(Creston, Iowa) – Two people were arrested on separate charges Monday afternoon, in Creston. According to the Creston Police Department, at around 2:40-p.m., Officers arrested 26-year-old Mauricio Andres Trejos Casteneda, of Creston. He was taken into custody in the 200 block of W. Taylor Street on two counts of Harassment in the 1st Degree/4th or subsequent offense. Castenada was being held in the Union County Jail on a $4,000 bond.

And, at around 3:45-p.m., Monday, Creston Police arrested 20-year-old Nathan Lee Novotny, of Creston, on charges of Driving While Barred, and Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense. Novotny was transported to the Union County Jail and later released on a $3,000 bond.

(Submitted to KJAN; Lewis, IA) – Naomi Masker, Jr. Beef Princess Eden Ohms, Princess Addie Masker, Queen Jacquelyn Freund, Jr. Beef Queen Macy Freund, and Ambassador Hayden Kleen, served samples of beef taco salad, meat sticks and fruit snacks at the Quirky Parade during the Lewis Days Celebration in Lewis, Sat., June 14th.  Passerby’s  were given coloring books and recipe cards. (Photos submitted)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans were on the list of alleged targets by the man accused in the shootings Saturday of two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses. Fifty-seven-year-old Vance Boelter — was arrested near his home in Green Isle, Minnesota Sunday after a massive search.

The superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Drew Evans, was asked about the list during a news conference following the arrest and says it had targets in Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa. Evans says they are not releasing any of the other names on the list.

(Radio Iowa) – A cattle disease carried by ticks is now confirmed in Iowa for the first time in a herd of cows in southeast Iowa. Iowa State University Extension veterinarian Grant Dewell says the Theileria parasite has slowly moved from the eastern U-S. “It’s a protozoa that infects the blood cells and causes the destruction of blood cells, so it can cause some pretty severe signs of anemia and things like that in susceptible cattle,” Dewell says. It is spread by the Asian Longhorned Tick.  “This tick doesn’t act like our other ticks we’re used to. You know, typically we may see four or five ticks on an animal and with this Asian Longhorn tick, we can see a thousand ticks and it’s obvious that they’re they’re infested with the ticks. You don’t have to look very hard, you just see all these ticks on them,” he says. “So it’s a tick that reproduces rapidly.”

He says the main prevention is tick control and getting rid of them. “We don’t have any antiprotozoal drugs that we can use in cattle, so we’re we’re pretty much, if the cattle get sick, we’re going to provide some supportive care,” he says. Dr. Dewell says the cattle are not going to want to move, so you have to keep food and water in front of them. He says for a valuable cow, like a prized bull, they might do some blood transfusions. Dewell says this tick doesn’t have a taste for human blood, and sticks to certain animals. “Like cattle, deer, sheep. And so our white tailed deer are going to be moving it around,” Dewell says. “But we don’t typically see white tailed deer go from southern Iowa to northern Iowa, so you know, they’ll spread it from farm to farm and county to county, but it’s going to be kind of a slow progression that it’s gonna occur.”

Dewell says the disease has been in Missouri for a couple of years and took that long to get to Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – What’s billed as the world’s largest academic competition is underway this week in central Iowa as Des Moines hosts the National Speech & Debate Tournament. Organizers say it’s drawing 11-thousand middle and high school students, coaches, teachers, and judges, with an economic impact of 22-million dollars. Scott Wunn, executive director of the National Speech & Debate Association, says depending on the topic, student have had months to prepare, or perhaps just minutes. “Most of the debate events they found out on May 1st that they’d be debating those,” Wunn says. “There is one debate about policy debate where they’ve been debating patent rights and copyright law, things like that, all year long. And then there are some debate events where they receive the topic one hour before they debate it.” The student competitors range in age from 12 to 18 and Wunn says they need to be well-rounded, well-versed, and very aware of current events to tackle a dizzying array of debate topics.

“It is anything you could possibly think of, really, stripped from the headlines,” Wunn says. “One of our events, we’ll be debating whether or not the benefits of executive orders outweigh the harms. They’ll be talking about environmental issues. They’ll be talking about K-12 education. There’s so many different areas that they will cover throughout the course of the week.” It’s a common thought that many of these young debaters will eventually pursue legal careers, and while that’s sometimes the case, Wunn says this event is preparing students for any profession they seek out. “There’s no greater activity in the world than speech and debate to prepare students for life skills, college readiness skills,” Wunn says. “We have over 2,000,000 alumni that have participated in the National Speech and Debate Association. Certainly, we’ve had our fair share of lawyers. We have four members of the Supreme Court that are sitting right now.”

Wunn says this extracurricular activity is the place where students — for decades — have found their voices and opened their minds to alternative perspectives.  “Every facet that you can imagine professionally, we have alumni that go into that,” Wunn says, “because this activity truly does prepare them with the creative skills, the critical thinking skills, those collaboration skills that are necessary to really thrive after middle school and high school.”

The seven-thousand students are from 13-hundred schools across the U-S. They’re competing at 11 venues in the Des Moines metro, while 42 champions will be named on the final stage at the Iowa Events Center on Friday.

On the web: www.speechanddebate.org/nationals

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – Officials with the City of Elk Horn (IA), Monday night, said on social media, that Shelby County Emergency Management officials flew a drone equipped with a thermal imaging device near the City’s water tower, and confirmed fears city officials had, that the supply of water in the tower was extremely low. The imager showed about six- to eight-feet of water remained in the bottom of the tower bowl. The sensor at the city’s water plant was giving the City a different reading, causing them to believe the tower was almost full.

Drone thermal image of the Elk Horn water tower (6-16-25).

City officials say a company was on the scene Monday, following the drone image, to fix the tower sensor. The City also reached out to IRWA (Iowa Rural Water Association) for a leak detection device, to further assess the situation, and the City of Elk Horn is back to actively searching for the water leak. Officials in the mean time are asking everyone to please conserve water until the leak is found and fixed.

A Boil Advisory remains in effect until further notice for the City of Elk Horn.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Page County man was arrested early this (Tuesday) morning, on Montgomery County warrants. Deputies arrested 53-year-old Darold Eugene Bredberg, of Clarinda, at around 1:20-a.m. on O Avenue at Montgomery/Page Street. He was arrested on two active Montgomery County warrants for Violation of Probation, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $40,000.

The Clarinda Police Department and Page County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the arrest.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A woman was taken into custody following a brief foot pursuit Monday afternoon, in Red Oak. According to the Red Oak Police Department, officers responded to the area of Broadway and Coolbaugh Streets at around 4-p.m., following a report a woman was throwing objects onto the roadway and at passing vehicles. When they arrived, Red Oak Police saw the female, identified as 46-year-old Heidi Ann Divis, of Red Oak, acting erratically. They instructed her to get out of the street and come to them. Divis refused and began to flee on foot.

During her run from Officers, Divis attempted to enter an occupied vehicle stopped at a traffic light. She tried to open the vehicle door by pulling on the door handle and yelled at the driver. When the driver ordered her to leave their vehicle alone, Divis fled again, running through nearby yards and an alleyway. She was attempting to enter a residence through a back door, when officers intervened and gave repeated lawful commands, which she ignored. Police had to physically remove her from the property and placed Divis under arrest.

She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, and according to police, continued to resist. She was physically placed by officers into a holding cell. Heidi Divis was charged with Interference with Official Acts (A Misdmeanor), and held on a $300 bond.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Severe storms popped-up and caused damage in Atlantic, Monday night. The storm which occurred with little warning until it hit, and lasted for about 10-minutes or so, packed quite a whollop.It brought high wind, pea-size hail and heavy rain that caused near-zero visibility at times, according to law enforcement reports. It also caused medium-to-large size trees or tree limbs to fall.

At least two streets were blocked by tree debris Monday night, according to dispatch reports from the Cass County Communications Center. KJAN listeners/social media followers, sent us pictures of damage near the Atlantic Hy-Vee and Walmart stores, the welcome sign off of Olive Street just south of the KJAN studios. One follower sent a picture of the storm over Atlantic, from a City of Lewis perspective. (You can view those pictures on in the Storm Report information on our Weather Page).

Photo courtesy Kristin Harold, of Lewis. Looking toward Atlantic during the storm on 6-16-25

The extent of the damage was expected to become clear as sunrise occurred.

Elsewhere, in Omaha, the College World Series game between LSU and UCLA was suspended Monday night. KETV reports Fans were asked to leave their seats and take shelter in the concourse with a severe thunderstorm warning for the Omaha area. The game will resume at 10 a.m. today (Tuesday). Gates will open at 9 a.m., with the box office opening at 8 a.m. Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa) – Aspiring barbers and cosmetologists soon will be able to work without a license in Iowa if they are supervised by a licensed professional in the industry. Governor Reynolds recently signed the bill to allow “establishment training programs” for cutting, coloring and styling hair. Craig Hunt of the Iowa Barbers Coalition says it’s a great opportunity.

“Right now we’re having a shortage of barbers, especially, because there’s only 1000 licensed barbers in the state of Iowa versus 10,000 cosmetologists,” Hunt says. Hunt, who owns two barber shops and a salon in the Des Moines metro, started taking the required training to be a barber when he was 19 years old.

“I started in 1997, did 1100 hours, took a leave of absence for over 10 years,” Hunt says. “They made me start the barbering program over — 2100 more hours. I spent a total of $35,000 in school debt and 3200 hours total,” he says. Hunt is now a master barber and has been teaching for over 15 years. He says the new law sets up a great alternative to traditional cosmetology and barbering schools and is similar to existing apprenticeships for barbers.

“A private training program will allow us to work hands on with the people in our field and it will also as the business owner and the barber we’ll be training the employees, the contractors that actually work in our establishments,” Hunt said, “so we’re going to take more pride in training those individuals than somebody else.”

Licensed barbershops and salons will have to register with the Iowa Board of Barbering and Cosmetology Arts and Sciences if they hire people to train on the job. Customers must be notified in writing if an unlicensed person is going to cut, color, style or perm their hair. Critics of the legislation say the change lowers standards and could endanger customers. The bill easily passed the Iowa House and Senate and, while there were “no” votes, none of the bill’s opponents spoke during debate.