(Atlantic, Iowa) – Every year the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce honors a strong, passionate community leader, with the Annual Distinguished Service Award. This year was no exception.

Here’s Chamber Director Bailey Smith…

(This year marks the 36^th time the highest award for services and contributions to the community of Atlantic was presented.)

(From left to right) – Brenda Swope; Kelsey Beschorner; Bailey Smith; and the 2021 Distinguished Service Award winner: Greg Schuler.

Smith said recipient of the award for 2021, is Greg Schuler, of Atlantic, was nominated by Brenda Swope, with Atlantic Elks Lodge #445, and who is retired from Cass Health. Swope submitted a three page form explaining why she nominated Greg Schuler, a native of Atlantic. In the letter which was read by Bailey Smith, Swope said Greg “Is a quiet leader (for over 30-years, and) has made positive contributions to our quality of life in the Atlantic Area through his involvement in a ‘plethora’ or volunteer activities.

His accolades didn’t stop there…

Greg Schuler holds his award plaque presented to him Friday morning (1/28/22)

While the official announcement was made Saturday, during the Chamber’s Annual Dinner. Schuler was actually surprised with the award late Friday morning, at the Chamber Office in the Rock Island Depot. And as always, Greg was modest in his being honored.

The Distinguished Service Award recognizes an individual, business or organization who has made the community a better place to live. They have rendered special services for the benefit of the community and have demonstrated an active leadership role for the betterment of the community through their involvement in business, civic and social service organizations.

Last year, the Distinguished Service Award was given to Cass County Public Health for their unwavering leadership throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Radio Iowa) – A group of national Democratic Party officials are discussing a plan that would dislodge Iowa’s Democratic Caucuses as the first event in the 2024 presidential nominating process. The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee met Saturday. Panel member Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, says there’s “nothing written in stone” that says Iowa’s Caucuses and New Hampshire’s Primary should be first and she says no one who set up the current system in 1972 expected the two lead-off states to winnow the field of potential candidates. “The beginning is important, right? The early states are important,” she said. “…I think this will be a topic of rich discussion and we can start from scratch.”

Delaware Democrat Molly Magarik says the pages and pages of rules for how a caucus should be run aren’t welcoming to would-be voters. “Obviously there’s a lot of nostalgia and there’s a lot of: ‘This is how we do things,'” Magarik said. “…A caucus is incredibly intimidating to people.” Mo Elleithee, head of Georgetown University’s Institute of Politics, experienced Iowa’s Caucuses as the traveling press secretary for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign. As a member of the D-N-C’s Rules panel, he’s urging the party to make sure the first set of early states hold primaries, represent the diversity of voices in the Democratic Party and will be battleground states in the General Election. “In my opinion and I’m sure we’re going to be talking about this more, three of the four current ‘early window’ states satisfy at least two of those criteria. One does not satisfy any of them,” he says, “at least in recent years.”

Iowa was considered a swing state in the first four presidential elections of this century, but not in 2016 or 2020. In a written statement, the Iowa Democratic Party’s chairman said Iowa plays an important role in the presidential nominating process and he will continue to fight for Iowa’s Democratic Caucuses to remain first. The chairman of the Iowa REPUBLICAN Party says he’s been assured by national party leaders that Iowa’s Caucuses will be the first event on the G-O-P’s 2024 presidential nominating calendar.

Davenport, Iowa – Authorities in Iowa says a former Fairfield man, 23-year-old Auston Jacobus Hummell, was sentenced January 26th to serve to 190 months (15.8-years) in prison, for Receipt and Distribution of Child Pornography. Following his prison term, Hummell was ordered to serve ten years of supervised release as well as pay $3,000 to each of his eleven victims – for a total of $33,000. He was also ordered to pay a $100 Special Assessment fee.

According to court documents, the investigation into Hummell’s activities began when the Mount Pleasant Police Department received a CyberTip from the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The CyberTip indicated files containing child pornography were uploaded from specific IP addresses and those IP addresses traced back to Hummell. After liaising with Kahoka Police Department in Kahoka, Missouri, a search warrant was issued for Hummell’s known residence and numerous electronic devices were seized. The devices contained over 120,000 images and videos containing child pornography. On June 21, 2021, Hummell pleaded guilty to the charge.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mount Pleasant Police Department, Kahoka Police Department, and the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigated the case, which was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nation-wide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said this past week, a 48-year-old Des Moines man known as “Solo,” was sentenced to slightly more than 34 years in prison on January 13th, on firearms charges. After a three-day trial, Kenny Eugene Smart was convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Smart was found in possession of that gun during the execution of metro-wide search warrants in November 2020. He had been prohibited from possessing firearms because of prior convictions for an Iowa felony drug crime and a federal felony gun crime, for which he spent more than 15 years in prison.

Smart had just been released from prison in June 2020 and was on federal supervised release when he was found with a gun in November 2020. Smart qualified under the United States Sentencing Guidelines as an Armed Career Criminal and, due to the crimes for which he was convicted, faced a mandatory 20-year sentence.

At sentencing, a victim testified that she had been raped by Smart. The government presented evidence that Smart raped another victim during the six months he had been out of prison. In imposing sentence, United States District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger characterized Smart’s gun possession as aggravating because he possessed guns to intimidate others and coerce at least one of his rape victims. She also considered Smart’s conduct after he was federally indicted, which included an attempt to have another person take responsibility for the gun and he threatened the family member of a trial witness.

Smart received a 360-month sentence for his gun crimes, to be served consecutively to a 54-month sentence for revocation of his federal supervised release.

His case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Des Moines Police Department, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the Iowa Department Public Safety, and multiple other state and federal agencies

The latest area & state news from Ric Hanson.

**This will be the last news podcast. They are being discontinued as of this date. You can still catch episodes of “Heartbeat Today,” and “Backyard & Beyond” on our Podcast page.**

A traffic stop in Montgomery County at around 4-p.m., Friday, resulted in the arrest of a woman from Pottawattamie County. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Deputies stopped a vehicle driven by 23-year-old Kelli Perkins, of Council Bluffs, at the intersection of Highway 34 and Ironwood Road. Perkins was subsequently arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond at the Montgomery County Jail, was set at $300.

ELDORA—DNR and emergency response staff are tracking down a fuel release in Eldora.  Agvantage Farm Supply notified DNR about 9 a.m. today (Friday), reporting the loss of about 7,500 gallons of unleaded gasoline from a self-fueling station in Eldora. A bank next door to the fueling station was evacuated for the day after reporting fumes in their building.

Hardin County Emergency Management, DNR, city and company staff have been on site most of the day working to determine the extent of the release. There is currently no sign of the fuel migrating off-site.

Contractors began removing concrete this afternoon. Once the cause and extent of the release is confirmed, emergency responders will determine next steps to contain and safely dispose of any free product.  Any contaminated soil will be excavated and sent to the landfill in Hardin County. Emergency staff and contractors will continue work over the weekend.

DNR will monitor the spill and cleanup activities, considering appropriate enforcement action.

(SAVANNAH, GA) – Authorities in Georgia say a former U.S. Army soldier previously from eastern Iowa, who was stationed at Fort Stewart (GA) has been sentenced to prison after admitting he committed sex crimes against a minor. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, said Friday (today) 46-year-old Jason L. Adkins, of Swann, Iowa, was sentenced to 76 months (6.3-years) in prison, after pleading guilty to Abusive Sexual Contact with a Child Under 12 Years of Age. Adkins was also to serve 15 years of supervised release after completion of his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Adkins had been stationed in Fort Stewart prior to retiring from the Army in 2015, after which he relocated to Altoona, Iowa. Officers with the Police Department in Altoona contacted Army Criminal Investigation Command to report Adkin’s arrest on state child sex crimes charges in 2019, and the subsequent investigation determined that Adkins had committed similar offenses in both locations. His federal sentence will be served consecutively to a four-year state sentence for his crimes in Iowa.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Altoona Police Department and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcela C. Mateo and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Darron Hubbard.

Anyone with information on suspected child sexual exploitation can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678, or https://report.cybertip.org/.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says the United States has to take the lead in dealing with the Russian build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine. “This is a very serious situation, and in our country we’ve always done this through history, we have to show leadership, we’ve got to make sure our allies are with us in what we are doing. The bottom line is we have to understand what Russia wants to do,” Feenstra says.
Feenstra says Russia is interested in Ukraine’s resources.

“They are the breadbasket to that area, they grow a lot of soybeans and wheat and all this other stuff, they have a lot of precious minerals. So, obviously, Russia wants Ukraine. And we have to make sure that doesn’t happen and we have to do everything that we can in our leadership role to get our allies with us and to make sure that doesn’t happen,” according to Feenstra. Feenstra says the U-S has a lot of options to deal with Russia.

There’s a lot of sanctions we can do. We can put a tremendous amount of pressure when it comes to the financial side of this whole thing. Those are things that are all playing out right now — but again — we’ve got to show strength and leadership,” he says. Feenstra made his comments during a stop in Webster City.