• On October 3rd: 37-year-old Christina Marie Stevens, of Anita, was arrested for Driving While Barred. Stevens was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and later released on bond; and, 21-year-old Taylor Thomas Montgomery, of Atlantic, was arrested for OWI/1st Offense. Montgomery was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and later released on his own recognizance.
• On October 5th, 2025, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office arrested 30-year-old Kray Mathew Lukehart, of Atlantic, on charges of OWI – 3rd Offense, Driving while Barred, and Operation without Ignition Interlock. Lukehart was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and released on bond.
• And, on October 6th, 2025, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 36-year-old Alysha Anne Buell, of Council Bluffs, on two Bench Warrants for Failure to Appear. Buell was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County (IA) Sheriff’s Department reports former Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, 33-year-old Bailey Linn Smith, of Atlantic, was arrested today (Wednesday) on multiple charges, after she turned herself-in on a Cass County Sheriff’s Office warrant. She was booked into the Cass County Jail, with bond set at $100,000. Smith was released (Oct. 8th) after posting a $10,000 (10%) cash bond. She is set to appear in Cass County District Court on Oct. 14th, at 9:30-a.m.

According to online court records, Smith faces charges that include:

• Ongoing Criminal Conduct – Unlawful Activity – A Class B Felony (Alleged Offense date 1/1/2020)
• And, three Class C Felonies that include: Fraudulent Practice 1st Degree (Alleged Offense date 11/14/22); Theft 1st Degree, and Unauthorized Use of Credit Card Over $10,000 (Alleged offense dates 1/1/2020).

Officials with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce Board issued a statement this afternoon with regard to Smith’s arrest. The statement said:

Atlantic, IA— Officials with the Cass Health Nurse Apprenticeship program have announced that they are opening 16 slots for students to begin the Cass Health Nurse Apprentice LPN program in late summer 2026, with an anticipated RN graduation in May 2028.

The Cass Health Nurse Apprenticeship is a highly competitive nurse training program that provides students with a variety of clinical experiences, alleviates the financial burden of higher education, and provides a support system to students before and during nursing school.

Through a partnership with Iowa Western Community College, the apprentices are students of IWCC through a unique hybrid format that allows their classes to be taught online. All in-person coursework is completed at Cass Health, so that the apprentices do not have to travel to Council Bluffs for classes.

Director of Education Brittni Schmidt (BSN, RN, CEN) says “Not only are we offering these students a pathway to an RN career without tuition expenses, this apprenticeship also provides paid employment with on-the-job training, giving these students far more hands-on experience than a traditional nursing student receives.”

As employees, the apprentices work as occasional employees giving them flexibility to manage classes, homework, and studying. By the end of the apprenticeship, each student will have completed 2,000 hours of on-the-job training, and they are eligible for pay increases as they reach milestones throughout the apprenticeship program.

Applications will open on January 12, 2026, and close on March 13, 2026. Applicants must meet the entrance requirements to be considered for the program. Those who qualify will be interviewed in March and April, with the selection process ending in April. The new apprentices will begin working at Cass Health in July 2026 ahead of their fall semester.

For more information on the Nurse Apprenticeship, visit casshealth.org/apprenticeship or call Human Resources at 712-250-8022.

(Radio Iowa) – The head of a trade association for biofuel producers says Iowa is no longer the best place to produce ethanol. Iowa Renewable Fuels Association executive director Monte Shaw says Nebraska has that position now because a pipeline started capturing carbon from Nebraska ethanol plants last Friday. “Iowa has worn the crown,” Shaw says. “We have been the world’s best place to turn corn into ethanol and we’ve held that crown for 25 years and last week we got knocked off. The world’s best place to turn corn into ethanol is now the plants hooked up to the Trailblazer Pipeline.”

That pipeline had been used to transport natural gas through Nebraska, but has been converted to collect carbon and ship it to underground storage in Wyoming. Shaw says it’s just Econ 101 that investments will shift to Nebraska if Iowa officials slam the door here on the Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline. “We are asking the Iowa legislature…to help avert what I personally feel is a pending farm crisis,” Shaw says, “…and all we’re asking for is to have access to the tools we need, like carbon capture and sequestration.”

The Iowa House has passed several bills since 2021 that would have affected the operation of Summit’s project, but only one has gotten Senate approval. It’s the bill Governor Reynolds vetoed in June. This past weekend group of G-O-P lawmakers said they’d introduce more pipeline-related legislation in 2026. Seth Harder is C-E-O of Husker AG, an ethanol plant in northeast Nebraska that may connect to the Trailblazer Pipeline. Harder says ethanol production will shift to Nebraska if it has the only carbon sequestration pipeline in the Midwest.

“Watching some plants farther east start to struggle…I think that could get worse and some of those plants I know are on the cusp of shuttering,” he says. “Some have…and that’s going to bring the production down in Iowa.” Harder is also the C-E-O of the Lincolnway Energy plant near Nevada.

The Trailblazer Pipeline project in Nebraska is currently designed to collect carbon from up to 11 ethanol plants, one of which is near Council Bluffs. In May, Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy’s manager said the company had secured voluntary agreements from local property owners so the plant can connect to the Trailblazer pipeline.

(Creston, Iowa) – The driver of a van was injured this (Wednesday) morning in Creston, when her vehicle collided with a 2016 Peterbilt semi tractor-trailer. According to the Creston Police Department, the accident happened at around 7:55-a.m. at the intersection of Highways 34 and 169. Authorities say the semi, driven by 60-year-old Robert Reidlinger, of Clyde, MO., was westbound on Highway 34, and a 1996 Chevy Sportvan driven by 54-year-old Robin Smith, of Leon, was southbound on Highway 169.

Smith stopped at the posted stop sign and looked east, but due to sun glare, failed to see the approaching semi. Reidlinger saw the van pulling into the intersection and tried to avoid hitting the vehicle, but the van struck the trailer and dual wheels on the semi’s trailer. The semi stopped on the north shoulder of Highway 34. The van spun out of control until it came to rest at the intersection stop sign.

Robin Smith was injured in the crash and transported by Medic 1 to the Clarke County Hospital in Osceola. Damage from the crash amounted to $25,000. No citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s a fear among some organizations that a prolonged federal government shutdown could have significant consequences for Iowa’s food banks and pantries that serve low-income families. Those organizations get a substantial amount of food from U-S producers through the U-S-D-A’s Emergency Food Assistance Program. Kim Guardado is director of HACAP Food Reservoir, a food bank serving seven eastern Iowa counties. She says food banks often order food through the program months in advance.

“As long as it’s a brief shutdown, we’ll be fine,” Guardado says. “If it goes too far, then there won’t be staff that will be able to place those orders for the future, so then we would see a disruption in the future.” Guardado says food insecurity is on the rise in Iowa, and a long government shutdown could also disrupt programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which already faces significant budget cuts. A federal report estimates two-point-four million people will lose benefits in an average month.

Kaitlyn Scheuermann, the dietitian for nutrition services in the Waukee Community School District, says families that lose access to SNAP benefits will also lose automatic eligibility for free and reduced-price school meals. “It’s really important that we’re communicating with families and making sure that they know they may have to apply,” Scheuermann says, “because we don’t want them to end up in a situation where they start to accrue a negative balance.”

Scheuermann and Guardado spoke during a recent virtual town hall hosted by the Iowa Food System Coalition.

(Van Meter, Iowa) – An Adair County man died Tuesday, after falling 30-feet from the roof of a building under construction at the school in Van Meter. Lamb Funeral Home in Greenfield confirms 33-year-old Brandon McVay, of Greenfield, died from injuries he suffered during the accident. Services for Brandon McVay are currently pending. According to reports, the accident happened at around 1-p.m., Tuesday. Authorities say a School Resource Officer (SRO) performed CPR on McVay until medics arrived on the scene. A helicopter was called-in but McVay died before he could be flown to a hospital.

Brandon McVay

The accident is under investigation. An account has been established to help his family at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/amberly-mcvay-and-kids?attribution_id=sl:4e9e0dd3-9ad6-4819-b988-b014fe4faba4&lang=en_US&ts=1759966334&utm_campaign=man_sharesheet_dash&utm_content=amp13_c-amp17_control&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

Four Iowans have won U.S. Senate confirmation to posts in the Trump Administration. Leif Olson, a top deputy in Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office, is now the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Iowa. David Waterman, a Davenport attorney who previously worked in a U.S. Attorney’s Office in Florida, is now the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. David Barker of Iowa City is now Assistant U.S. Secretary for Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education. He’s been a member of the board that governs Iowa’s three state universities since May of 2019.

And Iowa native James Holtsnider has been confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Jordan. He served for six years in the Marine Corps and earned a degree in physics before joining the U.S. State Department as a foreign service officer.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he believes congress will have to act to provide the full amount of federal payments to farmers that President Trump has promised to make up for trade-related losses. “I don’t think he has the authority to use tariff money,” Grassley says. “That goes in the treasury and once it goes in the treasury, it’s got to be appropriated by congress.” Grassley says there’s not enough money in the U-S-D-A’s budget today to fund the trade disruption payments the Trump Administration has planned.

“I had a discussion with one of the cabinet members Monday and this very subject came up,” Grassley says. “…They’re thinking about spreading it out over two tranches, use the money that’s available now and then congress gets done appropriating money and supplements the Commodity Credit Corporation, they’d do the remaining of the $10-14 billion.” American farmers got more than 22 billion dollars in payments in 2019, during Trump’s first administration, after China scaled back U.S. commodity purchases. Amid the current trade stand-off between the two countries, China has stopped buying U.S. soybeans.

Grassley says fertilizer prices are another shockwave hitting farm income and Grassley has been calling for a rollback of U.S. tariffs on fertilizer imports. “I don’t have any resolution or opinion from the executive branch where I’ve expressed both in interviews like this and by Twitter and in statements to the cabinet people.”

According to the American Farm Bureau, the U.S. imported 97 percent of the potassium fertilizer farmers used in 2024 — and nearly all of it came from Canada. There’s now a 10 percent tariff on potassium fertilizer imports from Canada.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The auditing firm of Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co., P.C., today (Wednesday) released an audit report on the Cass County Environmental Control Agency (Landfill). The report shows the Agency had total revenue of $1,178,900 for the year ended June 30, 2025, which included solid waste fees of $938,000, county and city assessments of $157, 500, and recyclables fees of $29,400.

Expenses totaled $1,030,800 for the year ended June 30, 2025, which included $375,000 for waste hauling and disposal, $76,900 for administration, $45,800 for recycling, and $198,700 for cover, compacting and scale expense, and $8,700 for closure and postclosure costs.

A copy of the full audit report is available for review in the office of the Auditor of State, and the Cass County Environmental Control Agency.