Dailey, U-S Army Air Force (DPAA photo)

In the summer of 1943, Dailey served with the 409th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 93rd Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator aircraft on which Dailey was serving as a navigator, crashed as a result of enemy anti-aircraft fire during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.

Following the war, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel, disinterred all American remains from the Bolovan Cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, both in Belgium.

In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation TIDAL WAVE losses. These remains were sent to the DPAA Laboratory for examination and identification. To identify Dailey’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis and autosomal DNA (auSTR).

Dailey’s name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Dailey will be buried in Charles City, Iowa, on a date to be determined.

For family and funeral information, contact the Army Casualty Office at (800) 892-2490.

(Near St. Charles, Iowa) –  Two central Iowa sheriff’s deputies narrowly escaped injury after their patrol vehicles were struck by a semi. Officials with the Warren County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post Thursday, “Early this [Thursday] morning, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office , alongside Martensdale, St. Mary’s, and New Virginia Fire & EMS, State Patrol, Iowa D.O.T, and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, responded to a vehicle accident on Interstate 35 in Warren County.

“While attending to business, Sgt. Wilbur and Deputy Good’s Patrol Cruisers were struck by a semi at or near regular Interstate speed.” Officials said “Sgt. Wilbur and Deputy Good, thankfully, saw the semi coming and were able to flee to safety in time to avoid the unthinkable.” They added, “We are beyond blessed neither Deputy, nor any other First Responder on scene was injured or worse.” The Iowa State Patrol says the semi-truck driver who hit the squad cars was issued three citations, including failure to move over for an emergency vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office offered this piece of advice to motorists: “Slow down, Move Over, Pay Attention… PLEASE! Our lives depend on it!” As we reported earlier, the initial crash on I-35 happened t around 2:30-a.m. Thursday, when a semi tractor trailer traveling northbound on I-35 near St. Charles, ran into the back of another semi tractor-trailer. The first semi-truck caught fire after the collision, which blocked the interstate, according to the Iowa State Patrol. The driver of the first semi-truck was injured and taken to a Des Moines hospital. The crash resulted in a part of the Interstate being closed for hours.

Warren County S/O Facebook photos

(Radio Iowa) – The three presidents of the state universities discussed some of their state funding requests during Thursday’s Board of Regents meeting. Iowa State University president Wendy Winterstein says they are seeking a four-and-a-half million dollar increase in general support. “These funds….will help Iowa State to remain competitive, to ensure the success of our students and allow us to continue to drive economic impact across the state,” she says. Winterstein says the funding will allow them to address several areas. “Competitive student financial aid, Student Educational Support Services, competitive compensation for our employees, expanding innovation and entrepreneurship,” she says. ” And I have to stop for a minute and just mention that we did win entrepreneurial university of the year for the Americas that was a great award to be recognized. To support online programs, and to address financial challenges that we experienced from inflation that was so high last year.”

I-S-U is also requesting an additional ten million dollars from the Legislature to continue their STEM programs. University of Northern Iowa President Mark Nook says everyone needs to look at what the funding is doing. “It’s easy to talk about dollars to universities, and think of that in a very impersonal way that these are dollars to a university to a large organization, and lose the faces in this. Those dollars help heat our buildings, they keep the lights on, they help us hire faculty that are really committed and staff that are committed to these students to making sure they get the education they need to be able to drive the workforce needs of our state, ” Nook says. He says if you want to see the impact of our of the dollars that the state spends on the universities — look at your neighbors.

“We’re producing the accountants, we’re producing the teachers. We’re producing the superintendents, the engineers, the doctors, the lawyers, the dentists of the state,” Nook says. “Without the investment in the regent institutions, that doesn’t happen in this state, the state doesn’t grow, we don’t have the next generation of leaders.” University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson talked about their request for more rural health funding. She says they are requesting 10 million dollars to start. “We’d like to have a five year commitment from the state so that we can establish what we are calling right now a rural health care partnership with the state,” Wilson says. “The goal really is to grow the healthcare workforce, to expand delivery of health care across the state, and to bump up the ability to do screenings and telehealth.” She says there are some key issues they want to address.

“The biggest chunk of the ten million is in the mental health area. And it makes sense. Forty-two-percent of adults in Iowa have reported symptoms of anxiety and depression in the recent surveys, 42 percent,” she says. “And suicide is the number one cause of death in Iowa for adults aged 25 to 39. ”

If that request is approved, the U-I would have a total recurring appropriation of 50 million dollars in five years.

(Radio Iowa) – A new hands-on learning facility in northwest Iowa is designed to help fill high-demand jobs. The Sioux City Community School District’s Career Academy has opened a construction trades building for students, including 17-year-old Nathaniel Hamann who attends East High School. “I’m hoping to learn electrical and plumbing and how to do all the foundation work and just a little bit of everything that goes into building a house,” Hamann says, “and I can just apply that to everything else in my life, and that would be good information to know.” Students at the facility study skills that are valued by potential employers, like Skip Perley, the C-E-O of Thomson Solutions Group, an electrical contractor and technology integrator. He’s also board president of the Sioux City Public Schools Foundation.

“There’s no lack of opportunity,” Perley says. “We need workers, and we need them at a faster pace than we’ve ever had before.” Perley says he started his career as an electrician right out of high school. He says his company is struggling to find trained, qualified workers. “These kids will come out of this program and either go directly into the workforce or maybe into an apprenticeship of some kind,” Perley says, “and they’ll help us build America, and we have a lot to build.”

The program now has 44 students learning about plumbing, H-VAC, electrical, and even building new houses, including Habitat for Humanity homes.