Officials with the Shenandoah Police Department report 33-year old Kyle Chase, of Red Oak, was arrested Saturday, in a bean field north of Sportsmans Park. Chase faces charges that include interference with official acts and threats of terrorism. Chase was being held in the Page County Jail, on a $5,300 bond. No other details concerning his arrest were released over the weekend.

Immigrant populations are starting to fall in rural labor markets, according to an Iowa State University study commissioned by the National Pork Producers Council. I-S-U economist Chris Boessen, one of the study’s authors, says the pork industry is making gradual yet major shifts.  “In the last couple of decades, the hog industry has changed dramatically from operations using a lot of family labor, sometimes paid, sometimes unpaid family labor,” Boessen says. “That’s more or less gone away as we’ve intensified and gone to more of a high-tech, capitol-intensive, more-concentrated production.”

Boessen says the study shows the labor market has changed in Iowa and across the region. “You have a lot of growth, a lot of hiring in the hog industry, it needs a lot of workers,” Boessen says, “but at the same time in the last few years, the labor market’s really tightened up from 10% unemployment in 2009 to 4% and really below 4% in a lot of the main hog states here, especially in the Midwest.” The change in U-S immigration policy has contributed to a shortage of foreign ag workers, but Boessen says it’s more than just that. “We’re moving into a period now where we’re going to worry less about a wave of immigrants and worry more about how we’re going to manage a workforce where we have fewer immigrants,” Boessen says. “The immigrants who are here are aging and retiring and there’s lots of things happening in other countries, immigrant-sending countries. People are getting better educations, better economies, more opportunities.”

As conditions improve elsewhere, he says immigrants have less motivation to come to the U-S. N-P-P-C officials say in addition to this study, data compiled by U-S-D-A’s Economic Research Service shows a reduction in the foreign-born workforce prompted by a change in immigration policy would not be offset by native born workers and permanent residents. The council is backing Congressional legislation calling for an H-2-C visa to allow non-seasonal foreign ag workers to stay in the U-S for up to three years.

(Radio Iowa)

Members of the Elk Horn School District’s Board of Education will meet this evening (Monday), beginning at 6-p.m. in the Conference Room at the Elk Horn Building. During their session, a Public Hearing will be held with regard to the Budget, followed later on during the New Business part of their agenda, by discussion and action on the 2018-19 Budget.

Other discussion/action items include those related to: Transportation; Issuance of Bonds; Approving METC as telephone/internet provider; Approval of a late Open Enrollment request and 2018 Graduating Class (pending completion of all graduating requirements); and a Contract recommendation, followed by approval of hires, transfers, resignations, etc.

The CAM School Board is scheduled to meet 6:30 this (Monday) evening, in the CAM High School Media Center. The meeting opens with Public Hearings on the Proposed 2018-19 Certified Budget and School Calendar.

Following the hearings and discussion, the CAM School Board will receive a presentation with regard to the Lego League/Robotics and strength/condition program. Discussion/action items include: Open enrollment applications; Contracts; approval of the 2018-19 School Calendar and Certified Budget, as well as movement on the pay scale.

A single-vehicle, rollover accident Sunday night in southern Polk County claimed the life of a central Iowa man and resulted in injuries to a woman. According to the Iowa State Patrol, a 2003 Toyota Sequoia, driven by 41-year Aisha Rucker, of Des Moines, was traveling east on Highway 5 a little after 8-p.m. and crossing the bridge over Highway 28, when the SUV went out of control on the icy bridge deck.

The vehicle entered the south ditch and rolled several times, where it came to rest to rest in a gore between eastbound Highway 5 and the on-ramp to northbound 28. Aisha Rucker, who was wearing a seat belt, was transported by West Des Moines Ambulance to Methodist Hospital. Her passenger, 18-year old Malik Allen Rucker, of Des Moines, was transported by Norwalk Ambulance to Methodist, where he died from his injuries.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

PLEASANT HILL, Iowa (AP) — With school shootings a regular occurrence, educators across the country are learning techniques to help victims survive by stemming blood loss. A Connecticut doctor who treated children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in 2012 helped launch the effort, dubbed Stop the Bleed. The nonprofit program has spread to all 50 states, with more than 125,000 teachers, counselors and school administrators learning skills such as applying direct pressure, packing wounds and applying tourniquets.

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal prosecutor who helped convict former Illinois Gov. George Ryan of corruption has been named the new director for the Securities and Exchange Commission’s nine-state region based out of Chicago. The agency that regulates the securities sector and enforces securities laws announced Joel R. Levin’s appointment in a Thursday statement. He’ll start next month and oversee hundreds of employees in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Wisconsin.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As the Iowa Legislature nears an unofficial target for adjournment, lawmakers still are working on key tasks such as approving a state budget and providing details on promised tax cuts. Republicans control both chambers and are working privately to come up with spending targets for this year’s state budget. Legislative leaders on Thursday indicated they are close on dollar figures.

RULO, Neb. (AP) — A Native American tribe has regained ownership of river bluffs, hardwood forest and tall grass prairie along the Missouri River through an agreement with the Nature Conservancy of Nebraska. The Omaha World-Herald reports that the conservancy recently transferred 160 acres (65 hectares) of Richardson County bluff land to the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska. The tribe and the conservancy agreed to a conservation easement, which prevents development incompatible with the land’s ecological value.