CRESCENT, Iowa (AP) – School district officials recommend closing Crescent Elementary at the end of the 2016-2017 school year due to declining enrollment. The Daily Nonpareil reports the Council Bluffs Community School District board will hear a presentation on the potential closing during its meeting on Feb. 14. Superintendent Martha Bruckner says the school is too small and only half full.

District spokeswoman Diane Ostrowski says that if the decision is approved at the Feb. 28 vote, Crescent students and teachers will move to Lewis and Clark Elementary in Council Bluffs.

Crescent Mayor Brian Shea says the move “pulls the guts out of the town.” Shea says the vote comes a day before open enrollment deadline, which can affect parents’ decisions on where to send their children for school.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests. Just after 7-a.m. today (Wednesday), 43-year old Travis Lee Alley, of Glenwood, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, for Criminal Mischief in the 2nd Degree. Tuesday evening, 44-year old Julia Diann Crouse, of Hastings, was arrested for Driving Under Suspension. And, Tuesday morning, 28-year old Zachary Clay Younts, of Malvern, was arrested on a warrant for Failure to Appear in a Domestic Abuse Assault case.

Younts’ bond was set at $2,000. Bond for Travis Alley was set at $5,000, and Crouse’s bond was set at $300.

The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the postconviction court’s ruling denying Kenneth Edward Carver‘s application for post-conviction relief in a sexual abuse case.  In 2011, the Malvern man was convicted in Mills County District Court of second degree sexual assault, and two counts of lascivious acts with a child stemming from acts committed against his daughters. The State had filed trial information in March 2010, charging Carver with several crimes stemming from his alleged sexual abuse of the two victims. The charges were later amended to second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of lascivious acts with a child. The remaining counts were dismissed. The man was sentenced to a total of 25-years in prison.

In his appeal, Carver raised a number of challenges to trial counsel’s representation. Carver also contended appellate counsel was ineffective in failing to exhaust his claims of trial counsel’s ineffectiveness on direct appeal. According to Carver, counsels’ failures amounted to structural error, such that he was completely denied representation at crucial stages of the proceeding.

The postconviction court carefully considered each of Carver’s claims and concluded Carver had failed to show prejudice—or structural error—resulting from trial and appellate counsels’ alleged failures. The Court of Appeals, in denying Carver’s request,  affirmed the court’s comprehensive consideration of the issues and conclude Carver has failed to show prejudice on his claims of ineffective assistance of counsel.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A midwinter storm has deposited more than 18 inches of snow on northern Nebraska and up to a foot on northern Iowa. The Nebraska and Iowa highway departments said Wednesday that highways are covered with snow and that motorists should be wary of slick spots. Many school districts in both states have canceled classes or are opening late.

Authorities say a woman died Tuesday after she lost control of her vehicle and collided with another on a slickened highway near Le Mars in northwest Iowa. The National Weather Service says 18 inches of snow was reported Tuesday evening at Bayard in the Nebraska Panhandle. Eleven inches of snow was reported in Iowa’s Sioux County.

The service says the slow-moving, eastbound system has prompted storm warnings in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, today (Wednesday) sent a letter to Brigadier General Heather L. Pringle, Commander of the U.S. Air Force 502nd Air Base Wing and Joint Base San Antonio, requesting she consider a mandatory buddy pair system as a means to reduce sexual assaults at the facilities under her command for servicemembers in a training status. Her letter follows her visit to the base, which included discussions with servicemembers to identify a number of ways to better address these heinous crimes, such as a mandatory buddy pair system.

In her letter, Senator Ernst writes that she was “surprised to hear that the Air Force was the only service that did not require such a system for all of its students in training status.” And added “this is disappointing, as the buddy pair system not only can reduce vulnerabilities for sexual assault, but also helps young servicemembers make better decisions.”

The Iowa Senator asked that the Air Force consider implementing the buddy pair system, emphasizing that, “as we continue to see sexual assault plague institutions around the country, it is my hope that the military will continue to take concrete steps to improve and become a leading example for how to effectively curb this problem. Therefore, I request that you consider making a buddy pair system mandatory for all Air Force personnel in a training status on Joint Base San Antonio.”

Senator Ernst’s letter comes as part of her ongoing efforts to combat military sexual assault, including work with Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill on the Military Retaliation Prevention Act which was signed into law as part of the Fiscal Year 2017 National Defense Authorization Act. This also follows her column earlier this year in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, urging the military to do more to prevent sexual assault.

The president of the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) says he’s “very disappointed” with President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of talks on the Trans Pacific Partnership. John Weber of Dysart says the pork industry worked hard to make sure T-P-P would be good for pork producers. However, “All is not lost,” according to Weber. “We haven’t lost anything we currently have. We lost opportunity,” Weber says. “We are optimistic that we can work with this new administration in developing…perhaps bilateral agreements or some other combination of those Asia Pacific countries and regions. Believe me, we’re going to be involved in that and hopefully gain market access for pork.”

The bigger concern right now, Weber says, is the renegotiation of NAFTA  — the North American Free Trade Agreement. “That is going to have to be a smooth and gentle process, if they’re going to massage the trade with both Canada and Mexico, or agriculture could be in big trouble in a hurry,” Weber says.

While the trade issues are concerning, Weber says, NPPC is looking forward to the regulatory relief promised by the new administration.

(Reporting by Ken Anderson, Brownfield Ag News via Radio Iowa)

Lawmakers have included a 600-thousand dollar cut to the legislative branch of state government in their plan to trim 88 million dollars from the current year’s state budget.  Representative Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said “I think the legislature should share in making sure that the…budget works.”

Republicans serving on committees in both the House AND Senate endorsed the overall plan last (Tuesday) night. Democrats on both committees voted against the plan. They criticized Republicans to making cuts to community colleges in particular. Democratic Senator Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City, said “You have asked nothing of the fat cuts that have benefited from record tax cuts and special give-aways.” The G-O-P plan does includes cutting off legislators’ daily expense money 10 days earlier than normal. That would save up to 360-thousand dollars.

Democrats in the SENATE suggested giving up one more day of expense money, for an additional 36-thousand dollars in savings. Republicans on the senate committee rejected that move — saying for “expediency’s sake” they wanted to keep the senate bill identical to the one advancing in the house. The unified G-O-P plan is now eligible for debate in both the House and Senate. Governor Branstad has indicated he’ll approve it.

(Radio Iowa)

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The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Red Oak man was arrested Tuesday night on a Theft-related warrant. 18-year old Kyle Jacob Parks, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7:40-p.m. in the 100 block of W. Coolbaugh Street in Red Oak, on a Montgomery County arrest warrant for Theft in the 2nd Degree. Parks was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $5,000 bond.