Adair County Sheriff’s Jeff Vandewater, today (Monday), released a report on recent arrests. On Saturday, deputies arrested 24-year old Robert Dean Garrett, of Des Moines, for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana – 1st offense, and Open Container. His arrest followed a traffic stop on Highway 25, during which Garrett admitted during questioning, that he had marijuana in his shoe and socks. An open container of alcohol was also found between the passenger seat and center console, of the vehicle. Garrett was later released on $1,000 bond.

Last Thursday, 37-year old Jason Dean Hauf, of Greenfield, was arrested on a charge of Domestic Abuse/Simple Assault. Hauf was released later the day on a Recognizance bond. Also arrested Thursday, was 53-year old Steven Eugene Feick, of Fontanelle. Feick was charged with Domestic Abuse/Simple Assault/1st offense, and Obstruction of Emergency Communications. He was later released from the Adair County Jail on $1,000 bond.

On Oct. 19th, 25-year old Jordan Maitlin Campbell, of Roseburg, OR., was arrested in Adair County and ordered to serve a sentence pertaining to drug charges. Campbell was found guilty June 24th on felony charges that include Possession of Marijuana with the Intent to Deliver, and Failure to Affix a Drug Tax Stamp. The original offense occurred in Sept., 2014. He was being held in the Adair County Jail on $10,000 bond while fulfilling his sentence.

On Oct. 18th, 23-year old Connor Anthony Marnin, of Stuart, was arrested by Stuart Police at the Country Kitchen. Marnin was cited for Violation of a No Contact order by being with a protected party, a simple misdemeanor. Also arrested Oct. 18th, was 53-year old Steven Michael Hauter, of Center Point, and 34-year old Benjamin Austin Brown, of St. Charles. Brown was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense, and Open Container in a motor vehicle. He was also cited for driving on the right hand side of the road. Brown was later released on $1,000 bond. Hauter was arrested for OWI/2nd offense and Failure to Obey a Stop Sign. He was released later that day on $2,000 bond.

SHELLSBURG, Iowa (AP) – Iowa authorities are investigating the death of a woman whose body was found near a stolen truck that had crashed north of Shellsburg. The truck was stolen Sunday in Benton County, in eastern Iowa. Two men who were examining the truck after it was found soon noticed blood on a door handle and then saw a blood trail away from the truck. They followed the blood and found the woman’s body.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety said this (Monday) morning, that the unidentified white female died from injuries consistent with foul play. Her name was being withheld pending notification of family.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston report four, recent arrests. Early Sunday morning, 26-year old Ian Christopher Gepner, of Corning, was arrested in Creston for Public Intoxication. His bond was set at $300. Saturday night, 29-year old Jeffery Paul Kay, Jr., of Duncan, OK., was arrested for OWI/3rd offense. He was later released on a $5,000 bond.

Last Friday night, 20-year old Dakota Dean Rosch, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st Offense. He was later released on $1,000 bond. And, Friday morning, Creston Police arrested 37-year old David Carlson Wallander, of Thayer, on a Union County warrant for Contempt of Court – Resistance to an Order or Process of District Court, for Failure to Appear on Child Support matters. Wallander was later released on $500 cash bond.

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

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A traffic stop early this (Monday) morning, in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of the driver of the vehicle on an OWI charge. Police say 43-year old Abner Garcia, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 2:50-a.m. near the intersection of Highway 34 and Eastern Street. Garcia was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.

The director of the Iowa Water Center says the state’s farmers are losing more than one-BILLION dollars a year in revenue due to soil erosion. Rick Cruse, who’s also an agronomy professor at Iowa State University, is part of a team of scientists working on what’s called the Iowa Daily Erosion Project. Cruse says that billion-dollar figure is a very conservative estimate of Iowa’s annual losses.

Cruse says, “We’ve looked at our estimates of soil erosion since we broke the prairie in Iowa, and based on the erosion estimates since that time and up until now, we’ve lost somewhere around six-and-a-half to seven inches on average across the state.” The research dates all the way back to 1850 and determined that more than a half-foot of topsoil has been lost in the past 16-plus decades of Iowa farming.

While six or seven inches of dirt may not sound like much, Cruse says the rich, black topsoil is what enables Iowa to be one of the world’s leaders in food production. When the precious soil is whittled away, so is Iowa’s livelihood. “The soil changes as you go down and at deeper depths,” Cruse says. “Most people understand, if you try to grow grass on a construction site or you try to grow grass or a garden in that subsoil material that’s left over after they scrape the topsoil, that’s essentially the same thing we see in the fields if soil continues to erode and we take that topsoil away.”

Many incentive programs are in place and farming techniques are being used that are designed to slow erosion, but Cruse says none of them have fixed the problem. “We need perennials in some parts of the landscape in Iowa if soil loss is going to be reduced to an acceptable level,” Cruse says. “The question you asked is, are these (programs) working, they’re working, they’re helping, but all of these are parts of a system. Any one thing alone is not the answer but putting the pieces together is.”

The Iowa Daily Erosion Project is made up of scientists from I-S-U, the University of Iowa, Colorado State University, the National Soil Erosion Research Lab, and the USDA National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Fremont County report a man who allegedly entered a residence several times over the past month and stole money and frozen meat, was arrested following an investigation into a burglary and theft that began Friday morning. The burglary and thefts occurred at 1128 305th Avenue. During the investigation, 27-year old Jeffery Greene, of Malvern, was contacted and admitted to the crimes. Greene was arrested for three counts of Burglary and on one count of Theft in the 2nd Degree. He was being held in the Fremont County Jail on $10,000 bond.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports a woman and her dog were injured in a crash Saturday afternoon on the southbound exit ramp of Exit 1 off Interstate 29. Authorities say a semi operated by 24-year old Dexter Williams, of Raeford, NC., and owned by the Schneider National out of Gary, IN., was parked on the shoulder of the off ramp, off the traveled portion of the road, when a 1993 Ford F-150 pickup took the off-ramp and ran into the back of the semi. The accident happened at around 2:25-p.m., Saturday.

The driver of pickup, 72-year old Sharon Allumbaugh, of Shambaugh, suffered incapacitating injuries and was transported by Riverton Rescue to the Grape Community Hospital in Hamburg. A dog located in the pickup suffered life-threatening injuries, and was extricated by Hamburg firefighters before being transported to the Fremont County Vet Clinic by deputies.

Officials say seat belts were in use prior to the accident, and alcohol was NOT believed to be a factor in the crash. Instead, deputies believe a possible medical issue was the cause. Damage to the semi was estimated at $1,500. The pickup was a total loss. Charges are pending.

All 336 of Iowa’s schools district have been approved or have applied to join into the program that puts experienced teachers in the role of guiding the less experienced educators. Department of Education director Ryan Wise, says there are 115 school districts in the process of implementing what’s known as the Teacher Leadership and Compensation System (TLCS) , with the others now preparing to do so after getting their plans approved.

“There’s a 20-member commission on Teacher Leadership and Compensation the represents teachers, administrators, the school boards, the teachers association, folks from all over the education community in Iowa that review the plans,” Wise says. “The plans have 10 parts to them and the commission members score each part of them in teams of two.” It is the second year of implementation for the plan. Each of the plans must meet five base criteria, with the first being that every teacher has a salary of at least 33-thousand-500 dollars.

“Improving entry for new teachers — so giving them more and better opportunities to learn and collaborate early in their careers — creating multiple leadership roles for at least 25 percent of the teaching staff, having a rigorous selection process for choosing their teacher leaders, and then aligning their professional development given the opportunity to lead professional learning,” Wise says. He says finding the multiple leadership roles for at least 25 percent of the teaching staff is probably the toughest criteria to meet.

“That’s a significant number and it was designed intentionally — because we believe that that’s a critical mass to really spark some change and improvement in teaching and learning,” Wise explains. The size of the district can make it tough to institute. “For some districts it can be challenging to get a least a quarter of their teachers to say ‘yep, I want to do this I have a vision for it.’ In some places that’s been easy, they’ve had far more applicants than positions available. For others it’s something that they need to build over time,” Wise says. He says some districts have found they have to shift some funds to salaries to meet the minimum requirement for the program.

“A significant majority of districts in Iowa are already above that 33-thousand-500 minimum requirement. But for some small districts, rural districts, there are funds that they have to use for that first,” Wise says. The T-L-C-S is designed to improve the quality of teaching in schools and Wise says parents should take note of what their schools are doing. He says parent should ask questions of teachers to see if they are getting more opportunities to collaborate and learn. “Our premise is that it spreads out great teaching, so we’ll have more teachers in more classrooms working together,” Wise says.

Wise has more than one reason to have interest in this program. He has two children in school and he worked on putting the program together at the Education Department before he stepped up to become its top leader. “You know, that’s why I moved to Iowa, because I was passionate about teacher leadership and believed this was a great direction for an entire state to have,”according to Wise. It’s been exciting to see this develop over three years and to be on the verge of every single district in Iowa having a plan is really exciting.”

The program gives each district roughly 312 dollars for each student to be used to implement the T-L-C-S. The entire system will cost 150 million dollars annually once all of the districts have their leadership plans in place. For more information on the teacher leadership system, visit the Department of Education website.

(Radio Iowa)