(Radio Iowa) – Sioux City’s railroad museum is refurbishing a vintage boxcar purchase from an Atlantic man, to turn it into a replica of the cattle cars that the Nazis used to transport European Jews to concentration camps. The idea came out of the annual “Tolerance Week” — which for 17 years has annually brought Holocaust survivors to Sioux City to visit local schools to educate children about their history. Boardmember Kelli Erickson explains. “And we all thought, what if we brought a railcar up here, and create a Holocaust museum where it is not just one week? So we are going from one week of education to potentially nine months,” Erickson says.

File Photo – (Left) Matt Merke with the Sioux City Railroad Museum, and Keith Olsen, with Olsen’s BP.

The railcar – formerly owned by Keith Olsen, of Atlantic – will be part of a permanent museum exhibit known as “Holocaust Rails, Desperate Passage.” “And it’s very, very important education for us to share. How did this happen, who are these people, how did people let it happen?,” she says. “There are answers to all of these –and the survivors — the stories of the survivors, very inspiring.” The finished cattle car will be the centerpiece of the only Holocaust exhibit in the midwest. “One survivor has been quoted that the railcar symbolized their transition from being human beings to being numbers that could be disposed of at any time. It’s a hub, the very center of what we’d like to create,” she says.

Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities are partnering in the project. They plan a fundraising campaign for the overall project — and hope to have the exhibit ready by the fall of 2022.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports an investigation into a disabled vehicle on Highway 34 at around 12:40-a.m. today (Wednesday), resulted in a felony drug arrest. Deputies found the vehicle broken down, in the 2900 block of Highway 34. Authorities say 40-year-old Austin Marie Schutt, of Creston, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance (PCS)/3rd offense, a Class-D Felony. Schutt also had multiple warrants out of Missouri for PCS, four counts of illegal possession of an item in a county facility, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $15,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Former Iowa Congressman Steve King has published a book that names and blames some fellow Republicans for what King calls a massive conspiracy to end his political career. “Maybe some of the people at that upper echelon who might get their tail feathers singed a little bit in this book will reset themselves and go back to being the decent human beings I knew before they did this,” King says.

King, who is 72, says things “started to melt down” for him politically just before the 2018 election when the Wall Street Journal and others criticized him for meeting with members of a European political party associated with the neo-Nazi movement. In early 2019, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said the G-O-P would not tolerate King’s remarks about white supremacy and King was removed from House Committees.

In the book, King accuses McCarthy of blocking steps that could have led to King regaining those committee assignments. “I just couldn’t believe there could be, I’ll say, that low a level of integrity at those high levels in office,” King says. Radio Iowa was unable to reach a spokesperson for McCarthy. King endorsed Ted Cruz before the 2016 Iowa Caucuses and King admits there was a political cost once Trump won, as Trump did not acknowledge King publicly in 2018 or when King faced a G-O-P Primary opponent in 2020.

“That’s part of the cancellation that came about and the governor was involved in some of that,” King says. “…She took Randy Feenstra by the hand and led him back to shake hands with President Trump.” A spokesman for Governor Reynolds declined to comment. Feenstra finished 10 points ahead of King in a five person G-O-P Primary and won the fourth congressional district last November with 62 percent of the vote. The title of the book is called “Walking Through the Fire” and King says it’s partly written so his eight grandchildren can read his own words rather than the 41 pages about him on Wikipedia.

“I’m very grateful to my staff and my family and my real friends. None of them left me through all of that — not a staff person, not a family member said: ‘You know dad, you’ve gone too far,’ or anything like that,” King says. “The real people in my life stuck together.” The book can be purchased online at SteveKing.com and King says his publisher will release it nationally in a few weeks. The book was published by a company co-founded by Oliver North, the former National Rifle Association president and T-V host who was involved in the Reagan Administration’s Iran-Contra Affair.

(Harlan, Iowa) – Officials with the Harlan Police Dept., Tuesday, reported two arrests from the past couple of weeks. On Oct. 13th, 24-year-old Connor Patric Green, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Harrison County warrant for Failure to Appear. And, on Oct. 6th, 50-year-old John Plumb, of Harlan, was arrested following a call for service. Plumb was transported to the Shelby County Jail where he was charged with willful injury.

There were also two  non-injury accidents that took place Oct. 10 and 14th.  On the 10th, a 2010 Ford Edge driven by Carley Seaman, of Harlan, was traveling south on Maple Road, when the SUV entered the ditch, jumped a field drive, and came to a rest at the embankment.

On the 14th, a 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue driven by Sheila Mikkelsen, of Harlan, was traveling east in the 1300 block of Garfield Ave. While observing the vehicle, an officer observed it swerve off the roadway and strike two mailbox stands.

Atlantic, Iowa, October 15, 2021 – Rolling Hills Bank & Trust has been awarded a Top Workplaces 2021 honor by Iowa Top Workplaces Top Workplaces. The list is based solely on employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered by employee engagement technology partner Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization: including alignment, execution, and connection, just to name a few.

Heather Link, Vice President of Human Resources states, “We are very proud of this award because it is measured by our most valuable asset, our employees! There is no better feeling than knowing you are on the right track to having a great work culture. Being spread out across the state, this can be a challenging task but we are fortunate to have the teams we do that encourage and inspire each other. Our customers notice and we are honored that our employees believe that Rolling Hills Bank & Trust is a great place to work!”