A traffic stop today (Friday) at around 8:20-a.m. in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of a Council Bluffs man. Red Oak Police say 26-year old Ozzy Ray Hunter was taken into custody for Driving While Barred. Hunter was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Bettendorf man charged in connection with the overdose death of another man has been given three years of probation. The Quad-City Times reports that Michael Spencer also was granted a deferred judgment. A deferred judgment allows Spencer’s conviction to be removed from court records if he fulfills his probation terms. He’d pleaded guilty to delivery of heroin. Prosecutors dismissed a conspiracy charge in return.

Prosecutors say Spencer prepared two syringes of heroin on April 7 last year that he’d bought with money given him by 23-year-old Tyler Ekstrand. A court document says Ekstrand overdosed and died on the floor of Spencer’s apartment.

By Scott Stewart, Iowa Western Community College

CLARINDA – Frank Kinyon pushes a tiller through the ground, preparing it to become a small garden over the coming months. While this agrarian activity hardly seems out of place in rural Page County, it’s a relatively recent development inside the fence of the state-operated Clarinda Correctional Facility. The Clarinda prison launched a horticultural program several years ago that has blossomed into an apprenticeship. It has since added beekeeping to help inmates learn job skills while enjoying the peacefulness coming from spending time outside beyond working out in the yard. Iowa Western Community College partners with the Clarinda Correctional Facility, an all-male medium security prison, to offer a variety of classes, including the horticultural program. The college has several programs that can help support inmates once they’re released, too, so they can continue earning career credentials as they seek employment.

Inmate Fank Kinyon, right, pushes a tiller at the Clarinda Correctional Facility on April 23, 2019. The Clarinda prison launched a horticultural program several years ago that has blossomed into an apprenticeship. (Photo by Scott Stewart/Iowa Western Community College)

Kinyon, 48, is serving the last two years of a six-year mandatory sentence for a drug conviction. His wife works in landscaping, and he hopes to

join her and start his own small business once he’s released. He said he worked pouring concrete foundations for years, but it’s time for something different. “I think my back is done with that,” Kinyon said while taking a break from operating a tiller in the garden. “I need to look for something a little better, and this seems to be a lot better.” Kinyon has been working on the landscaping around the parking lot near the entrance to the prison, and he said there are plans to redo the flower beds and add some additional plants. He said he’s learning to tell which plants are appropriate for different climate zones and how to properly care for them. “I’ve always had a green thumb,” Kinyon said. “It’s something that drives a more positive outlook. Flowers make everybody happy.”

A study found that inmates who participate in educational programs are 43% less likely to return to prison and are 13% more likely to obtain employment after release. That’s why the Iowa Department of Corrections contracts with Iowa Western to provide quality education and vocational programs. “These guys come in with often very little education and our biggest hurdle is convincing them that they can learn,” said Lori Lastine, educational coordinator at Clarinda Correctional Facility. Brandon Feller, 32, said he’s learned a lot over the past few years working with the garden, and he also sees those skills as providing a foundation for himself when he’s released.

“I’ve got a family member who owns a greenhouse in Nebraska,” Feller said. “I think this helps a lot of guys because it makes you feel a little bit more at home than being in here. And it’s a learning thing, it keeps you busy, it keeps your mind busy. There’s always going to be greenhouse work when you get out, I mean always. There’s always something to do, and it’s a good job opportunity.”

Inmate Jason Fransene works in Microsoft Office during a computer class at the Clarinda Correctional Facility on April 23, 2019. The Clarinda prison offers a variety of educational programs to help inmates prepare for their release. (Photo by Scott Stewart/Iowa Western Community College)

Inmates at the Clarinda Correctional Facility have a variety of other educational programs through Iowa Western, including life skills, high school equivalency and computer software. Jason Fransene, 41, hopes to work in residential electrical installation when he is released. He’s taking a Microsoft Office 2016 class to learn how to prepare presentations, proposals and reports to customers and general contractors. Fransene said he’s learned some electrician skills while serving a sentence in another institution, and now he wants to learn how to market those skills to land a job. “What I’m doing now is trying to supplement that with self-studies and traditional classes,” Fransene said. “We have the ability to either improve ourselves if we choose or not to, and I am of the disposition that I would prefer to use my term wisely and learn skills that would allow me potentially to not come back.”

Fransene said he’s made a lot of mistakes, which he realizes as an older prisoner, but he believes the educational programs offer a path toward improving his life. He said he’s appreciated the shift in approach in recent years toward offering education programs aimed at re-entry into the community. “As I continue to advance my education through the opportunities in this institution, I believe that the skills learned will allow me to continue to make the proper decisions in the future,” Fransene said. David Stephens, an Iowa Western instructor assigned to the prison, said the horticulture program gives participants important lessons on responsibility and work ethic, on top of the subject-specific lessons.

“It gives guys a skillset in here that, when they’re released, there are more doors open,” Stephens said. “They can work landscaping jobs on the street with companies. Even if they get released in the winter, they can get on a snow removal team. Wineries are really big in Iowa right now, and there are opportunities that they can go to there.” The fresh produce grown at the prison is harvested at the end of the summer and fall. Inmates are allowed to buy it, and access to the produce is used as an incentive to encourage good behavior. “The guys who are in the class know that they have got to keep their noses clean,” Stephens said. “There’s not a lot of color in prison, so when you get some of that green, some of that fresh produce, it’s a big difference.” Lastine said the prison brings in offenders who need to earn their high school equivalence, but most of the educational programs are voluntary. Iowa Western runs the literacy and High School Equivalency Test programs, and the Microsoft Office class is a certificate program through the college, she said.

The horticulture program was started by the prison, and it has grown into a registered apprenticeship is through the U.S. Department of Labor, with Iowa Western overseeing classroom instruction, hydroponics and the gardens. Those successfully completing the registered apprenticeship can earn a certificate that they can use to land a job after release. About 40 to 50 inmates get their HiSET each year at the prison, Lastine said. Instruction for that program takes two full-time teachers, and the prison also has an employee for the horticulture and computer courses with one teacher. “We are able to impact the lives of these guys with a very small, very dedicated staff,” Lastine said.

Ultimately, programs like the garden and other educational opportunities provide a connection to the outside world and provide a positive experience that helps many inmates pass the time productively. “I just appreciate it,” Feller said. “We’re all trying to do better in our life. This is a great program to be in, and this a good thing that these guys need. This has helped a lot of us out.”

(Scott Stewart is a freelance journalist and communications consultant. This article was prepared on behalf of Iowa Western Community College’s Division of Economic and Workforce Development.)

(Radio Iowa) — Forecasters say much of Iowa will have sunny skies and moderate summertime temperatures through the weekend, but the months ahead may be much cooler and wetter. State climatologist Justin Glisan says the just-ended month of July was a bit hotter than usual and we didn’t see much in the way of rainfall. “We had a drier-than-normal month across much of the state with the northern counties, along the South Dakota border and the Minnesota border with above-average precipitation,” Glisan says. “But as a whole, we were about three-and-a-half inches across the state which is a little less than an inch below normal.”

As for July temperatures, the state averaged just over 75-degrees, which is almost two-degrees warmer than normal. Looking ahead, the month of August promises to be colder than usual. “Our climate outlooks were at above-average chances of below-normal temperatures across the state,” Glisan says. “Looking at the western third of Iowa, we’re trending a little bit above-average for wetness, so we should expect a little more rainfall in the western part of the state and near-normal conditions for the rest of Iowa.”

Iowans may recall that August of 2018 was the start of one of the wettest autumns in state history. Glisan says the fall ahead may still go either way. “What we’re seeing in the climate signals for the next three months are a slightly-above average chance of precipitation across the western part of the state and then equal chances in eastern Iowa,” Glisan says. “We’re a little too far out to get into October and November. Those forecasts will come in the middle of August.”

Last fall was Iowa’s third-wettest on record, but for now, he says there are no “gully washers” in the immediate forecast.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport woman has been given a year of probation for the neglect of her intellectually disabled adult daughter. The Quad-City Times reports that Kimberly Williams was sentenced earlier this week. She’d pleaded guilty on June 12 to recklessly committing dependent adult abuse resulting in physical injury. She denied in the plea document allegations that her daughter had been locked in a bedroom for 11 months.

Williams’ husband, Eugene Harris, was convicted of neglect of a dependent person and sentenced in November to 10 years in prison. Authorities say officers sent to the home May 22 last year to check a report about a domestic disturbance were led by Harris to a bedroom locked from the outside. That’s where they found Williams’ daughter. Nearby were soiled adult diapers, a mattress on the floor and a few other items.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports an inmate at the jail was assaulted by another inmate today, at around 5:15-a.m. 24-year old Jerrell Scott Tyndall was charged with Assault without intent/causing serious bodily injury. His victim was 51-year old Johnny Joe Tangeman, who was being held in the jail for violation of a no contact order and violation of probation.

A 26-year old woman was arrested a little after 9-p.m. Thursday, in Council Bluffs. Authorities say Ysabel Anne Yrigoyen was arrested for Public Intoxication. Two men were arrested Thursday afternoon following a traffic stop, in Walnut. The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office reports the driver, 36-year old Jason Mitchell Fulk was arrested for Driving While License Suspended or revoked, but not before he put a GMC Yukon in park in a driveway and took off on foot. His son, 21-year old Kolby Austin Fulk was arrested at the residence for Interference with Official Acts.

And, 52-year old Shad Lee McCurley was arrested late Thursday morning in Council Bluffs, on a warrant for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Violation of Probation. There were also three persons being held at other jail facilities, who were transported to the Pott. County Jail, Thursday, to address various warrants.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies arrested three people on drug charges, following the search of a vehicle in Bedford, Thursday.  Taken into custody for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, was: 26-year old Skyler Ledford, of St Joseph, Missouri; 26-year old Kaela Page, of Bedford, and 19-year old Trace Matheny, of Clarinda. In addition to the drug charges, Ledford was cited for being in possession of an open container as a passenger in a vehicle. All three subjects were released on a promise to appear in court.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Whether you’re shopping for clothes for yourself or for your kids heading back to school, Iowans can save a nice chunk of change with this weekend’s annual Sales Tax Holiday. John Fuller, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Revenue, says the taxes will be eliminated on qualifying purchases all day today (Friday) and Saturday.  “Generally, if you can wear it, clothing or footwear that’s under $100 would be tax free,” Fuller says. “Tax in Iowa is 6% and if there’s a local option sales tax, that’s an additional 1%, so it could be 7%.”

Fuller says there are a few restrictions. “Watches, jewelry, Rollerblades, those are not considered clothing by this law,” Fuller says. “The best thing to do for your listeners might be to go to tax.iowa.gov and there’s information more specifically on what is and what is not taxable.” The tax-free “weekend” is only today (Friday) and Saturday and does not apply on Sunday. Fuller says many people ask why Sunday isn’t included. “That would require a law change,” Fuller says. “The Iowa legislature would have to take that up to add an extra day.”

The two-day sales tax holiday has been held in Iowa the first Friday and Saturday of August each year for nearly 20 years.

More info. at https://tax.iowa.gov/iowas-annual-sales-tax-holiday