The Creston Police Department reports 32-year old Jesse Edward Ramey, of Orient, was arrested at around 7:15-p.m, Thursday. Ramey faces a charge of Interference with Official Acts. He was brought to the Union County Jail and later released upon paying a $300 cash or surety bond.

Authorities said also a Creston resident reported Thursday evening, that sometime between the hours of 7:45- and 8-a.m., Thursday, someone damaged two tires on his vehicle parked outside his residence located in the 300 block of N. Division Street. And, a car stereo, four fishing poles, a tackle box, and a power washer were taken from his property. The value of the damaged and missing property was estimated at $850.

The Sioux City Police Department is investigating after one person died in a crash between a car and a train on the north side of Sioux City Thursday. Lieutenant Mark Kirkpatrick was at the accident scene. “At this point in time we believe the train was stationary — it was not a moving train. And we are still investigating how and why the accident actually happened,” Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick said the man who was driving the car was found dead inside after it struck the train. “Our preliminary indication is that it was traveling at a higher rate of speed. Apparently it did go around the stop arm, because the stop arm is still intact.

The victim’s name has not been released. The accident happened around 9 a-m Thursday.

(Radio Iowa)

The longtime band director of a northwestern Iowa high school is retiring this month and his band’s final march could set a new world’s record. Steve Connell is in his last days as director of the Pride of the Dutchmen Marching Band at M-O-C-Floyd Valley Senior High School in Orange City. At this weekend’s tulip festival, all previous band members are being invited to return to march and play. “It’s one of the more unique things that happens in the country,” Connell says. “People who haven’t played their horns for 20 years or 30 years or 40 years get their horns out and without any practice, they line up on the street and march just like they did when they were 18 years old.”

After 42 years of waving the baton, Connell is retiring at month’s end, so this will be his final time leading the marching band comprised of current students and alumni. “Since it’s my retirement, there’s just a lot people who are going to come back,” Connell says. “I’ve probably taught two- or three-thousand kids and a lot of them are coming back to march in this alumni band for the last time.”

Based on the cards, letters, emails, phone calls and social media postings, Connell says this year’s band will be like none other and will include many hundreds, perhaps thousands of his former students. He says it could set a new world’s record for pick-up marching band performances. “We’ve played the same song for probably 40 years now,” Connell says. “Everybody knows the song. We’re doing the same twirling routine. We’re doing the same flag routine. They all know those things. They come back and form on the street. There’s no practice involved. When they march down the street, you would think they’ve been practicing for months.”

That song is known as “Championship” and it was originally used on the CBS-TV program “NFL Today” some four decades ago. Connell says the alumni band is a wonderful tradition that’s been enjoyed for decades.  “When you’re 60 years old, not many people can go back and relive that great high school basketball game they had with their friends or that great football championship they had. You just can’t do it,” Connell says. “But you can still get out your horn and relive a high school memory that was important to you and I think that’s what’s bringing people back.”

The big band is scheduled to march down Orange City’s Central Avenue at 6:30 P-M Saturday to close out the city’s annual Tulip Festival.

(Radio Iowa)

Shelby County Sheriff Neil Gross reports Deputies Wednesday evening arrested 22 year old Brandon L Anderson, of Harlan. Anderson was taken into custody at around 7-p.m., and charged with interference with official acts, and disorderly conduct, both simple misdemeanors.

The charges were the result of officers being called to a disturbance at the 1700 block of 8th St in Harlan around 6:45-p.m., Wednesday. Anderson was arrested and brought to the Shelby County Jail, where his bond was set at $300.