(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa police dog named Pepper tracked down a missing child. Pepper, a nearly 15-month-old Dutch Shepherd, completed a certification process earlier this month and works as a K9 officer for Estherville Police.

Sergeant Matt Reineke, Pepper’s handler, says the training paid off last Monday during a search for a missing child in a neighboring community. “By the time we arrived on scene, they had been looking for over two hours for this missing child,” Reineke says. “…Was brought to the house where the child was last seen and talked to the parent and I obtained an article of clothing that was just the child’s a no one else had tampered with and I went to where the child was last seen in the yard playing and let Pepper smell that article of clothing for about 20 seconds and gave her the command basically to track.”

Reserve Officer Krause and Part-time Officer Staples, Sgt Reineke and Pepper, Mayor Joseph May. (Estherville PD photo).

Reineke says it took Pepper about five minutes to find the boy. “She went around the yard. Eventually she put her nose to the ground and picked up scent and took off down the road a little bit and then crossed the road toward a corn field,” Reineke says. “We went through the corn for a short time and then back out of the corn and continued down a fence line into a real thick wooded fence line — tall grass — where we tracked that for a while and then she went into the deep part of the fence line and stopped…so I went to investigate and, sure enough, it was the missing child.”

The Estherville Police Department has had trained K-9 officers for about 20 years. Pepper replaces a police dog named Max who died unexpectedly after 18 months of service with the department.

(Radio Iowa) – Carroll County has become the sixth so-called “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” in Iowa. The Board of Supervisors took the vote this morning. Supervisor Rich Ruggles said he listened to a lot of people on both sides of the argument. “I believe that the Constitution has been bent a lot lately and I’m quite concerned and I don’t want to give any traction or footing on this issue,” he said. “As I also read this is kind of symbolic that we do this. It really has no teeth. It has not much bearing, but I also think it’s a clear message that we send this to legislative people from a local level.”

Carroll County Attorney John Werden said he reviewed several drafts of similar policies adopted by counties in Iowa and Missouri. “I think the only thing that is really political about this is it uses the word ‘sanctuary’ in the right way,” Werden said, “Sanctuary cities and counties — that has been code word for those who want to disobey the law, for those who want to want to ignore federal law in other areas, so I think it’s great that we’ve co-opted their word and used it for the law abiding citizens of this county.”

Rich Ruggles, Carroll County Supervisor

Members of the public attended today’s meeting and some spoke before the vote was taken. Dick Searle said the resolution is “purely propaganda” and a scare tactic. “The people who are sponsoring this thing have tried to scare you into believing that the guns are going to be taken away and they talk about their constitutional rights. The state supreme court or the federal supreme court is going to knock down any law that takes away your constitutional rights,” Searle said. “This thing is unnecessary.”

The resolution passed on a 4-1 vote. Supervisor Dean Schettler was the lone no vote. “I own guns. I don’t want my guns to be taken away because then I can’t shoot rabbits and pheasants. Everybody else is probably in the same boat,” he said, “but I guess I don’t want this to be construed by the bad guys as a place where they can come and build an arsenal of guns.”

The boards of supervisors in Adams, Cedar, Hardin, Jasper and Madison Counties have also adopted second amendment resolutions this summer.

A van and pickup sustained damage in an accident on Monday morning near Red Oak. A utility contractor that was working on placing underground fiber was parked along side the road of 208th Street. At approximately 11:27 a.m. a 2004 Chrysler Town and Country van being driven by 73-year-old James Lawrence Bredberg of Clarinda backed out of a private drive on 208th street. In the process he didn’t see the contractor’s 2020 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and backed the left rear bumper of the van into the left rear cab corner and front left portion of the truck box.

The van sustained approximately $1,000 damage and the pickup sustained an estimated $7,000 damage. No injuries were reported and no citations were issued at the scene.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests took place over the weekend: 49-year-old Bret Phillip Samuelson, of Nebraska City, NE., was arrested at I-29/Bunge Avenue, for Driving While Barred. His bond was set at $2,000. And, at around 2:50-a.m. Sunday, 18-year-old Kyrell Deshawn Wells, of Omaha, was arrested at 195th & Eastman Road in Mills County. He faces charges that include A Controlled Substance Violation, and Dangerous Weapon used in a crime. Bond was set at $5,000.

Authorities said also, a 2021 BMW motorcycle driven by 62-year-old James Petersen, of Glenwood, was traveling south on 221st Street in Mills County Saturday afternoon, when the cycle left the road, entered a yard, and broke through a barbed wire fence. Petersen was found a short distance from the motorcycle, which was laying on its side. He was transported by EMS to the high school in Glenwood, before being flown by medical helicopter to an undisclosed hospital. A report on his injuries was not provided.

Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater issued a report on arrests and incidents from the past week. On August 15th, 28-year-old James Dean Michelson, of Creston, was arrested by Stuart Police for Possession of a Controlled Substance/3rd or subsequent offense (marijuana and methamphetamine), and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. His arrest was the result of a traffic stop on the Stuart Road at around 7:15-a.m. A device used for smoking meth, along with other items for drug use were found in the vehicle. Michelson was being held in the Adair County Jail on a $5,000 cash or surety bond.

As previously reported, on August 16th, 42-year-old Dustin James Seeley, of Lenox, was arrested on a felony charge of Murder in the 1st Degree. He was being held in the Adair County Jail on a One-million dollar cash-only bond. Also arrested August 16th, was 41-year-old Christa Jeane Swalley, of Denver, CO. Her Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge, and a warrant out of Colorado were summarily dismissed, when authorities in Colorado refused to extradite her. Swalley was released the following day.

On Aug. 18th, 45-year-old Scott William Richard Funke, of Grimes, was arrested on Adair County warrants for Violation of Probation. He was later released after posted a cash or surety bond. 32-year-old Zachary Taylor Stream, of Des Moines, was arrested Aug. 20th in Stuart. He was taken into custody on a warrant out of Marion County, and transported by that county by their Deputies.

Sheriff Vandewater reports also, 43-year-old Mark David Osberg, of Stuart, was arrested August 20th, for OWI/1st offense, cited, and later released by Stuart Police. 39-year-old Sara Michelle Llamas, of Wonder Lake, IL, was arrested Aug. 21st, for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, following a traffic stop on I-80 near Stuart. Llamas was cited and then released at the scene of the traffic stop.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson and an Arkansas senator who’s among the potential 2024 G-O-P presidential hopefuls visited with veterans in Independence this weekend. Hinson says the Biden Administration had intelligence reports that Kabul would fall to the Taliban and congress must investigate. “Instead of talking about spending $3.5 trillion more dollars, we should be trying to find solutions to the problems happening in Afghanistan right now,” Hinson says.

President Biden says it’s time to end the war and there would have been chaos if the departure of U.S. forces had been delayed. Hinson says congress should investigate why American military equipment is ending up in Taliban hands and she says any arbitrary deadline for withdrawal should be shelved until all Americans and allies in Afghanistan are evacuated.