OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Douglas County’s top prosecutor say a lack of communication among government agencies allowed a 19-year-old man charged with motor vehicle homicide to flee justice. The Omaha World-Herald reports that a week after the Jan. 29 crash on an Omaha street, Eswin Mejia posted $5,000 bail to be freed. Authorities say he then skipped a urine test, and officials now can’t find him.

Mejia was charged Feb. 3rd with motor vehicle homicide and drunken driving in connection with the death of 21-year-old Sarah Root, of Council Bluffs. Root, who had recently graduated from Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln High School, was driving a 2002 Oldsmobile Bravada east on L Street about 2:15 a.m. Jan. 31 when her vehicle was rear-ended by a pickup truck driven by Mejia. Root’s sport utility vehicle was stopped or slowing when it was rear-ended near 33rd and L Streets. Root died later, at the Nebraska Medical Center.

A review of the case by the World-Herald shows Mejia – a Honduras national – was found to be a low risk to flee despite having twice failed to appear in court for other offenses. Federal immigration authorities declined to detain Mejia.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine criticized the case’s handling, saying “there has to be a common-sense communication between the feds and the state.”

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo, Nebraska woman has been charged in Iowa with stealing between $22,000 and $222,000. The Daily Nonpareil reports that 44-year-old Beth Beutler was arrested Friday morning in western Iowa and charged with 38 counts of forgery. Authorities say she also faces charges of theft and ongoing criminal activity.

Police say Beutler used a checking machine to withdraw thousands of dollars. The machine allows truck drivers to access funds from across the country by giving a clerk at a truck stop an authorization code to pay for fuel, service or get cash.

Police say Beutler got the authorization codes from McMullen Brothers Trucking in Carter Lake, where her husband works, and used them at Pilot Travel Center in Council Bluffs.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An 18-year-old man suspected of shooting a Sioux City police officer will be arraigned next month. The Sioux City Journal reports that Isaiah Mothershed’s arraignment will be March 1st, in Woodbury County District Court. He remains in the Woodbury County Jail on a $300,000 bond.

Mothershed has been charged with two counts of attempted murder and five counts of robbery. Each count carries a 25-year prison sentence. He is accused of pulling a gun from a couch while his hands were handcuffed behind his back and shooting Officer Ryan Moritz in the leg while being arrested. As officers struggled with Mothershed, the gun fired again, shooting Mothershed in the leg. Mothershed spent three days in a hospital.

Authorities have said Moritz could return to duty next week.

Police in Council Bluffs responded late Saturday morning to a report of an armed subject inside a residence at 3400 3rd Avenue. While they were en route just before 10-a.m., officers were told a caller reported they thought a shot had been fired inside the home.

As officers were establishing a perimeter of the area the residents were exiting the house and quickly taken to safety. The occupants advised officers the armed subject was still inside the residence. Officers then made entry and cleared the house. No one was located inside the residence and no evidence of an intruder or shots fired were discovered.

None of the neighbors were able to confirm that any shots were fired or any suspicious subjects were observed around the residence. There are no injuries associated with the call for service, and the residence was turned back over to the homeowners. The neighborhood returned to normal activities.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Police in Red Oak report a Nebraksa woman was arrested Friday afternoon on a drug charge. 20-year old Kylen Mary Gates, of Bellevue, NE, was taken into custody in the 100 block of Prospect Street in Red Oak, on a Possession of Prescription Pills without a prescription, charge.

She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.

A former Denison police officer is protesting his removal from the force. A press release from Denison Mayor Dan Leinen says Ray Ohl was fired Feb. 5th because of insubordination and other misconduct. Ohl has requested a public hearing before the Denison City Council about the issues connected to his removal. A date for the public hearing is pending. The Daily NonPareil says Ohl was the department’s K-9 officer until he was removed from that duty on Dec. 29th, 2015.

In an interview with the paper three weeks ago, Denison Police Chief John Emswiler said he could not discuss the event for which Ohl was removed as the K-9 handler. Two days after Ohl was taken off K-9 duty, Chief Emswiler became the subject of a complaint for an incident that involved Ohl. On Dec. 31st, 2015, Crawford County Sheriff Jim Steinkuehler was contacted by an individual who had a complaint about Emswiler. The sheriff referred the individual to the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation.

Ohl organized and was among a small group of people that protested outside Denison City Hall on Wednesday, holding signs about equality, race relations and doing the right thing.

Geoff Greenwood, communications director for the Office of the Attorney General of Iowa, said his office is waiting for a report from the DCI before the investigation moves forward. Asked if the city intended to file charges against any of the individuals apparently in possession of the confidential personnel information, Leinen said an investigation was ongoing and he could not comment.

The United Way of the Midlands is marking its 13th year of providing a wide array of services to people across western Iowa and in Nebraska through calling 2-1-1. Lena Thompson, the call center’s director, says the program has come a long way since it was launched. “We started as a pilot with three counties,” Thompson says. “Now, we have the ability to cover the whole state of Nebraska, which is 93 counties, and we cover nine counties in the southwest Iowa area.” She says 2-1-1 is a one-stop shop for answers on all sorts of services and aid.

“211 is information and referral primarily,” Thompson says. “We get calls from people who might need rent or utility assistance, a food pantry, back-to-school programs, substance abuse, just a wide variety of things.” The service will continue to expand in the years ahead. “Our future goals are to start doing text messaging and chat services,” Thompson says. “We’re hoping to do text messaging this year and maybe expand into chat at the end of this year or early next year.”

Nearly 57,000 calls were made to the 2-1-1 call center last year and the website was accessed some 47,000 times. Thompson says statistics show nearly 30% of the calls were for utility assistance, 23% were for help with rent and 9% were for food assistance.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The decision over whether to hold Senate hearings for President Obama’s eventual Supreme Court nominee rests with one person: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley. So far, the 82-year-old Iowa senator has offered a muddled message on the subject. Grassley is seeking his seventh term in the Senate and has worked well with Democrats on some issues.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lost 500 farms last year, continuing a trend seen in recent years in which there are fewer farms operating and those that remain are becoming larger. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says most of the loss was smaller farms with sales of less than $10,000. Iowa posted a total of 87,500 farms in 2015. Total land in farms was 30.5 million acres. That’s about the same as the year before.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state will spend nearly $250,000 on a consultant to help three Iowa cities find new tenants for empty, state-owned buildings. The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Economic Development Board voted Friday to hire a national company, Matrix Design Group, to help seek new tenants for recently closed facilities in Toledo, Clarinda and Mount Pleasant.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Health officials are reporting Iowa’s first case of the Zika virus. The Department of Public Health announced Friday that the female victim, who wasn’t named, tested positive for the virus. The agency says she’s between 61 and 80 years old and had traveled in Central America.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lost 500 farms last year, continuing a trend seen in recent years in which there are fewer farms operating and those that remain are becoming larger. The number of farms in Iowa has fallen about 1.6 percent in the last five years while the average farm size has increased 1.5 percent.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says most of the loss was smaller farms with sales of less than $10,000. Iowa posted a total of 87,500 farms in 2015. Total land in farms was 30.5 million acres. That’s about the same as the year before. The average farm size rose slightly to 349 acres. Nationally, the number of farms fell by 18,000 last year to 2.07 million.