The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports five people were arrested recently. Monday evening, deputies arrested 34-year old Justin Wayne Schomburg, of Malvern, for Driving Under Suspension and having no SR-22 Insurance. His bond was set at $1,300. That same evening, 27-year old Gail Gilbert Heywood Jr., of Randolph, was arrested on a warrant for Failure To Appear in court on a Driving While Revoked charge. His bond was set at $2,000.

Sunday morning, 22-year old Kortez Mario McBridge, of Omaha, was arrested in Mills County for being a Fugitive from Justice. His bond was set at $1,000. And, two people were arrested Friday: 29-year old Derek Scott Smith, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for OWI/3rd offense, Driving While Revoked and Failure to Obey Traffic Control Device. His bond was set at $7,000. And, 24-year old Gabrielle Christine Stogdil, of Pacific Junction, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. Her bond was set at $1,000.

Audubon Police Chief Matt Starmer reports three people, including two teenagers, have been arrested in connection the with April 10th armed robbery of the Subway sandwich store, in Audubon.

Starmer says 19-year old Andrew Allen Malloy, of Audubon, was arrested for felony 1st degree armed robbery, felony Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery , and a felony charge of Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor. He faces additional charges that include Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Malloy was being held in the Audubon County Jail on a $25,000 cash bond.

Two 16-year old’s from Audubon, Timothy Dethlef Asmus, and Jason Christopher Hines, were charged with felony Conspiracy to Commit Armed Robbery.  In addition, Asmus faces charges that include Possession of Marijuana, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He’s currently being held in the Juvenile Detention Center. Hines was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center.

An investigation surrounding the incident remains open.

The City Council in Walnut and the Walnut Community School Board will meet in a special, joint meeting next month. On the agenda for the 6:30-p.m. meeting on May 3rd, is discussion with regard to the Future Use of School Property. The meeting takes place in the Walnut Community School old gymnasium.

The Walnut Community School District will merge with the Avoca-based AHST district July 1st. The reorganization was prompted when Walnut saw the second largest enrollment decline in the state. It became unfeasible to operate the more than 100-year-old school.

The Walnut school board would like to give the building to the city, which could then decide how to best use the space. If a decision isn’t made by the time the Walnut district ceases to exist independently on June 30th, the school board of the new district, called the AHSTW Community School District, would be responsible for the building.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) – Dozens of people who didn’t know Charles Lanam went to his funeral anyway, honoring his life and his service to his country. The Mitchell Family Funeral Home in Marshalltown posted an appeal on Facebook last week, asking people to attend Monday’s service at the Iowa Veterans Home and cemetery. The funeral home had said the 81-year-old Fairfield native died April 10, leaving behind no family to mourn him. He’d been living at the Iowa Veterans Home.

Sam Giarratano, of Marshalltown, told the Marshalltown Times-Republican that he was overwhelmed so many people came to pay their respects Monday. Another man who attended Lanam’s services, Jeff Hauser, told Des Moines station KCCI that “no veteran should go to the grave by himself.”  Lanam was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Korean War.

Police in Glenwood, Monday, arrested a man wanted on a Mills County warrant for Serious Assault. 43-year old Dwayne Rollins, of Glenwood, was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $1000 cash bond or surety.

The Griswold School Board Monday evening approved an alteration in the last day of the current school year. Superintendent Dana Kunze said “We have enough hours in our calendar…that more than cover the requirement for the State of Iowa’s hours of instructional time,” but because of snow day cancellations, students will be coming back for one and a-half days after Memorial Day. The students’ last day of attendance will be May 27^th. Teachers, however will still have contractual obligations to fulfill, and are not subject to the change.

In other business, the Griswold School Board approved the process for the hiring of a Middle School/High School Principal. The Board directed the three administrators to take the list of applicants and whittle the candidates down to those most likely to move on in the selection process. Those candidates will be video interviewed, and a further recommendation will be made to the Board.

Dana said the person who fills his (Superintendent) position, may choose to interview those candidates as well, assuming they are hired in-time. In other business, Kunze said the Griswold School Board will be seeking input from the community to serve on a committee to decide the future of district facilities.

They’ll be asking for volunteers to serve on a committee that will review facilities and the three campuses. The committee will conduct public meetings and receive input months down the road, before reporting their recommendations to the School Board.

A new watchdog report finds Veterans Affairs medical centers still aren’t adequately addressing wait times for veterans requesting care and some hospitals continue posting the wrong numbers to make it appear like wait times are improving. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the issue came to light two years ago and Congress reacted.

“We appropriated more money,” Grassley says. “We made it possible to fire people that weren’t doing their job. We made it possible for people that aren’t getting help from the VA within 30 days to go to private practitioners. None of this stuff that we thought corrected this is working out the way we anticipated.”

While the V-A claims the average wait time for a veteran to get service is between four and 28 days, the report from the Government Accountability Office says in the cases reviewed, the actual averages were between 11 and 48 days. Some newly-enrolled veterans waited more than 70 days to be seen.

“There’s been some follow-up by Congress,” Grassley says, “but I’ve come to the conclusion it’s not a case of more money, a case of more laws, it’s a case of administration, people listening to whistleblowers, not punishing whistleblowers, following up on whistle blowing, firing the people that aren’t doing their job.”

The controversy came to light in 2014 after it was reported the V-A medical center in Phoenix, Arizona, was falsifying wait times and at least 40 veterans died while waiting on care. The suicide rate among veterans continues to bound. Five years ago, a study found 16 veterans a day took their own lives. Today, that suicide rate has climbed to 22 veterans per day.

“I’m not surprised to hear this report,” Grassley says. “I will study the report and I will do the appropriate follow-up. I’m going to do everything I can through the constitutional responsibility of oversight to make sure veterans are treated the way they were promised.” The G-A-O report reviewed scheduling records for 60 veterans at three V-A hospitals and found improper scheduling in 25-percent of the appointments. (View the full GAO report: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-328)

(Radio Iowa)

The Audubon School District’s Board of Education, Monday night, approved savings of nearly $140,000 by making budget reductions for Fiscal Year 2017. Superintendent Brett Gibbs told KJAN News nearly $96,000 in those reductions are due to the Superintendent Sharing arrangement with Coon Rapids-Bayard. The reductions also include reducing one-half a Vocal Music position, and, a 9^th grade Volleyball position won’t be filled. Gibbs said there are a number of factors that led to the cuts.

Declining enrollment and lack of State Supplemental Aid he says, leaves schools little choice to make cuts. “We’ve been cutting here for a long time through attrition and early retirements, but this year we’ve got to the point where we actually had to reach out and go a little deeper then that.”

In other business, the Audubon Board approved a letter of resignation from first-year High School English Teacher Kourtney Self, who has accepted a position in Avoca, where she and her husband lives and her husband teaches. The District will begin advertising to fill her position, soon. The Audubon School Board also approved an LED lighting project for the first floor of the 5-through 12 building.

MidAmerican Energy is providing a rebate of nearly half the cost to replacement fluorescent lights. The project will be paid for out of PPEL/SAVE funds, not the General Fund. He said it should also allow the district to save some energy dollars, going forward. And, they approved end-of-season softball field improvements.

A crew with the Iowa Cubs will come in after the season concludes, and re-do the entire softball infield. And, a bid from Devore Fencing was approved. They’ll remove the old fence and install a new fence around the softball field. Gibbs said the new softball field lights are up, but not connected to a power source. The old poles will be coming down soon, and the project is expected to be completed no later than this fall.

The Iowa Governor’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Advisory Council, along with Kemin Industries, formally recognized the six 2016 I.O.W.A. STEM Teacher Award recipients during a reception hosted by Gov. Terry Branstad at Terrace Hill, Monday night.

Among the six 2016 I.O.W.A. STEM Teacher Award recipients, was:

• Erin Wetzel, Project Lead The Way and computer teacher, Southwest Valley Middle School
• Kent Muyskens, science teacher, Carroll High School

The award, sponsored by Kemin Industries, was created in 2014 to celebrate one K-12 STEM teacher from each of the six STEM regions who exemplify I.O.W.A., being Innovative in their methods, Outstanding in their passion for education, Worldly in how their students see that STEM is all around them and Academic in engaging students both in and out of the classroom. Each recipient was nominated by a fellow educator, school administrator, student or parent and submitted an application that was evaluated by a panel of judges. Each received an award of $1,500 with an additional $1,500 designated for their classroom.

The ceremony was attended by nearly 150 STEM leaders and supporters from across Iowa. To learn more about the award please visit www.stemaward.fluidreview.com. For pictures of the event and of each recipient, please click here.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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