(Red Oak, Iowa) – Two people were arrested on separate charges overnight in Montgomery County. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, at around 9:35-p.m. Monday, 40-year-old Joshua James Stevens, of Denver, CO, was arrested in Stanton, for Harassment in the 2nd Degree. Stevens was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond.

And, at around 12:40-a.m. Tuesday (Today), Deputies in Montgomery County arrested 63-year-old Timothy Brian Housh, of Red Oak, following a traffic stop in the 1300 block of Highway 34. Housh was taken into custody for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. The Montgomery County K9 Unit assisted in his arrest. Housh was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Creston, Iowa) – Medics checked on a woman involved in a collision Monday afternoon in Creston, but she did not require treatment. According to Creston Police, a car driven by 22-year-old Jayden Michelle Ann Millslagle, of Creston, was traveling east on Laurel Street in Creston at around 3:30-p.m., Monday. An SUV driven by 30-year-old Katelynn Jo Stevens, of Creston, was exiting from a parking lot northbound.

Police say Stevens looked, but did not see the car prior to the vehicles colliding. Millslagle complained of pain after the accident occurred. Damage to the vehicles amounted to a police-estimated $9,000 altogether. No citations were issued. The police report only noted that a contributing factor to the accident was Stevens’ failure to yield the right of way from a stop sign.

(Radio Iowa) – For the second time in less than a decade, a former city clerk in the small Delaware County town of Delhi has been charged with mishandling thousands of dollars in city funds. In 2017, Angela Billings pleaded guilty and was sentenced to over a year in federal prison for embezzling over a hundred-thousand dollars from the City of Delhi. Lori Tucker — who replaced Billings as Delhi’s City Clerk — has been charged with first and second degree theft and with tampering with records.

According to a special investigation by the State Auditor’s Office that was released over a year ago, Tucker used the city’s credit card and checking account for improper purchases while she was Delhi’s City Clerk. The review also found Tucker paid herself for excessive overtime and vacation. Auditors flagged over 80-thousand dollars in improper or unsupported spending.

Delhi’s former mayor is also charged with aiding Tucker’s theft and impersonating a public official. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office says he was caught on surveillance video signing a form that granted Tucker paid time off in late 2021 — but he signed the form in February of 2022 when he was no longer mayor.

(Radio Iowa) – Renovations are complete on a four-story building that sits on the former campus for a state-run facility for adults with severe disabilities. The Glenwood Resource Center was closed in July of last year and a non-profit was formed to redevelop about 200 acres of the campus. Glenwood School Superintendent Nicole Kooiker says she hopes the re-development of a central building on the campus spurs other projects.

“I believe that having our presence up on the hill will help them actually to get it renovated, get housing, pull in some other families, develop Glenwood further,” Kooiker says. “…It’s gorgeous space, a large space up here, so we’re excited and thankful we can be up here and hoping that it also helps them also get other families to come into Glenwood.” The district’s administrative offices and some programs were already located in the building when the state closed the entire campus.

Kooiker says the district spent three-and-a-half million and some of that went to reestablishing utility connections that were shut off when the state closed the campus. “Nothing would be working up at this building without having to run up all of our own because the power plant ran it just kind of like a military base,” Kooiker said, “so when that shut down we had to be ready to continue to heating and cooling and water and plumbing, like all the things.” The first two floors of the building house a child care center.

“Capacity’s at 200,” she said. “We’ve grown quite a bit in the past couple of months. We had to get some staff before we can get more children and now we’re hiring more staff on excited to bring in more students and families.” There were minor updates on the building’s third floor. That’s where the school district’s central office is located, along with the district’s online and alternative programs for high schoolers. The fourth floor of the building is rented out to Apex, a program that serves students with special needs in about a dozen western Iowa school districts.

Glenwood school officials held an open house at the building this past weekend.

(Radio Iowa) – The four Iowa Republicans who serve in the U-S House say over 18-thousand federal employees in Iowa have been furloughed or are working without pay. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Ashley Hinson, Zach Nunn and Randy Feenstra have signed on to letter, calling on Senate Democrats to set aside partisanship, pass the House plan for temporary funding and end the government shutdown.

The letter says the shutdown is inflicting real harm on Iowans and the people of Iowa deserve a functioning government.

The group cites delays in federal food assistance and warns over 680-thousand Iowa Medicare recipients are at risk of losing access to telehealth services.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak this (Monday) afternoon arrested a man on numerous charges. Authorities say 21-year-old Brayden Eugene Johnson, of Red Oak, was arrested a little after 1-p.m. in the vicinity of Broadway and Ohio Streets in Red Oak.

He faces charges that include: Child endangerment; Possession of a controlled substance/1st offense, and Domestic abuse assault/1st offense.

Johnson was being held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Interviews started today (Monday) of candidates who want to be the next president of Iowa State University. All the Board of Regents interviews of the candidates are being held in closed sessions. The Board will continue the interviews Tuesday and then will announce the number of finalists they have selected.

The names of the finalists will be revealed the day before they are to visit campus for a public forum. The Regents hope to select a the replacement for retiring president Wendy Wintersteen by November.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – The Page County Sheriff’s Office today (Monday) issued a report on arrests that took place from Oct. 8th through the 20th.

20-year-old Savannah Christine Vacanti, of Villisca, was arrested in Clarinda at around 2:10-a.m., Monday (Oct. 20), for Driving Under Suspension.

37-year-old Elizabeth Marie Merriett, of Shenandoah, was arrested Oct. 17th in Council Bluffs, for Violation of Probation.

On Oct. 12th: Page County Deputies arrested 49-year-old Michael Scott Morton, of Clarinda, for Driving Under Suspension. (He was released the following day); 43-year-old Andrew Christopher Polk, of Shenandoah, was arrested in Shenandoah for OWI/1st offense. (He was released a few hours later)

On the 11th of October: 20-year-old Noah Robert Comer, of New Market (IA) was arrested in Clarinda for Interference with Official Acts. (He was released about an hour later); 19-year-old Nathan Riley Hughes, of Randolph (IA) was also arrested in Clarinda for Interference with Official Acts. (He was released from custody about 35-minutes later)

Deputies in Page County arrested 27-year-old Spencer Pratt Westman, of Omaha, in Shenandoah on Oct. 9th, for Theft in the 5th Degree (<$300); Separately, 55-year-old John David Stone, of Braddyville, was arrested in Braddyville at around 12:35-a.m. Oct. 9th, on charges that include: Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Driving While Barred, OWI/1st Offense, and on two-counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, 3rd or subsequent offense.

And, on Oct. 8th at around 1-a.m., 39-year-old Brandy Nicole Strange, of Farragut, was arrested in Coin, for Public Intoxication. She was released later that same day per the magistrate’s order.

(Sheriff’s disclaimer: “It should be noted that a criminal charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocents until and unless proven guilty.”)

(Radio Iowa) – President Donald Trump says the U-S may buy beef from Argentina to bring beef prices down for consumers. Bill Bullard is C-E-O of R-CALF USA, the largest trade group for cattle producers. He says the president’s attention is welcome because the U-S cattle market has been broken for decades. “The share of the consumer’s beef dollar flowing back to the producers has been reduced,” Bullard said, “while at the same time the share captured by the packers and retailers in this highly concentrated industry have been increasing.”

Bullard says importing more beef in the U.S. absolutely the wrong thing to do. “It has been imports that have displaced our domestic cow herd over the last several decades, bringing us to the brink of having the lowest, smallest herd size in the history of our industry,” Bullard said. Bullard says the Trump Administration needs to focus on concentration in the meat packing industry.

Four companies are buying 85 percent of the cattle that are slaughtered in the U-S, plus the Food Industry Association says meat sales in mega-retailers like Walmart are growing, while the amount of meat sold in local grocery stores is falling. “We have a handful of packers, a handful of retailers that are interfering with competitive market forces and they are exploiting producers on end of the food supply chain and consumers on the other,” Bullard said.

Bullard says Trump could help cattle producers by placing a quota on imported beef and impose higher tariffs on beef imports once that quota is reached.