(Radio Iowa) – More details have been released on the death of a Fort Dodge newborn as the search for the baby’s body continues. Twenty-four-year-old 24 year old Taylor Blaha and 31-year-old Brandon Thoma were arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of their newborn daughter. Blaha told detectives that on November 16th she gave birth to her daughter in the bathroom of her apartment, the child was alive and crying. Blaha told detectives it was the child’s crying that caused her and Thoma to panic in a drug fueled state, they then took her to a half-filled bathtub, where it is reported that together, they allegedly held her under the water until she died.

Thoma faces an additional charge of Abuse of a Corpse. Both Blaha and Thoma are being held in the Webster County Jail on a one-million dollar cash-only bond. The child’s body has not been found despite a search that has stretched from downtown Fort Dodge to the Des Moines River and in and around the Fort Dodge landfill. Anyone with information as to the whereabouts of the child’s body is urged to call the Fort Dodge Police Department or Webster County Crime Stoppers.

(Radio Iowa) – A leading Iowa conservative says conservatives across the country are tired of Republican election losses — and this week’s special election in Georgia is another blow to former President Trump, who backed the losing Republican candidate, Hershel Walker. Bob Vander Plaats is president of The Family Leader, a politically active group of Christian conservatives. “The midterms were not the success that we should have had and that we were hoping to have,” Vander Plaats says.

The Family Leader will host an event this summer for 2024 presidential candidates and Trump, who announced in November that he was running again, might be in the mix. Vander Plaats says Republicans should not choose a nominee who’s entire focus is payback for what happened in 2020. “I believe that America, in many ways, is making up its mind on Donald Trump,” Vander Plaats says. “…We thank him for a lot of good things he did and his administration did when he was president. However, because of the 2022 election, 2024 becomes that much more important — that we need to win — and I believe that America right now is saying, you know, President Trump may be your biggest risk to losing in 2024.”

Vander Plaats is encouraging Trump to endorse one of the other Republicans running to be America’s next president. “We need to choose well about how we’re going to win in 2024.” Vander Plaats says “His announcement has not been met with the overwhelming embrace that I think he thought it would and part of any candidate’s decision going forward in a campaign is: ‘Are the people embracing this or not?'” Vander Plaats says he really thought a red tsunami would happen in the midterms, but Democrats won two governorships that had been held by Republicans and G-O-P results for U.S. Senate and House races fell below what typically happens when a Democrat is in the White House.

“America’s speaking that we want to have a vision of where you’re going, where are you going to go in the future, how are you going to unite Americans versus looking back at the past and just critiquing what happened in 2020,” Vander Plaat says. “I’m not saying that election integrity isn’t important, but they don’t want to be just stuck on the 2020 election.” Vander Plaats has personally endorsed presidential candidates prior to the Iowa Caucuses. He backed Mike Huckabee in 2008, Rick Santorum in 2012 and Ted Cruz in 2016 — al of whom won on Caucus Night.

(Audubon, Iowa) – Artists using various media, such as wood, leather, glass and more, will show and sell their wares this weekend, in Audubon. Richard Longbow, represents the Audubon Christmas Craft and Art Show

One of the artists is Irv Hendricks, a good friend of Longbow’s, who primarily works with wood, in a very unique way.

Hendricks also works with metal. Another artist, LuAnn Barrett, has recently been on the southwest Iowa Art Tour.

Paul Koch, of Macedonia, who works with pottery with unusual patterns with an ocean motif. A glaze applied to the pottery makes it usable for food. Another artist, Judy Hill, specializes in handcrafted, functional items, made out of cloth, like aprons and pot holders.

Two other artists apply dot-matrix mandala decorative patterns to wood, forming crosses and more. And one other artist repurposes window frames into floral paintings, using resins and acrylics that deal with mechanical and nature subjects. Longbow says they create a 3-D and shadow effect when mounted to a wall. Richard Longbow will also present his work creating artwork with high quality leather, primarily from bison.

The Audubon Christmas Craft and Art Show will be held on Saturday from 9-a.m. Until 5-p.m., at the Audubon Memorial Building (410 N. Park Place, Audubon, Iowa).

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Wednesday evening, agreed to split an un-built Right-Of-Way (or, ROW), among three abutting property owners in the 3000 block of Palm Street. Their recommendation to divide the ROW into thirds, will be forward to the Planning and Zoning Commission for review and final recommendation back, to the Council. The P & Z had previously received a petition signed by the property owners abutting the ROW, requesting the ROW be vacated. Prior to deciding on their course of action, the Council, Wednesday, heard from property owners in the affected area, including Dan White, at 3009 Palm Street, who asked the Council to vacate the easement.

Neighbor Bill Welter owns a slightly more than seven-acre parcel of land, on which he says he intends to build a home. Welter wants to use the west section of the ROW for access to his property, utilities and a driveway.

The house, he said, would add about $700,000 to the City’s tax base. Rita Chestnut at 3101 Palm Street, was opposed to vacating the ROW.

Nancy White said the matter boils down to a “Fairness issue.”

Councilman Pat McCurdy made a motion to split the ROW three ways. City Clerk Barb Barrick…

(New London, Iowa) – A head-on collision Wednesday afternoon in southeast Iowa’s Henry County resulted in one death and another person injured. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck driven by 68-year-old Norman E. Hirschy, of Mount Pleasant, was traveling westbound in the 2500 block of 260th Street on the west side of New London. At around 2:55-p.m., his vehicle crossed the center line of the road and struck an eastbound 2006 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Hirschy died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the other pickup was identified as 57-year-old Sheila K. Wilkerson, of New London. She was wearing her seat belt. Wilkerson was transported from the scene by Medforce Air Medical to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain reports a strong second quarter. Casey’s C-E-O, Darren Rebellez, spoke during a conference call Wednesday with investors. “Inside Sales remained strong despite the challenging economic environment, frightening inside gross profit up almost nine percent to almost 504 million dollars. The company generated 138 million in net income, an increase of 42 percent,” according to Rebellez. He says some easing of supply issues helped with the sale of prepared foods. “Sales were up due to strong performance and pizza slices and whole pies, as well as cold dispensed beverages. We had better product availability in both cups and doughnuts, which led to improved performance within the bakery and dispense beverage categories,” he says.

Inflation continues to be an issue with supplies and Rebellez says cheese costs in particular have been up 14 percent. He says they have had to offset some of that with price increases. “In about the last 14 months, we’ve taken for different price increases. We’ve tried to keep pace to a certain extent with inflation, but but we’re also trying to balance that with our relative value proposition to our guests,” Rebellez says. He says they feel like they’re striking the right balance in adjusting prices for now.  “We continue to keep an eye on on those commodity costs. And when we think those are a little more permanent in nature, than we’ll take pricing action to offset that,” he says. ” But right now, it’s, it’s fairly volatile. And what we don’t want to do is raise prices too much — and then have to whipsawed the customer and go backwards.”

The company continued to make a generous margin on gas sales of 40-and-a-half cents. Rebellez says they make more profit on gas when prices are falling than when they are going up.  “Right now, since really the beginning of October, we’ve experienced a steadily declining wholesale environment, so you would expect those margins to expand,” Rebellez says. “What I would remind everybody of is that we saw the same thing happen last year. In the month of November last year, wholesale costs drop 40 cents a gallon. And then over the next two months, they rose 60 cents a gallon. It’s a dynamic environment.”

Their total gallons increased around three percent compared to last year due to an increase in the number of stores. The same-store gallons sold were down two-point-three percent compared to last year.