The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Sheriff’s deputies in Adams County arrested a man on a Public Intoxication charge, Tuesday night, after they saw him stumbling across the road near 7th and Nodaway Streets, in Corning. Authorities say Jerry Lee Gilbert, of Corning, smelled strongly of alcohol when they found him at around 9-p.m.  Gilbert admitted to being intoxicated. He was placed under arrest for Public Intoxication/3rd or subsequent offense, and transported to the Adams County Jail, where his bond was set at $2,000.

SAC CITY, Iowa (AP) — A November trial is scheduled for a volunteer firefighter accused of setting fire to a corncrib in western Iowa’s Sac County. Sac County court records say 25-year-old Brent Mack pleaded not guilty Monday to arson, burglary and other crimes. The trial start is set for Nov. 5.

Authorities say Mack told investigators that he, 18-year-old Alexander Lilly and a 17-year-old girl drove around the county on Aug. 19, looking for a place to set a fire and settled on the corncrib. The plan was to start a fire so Mack could respond with his department from Nemaha to put it out.

The Nemaha and other departments responded to battle the blaze a little more than a mile north of Nemaha. Lilly also has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. The girl has been charged with conspiracy.

(Radio Iowa/Brownfield) — A leader of a northwest Iowa ethanol plant says after the Trump Administration granted ethanol waivers to oil refineries in August, the plant just could not continue operating. “Every one of them has hurt under the Trump Administration, but the last 31 were the final blow. In two days, ethanol prices dropped 18 to 20 cents…That just kind of took the sails out of the profitability of the ethanol industry.”

That’s Kelly Niewenhuis, chairman of the board for Siouxland Energy in Sioux Center, which quit producing ethanol this week. Niewenhuis says they’re hoping the fix being worked on by the Trump Administration will help turn things around. “If we get the same response out of positive news that we got out of the negative news with the last round of small refinery exemptions and we get a 20-cent bounce in ethanol prices, it won’t take long to get this thing up and running again,” Niewenhuis says.

President Trump needs to keep his promise to farmers and the ethanol industry. Forty-two people have been working at the Sioux Center plant. Farmers in the area were annually selling Siouxland Energy 23-and-a-half MILLION bushels of corn for processing into ethanol.

(Reporting by Ken Anderson of the Brownfield Network)

(Radio Iowa) — Two northwest Iowa men are facing felony charges after an investigation into last year’s death of an Estherville man. In late January of 2018, police found 27-year-old Matthew Strayer unresponsive in an Estherville home and efforts to revive him were unsuccessful. Authorities announced this week they’ve arrested two men in connection with Strayer’s death. Jeremy Polzin of Estherville has been charged with delivery of meth and gathering where unlawful substances are used. Lance Rosburg of Estherville has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and several other felonies related to either the possession or delivery of meth and marijuana. He’s also charged with gathering where controlled substances are unlawfully used.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s been “hoodwinked” before — and he’s not ready to predict whether ethanol and biodiesel producers will get relief from the federal government. Grassley was part of a White House meeting last week and — while Grassley believes a deal could be near — he’s not ready to celebrate. “I’m not going to announce anything or say: ‘Cheers!’ until I see it on paper because EPA’s putting it on paper and I know there’s a big voice for ‘big oil’ in EPA,” Grassley says.

Grassley says President Trump was surprised his decision to exempt 31 refineries from their ethanol obligations sparked a backlash in farm country. “I would speculate that the president’s tired of dealing with this. He’s more or less said so many times,” Grassley says. “Even back when we were in the White House talking about E15, it just seemed like he could never get to the bottom of the ethanol issue or he couldn’t satisfy both ‘big oil’ and the farmers.”

Last Thursday, Grassley — along with other farm state senators — met with President Trump and other key administration officials to discuss the federal ethanol production mandate. Grassley says the discussion started with a White House plan. “We went in with a simpler plan that, if it comes out on paper the way the White House seemed to agree with us, then I would say we have a win-win situation,” Grassley says.

Grassley says the goal is to reassign the gallons of ethanol the 31 refineries are no longer required to use to other refineries that are blending ethanol into gas.  “I know that there’s a big voice for ‘big oil’ in EPA,” Grassley says. “I’ve been hoodwinked so many times — not just by EPA so many times on this issues, but by other bureaucracies as well, so I’m going to wait and see if what they talked about is the end product.”

Trump met with oil-state senators yesterday (Tuesday) to discuss the deal. Bloomberg is reporting Trump has complained the fued between the ethanol and oil industries is taking up more of his time than dealing with China and Iran.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has announced the endorsement of one of Iowa’s last two uncommitted Democratic elected officials, state Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald. “She’s the one I think can address the biggest problems we have, and that is the hollowing out of the middle class,” Fitzgerald said in an interview with The Associated Press. “She’s clear, you understand her message, and I want her fighting for me and all of us.”

Fitzgerald was an early supporter of then-Sen. Barack Obama, who went on to win the presidency. Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller also supported Obama but is endorsing Montana Gov. Steve Bullock for 2020. Iowa’s last remaining uncommitted statewide elected Democrat is Auditor Rob Sand. Asked what stood out about Warren in a field of Democrats often aligned on key issues, Fitzgerald declared that Warren “is a Democrat, she is a capitalist, and she wants to make our system work.” He said he’d do whatever the Warren campaign needed to help her win the caucuses.

Warren’s organization is seen as one of the strongest in Iowa, but compared with the other top-tier contenders in the field Warren has been relatively slow to roll out endorsements in the state. After a trickle of endorsement announcements, her first major haul of supporters in Iowa came out just last week, after her strong performance in the primary debate in Houston.
Fitzgerald marks Warren’s 25th Iowa endorsement and her sixth endorsement from an Iowa elected official.

Today’s (Wednesday’s) announcement came as the candidates prepared to return to Iowa for this weekend’s Polk County Democratic Party Steak Fry, a fundraising event that also will serve as a test of organizing strength for the candidates heading into the final stretch of the caucus campaign.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:33 a.m. CDT

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified three southeastern Iowa law enforcement officers involved in a shootout that killed a suspect. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation said Tuesday in a news release that Burlington Officers Tyler Henning and Nathan Crooks and Des Moines County Sgt. Kevin Glendening all fired their weapons on Sept. 11 in a confrontation with 20-year-old Caleb Daniel Peterson, of Burlington.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A homeless man shot by police during a confrontation at a Des Moines homeless encampment has been released from the hospital. KCCI reports that 26-year-old Bryan Tyler Norris was booked into the Polk County Jail on Tuesday, charged with two counts of assault on an officer with a deadly weapon, theft and a weapons count. Police say Norris was shot Friday when he threatened an officer with a machete-style knife.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines’ main library downtown has been evacuated and closed after a man walked into its atrium and set himself on fire. Police say witnesses reported the 36-year-old man doused himself with a flammable liquid just before 2 p.m. Tuesday and lit himself on fire. Library staff used a fire extinguisher to douse the flames, and the man was rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment of serious burns.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The federal government has finalized rules for most U.S. pork processing plants that remove limits on the speed of production lines and place more animal inspection and food safety tasks with company employees. The pork industry says the first significant pork processing rule changes in 50 years are way overdue while advocacy groups for workers, animals, consumers and the environment say it will endanger workers, increase suffering for pigs and threaten the food supply.

(Radio Iowa) — An Estherville woman remains in custody on multiple charges after an incident that occurred on September 9th, in Estherville. Emmet County Sheriff Mike Martens says the sheriff’s office was executing a writ of removal at an Estherville residence when the defendant in the matter produced a high powered rifle from a vehicle and threatened to kill herself. After about 30 minutes of negotiations at the scene, 44-year-old Jenny Queener of Estherville was taken into custody.

Upon further investigation at the scene, Queener was also found to be in possession of methamphetamine, digital scale, baggies and numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia. As a result, Queener was charged with possession of meth with intent to deliver, a class C felony carrying weapons and possession of drug paraphernalia.

After an appearance before the magistrate, Queener remains in the Emmet County Jail on a $10,000 cash or surety bond.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting 3:15-p.m. Friday, in their Board Room at the Courthouse. The purpose of the meeting is to consider applications for position of Cass County Engineer.

Applicants will be interviewed at 3:30-p.m., followed by discussion about the candidates, and an offering of the position to one of the candidates. The position was advertised in trade publications and elsewhere, on Sept. 4th, following the resignation last month of Charles Bechtold, who was hired by the County in April, 2016, and began as County Engineer in July, 2016.

The position requires an Iowa licensed professional engineer. Salary will be in the range of $90,000 to $110,000 depending on qualifications and experience. A full benefits package is included.