(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said this past week, a 48-year-old Des Moines man known as “Solo,” was sentenced to slightly more than 34 years in prison on January 13th, on firearms charges. After a three-day trial, Kenny Eugene Smart was convicted of possessing a firearm as a felon and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Smart was found in possession of that gun during the execution of metro-wide search warrants in November 2020. He had been prohibited from possessing firearms because of prior convictions for an Iowa felony drug crime and a federal felony gun crime, for which he spent more than 15 years in prison.

Smart had just been released from prison in June 2020 and was on federal supervised release when he was found with a gun in November 2020. Smart qualified under the United States Sentencing Guidelines as an Armed Career Criminal and, due to the crimes for which he was convicted, faced a mandatory 20-year sentence.

At sentencing, a victim testified that she had been raped by Smart. The government presented evidence that Smart raped another victim during the six months he had been out of prison. In imposing sentence, United States District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger characterized Smart’s gun possession as aggravating because he possessed guns to intimidate others and coerce at least one of his rape victims. She also considered Smart’s conduct after he was federally indicted, which included an attempt to have another person take responsibility for the gun and he threatened the family member of a trial witness.

Smart received a 360-month sentence for his gun crimes, to be served consecutively to a 54-month sentence for revocation of his federal supervised release.

His case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Des Moines Police Department, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the Iowa Department Public Safety, and multiple other state and federal agencies

The latest area & state news from Ric Hanson.

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A traffic stop in Montgomery County at around 4-p.m., Friday, resulted in the arrest of a woman from Pottawattamie County. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Deputies stopped a vehicle driven by 23-year-old Kelli Perkins, of Council Bluffs, at the intersection of Highway 34 and Ironwood Road. Perkins was subsequently arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond at the Montgomery County Jail, was set at $300.

ELDORA—DNR and emergency response staff are tracking down a fuel release in Eldora.  Agvantage Farm Supply notified DNR about 9 a.m. today (Friday), reporting the loss of about 7,500 gallons of unleaded gasoline from a self-fueling station in Eldora. A bank next door to the fueling station was evacuated for the day after reporting fumes in their building.

Hardin County Emergency Management, DNR, city and company staff have been on site most of the day working to determine the extent of the release. There is currently no sign of the fuel migrating off-site.

Contractors began removing concrete this afternoon. Once the cause and extent of the release is confirmed, emergency responders will determine next steps to contain and safely dispose of any free product.  Any contaminated soil will be excavated and sent to the landfill in Hardin County. Emergency staff and contractors will continue work over the weekend.

DNR will monitor the spill and cleanup activities, considering appropriate enforcement action.

(SAVANNAH, GA) – Authorities in Georgia say a former U.S. Army soldier previously from eastern Iowa, who was stationed at Fort Stewart (GA) has been sentenced to prison after admitting he committed sex crimes against a minor. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, said Friday (today) 46-year-old Jason L. Adkins, of Swann, Iowa, was sentenced to 76 months (6.3-years) in prison, after pleading guilty to Abusive Sexual Contact with a Child Under 12 Years of Age. Adkins was also to serve 15 years of supervised release after completion of his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Adkins had been stationed in Fort Stewart prior to retiring from the Army in 2015, after which he relocated to Altoona, Iowa. Officers with the Police Department in Altoona contacted Army Criminal Investigation Command to report Adkin’s arrest on state child sex crimes charges in 2019, and the subsequent investigation determined that Adkins had committed similar offenses in both locations. His federal sentence will be served consecutively to a four-year state sentence for his crimes in Iowa.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division and the Altoona Police Department and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marcela C. Mateo and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Darron Hubbard.

Anyone with information on suspected child sexual exploitation can contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678, or https://report.cybertip.org/.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Fourth District Congressman Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, says the United States has to take the lead in dealing with the Russian build-up of troops on the border with Ukraine. “This is a very serious situation, and in our country we’ve always done this through history, we have to show leadership, we’ve got to make sure our allies are with us in what we are doing. The bottom line is we have to understand what Russia wants to do,” Feenstra says.
Feenstra says Russia is interested in Ukraine’s resources.

“They are the breadbasket to that area, they grow a lot of soybeans and wheat and all this other stuff, they have a lot of precious minerals. So, obviously, Russia wants Ukraine. And we have to make sure that doesn’t happen and we have to do everything that we can in our leadership role to get our allies with us and to make sure that doesn’t happen,” according to Feenstra. Feenstra says the U-S has a lot of options to deal with Russia.

There’s a lot of sanctions we can do. We can put a tremendous amount of pressure when it comes to the financial side of this whole thing. Those are things that are all playing out right now — but again — we’ve got to show strength and leadership,” he says. Feenstra made his comments during a stop in Webster City.

(Adair/Casey, Iowa) – A four month hiring process to find the new Superintendent for the Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center School Districts has culminated with the announcement that Josh Rasmussen, of Atlantic, will be the new face and voice for the District. The Boards for the combined districts announced their selection of Rasmussen this (Friday) morning. Rasmussen is currently the Atlantic Middle School Principal. He will succeed Dennis McClain, who has served as AC/GC Superintendent since July 1st, 2019. He submitted his resignation to the joint school boards, in Oct. 2019, effective June 30, 2022.

Still frame image from a video of Rasmussen making his announcement.

The announcement was made on several social media formats, and included a video from Rasmussen, who introduced himself to those who perhaps aren’t as familiar with him as we are here in Atlantic.

Rasmussen left no doubt that he wants to hit the ground running, in getting ready to take the helm from Dennis McClain.

Josh Rassmussen was one of three finalists for the position. They others were Brett Abbotts, former assistant principal, athletic director, and special education director in the AHSTW Schools; and Jeremy Christiansen, activities director and activity transportation coordinator in the Fremont CSD.

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Josh Ramussen Bio:

Education   

Certificate of Advanced Studies (Superintendency) – Iowa State University
Masters of Education (Educational Administration) – Iowa State University
Bachelor of Arts (Business Education) – Buena Vista University, Storm Lake
High School Diploma- Irwin-Kirkman-Manilla CSD
Teaching/Administration

Middle School Principal- Atlantic CSD
Assistant Principal/Activities Director (Atlantic High School)- Atlantic CSD
9-12 Business Education Teacher/Coach- Atlantic CSD
7-12 Business Education Teacher/Coach- Sac City CSD

Personal
He ismarried to Melanie Rasmussen, Kindergarten Teacher at Washington Elementary, Atlantic CSD. The couple has two children, Haley a junior at Atlantic High School and Colton a 8th grader at Atlantic Middle School.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers likely closed the door on efforts at the state level to counter that edict. “The question is what can the legislature do at the state level? These are federal laws and the preemption clause will override a lot of what we do,” Whitver says. Whitver says that means it will take an act of congress to override the Biden Administration’s order that health care workers get fully vaccinated against Covid. “It’s really an issue that needs to be solved at the federal level rather than at the state level,” Whitver says.

A group of House Republicans are working on a bill that in its present form would forbid employers from asking if workers are vaccinated. In October, the Iowa legislature passed a law that ensures health care workers may file for unemployment benefits if they’ve had a religious or medical exemption request denied by their employer. “We passed our bill during the special session, to try to address some of that, to make sure some of those exemptions are in place,” Whitver says, “but a lot of what we said is that the Supreme Court is going to have to decide a lot of this, and they have – for the most part, and have thrown out some of those mandates.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Biden Administration’s Covid vaccine mandate for private sector workers in businesses with 100 or more employees. Whitver made his comments during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight (Friday) on Iowa P-B-S.