Police in Red Oak, Tuesday evening, arrested 53-year-old Fred Francis Welch, IV, of Red Oak. Welch was taken into custody on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Failure to Appear, on original charges of OWI/1st offense, and Possession of a Controlled Substance. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa man caught getting meth through the mail has been sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison. According to the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa, 55-year-old Armando Silva Reyes of Spencer gave a quarter pound of meth to an informant on two occasions.

On February 3rd of last year Silva Reyes and others received three pounds of meth through the U-S Post Office in Spencer. Prosecutors say Silva Reyes was part of a network that distributed meth by the pound in northern Iowa.

Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and two counts of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Des Moines, Iowa – Governor Kim Reynolds today (Tuesday), announced her appointment of Jessica Noll as a district associate judge in Judicial Election District 3B. Noll, of Akron, Iowa, currently serves as a magistrate in Woodbury County and practices law with Deck Law, P.L.C. in Sioux City. Noll received her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of South Dakota.

District Associate Judge Jessica Noll

Noll fills a vacancy created by the addition of four new district associate judge positions authorized by the legislature in this year’s session. Judicial Election District 3B includes Crawford, Ida, Monona, Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of the 185th Iowa National Guard in Sioux City have been in Woodbine, building a giant tension fabric structure (tfs) that is a precursor to an Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) mission soon to take place at the Woodbine High School. Woodbine Schools Superintendent Justin Wagner, is also a colonel with the 185th, and says the fabric structure will initially house teams of U-S. military members traveling to the area to help construct a new Ignite Pathways building already under construction in Woodbine.

“And they’ve done exactly what they’ve done overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq. They took something completely bare just like this field. And they’re building this and these folks have been up in the morning at 7. They’re working to 7 p-m,” he says. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a better example of the Iowa National Guard connecting with the community for a value added project.” Wagner requested the support of the Department of Defense I-R-T program to help construct the new ignite building as well as the accompanying structure.

“It’s called Ignite Pathways it’s a 45-thousand square foot facility completely focused on Career and Technical Education. And so it’s the skills kids learn by doing and so that process to get approved as a D-O-D I-R-T project is taking about 18 months,” Wagner says. This is the first ever I-R-T in Iowa. As part of their annual training, Iowa guard members from the 185th Air Wing set up the privately donated 30-thousand square foot structure in woodbine. Wagner says when construction on the adjacent Ignite building is complete, the school plans to use the tfs building as an indoor athletic facility.

“It combines two really important things, the governor’s push on current technical education and our future-ready Iowa initiative which is really on the school side what we’re really trying to push, and then that D-O-D I-R-T push being the first ever in the state of Iowa is pretty special to us,” he says. The Ignite building project is scheduled to be completed at the beginning of the 2023 school year. Colonel Wagner also serves as the vice wing commander with the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City as a traditional guard member.

(Radio Iowa) – A security breach at one of the nation’s largest health systems has affected hospitals in Des Moines and Omaha. Officials at Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health say an I-T security incident happened on Monday. Some MercyOne facilities in central Iowa have been affected. A MercyOne spokesman says some I-T systems have been taken offline and that may include electronic health record systems.

The Omaha World Herald reports the Creighton University Medical Center and two other C-H-I hospitals in Omaha have taken steps to respond to the security incident as well. It’s unclear how extensive the hack may have been. News reports in other states indicate hospitals in Tennessee and Georgia have rescheduled some surgeries and doctors’ appointments.

Firefighters and Cass EMS personnel were dispatched to the scene of what was initially described as a barn fire west of Atlantic this (Tuesday) evening. The call about the fire at 58935 Indian Creek Street went out at around 5:30-p.m.

Atlantic Fire Chief Tom Cappel told KJAN the fire didn’t amount to much. “A little fire started in the back of a small goat barn. The homeowners got the goats out and started throwing buckets of water on the barn. We finished putting it out when we arrived on the scene.” Cappel said there was “Very minimal damage.”