(Radio Iowa) – A coalition of environmentalists and land owners is seeking a meeting with Governor Kim Reynolds, hoping she’ll intervene and block the Iowa Utilities Board from granting eminent domain so carbon pipeline developers can acquire land from reluctant property owners. Judy Sebern Beachy and her sister inherited a farm in Floyd County that’s been owned by her family for four generations. One of the three pipelines would either run through the farm or be next to it.

“I’m all for doing things to help the climate, but I don’t feel that a pipeline is the answer for Iowa at this time.” Emma Schmit, an Iowa based organizer for Food and Water Watch, says the pipelines are a carbon con job, being proposed to ensure the oil and gas industry lasts longer.

“They’re also demanding to use our land against our consent…all to increase their own private net worth,” Schmit says. Schmit was among a small group that rallied at the statehouse this (Thursday) afternoon after a bill that would have prohibited the use of eminent domain for pipelines was tabled in a senate committee.

Bruce Rastetter owns Summit Carbon Solutions, one of the companies seeking landowner easements for a carbon pipeline. He says the project will be transformational for the ethanol industry and, by extension, the agriculture industry and hundreds of farmers have already signed voluntary easements to have the pipeline run through their property.

Ottumwa, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports 24-year-old Marquis Bedford, who was convicted of Willful Injury- Causing Serious Injury and Prohibited  Acts-Mfg, Del, Consp, or Poss w/Int-Meth LT 5 gm in Wapello and Jefferson Counties, failed to report back to the Ottumwa Residential Facility as required yesterday (Wednesday).

Bedford is a Black male, height 5′ 11″, and weighs 198 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on 10/15/2021.  Persons with information on Bedford’s whereabouts should contact local police.

Marquis Bedford

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – A man from Carter Lake was sentenced in Council Bluffs U-S District Court, Monday (Feb. 14th), in connection with a child pornography charge. Authorities say 29-year-old Zachery McCuen was sentenced to 96 months (8-years) in prison for Accessing Child Pornography. McCuen’s term of imprisonment will be followed by five years of supervised release. According to court documents, McCuen pleaded guilty to the charge on October 1, 2021.

On January 18, 2019, Homeland Security received information that child pornography was being traded in a chat group on Kik messenger. One of the Kik users was identified as McCuen and in October 2018, he was communicating with, exchanging, and receiving images and videos of child pornography with another Kik user from California.

Homeland Security Investigations investigated and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – A man from Pottawattamie County was sentenced Feb. 14th to prison in connection with a firearms charge. The sentence for 45-year old Jason Henry Miller, of Council Bluffs, requires him to serve 30 months (2.5-years) in prison for being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm. His term of imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release. According to court documents, Miller pleaded guilty to the charge on September 2, 2021.

In June of 2020, a while investigating a drug case, law enforcement officers located a firearm that had been modified to be an automatic weapon. Officers were able to obtain information that Miller was the one who modified the weapon. The weapon had been fired on his property while in his possession. At the time of the offense, Miller was a drug user and had convictions for domestic violence and was prohibited from possessing a firearm.

The Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Omaha Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – A woman from Mills County was sentenced Feb. 14th in Council Bluffs U-S District Court, to serve 6.5-years (78 months) in prison on drug charges. Authorities say 36-year-old Sarah Diane Adams, of Glenwood, was sentenced for Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine. Her term of imprisonment will be followed by five years of supervised release.

According to court documents, Adams pleaded guilty to the methamphetamine offense in January of 2021. Her co-defendant, Joshua Matthew St. John was sentenced to 132 months in prison on December 17, 2021.

An initial law enforcement investigation revealed Adams lived with St. John in April of 2020 at a residence in Glenwood and they sold methamphetamine. On April 2, 2020, a confidential source made arrangements with St. John to purchase a quarter pound of methamphetamine. The confidential source traveled to St. John’s residence in Glenwood and was then directed by Adams to a stash house location. The quarter pound requested by the confidential source was removed from a larger bag containing methamphetamine and delivered by Adams to the confidential source.

On April 24, 2020, the confidential source met St. John in Glenwood to purchase additional methamphetamine and reported seeing a large quantity of methamphetamine inside Adam’s residence. Law enforcement executed a search warrant on Adam’s residence and recovered approximately a half pound of methamphetamine and distribution paraphernalia.

The Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Council Bluffs Police Department, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Mills County Sheriff’s Office, and Glenwood Police Department investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department Director Bryant Rasmussen reports the roads in Sunnyside Park are once again open. The Park’s roads were closed for the season Dec. 10, 2021. Rasmussen said, while the roads in Sunnyside Park are open, the restrooms will remain closed until warmer temperatures are more consistent.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – With the announcement on Wednesday from Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman that he intends to resign from the position effective April 15^th, comes the next step of finding someone to succeed him. He’s served as an elected official for more than 37-years. Cass County Supervisor’s Board Chairman Steve Baier told KJAN News because Sunderman “has served the County so well for so many years, it’s leaving some really big shoes to fill.”

He said Sunderman’s attention to detail is what makes him a good Auditor.

Cass Co. Auditor Dale Sunderman demonstrates a new voting machine for the blind/visually impaired. (File Photo)

Baier says the Supervisors are now tasked with finding someone to work with Sunderman before his last day in office. Applications will be available on the County’s website and Cass County Auditor’s Office.

He says they hope candidates who file an application will be interviewed within about a week’s time, and by mid-March have a person who will become the Auditor, at least until the November election.

Steve Baier said he has known Dale Sunderman most of his life, since the time they were growing up in the Noble Center community.

(Radio Iowa) – A House committee has approved legislation to require Iowans casting an early vote to put their voter I-D number or driver’s license number on the outside of the absentee ballot envelope. It would prohibit Iowa’s secretary of state and county auditors from accepting private donations to help run elections. Republican Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton is one of the bill’s authors. The point of this bill is the banning of outside money for influencing public elections, ensuring that the voter ID loop is closed and we’ve checked off all of those boxes,” Kaufmann says.

The bill also updates the rules for election recounts — like the one in the second congressional district that saw some counties run the ballots through counting machines and others do a recount by hand.  “Bipartisan recount reform, so there’s uniformity across the system for all 99 counties,” Kaufmann says.

Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says making recount procedures the same across all counties makes sense. She’s concerned about the change to require voters to write their driver’s license number or voter I-D number on what’s called the affidavit envelope for their absentee ballot. Wolfe says that needs to be prominently noted and clearly explained. “In order to avoid people completely, inadvertently not seeing that,” Wolfe says, “not realizing what it is, sending their absentee ballot back in and having their ballot not count.”

The bill also would let Iowa political parties post the date and time of caucuses on the party’s public website. Under current law, parties have to publish the date, time and location of precinct caucuses in local newspapers.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports one person was arrested Wednesday: 58-year-old Scott Clarke, of Glenwood, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance. His cash or surety bond was set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) – A long-time bus driver for the Newton Community School District was recently fired after failing a drug test. Seventy-six-year-old Peg Esperanza says she was shocked and devastated to learn that CBD oil used for her arthritis had triggered a positive drug test. Esperanza said she started using the product a couple of months ago. She said the treatment has helped her on the job, driving children with special needs to and from school. Esperanza said she was drug tested after a minor accident in a school vehicle and failed the drug test, which came as a complete surprise. Esperanza was told the drug test contained small amounts of THC.

In Iowa, however, it is legal for CBD oil to contain THC. Esperanza said she plans to move from the Newton area because she can no longer afford her apartment. The Newton Community School District has declined comment on the matter.