(Corning, Iowa) – Sheriff’s Deputies in Adams County, Tuesday, arrested a man from southeast Iowa’s Henry County. Authorities say 41-year old Steven Dennis Porter, of Hillsboro, was arrested on an Adams County warrant for Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree, Lascivious Acts with a Child, and Child Endangerment. Porter was being held without bond in the Adams County Jail.

A Red Oak woman was arrested Tuesday by Adams County Deputies, 43-year old Joleen Mary Most was taken into custody on an Adams County Warrant for Failure to Appear. Most was also being held without bond in the Adams County Jail.

(Updated 11:45-a.m.) (Radio Iowa/KJAN) – MidAmerican Energy is proposing a wind farm of around 90-140 wind turbines altogether in Mills and Pottawattamie Counties, as part of their effort to achieve a 100 percent renewable energy supply. But some residents in the path of the wind farm are concerned about how it will alter their community. Treynor farmer Corey Vorthmann says he believes the sound and light that wind turbines produce would be disruptive to residents. “It’s something that is really unthinkable for us to see that we would wake up every morning and not really be able to take in the beauty of mother nature, but have it polluted with 300-foot wind turbines,” according to Vorthmann.

Charity Duey lives in Silver City and says the uncertainty of how the wind turbines may impact everything from the quality of life to migratory birds concerns her. “Just looking at it as a whole and going is this a fit for our community? That’s where people are going ‘I don’t think this is going to work for us,’” Duey says.Almost 800 people have joined a FaceBook group dedicated to stopping the project.

MidAmerican Energy spokesperson Geoff Greenwood tells KJAN News the project is simply a proposal at this point. He points out “The estimated property tax benefits to the two counties would be around $187-million over the life of the project for both counties. And that’s property tax revenue that goes toward hospitals and schools and roads in those counties, and that’s a big benefit.” For now, they are in the process of gauging landowners’ interest. He they know from experience that there are land owners who request to have turbines on their property, especially with fluctuating commodity and grain prices. “This is a steady paycheck for them for the next several decades, over the duration of the project.”

Greenwood said there are approximately 3,300 wind turbines in the State. MidAmerican has 37 wind projects in 32 counties. Their proposed “Wind Prime” project – an almost $4-billion  dollar project – includes more wind and some Solar Energy. When complete, the project will add approximately 2,000 megawatts of power to the system. It’s not yet known how many additional turbines or projects will be included, but Greenwood says it may very well be up to nine such projects. The company hopes to complete the proposed project in 2024.

(Reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio; Updated by KJAN News Director Ric Hanson)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report a man from Webster County was arrested Tuesday afternoon on two moving violations and a warrant for a Sex Offender Registry Violation. Authorities say 54-year-old Charles Andrew Richard Learned, of Fort Dodge, was arrested at around 1:25-p.m., Tuesday, in the 1600 block of Highway 71. Learned was charged with Speeding and Driving While Barred. He was also arrested on the Webster County warrant for Failure to Register as a Sex Offender/2nd Offense, and Probation Violation.

Learned was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $5,000 bond.

Charles Andrew Richard Learned (Montgomery CO. S/O photo)

(Radio Iowa) – A bill scheduled for debate in a Senate committee today (Wednesday) would take away the Iowa Utilities Board’s power to grant eminent domain to private companies, so land may be seized for carbon pipelines and similar projects. Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, is the bill’s sponsor. “There is neither constitutional nor ethical justification for government to use its coercive power to seize private land or force an easement primarily for the benefit of wealthy, well-connected business owners,” Taylor says.

Jeff Boeyink is a lobbyist for Summit Carbon Solutions, the company that’s hired former Governor Terry Branstad to promote its carbon pipeline. Boeyink says changing the rules for eminent domain would send the message that Iowa’s regulatory climate is unstable.  “With this bill, this project stops dead in its tracks,” Boeyink says. “That means all the tens of millions of dollars that have already been invested are lost, this project goes nowhere, farmers get no benefit, the ethanol plants we sign up are done.”

Iowans who’ve been notified their property is along the proposed routes for carbon pipelines spoke at an hour-long Senate subcommittee hearing on the bill yesterday (Tuesday). Dan Tronchetti owns a farm near Paton, in Greene County. “I thought I had property rights, but Summit Carbon is telling me I don’t…that they can ask for eminent domain and that I might as well go ahead and sign a voluntary easement,” Tronchetti said. “…I can’t believe that 40 years of hard work doesn’t mean anything.”

Kathy Stockdale of Iowa Falls held up a map showing the route for a proposed pipeline would pass through the middle of her farm. “We have 30 acres of wetlands right over here by where Summit it coming in,” Stockdale said. “…You can see that they’re going through a waterway up here. This is where the highly erodible is, so we are concerned because this is very sandy soil and when there’s a rain, what’s going to happen to the pipeline underneath?”

Republican Senator Craig Williams of Manning voted to advance the bill out of subcommittee, but he told pipeline critics it’s difficult to retroactively change regulations. “There are three or four other issues with this bill and I get that everybody wants us to pass this bill, I just don’t think that it does what you want it to do,” Williams says.

Republican Senator Mike Klimesh, of Spillville says the bill as currently written is too broad. “I think that it would make it virtually impossible for pipelines that serve a public good or a public purpose to be able to exist or grow or even cross the state,” Klimesh says. “What I’m talking about is oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines…pipelines that move essential services.”

But Klimesh says the issue merits more discussion and that’s why he also voted to make the bill eligible for consideration in the Senate Commerce Committee today (Wednesday).

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is likely to sign legislation that would limit participation in girls sports to students who have female marked on their birth certificate, but she’s withholding a definite answer until the bill reaches her desk.

“I said it’s a fairness issue last year and if it landed on my desk, depending on what it said, I would probably sign it, so I believe it is a fairness issue,” Reynolds says. “I believe if we don’t do something it does start to eliminate girls sports. That was set up for a reason way back when. I don’t know if we’re trying to erase history, once again, but it is a fairness issue.”

Nine other states have enacted laws that prevent transgender athletes who identify as female from competing in girls sports and similar legislation cleared a committee in the Iowa House Monday night. Critics of the bill say it discriminates against transgender girls and amounts to state-sanctioned bullying of kids who are at greater risk of depression and suicide. In April of last year, Reynolds said letting biological males who identify as females compete in volleyball, softball and other girls sports in Iowa is unfair and she repeated that message during a news conference yesterday (Tuesday).

“Girls have dreams and aspirations of earning a scholarship to help pay for college,” Reynolds says. “Girls have dreams and aspirations of one day, you know, competing in the Olympics.”

The bill allows girls to sue if they are harmed directly or indirectly by a school that allows transgender athletes to participate in girls sports. The leader of a national suicide prevention group for transgender youth says the legislation uses L-G-B-T-Q kids as political pawns and will lead to further isolation for a small group of students.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is making another public pitch for her plan to establish 10-thousand state-funded accounts for parents who wish to send their kids to private schools.  “We’ve made a lot of concessions and compromises with the new bill that I put forward this year,” Reynolds says, “but we’re going to continue to work with legislators and listen and do what we can to get it across the finish line.”

The governor’s bill has yet to advance out of a legislative committee, but a Senate panel is likely to debate it this week. A key Republican, though, says the concept is stalled in the House. Reynolds says she’s not giving up. “I feel really good about it,” Reynolds says. “We are having a lot of conversations. We’re talking about what the bill actually does.”

Reynolds held a news conference at a private school in Des Moines to tout her plan for state scholarships to parents like Jessica Cashman, a single mother who’s sending her daughter to St. Theresa’s Catholic school. Cashman says she wants her daughter’s school to align with the values she’s teaching her at home. “The biggest factor is that I want to make sure I lay down a foundation…in my five-year-old child,” Cashman says. “Foundation to me is a love of God, education and country.”

Cashman has received private scholarship money to send her daughter to the school. According to the governor, 56 percent of the state’s budget is being spent on public schools and Reynolds says that’s money well spent for most, but not all families who’d be able to use the state-funded scholarships she hopes to create. “I believe with all my heart that this is going to raise all of our school districts across the state,” Reynolds says. “You know, competition does that.”

Charlotte James, a junior at Dowling Catholic High School in West Des Moines, says when she speaks with friends who don’t attend her school, they often wish for the experiences she’s having at Dowling. “By offering these scholarships to students, there’s more of an opportunity for those who want to push themselves and succeed,” she says.

The governor’s plan calls for depositing about 53-hundred dollars in state money in accounts for low and middle income parents who either move their child from a private to a public school or enroll their child in the kindergarten at a private school.

CLIVE, Iowa — A woman from Cass County (Iowa) has won a $10,000 lottery prize. Lottery officials say Amy Mardesen, of Atlantic, won the big prize in the Iowa Lottery’s “$100,000 Mega Crossword” scratch game. She purchased her winning ticket at Casey’s East (1408 E. Seventh St.) in Atlantic, and claimed her prize Friday at lottery headquarters in Clive.

Amy Mardesen

The $100,000 Mega Crossword is a $10 scratch game that features overall odds of 1 in 3.30 and 38 top prizes of $100,000. For more information about this game, and the number of prizes still available, visit ialottery.com.

Officials with the Harlan Police Department report arrests dating back to Feb. 3rd.

On February 12, 2022: 28-year-old Karla Roxana Toc Arguleta, of Harlan, was arrested following a traffic stop. Arguleta was transported to the Shelby County Jail where she was charged with domestic abuse assault; and 52-year-old Kevin Boyd Canter, of Atlantic, was arrested following a call for service. Canter was transported to the Shelby County Jail where he was charged with disorderly conduct.

There were three arrests in Harlan on Feb. 8th: 46-year-old Tristine Ann Mackey, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant. Mackey was transported to the Shelby County Jail; 38-year-old Cory Christopher McCoy, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant. McCoy was transported to the Shelby County Jail; and 41-year-old Daniel Harvey Pash, of Harlan, was arrested following a traffic stop. Pash was transported to the Shelby County Jail where he was charged with possession of a controlled substance, improper use of registration, no proof of insurance and driving while suspended.

February 6th, Harlan Police arrested 40-year-old Jasper William Daniel, of Atlantic, on an active Shelby County warrant. Daniel was transported to the Shelby County Jail.

On the 4th, 21-year-old Madison Marie Hansen, of Harlan, was arrested following a traffic stop. Hansen was transported to the Shelby County Jail where she was charged with driving while revoked and fraudulent use of license plates. And, on February 3rd, 39-year-old William Joseph Bullock, of Harlan, was arrested following a traffic stop. Bullock was transported to the Shelby County Jail where he was charged with driving while barred.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a Cass County (IA) woman, 34-year-old Amanda Marie Belnap, of Atlantic, was sentenced Monday (Feb. 14) to 120 months (10-years) in prison for Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine. Her term of imprisonment will be followed by five years of supervised release. According to court documents Belnap pleaded guilty to the charge on September 2, 2021.

Between July 2020 and May 2021, Belnap obtained approximately 16 pounds of methamphetamine at her home in Atlantic from a source in California through the mail. On May 6, 2021, in an interview with law enforcement, Belnap admitted she had received and distributed the methamphetamine. On May 8, 2021, the United States Postal Service intercepted another package mailed to Belnap from her source in California that contained approximately 900 grams of methamphetamine. As part of the conspiracy, Belnap distributed the methamphetamine to people in locations across the Southern and Northern Districts of Iowa and would send money back to the source in California.

Amanda Marie Belnap

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, Muscatine County Drug Task Force, Johnson County Drug Task Force, Tri County Drug Task Force, and the Iowa State Patrol investigated the case. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

The Glenwood Police Department reports two people from Kansas City, Missouri, were arrested Valentine’s Day. Authorities say 20-year-old’s Yasir Mohamed and Musa Abdi were taken into custody for Prohibited Acts. Their cash/surety bonds were set at $2,000 each.