(Corning, Iowa) – The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports four arrests occurred from Dec. 22nd through Jan. 3rd. Most recently, on Monday, Deputies arrested 38-year-old Mandy Marie Knapp on a valid Adams warrant, following a traffic stop. Knapp was being held in the Adams County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

On Dec. 26th, Adams County Deputies responded to a fight at the Casey’s store in Corning. Upon further investigation, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, of Bridgewater, was arrested for Assault Causing Bodily Injury. Also during the incident, Gregory Dale Welcher was arrested for Harassment in the 1st Degree, Assault while Displaying a Dangerous Weapon, and Disorderly Conduct. Welcher was transported to the Adams County Jail. Gonzalez was transported to the Adams County Jail, also, and later released after posting bond.

And, on Dec. 22nd, a traffic stop on a speeding vehicle resulted in the arrest of 42-year-old Nicholas Lee Huston, of Grand Island, Nebraska. Huston was taken into custody on numerous arrest warrants from eastern Iowa agencies. He was also charged with Possession of Marijuana/3rd offense, Poss. of Drug Paraphernalia, and two counts Possession of a Firearm by a Felon. Huston was also cited for speeding 74 in a 55 zone. He was transported to the Taylor County Jail and held on a $12,300 cash-only bond.

(Radio Iowa)- Iowa’s economy made healthy gains during December and mirrored strong growth for the nine-state Midwest region, according to a monthly survey from Creighton University. Despite climbing manufacturing numbers, Creighton economist Ernie Goss says supply chain delays worsened during the last month of the year, and the picture for the months ahead isn’t very bright. “Approximately one out of three supply managers expect supply chain bottlenecks to get worse in the first half of 2022,” Goss says, “and more than half of the supply managers reported that the Omicron variant was slowing deliveries, so that’s another concern out there.”

The Midwest’s G-D-P, or gross domestic product, rose during December, although hiring numbers fell during what’s typically one of the strongest months of the year for jobs. “Regional employment is still down about 2.6% from pre-COVID-19 levels,” Goss says. “The U.S. employment is likewise down by about 2.6% from pre-pandemic levels and all nine states are recording employment levels below pre-pandemic levels.”

In the latest figures from Iowa Workforce Development, the state’s unemployment rate fell during November to three-point-seven percent from three-point-nine percent in October. The Creighton survey’s wholesale inflation gauge for December dropped, but Goss says inflation in Iowa and the region remains at its highest levels in more than a quarter of a century of conducting the survey. Looking forward, Goss says several key challenges are emerging. “Economic growth will slow with employment gains slowing for the first quarter,” Goss says. “Short-term interest rates will begin rising and pretty quickly, I think. Supply chain bottlenecks and labor shortages and inflation will be the chief economic impediments in the first half of 2022.”

Since the start of the pandemic, Goss says Iowa’s average hourly wages advanced by only eight-tenths of one-percent.

(Radio Iowa) – The Biden Administration is providing another 800 million dollars to support smaller scale beef, pork and poultry plants and is establishing a new tipline for whistleblowers from the meatpacking industry. President Biden says the four largest meat packing companies are distorting prices for farmers and for consumers. “Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism. It’s exploitation,” Biden said. “That’s what we’re seeing in meat and poultry — in those industries now.”

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the goal with this new batch of federal grants and loans is to invest in at least 15 small packing plants and to take steps to recruit and train new workers for the industry. “Then $50 million of it is going to be utilized for technical assistance and research,” Vilsack says. “We’re going to need a lot of innovation in this industry. We’re going to need to new business models…and small and mid-sized facilities need to have this opportunity, as opposed to the ‘big four.'”

The ag department and the U.S. Justice Department are creating a new portal to handle reports of anti-competitive behavior in the meatpacking industry. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland says the agencies are committed to vigorous enforcement of anti-trust laws. “When we talk about promoting competition in the agricultural sector, we are talking about whether a farmer or rancher will be paid a fair and competitive price for their goods and labor,” Garland says. “When we talk about protecting consumers in this context, we are talking about whether food will be affordable for everyone in America.”

Iowa Farm Bureau president Brent Johnson participated in yesterday’s (Monday’s) White House forum. Johnson urged Biden to work with Iowa’s congressional delegation on a price transparency bill to ensure farmers are paid an honest price for their cattle, hogs and poultry. Several of the Iowans who serve in the U.S. Senate and House said via Twitter that they were pleased to see the bipartisan bill was highlighted during Monday’s summit.

(Mt. Ayr, Iowa) – The drivers of two vehicles that collided Monday morning in Ringgold County were transported to the hospital following the crash that took place west of Mount Ayr. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2012 Buick Enclave driven by 40-year-old Alemu Enguday Temesgen, of St. Joseph, Mo., was traveling north on Ringgold County Road P27, when the SUV ran a stop sign at the intersection with Highway 2.

The SUV struck a 2005 Dodge van on its passenger side, as the van was traveling east on Highway 2. The driver, 18-year-old William Allen O’Conner, of Clearfield, was transported by Ringgold County EMS to the hospital in Mt. Ayr. Temesgen was flown by Life Flight helicopter to a hospital in Kansas City.

The crash happened at around 8:27-a.m.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest on Monday afternoon of 24-year-old Christopher Floyd Birdtail of Red Oak on a charge of Domestic Assault while Displaying a Dangerous Weapon. Birdtail was arrested at 1:20 p.m. at 2400 N 8th Street in Red Oak and taken to the Montgomery County Jail. He was held on no bond until seen by a Magistrate.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Monday afternoon, held a Special Meeting at City Hall, along with a public hearing, with regard to an Ordinance No. 1012 New Ward Map[110851] Amending the City Code…”by dividing the City into Five Wards and Five Precincts, and Outlining and Describing each Ward and Precinct, and Repealing Ordinance #934,” the populations for which were determined by the 2020 Census.

After holding the first reading of the Ordinance, the Council voted 4-to 1 to waive the second and third readings. They then acted on approving the Ordinance, with Gerald Brink voting no and Dana Halder absent. (read more about the breakdown of the Ward map in the pdf link highlighted above)

The Ward map for the City of Atlantic.

Des Moines, Iowa (KCCI) Iowa — The Des Moines Police Department on Monday confirmed that a man wanted in the brutal assault of a woman in Des Moines in November has been captured.

Police had been looking for 25-year-old Ricardo Jeremiah Carroll since November. He was wanted in a brutal assault that lasted for several hours when a woman was “intentionally, punched, kicked, choked, and burned,“ police said.

Des Moines police said Monday that Carroll was arrested on a domestic violence charge in Boone County Saturday. He’s being held in the Boone County Jail on those charges and Des Moines police warrants.

In November, police said Carroll will be charged with attempted murder, and two counts of willful injury.

(Radio Iowa) – The president recently signed a bill into law that provides for a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D-C honoring those who have fought in the Global War on Terrorism. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst pushed for the memorial along with New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan. “This has been a years-long effort, and I am so proud that I can now say that the effort will soon become a reality,” Ernst says.

Ernst is a combat veteran of the war — and says anyone from the National Guard, reserves, or regular military who has been a part of the battle has been impacted. “This will be a place of remembrance on the National Mall for those families that maybe lost a loved one in the war — and also for those who served — who gave up time with their families to go off to a foreign land fight for our nation’s values and to protect our freedom,” Ernst says.

She says this will be a permanent reminder for those who answered the call in the wake of 9/11 to serve in our nation’s longest war. “This is for all of them, for everything that they have given. This is for their families — this is for the Gold Star wives, and the Gold Star children who will grow up without a mother or father. It’s for America, and it is rightly being located on our National Mall alongside many other war memorials,” according to Ernst.

She says there are several steps left before the memorial can be built. She says the National Park Service will work with the Global War on Terrorism Foundation to find a location for the memorial and then they will work out a design, and the foundation will work to raise funds.

Ernst says the memorial will not use any tax dollars. She is hopeful everything will fall together in a couple of years to see ground broken for the new memorial.

(Radio Iowa) – The outbreak of dozens of tornadoes in Iowa and across the region last month was very unusual and one weather expert says it may be a sign of what lies ahead. Doug Kluck, climate services director for the Central Region of the National Weather Service, says massive and rare derecho storms like the one on December 15th may be connected to a changing climate. “The likelihood of tornadoes in December and January and other, if you will, off-season severe weather is and will be enhanced in the future,” Kluck says.

The regional National Weather Service office in Kansas City is seeing other changes to the traditional storm track. Kluck says, “The center of tornado alley moving further east, out of the Great Plains and such and then, of course, simply the observation of severe weather in other parts of the year can lead one to that conclusion, to some degree.”

Parts of Iowa saw record high temperatures in the 70s prior to the storm’s arrival on December 15th and the warm air collided with a cold front, bringing exceptionally strong straight line winds and multiple damaging tornadoes. Minnesota recorded its first-ever December tornadoes that same day.

“Those conditions are very hard to put together in December and January, certainly in Minnesota but even in Iowa and Nebraska,” Kluck says. “The further south you go, the easier it is to put the combination of those variables together to create severe weather, but certainly not this far north.”

The derecho was Iowa’s second in two years and it spun off 43 tornadoes in the state, a single-day record, along with 18 twisters in Nebraska and six in Minnesota.

Des Moines – Governor Reynolds today (Monday) announced that the communities of Adel, Auburn, Boone, Britt, Carlisle, Chariton, Winneshiek County – Festina, Grandview, Hartford, Indianola, Lake Park, McGregor, Mount Ayr, Perry, Treynor and Wheatland have been awarded a total of $6.2 million in grants to advance water quality projects. The funding is made available through the Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment Financial Assistance Program, which was created as a part of Senate File 512, the first legislation signed into law by Governor Reynolds in January 2018.

“Investing in water quality infrastructure within our state has been a top priority of my administration since day one,” said Gov. Reynolds. “The first bill I signed into law as Governor in 2018 created opportunities for communities to upgrade their water infrastructure and I’ve remained steadfast in my commitment to building upon that.”

The Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment Financial Assistance Program receives a portion of the tax on metered water and had more than $6 million available for allocation in 2021. Grants will be awarded through the program on an annual basis through 2039.

The 2021 program received 18 applications requesting more than $6.5 million in water quality grants. A committee consisting of designees from the Iowa Finance Authority, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship judged the Wastewater and Drinking Water Financial Assistance Program applications based on the program’s priorities.

Priorities for grant awards include: Disadvantaged communities; Projects that will significantly improve water quality in their watershed; Projects that use alternative wastewater treatment technologies; Communities with the highest sewer or water rates; Projects that use technology to address nutrient reduction; and projects to address improvements to drinking water source waters.

The Wastewater and Drinking Water Treatment Financial Assistance Program has assisted a total of 33 communities through a total of nearly $9 million in water quality grants since the first awards were granted in 2019. The program is expected to have approximately $6 million in available funds in 2022 based on the portion of tax that will be allocated to the program.

2021 Wastewater and Drinking Water Financial Assistance Program Grant Awards