(Stuart, Iowa) – Officials with the The Stuart Police Department, today (Tuesday) said on social media, that the department was awarded a $125,000 COPS Grant . The grant will help to help fund the hiring of a fifth full-time police officer.

At their meeting Monday night, officials say the Stuart City Council voted to accept the grant, showing a strong commitment to providing quality law enforcement services to the growing community.

The new officer position will be used to help cover extra shifts currently being filled as overtime by existing officers. The addition not only strengthens the department, officials say, but also helps reduce overtime hours, allowing our team to better balance workload while maintaining strong coverage and response times.

(Villisca, Iowa) – Firefighters from the Villisca and Clarinda Fire Departments responded at around 9:20-p.m. Monday, to a reported possible structure fire at 3050 130th Lane. Reports say occupants of the residence had evacuated prior to firefighters’ arrival.

When firefighters arrived, they encountered moderate smoke coming from the basement of the home due to an electrical panel that overheated due to an overload. The fire was quickly extinguished, and smoke was cleared from the residence through the use of positive pressure fans.

Photo courtesy of John Bruce

No injuries were reported. The damage was contained to the electrical panel. Agencies assisting with the incident included: the Villisca and Clarinda Fire Departments; Clarinda EMS; the Page County Sheriff’s Office; Page and Montgomery County Communications; and Rural Electric Company (REC) crews.

(Adair, Iowa) – A joint, regular meeting of the Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center School District Boards of Education will be held beginning at 7-p.m. Wednesday, at the AC/GC Junior High Media Center in Adair. Both Board will act on several items, including:

• Appointing a Representative for the IASB (Iowa Association of School Boards) Delegate Assembly that takes place Nov. 19th
• District Leadership Team (DLT) and SIAC (School Improvement Advisory Committee) Members
• The Second Reading of a District Graduation Requirements policy
• The Appointment of a Board Treasurer & Board Secretary (Oath of Office)
• An Ahlers and Cooney Joint Conflict Waiver
• IASB Policy Primer #33 & #34 School Board Policy Updates, and
• Approving an Operational Sharing Agreement.

Separately, the A-C Board will act on a Contract Recommendation for Tessa Sheeder – Paraprofessional. The Guthrie Center Board will act on the Resignation of Christina Wilson – Cheer, and Contract Recommendations for: Harley Hester – Paraprofessional; Lindsay Fluharty – Extra Duty.

Both Boards will act on fundraisers, and they’ll discuss AC/GC Achievement/Test Scores.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested two people late Monday night. Authorities say 49-year-old Michael Lee LaFollette and 43-year-old Tasha Marie Selby, both of Red Oak, were arrested in the 100 block of E. Prospect Street at around 11:20-p.m.  LaFollette was charged with one-count each of Violation of a Protection Order (Contempt of Court) and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Selby was charged with one-count of Violation of Protection Order (Contempt of Court). The charges are Simple Misdemeanors.

Both were being held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – The American Cancer Society says a lesser known kind of breast cancer is rising in the United States. It’s called lobular breast cancer. Doctors say its harder to detect because it doesn’t usually present with lumps. The organization says more than 33,000 women will be diagnosed with it this year.

The latest report also found that if ranked on its own, the disease would be the seventh most common cancer among women in the U.S. Dr. Richard Deming with MercyOne Cancer Center says alcohol consumption is a possible risk factor, but there’s no absolute way to tell if there’s a connection. Deming believes the correlation with heavy drinking is strongly linked and says the likelihood increases the more you drink.

The University of Iowa says the state ranks number 4 in the incidence of alcohol-related cancers. The Iowa Cancer Registry says in its 2025 report that breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the state.

This month marks 40 Years of Breast Cancer Awareness month.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – Not even a month after announcing his candidacy for Iowa’s Second Congressional District, Rod Blum has suspended it.

Blum announced on September 18 he was entering the race. He served in Congress from 2015 to 2018, serving the area that included Dubuque, Cedar Rapids, Waterloo and Cedar Falls.

After his time there, a previous press release says Blum “served on the Small Business Committee as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Energy, and Trade, and served on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.” He also worked with President Trump’s Iowa campaign with the Iowa Leadership Committee.

In a press release on Monday, Blum talked about his future.

“It has become clear to me that I can help President Trump in other ways that are more effective than being in the U.S. House,” said Blum. “I love our country, and despite our challenges I remain optimistic that under the President’s leadership, America’s best days are still to come.”

GREENE COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) – The Iowa Attorney General’s Office found the officer who shot and killed an 18-year-old last month was legally justified in doing so. The shooting on September 6th killed 18 year-old Camryn Stonehocker following a car chase in Greene County.

In her report, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said the incident began with Boone Officer Marshall Moore trying to pull over a pick-up truck on Highway 30 for a broken taillight. The driver, who was later identified as Stonehocker, did not stop.

After a police pursuit for about 20 miles, Stonehocker stopped and got out of the pickup and began walking at officers with a knife. One officer dove to the ground to avoid the knife. Officer Moore saw the officer on the ground and Stonehocker standing over him and fired his weapon, hitting Stonehocker. Officers provided medical aid but Stonehocker died from the gunshot wound.

The Attorney General’s Office ruled Officer Moore was justified in fearing Stonehocker could stab another officer. Investigators cited interviews with friends and family that revealed Stonehocker was frustrated from prior police interactions, including traffic citations just two weeks earlier.

Click here to read the Attorney General’s full report.

DES MOINES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird joined an amicus brief Monday supporting a Tennessee law that requires social media companies to use age verification software. Social media companies are challenging the law.

Tennessee’s 2024 Protecting Children from Social Media Act requires users to verify that they are 18 years or older or get permission from their parent or guardian to make an account on a social media platform. For minors’ accounts, the law requires social media companies provide parents access to monitor the child’s activity and messages, as well as the ability to set time restrictions or revoke access.

NetChoice, a trade association including Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and other social media platforms including X and Reddit, filed a suit challenging the Tennessee law in October 2024. In a news release, Paul Taske, associate director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, said the state law “violates free speech rights and jeopardizes the cybersecurity of minors and adults by creating a honeypot of sensitive information for hackers.”

A U.S. District court denied the request from NetChoice for a preliminary injunction to block the law from enforcement. The organization challenged this decision with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, submitting its opening brief in September.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, argued in a brief submitted to the appeals court earlier in October the law does not abridge any free speech rights, but provides protection for minors online.

Bird joined a coalition of 34 states and Washington, D.C. in filing a brief, led by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, to support the law. The filing argues social media platforms are “knowingly harming children,” citing studies that have found mental health issues like anxiety, depression and eating disorders are linked with higher social media usage among adolescents.

Bird said she joined the brief in order to help protect children from harms caused by social media. NetChoice has succeeded in blocking similar age verification laws through court challenges in states including Ohio and Arkansas.

Iowa lawmakers considered a bill in 2025 to require parental consent for minors to create social media accounts, with parents allowed to revoke access at any time. While there was support in a subcommittee meeting from legislators for a measure giving parents more oversight of their children’s accounts, there were concerns about social media companies’ collection of personal data collection that would be required to implement such a measure.

(Radio Iowa) – The corn and soybean harvest in Iowa is well underway — but since there’s a federal government shutdown, the U-S-D-A’s weekly report on Iowa crops wasn’t issued Monday. Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig says just driving through the countryside gives you a pretty good impression at the pace of the harvest. “Boy, if it’s fit, folks are really hitting it hard,” Naig said, “and I think we’re really taking a big chunk out of that soybean and corn harvest both.”

Naig says there appears to be variability in yields, as southern rust has appeared in parts of the state. “You’re hearing about some pretty dramatic yield reductions,” Naig said. “There are some areas of the state that were too wet. I’m hearing about some yield impact because of that as well and then I talk to folks that say it’s the best crop they’ve ever had.” Naig is hearing soybean yields are strong.

“Maybe the crop isn’t quite as good as we all thought it was going to be maybe in that mid-July time-frame, but we have a solid crop,” Naig said, “and, in fact, you have a lot of folks talking about: ‘Where are we going to store this crop?'” Iowa farmers typically have about two-thirds of soybeans and one-third of corn harvested by mid-October. Farmers worry the prices for corn and soybeans are being affected because buyers don’t have the weekly U-S-D-A information about harvest progress and conditions.

Naig says it also means the October payments farmers get for enrolling land in the Conservation Reserve Program aren’t going out. “In this tight economy if you’re waiting for a payment of some kind and you just can’t flat out access it because of a government shut down that’s wrong,” Naig said, “and it’s bringing instability…where we need certainty this time of year.”

With Farm Service Agency offices closed, farmers cannot submit the paperwork for operating loans that some might need to buy livestock, farm equipment, fuel or fertilizer. The loans may also be used to cover family living expenses.

(Radio Iowa) – The old Delaware County Jail is coming down. In 2019, Delaware County voters approved a bond issue for a new jail and that facility opened in mid-2021. The demolition of the vacant jail, which started Monday, is part of a larger project that will include a two-story addition on the east side of the county’s courthouse. Delaware County Supervisor Shirley Helmrichs says old the jail is unsafe.

“Part of the building has been there a long time. The old jailer’s house and the connecting wall with the jail, we’ve had architects look at it and they said: ‘You could try to remodel, but it’s going to cost you more,’ and the wall between the two buildings — it’s cracked. There’s not much holding it together,” she said. The jail’s demolition along with the addition to the Delaware County Courthouse is projected to cost between five and six million dollars.

The county treasurer’s office and auditor’s office will move into the addition. Helmrichs says it will improve accessibility to those offices. “We watched those west steps and there are too many near trips and falls on a daily basis,” Helmrichs says. “All the offices have a lot of traffic, but (for the) auditor’s and treasurer’s (office) it’s just a steadier crowd that come in and renew things and get passports.”

The Delaware County Courthouse in Manchester was built in 1894 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.