Senator Chuck Grassley uses the phrase “standard practice” to describe the scenario of leaving a vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court until a new president takes office in 2017. Soon after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s death was announced Saturday, the Republican leader of the U.S. Senate said Scalia’s seat on the court should not be filled by President Obama. Grassley is chairman of the committee that would hold hearings on a Supreme Court nominee.

President Obama intends to nominate a replacement, but Grassley says there is a “huge divide in the country” and the senate will “defer to the American people” and wait to vote on the NEXT president’s pick for the nation’s highest court. Grassley says it’s a “standard practice” not to have this kind of a decision made in an election year.

The U.S. Senate unanimously confirmed Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in February of 1988. But President Reagan had nominated Kennedy in November of 1987 after his two other picks had failed to win senate confirmation.

(Radio Iowa)

A woman from Bridgewater was arrested last week in Adair County, on a Dept. of Corrections warrant for Parole Violation on an original felony controlled substance violation charge. 41-year old Virginia Jean Keasey was taken into custody by Adair County Deputies on Feb. 10th and immediately transferred to the authority of Ringgold County. She remains in the Ringgold County Jail, with a probation hearing was set for Feb. 26th.

The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports also, 35-year old Robert Sims, of Bridgewater, was arrested at around 11:50-p.m. on Feb. 11th, for Driving Under Suspension. Sims was cited at the scene of the traffic stop, and then released from custody.