The Mills County Sheriff’s Office, Monday, reported nine people were arrested over the past week, including three who were arrested on drug charges. Officials say 23-year old Amber Nicole Ross, of Council Bluffs, and 28-year old Jamison Matthew Ney, of Omaha, were arrested Friday night on charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance and Interference with Official Acts. Ross faces an additional Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge, plus she had a warrant out for her arrest from Pottawattamie County. Her bond was set at $2,600. Ney’s bond was set at $1,300. Both were arrested at around 9-p.m. Friday, following a traffic stop at Kidd Road and Highway 34.

Saturday morning, 29-year old William Philip Smith II, of Shenandoah, was arrested near Ingrum Avenue and Highway 34 in Mills County. He was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. His bond was set at $1,300.

Others arrested in Mills County include: On June 6th – 23 year old Shawna Marrie Watson, of Glenwood, on a Council Bluffs warrant for Failure to Appear in court., and 41 year old Nickie Marrie Kott, of Glenwood, for Failure to Have SR-22 Insurance; On June 11th – 23 year old Ozzy Ray Hunter, of Red Oak, was arrested in Malvern, for Driving While Barred.

And on Monday, June 12th, Mills County Deputies arrested 21-year old David Gene Barrett, of Glenwood, and 43-year old Jerry Lee Dawson, of Hastings, on warrants for Probation Violation. Barrett was taken into custody at the Mills County Jail. Dawson was arrested at the Montgomery County Jail. And, 32-year old Justine Banks, of Glenwood, was arrested on a warrant out of Pott. County.

Authorities in Pottawattamie County are investigating the robbery of a bank in Underwood. The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office says at around 12:46-p.m., the Communications Center was notified of a bank robbery at the U-S Bank in Underwood (321 Highway Street).

The information received indicated that two subjects entered the business with their faces covered.  The subjects left with an undetermined amount of money.  The suspect vehicle, a white Chevy Aveo was located a short distance from the bank.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are continuing to investigate the incident.

The State Fire Marshal in Iowa reports that 188 licenses to sell consumer fireworks have been issued, including: 127 licenses for permanent sites, including limited quantity licenses, and 61 licenses for temporary sites. Among those granted a license for a temporary site, was Bellino Fireworks, which will operate from their location near Hy-Vee, in the Atlantic Shopping Plaza parking lot. Their license was granted Friday, June 9th, and expires in April, 2018. Sales at temporary sites will begin tomorrow, Tuesday, June 13th. The law requires every licensee to post their license at the specific location where they are selling consumer fireworks.

The Fire Marshal says an additional 39 licenses are ready to be issued upon receipt of payment, and 6 more can be issued when the inspections are completed.  There are an additional 117 applications that are currently in process because additional information has been requested to complete the application.  Although information on 1,128 sites was initially received, only 347 applications were actually filed.

Sales at permanent sites began on June 1.  The first license was issued on June 1, 2017. All sales end on July 8, 2017.Licensing includes permanent sites (buildings that meet safety standards), and temporary sites (tents, stands, or other temporary structures that meet safety standards).  Some of the sites are licensed as exempt-amount sites, which allows only a limited amounts of fireworks to be sold at that location).  Wholesalers who sell fireworks to retailers also must register with the State Fire Marshal, but wholesalers can sell only to retailers and are not permitted to sell fireworks to individuals.  There are currently 14 fireworks wholesalers that have been registered.

The list of licensed retailers is posted on the State Fire Marshal website at http://www.dps.state.ia.us/fm/building/licensing/Fireworks/CF-Licensed-Sites.pdf

The Iowa law allows non-profit groups to sell fireworks.  Non-profit groups can operate a site on their own, or the group can work with a licensed seller who will share profits with the non-profit group.  The licensee must be on-site if another group is selling under that license, or otherwise, both the retailer and the non-profit group must be licensed. Sellers also may choose to sell either first-class consumer fireworks or second-class consumer fireworks.  The type of fireworks will not affect the licensing, but there are different licensing fees.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman charged with voting twice for Donald Trump last fall is back in jail after pleading guilty to yelling epithets at a neighbor. Terri Rote of Des Moines pleaded guilty Monday to disorderly conduct, one day after she was arrested. A complaint says Rote repeatedly cursed at a neighbor in a dispute over their property line.

Rote is scheduled to stand trial next month for election misconduct after allegedly casting two ballots. She told Iowa Public Radio she believed Trump’s claim that the polls “are rigged” and worried her first ballot would be changed to a vote for Hillary Clinton.

A judge revoked Rote’s pre-trial release. She’s being held at the Polk County Jail until she posts a $5,000 bond. Another judge recently ruled that Rote is mentally competent to stand trial.

An accident Saturday evening in Pottawattamie County has claimed the life of a man from Shelby. 41-year old Stephen Gross – who was not wearing a seat belt – was a passenger in the 2003 Chevy pickup that crashed into a tree. Gross died at the scene of the accident that happened at around 7:25-p.m. in the area of 335th Street and Tamarack Road in rural Pott. County.

The Sheriff’s Office says Pott. County Deputies and the Iowa State Patrol responded to the scene. An investigation determined the pickup, driven by 45-year old Cory Hess, of Dunlap, was southbound on 335th street and had gone off the east shoulder of the roadway, through a grassy area, and across Tamarack Road before it hit a tree and came to rest.

Hess – who was wearing his seat belt – suffered non-life threatening injuries. The investigation continues, but it is believed that a medical condition may have contributed to the accident.

After a steamy weekend across Iowa, forecasters now say the worst is yet to come with this late spring heat wave. Meteorologist Allan Curtis, at the National Weather Service, says unseasonable high temperatures the past three days will be rising even higher tomorrow (Tuesday) afternoon. “Obviously, we’ve had the heat so far and Tuesday’s going to be the hottest going forward,” Curtis says. “Through much of the state, low to mid-90s. People in Des Moines could be looking at 95, 96, something of that nature. The rest of the week is still looking hot, low 90s.”

While the daily heat index has been creeping into triple digits since Friday, no heat advisories or warnings have been issued — not yet. “We are actually pretty close in many cases toward our advisory criteria and not so much our warning quite yet,” Curtis says. “It depends on, in part, have we had heat, a few days of it, is it really humid? What’s our heat index going to be? While we haven’t seen any yet, we’ve been close to the threshold. There’s a shot that we’ll see it tomorrow.”

In addition to the high heat, there’s the possibility for severe weather late Tuesday. “We do expect some storms certainly to fire off to our west tomorrow, mostly in the afternoon and evening,” Curtis says. “They’ll eventually work their way eastward across the state. For most people, it’s going to be evening/overnight hours. There’s absolutely the potential for severe weather, primarily wind and quarter-sized hail or so.”

Oftentimes, big storms will be followed by a change in the weather but that won’t likely be the case this time. “Unfortunately with this one, we’re not going to have a big cold front behind it,” Curtis says. “We’re still going to be in the upper 80s and lower 90s in most places to round out the week. It doesn’t look like we’ll see much relief temperature-wise until the latter half of the weekend, Saturday going into Sunday.”

Iowa’s hot spot on Sunday was 95-degrees in Charles City. The normal high for this time of year is in the upper 70s to low 80s.

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Construction has begun on a 17-mile long bike trail that will link three southwest Iowa communities. The Daily Nonpareil reports that work began on the first segment of the Railroad Highway Multi-Use Trail Saturday. The trail is expected to link Council Bluffs, Underwood and Neola.

Brian Shea, chairman of the Pottawattamie County Trails Association, says the nearly 2-mile long section is scheduled to be completed this year. Underwood Deputy City Clerk Jan Ehrens says the trail is meant to provide bicyclists a safe place away from traffic.

Brian Leaders is with the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program. He says more than $4 million has been raised for the trail, which will be part of a larger network of trails that will cover about 100 miles.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office today (Monday), reports numerous arrests took place over the past few days.  At around 1:15-a.m. Sunday, 45-year old Michael Darrell Jacobsen, of Oakland, was arrested following a traffic stop for a registration violation, and charged with Driving While Barred and Unlawful Possession of a Prescription Drug (One-half pill of Zanax). And, at around 12:15-a.m. Sunday, 26-year old Jerry Lee Grounds, of Elliott, was arrested for OWI/1st offense, after he crashed his 2001 Dodge Caravan into a ditch near Beechnut Road and 510th Street.

At around 11:17-p.m. Saturday, Pottawattamie County Deputies arrested 32-year old Christopher Russell Marsh, of Macedonia. Marsh was taken into custody on an active Pottawattamie County warrant for Probation Violation, and a Montgomery County warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree.

Saturday afternoon, Pott. County authorities arrested 37-year old James David Yopp, Jr., of Underwood, for Harassment in the 3rd Degree and 1st Offense Stalking associated with an incident involving his wife. Saturday morning, 23-year old Courtney Sue Westcott, of Council Bluffs, was arrested following a disturbance in the area of 320th Street and Highway 6. Westcott was charged with Simple Assault with Injury. Her victim, a 34-year old woman from Macedonia, reportedly suffered minor injuries during the incident.

And, late Friday morning, 47-year old William Joseph Grego, Jr., of Council Bluffs, was arrested following a traffic stop, on a Pott. County warrant for Domestic Abuse Assault causing bodily injury or mental illness.

A call about a possible burglary in progress in Walnut Friday afternoon, resulted in four arrests. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a deputy was dispatched at around 3-p.m. to a residence in the 600 block of Country Street in Walnut. Upon further investigation, Phillip Houston, Jacob Jens, and Cody Varnes, all of Walnut, along with Daniel Rosse, of Avoca, were arrested for Attempted Burglary in the 3rd Degree/Breaking and Entering, and Theft in the 3rd Degree. The suspects are allegedly to have stolen household goods that included a washer and dryer, hutch and table saw, with a combined value of $800.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s insurance commissioner is proposing a plan he thinks could keep Iowa from becoming the first state to lose all of its health care insurance carriers offering policies on the Affordable Care Act exchange next year.

Doug Ommen says he traveled to Washington last week with officials from two major Iowa insurance carriers to pitch a proposal to federal officials that would save the Iowa market from collapsing.

Minnesota-based Medica is the only remaining statewide insurer on the exchange and has said it will drop out if changes aren’t made. Ommen’s plan reallocates federal subsidies currently used to lower costs for older participants to entice younger people into the insurance market and uses federal reinsurance dollars to help insurers absorb high-cost claims.

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has committed to selling insurance in all 99 Iowa counties next year if the plan is approved. Without approval, Ommen says Medica will drop out and 72,000 Iowans will be uninsured next year.