A man being held in the Cass County Jail was arrested last week on two Guthrie County felony charges. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says Matthew Ross, of Marne, was transported February 3rd to Guthrie County where he appeared before a magistrate with regard to two counts of Sex Abuse in the 2nd Degree – both Class B felonies.

Matthew Ross

After making his appearance before the judge, Ross was released on his own recognizance. The case was investigated by the Stuart Police Department.

On February 1st, Jerome Boblett, of Coon Rapids, was arrested on a charge of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was arrested following a traffic stop on Highway 141, east of Bagley. Additional charges are pending. The Guthrie County K9 was utilized on this traffic stop. On February 2nd, Payden Willms, of Guthrie Center, was stopped for a traffic violation. Willms was cited and released on an Operating While Intoxicated 1st Offense Charge.

On February 4th, Joseph Reynolds, of Stuart, turned himself into the Guthrie County Jail to serve a thirty-day mittimus. His initial charges were weapons and drug related. And, on February 8th, Mark Doyle, of De Soto, turned himself into the Guthrie County Jail to serve two days of his seven-day mittimus. His initial charge was an Operating While Intoxicated 2nd Offense.

Atlantic, Iowa  February 8, 2019:  Southwest Iowa Planning Council (SWIPCO), which operates Southwest Iowa Transit Agency (SWITA), has completed the purchase of a 10,000 square foot vehicle staging and storage facility at 3236 Nebraska Avenue, Council Bluffs.  The new facility has indoor parking space for fifteen transit buses, a vehicle maintenance area, office space, training rooms, and driver waiting and storage space.  There is also a large, fenced exterior parking area that will be able to accommodate vehicles not in active use.

SWITA is headquartered in Atlantic and provides public transit services throughout an 8 county region in Southwest Iowa, including Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County.  It also operates the Special Transit Service (STS) for the City of Council Bluffs, which is the city’s para-transit service.  SWITA operates a fleet of over 100 vehicles and approximately 20 of those vehicles and 21 drivers are currently based in and around Council Bluffs.  All of the Council Bluffs vehicles are currently stored outside at various locations.  In 2018 over 100,000 public transit rides were provided by SWITA in Pottawattamie County, and an additional 250,000 throughout the rest of the region.

SWIPCO executive director John McCurdy said, “We have an excellent facility in Atlantic, which is our main administrative and maintenance hub, but we have been reviewing properties in the Council Bluffs area for over 2 years.  The 3236 Nebraska Avenue location meets all of our needs with a near turnkey solution that will be a great satellite location to our Atlantic base.  The recent frigid weather has underscored the need for us to get as many of our vehicles indoors as possible.  It extends the life of the vehicles, enhances the drivers’ ability to keep their vehicles clean and secure, and will improve the overall experience for our riders.”

The Council Bluffs facility is currently undergoing a few necessary upgrades and vehicles will begin staging out of it in the next few weeks.

Southwest Iowa Planning Council is a council of governments that serves Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Montgomery, Mills, Page, Pottawattamie, and Page Counties in Iowa.  Southwest Iowa Transit Agency is its public transit service.  All services are open to the public, and SWIPCO is an equal opportunity provider, lender, and employer

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds has used a Utah law as the template for her proposal to let women get birth control directly from a pharmacist rather than having to periodically get a doctor’s prescription. Reynolds says the bill outlining the details may be released as soon as today (Friday).

“There is an age limit. I think you have to be 18 or older,” Reynolds says. There’s an assessment form that you have to fill out. You’re required to visit a doctor every two years.” Reynolds first talked about this issue last fall, during her race for a full, four-year term as governor. Reynolds says the proposal will expand access to the pill and other birth control products for Iowa women, particularly those in rural areas.

“The way that we’re doing it is similar to what we did with Naloxone,” Reynolds says. That’s the medication which temporarily reverses an opioid overdose. “So it would be a standing order that would give the pharmacists authority to prescribe,” Reynolds says. Reynolds indicated the bill is written so women who have insurance coverage of their contraceptives would continue to have that coverage. Reynolds describes the bill as a starting point for debate in the legislature.

“I think any time you drop legislation, you know that’s potentially not where it’s going to end up,” Reynolds says, “but we’ve tried to work really hard to identify any problems that we might run into.” Reynolds made her comments during taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight (Friday) at 7:30.

Utah’s Republican-led legislature embraced this move unanimously last May and Utah’s Republican governor signed it into law. A few other states like California and Oregon have similar laws and bills have been introduced in congress to classify birth control an over-the-counter medication nationwide.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — A former central Iowa high school educator who taught for 30 years has been imprisoned for distributing child pornography. The Times-Republican reports that Glen Sedlacek, of Marshalltown, was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in federal prison. He’d pleaded guilty in October after prosecutors dropped two other counts. Prosecutors say Sedlacek had numerous computer files containing pornography of children younger than 12, dating back to March 2013.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose also ordered Sedlacek to make restitution of $6,000 to a female minor identified as Lily and $3,000 to a girl identified as Chelsa. Prosecutors say the two had appeared in porn films he’d viewed in his Marshalltown home.