(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.

(Radio Iowa) – Due to staffing issues, SkyWest Airlines plans to reduce the number of weekly flights out of Mason City and Fort Dodge. SkyWest filed the notice of intent with the US Department of Transportation on February 2nd that they intend to cut back the number of flights a week under the Essential Air Service program between Mason City and Chicago, and from Fort Dodge to Chicago and Denver, from 12 to 10.

Skywest photo

SkyWest in a handful of other markets wants to reduce the number of weekly flights from 12 to seven. SkyWest tells the US DOT that staffing issues caused by the COVID pandemic are causing the need to reduce flights across their network.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday morning, received a presentation from Aaron Sindt, from Lyman, with regard to an economic development project for an area near Lyman, that would serve as an Adult-only Retreat with cabins. Currently, he has a building pad down and a pond on the property. Other ponds will be added.

After a party check’s-in, they will be given a code and given your options.

Sindt said the plan is to build six cabins around the ponds. The fully-furnished cabins will be around 800 square feet, each.

Your food will already be in the refrigerator, ready to go, along with instructions on how to cook it. Outside the cabins will be a high end grilling area with contact information for local cattle and hog producers if a guest really likes the quality of those locally-sourced products they’re grilling.

A natural spring will supply water to the cabins. He said he wants the retreat to be a place where anyone 21 and older can get away for a night and have a high-end experience where everything is included and you can go home the next day without any problems. Along with the cabins, he wants to build an event-center of sorts, for custom farm-to-table events, small class reunions, small family events, work building seminars, etc.

He hopes to have the Adult Retreat open by the Spring of 2023. Sindt said he looked into some grant opportunities to help with funding the project, but acknowledged it’s not easy to find anything for unincorporated cities. He wasn’t asking for funds when he spoke to the Board on Tuesday. Sindt just wanted to show them his plans and for them to keep him in mind for any
Supervisor Steve Green told Sindt that they do have a tax rebate program available for economic development projects in the unincorporated parts of the county.