(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater reports three arrests took place last week. Thursday night (March 10), 28-year-old Bruce Austin Garrels, of Stratford, Iowa, was arrested in Greenfield, for Violation of Probation. Garrels was being held in the Adair County Jail, without bond.

Last Tuesday (March 8), Greenfield Police arrested 20-year-old Jesse Slade Brees, of Greenfield, following a domestic disturbance involving Brees’ ex-girlfriend, and a male, who was the victim of Brees’ alleged assault. Brees was charged with Assault causing bodily injury. He was released the following day on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

And, on March 7th, 48-year-old Christina Lea Fontenot, of Brenham, TX., was arrested in Adair on a charge of Domestic Abuse assault, after she threw a coat at her boyfriend from Adair, hitting him in the face and body, but causing no injuries. The incident happened at around 1:14-p.m., during an argument. Fontenot was released later that same day on a $300 cash/surety bond.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg, today (Monday), wants persons who need to access the Adair County website to know, that they should directly enter the County’s URL, www.adaircounty.iowa.gov,  into your web browser’s address bar.  DO NOT search for the Adair County website through a search engine (Google, Bing, etc.)  and click on the link.  These links may redirect you to a malicious site.  If you have any questions, please contact the Adair County Auditor’s office at (641) 743-2546.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to three-point-seven percent in January. The rate was down from the revised December rate of three-point-nine percent. Iowa Workforce Development says the leisure and hospitality industries added the most jobs in January — up 25-hundred. I-W-D says the industry saw a loss of 800 jobs in December — but has generally trended up steadily since COVID quarantines ended. Most gains were within accommodations and food services, which are up 65-hundred jobs since August. The state unemployment rate one year ago in January was four-point-four percent. The U-S unemployment rate in January increased to four percent.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office, Monday, said 55-year-old Dale Clifford Greedy, of Sidney (IA), was arrested on I-29, mile marker 40, at around 2:25-a.m. Sunday. Greedy was charged with OWI/3rd offense, Driving While Barred,and Operating a vehicle without the Ignition Interlock. Bond was set at $5,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Supply chain issues continue to impact businesses in Iowa, including the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain. Chief financial officer, Steve Bramlage, talked about the issue during a recent conference call on their third-quarter results. “While supply chain challenges have improved since the second quarter — notably in cups — the company still experienced disruption within prepared food and dispensed beverage,” Bramlage said.

He says supply shortages continue for one item in particular. “Bakery items — specifically our popular glazed donuts — continue to be in acute short supply as our vendor partners experience COVID-related disruptions,” he said. Bramlage says the supplies they are able to get for their prepared food are costing more — and the company has passed some of the cost on to customers. “The merchandise team was able to partially offset the cost increases with a round of proactive menu price increases and a more significant round of increases is scheduled for mid-March,” Bramlage said.

The company says its inside sales improved in its third-quarter as traffic into stores continues to improve.

(Radio Iowa) –  State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald says he supports withdrawing any state investments in Russian companies, but it’s difficult to do today given the status of Russia’s economy.  “The ruble has crashed and the stock market in Russia is closed,” Fitzgerald says, “…so if you wanted to sell out you can’t and if you sold out, you get pennies on the dollar.” Roby Smith is the Republican who’s running against Fitzgerald, a Democrat, in this fall’s election. Smith recently released a statement saying the State of Iowa needs to strategically divest of any Russian securities it may hold and prevent any future investment in Russia with Iowa’s public funds. Fitzgerald has signed onto a statement with 38 other state treasurers calling for public pension funds and other state and local governments to divest from Russia.

“We’ll be pushing for more measures,” Fitzgerald says. “If a pension fund like IPERS has been hurt, well maybe we can sue and get Russian assets like all of those yachts you see floating around that are worth hundreds of millions of dollars because we’ve been damaged by Putin and there’s a good legal argument to be made.” Fitzgerald made his comments this weekend on Iowa Press on Iowa P-B-S.

The state treasurer says IPERS — the Iowa Public Employees Retirement System — has mutual funds that have investments in Russian entities. And Russian-linked investments account for about one-half of one percent of the portfolio for the state-run College Savings Iowa plan.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department today (Monday), reported that a Windsor, Colorado man, 40-year-old Joshua Coots, was arrested Sunday. Coots was being held in the Mills County Jail without bond, until seen by a Magistrate. He’s been charged with Domestic Abuse Assault.

(Radio Iowa) – With gas prices rising, farmers are feeling the impact of inflation, as higher costs for fuel and fertilizer are shrinking profit margins for Iowa growers. Chad Hart, an agriculture economics professor at Iowa State University, says while commodity prices are good, rising fuel prices can significantly increase production expenses. “It’s not only the cost to run the tractor across the fields to plant and harvest the grain,” Hart says, “there’s a lot of fuel used to move our farm products down the supply chain line.”

Hart says farmers also face challenges with price volatility, as fluctuating prices are making it harder to know when to buy and sell. Kelly Garrett, a farmer from Denison, says his planter tractors use at least 100 gallons of diesel fuel every day. “It’s gone up $1.50 or $2 a gallon,” Garrett says, “so, there’s an extra couple hundred dollars a day to put your crop in just from a fuel standpoint.”

Garrett says higher fuel prices means he’s also paying more for shipping. In the past year, he says he’s seen his shipping costs double. Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average for gas is $3.91 a gallon. That’s 11-cents below the all-time Iowa high of $4.02 set in July of 2008. The current national average is a record $4.32.
(Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Creston, Iowa) – Three people were arrested early this (Monday) morning at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, in Creston. According to Creston Police, the following individuals from Creston were taken into custody at around 1-a.m., and charged with Disorderly Conduct-Fighting/Violent Behavior:

• 43-year-old Amanda Beth Zelasko
• 32-year-old Chelsie Nicole Liesener
• and, 19-year-old Elizabeth Ann Cunningham.

All three were cited and released from custody. Authorities said also, 20-year-old Elyice Bolin Stow, of Creston, was arrested at his residence a little after 2-a.m. Monday (Today). Stow was taken into custody on a warrant for Probation Violation with regard to an original charge of Sexual Abuse 3rd-Non forcible felony. Stow was being held without bond in the Union County Jail, until seen by a Magistrate.

Creston Police said a woman residing in the 800 block of W. Mills Street, reports Friday evening, that sometime between 5:30-p.m. March 10th and 5:45-p.m. March 12th, a large boulder weighing 40 pounds was taken from her yard. The same rock was later located on top of another rock, on the north side of the residence.