An Adair County man was arrested Thursday evening, in Creston. Officials with the Creston Police Department report 25-year old Jeffrey Dewayne Ott, of Orient, was arrested at around 6:30-p.m. in Creston, for Disorderly Conduct. Ott was later released on a $300 bond.

A Madison County woman died during a residential fire Thursday evening. Fire officials told KCCI 62-year-old Jolene Baker was found dead in her Winterset home. The fire broke out just before 7 p.m. Thursday in the 300 block of South 7^th Avenue. The cause of the fire was being investigated by the Winterset Police Department, Winterset Fire Department and the State Fire Marshall’s office.

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

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines medical center has announced that after three decades of operation, it will shut down its kidney and pancreas transplant operation. MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center announced in a news release Thursday that the closure is effective Oct. 1. The program had been suspended earlier this year as hospital officials questioned the need for two transplant centers in Des Moines.

MercyOne says it will work with the city’s other transplant center at Iowa Methodist Medical Center to help those in need. The release says the closure affects four MercyOne employees. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa Methodist Medical Center handles more than twice as many kidney operations per year as MercyOne’s transplant team.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Trial has been set next month for a Guatemala man charged with killing an Iowa woman and her two children. The Des Moines Register reports that a judge on Thursday set Oct. 28 as the start of the first-degree murder trial for 31-year-old Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana. Escobar-Orellana is accused of fatally shooting 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in mid-July in a Des Moines home.

Escobar-Orellana is charged with three counts of first-degree murder under what authorities say was a false name he initially gave to police: Marvin Esquivel-Lopez. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have said Escobar-Orellana is in the United States illegally and had twice been deported before the July shooting. He was convicted in 2010 of illegal entry into the U.S.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City teacher accused of sending critical letters to her superintendent and other district leaders has been fired. The Sioux City Journal reports the school board voted to fire middle school teacher Julie Fischer even though a judge cleared her of criminal charges last spring. In March, a judge dismissed six counts of harassment Fischer faced because the letters were deemed free speech, not harassment.

Fischer had other teachers speak on her behalf at the board hearings. She had taught in the district since 1991. Fischer had been on administrative leave from August 2018 until last Wednesday when the school board fired her.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Democratic National Committee will recommend scrapping state plans to offer virtual, telephone-based caucuses in 2020 due to security concerns, sources tell The Associated Press. The recommendation from DNC leaders makes it highly unlikely that the party’s powerful Rules and Bylaws Committee would allow Iowa and Nevada to proceed with their current plans for virtual caucuses next February. DNC officials and some presidential campaigns have raised concerns about possible hacking.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne says the patience of Iowa farmers is wearing thin as President Donald Trump’s trade policies damage soybean markets and his administration’s ethanol policy reduces corn demand. Axne, a Democrat, convened a meeting with farmers and agriculture groups at the Iowa Capitol on Thursday with USDA Under Secretary Bill Northey, a Republican and former Iowa secretary of agriculture. Northey says Trump realizes farmers are stressed in part by administration policies.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — It took only seconds for a towering coal-fired electricity plant in Marshalltown to be reduced to rubble. The Sutherland Generating Station was imploded Thursday morning, with explosions causing the structure to crash to the ground and send up a plume of dust. The plant, owned by Alliant Energy, had operated since the 1950s but ceased operation in 2017 after a natural gas power plant came online.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa funeral home is calling on families to pick up the unclaimed cremated remains of nearly 100 people that it has been keeping in a locked closet for years, some since the mid-1990s. Lanae Strovers, of Hamilton’s Funeral Home in Des Moines, told TV station KCCI that she has already made arrangements for 200 sets of the unclaimed ashes but is still trying make arrangements for 91 others. Any that remain unclaimed will be buried in a cemetery during a Sept. 26 service.

(Radio Iowa) — Former Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey — now a top administrator in the U-S Department of Agriculture — says farmers “need more assurances” about ethanol, but Northey says he’s unaware of what’s in the “giant package” President Trump is promising farmers. “I know there have been meetings and I know some of the things they have talked about, but I don’t know what’s going to be part of it and certainly we’re all on the edge of seat to be able to look at what it is,” Northey says. “I don’t even know the timing necessarily.”

Trump Thursday, tweeted the ethanol waivers he okayed, saved small oil refineries “from certain closing,” and Trump told farmers to “get ready” for a pro-ethanol move that will make them happy. Northey spoke Thursday at a forum with Iowa Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat from Des Moines. Axne says the waivers are “unacceptable.” “I think farmers’ patience is wearing thin,” Axne says.

Axne is pressing for the inspector general in the E-P-A to investigate the ethanol waivers. “The president can tweet out whatever he wants to tweet out about his next big thing,” Axne says. “…I am sick and tired of seeing hard-working farmers in Iowa being used as pawns in this administration whether it’s trade negotiation or whether it’s fulfilling the desires of rich shareholders of fossil fuel companies.” Northey says farmers were excited about the prospects of year-round E-15 sales, but that positive Trump Administration move “got lost” when the ethanol waivers were granted, plus farmers are facing weather and market challenges. “There’s as much nervousness around the economics of agriculture as I’ve seen in quite a while,” Northey told reporters.

On Wednesday, Northey attended a forum in La Porte City with Iowa Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat from Dubuque. Finkenauer also criticized Trump, saying this is a scary time for agriculture.

(Radio Iowa) — The speed of Missouri River levee repairs remains the key dilemma for southwest Iowans waiting for word on rebuilding after this spring’s flooding. The flood recovery task force Governor Kim Reynolds appointed earlier this year met again yesterday (Thursday). Task force member Larry Winum (WIN-umm), a banker from Glenwood, says the city council in Pacific Junction is determined to save their town — but face major obstacles. “Pacific Junction has never been flooded in their lifetime, ever, and now all of a sudden the rules that come down from the government say: ‘Well, you can’t rebuild there because now we know you’re in the flood zone,'” he says. “Well, they weren’t in a flood zone until the levees broke, so that’s frustrating for people, particularly if they’ve lived there all their lives.”

Governor Reynolds says state tax dollars have been spent on some projects, but there’s uncertainty about how much the State of Iowa may have to contribute to levee repair. “It’s extremely frustrating. I’m very frustrated. The bureacracy and the hoops that they expect you to jump through,” Reynolds said. “You make one small step forward and it’s four steps back.”

Reynolds says her idea of flexibility is very different from the Army Corp’s. The governor says homeowners and businesses in the flood zone are in a “catch-22” situation because rebuilding can’t start until the levees are fixed.

Atlantic Police, Fire, and Rescue were called to the scene of a vehicle on pedestrian accident around 3:18pm Thursday afternoon at 10th and Maple Streets in Atlantic. Atlantic Police Officer Devin Hogue told KJAN News the accident happened after students were released from school.

There were students walking westbound at 10th and Maple and had the right of way. A red Buick that was traveling west on 10th Street proceeded to make a left turn to head south on Maple Street, not yielding to the students that were crossing the street. One student, approximately 10-years-old, was struck by the vehicle and suffered a possibly serious leg injury. The injury at the scene did not appear to be life threatening.

No further details are being released at this time and the investigation into the accident is ongoing.