DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines City Council has repealed the city’s panhandling ordinance. The council’s action Monday comes a little more than a month after the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa urged Des Moines, Council Bluffs and Grimes to repeal their rules. The Des Moines Register reports that the city ordinance required anyone wanting to solicit funds legally to obtain a license from the city. The license required a fee, and many of the people on Des Moines’ streets panhandled without one.

Officials say city staffers will be evaluating the safety of certain panhandling hot spots. The city could ban panhandling in those locations if the city were to prove those areas were dangerous for panhandling. Examples include especially narrow street medians.

Police in Creston report a man from Montgomery County was arrested at around 3-p.m., Monday. 42-year old Donald Gay, of Villisca, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Union County warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original charge of Public Intoxication/2nd offense. Gay was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing. And, 30-year old Clay Brammer, of Creston, was arrested Monday afternoon for Driving While Suspended. He was later released from custody on a $300 bond.

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

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The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a man and a woman were arrested Monday evening in connection to the theft of property from Ringgold County. 39-year old Joseph Smith, of Red Oak, and 48-year old Paula Sue Blake, of Essex, were arrested. A third person identified as 24-year old Austin Allan Jones, of Creston, is wanted in regard to the incident.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says they received a report at around 3:30-p.m. from a property owner in the 2900 block of 100th Street, indicating there were trespassers on the caller’s property, riding four-wheelers. During their investigation, authorities discovered the machines had been stolen from Ringgold County.

Smith was arrested at around 7:20-p.m. Blake was taken into custody a little after 10-p.m. Both suspects have been charged with possession of stolen property, a Class C Felony. They were being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 bond, each.

Jones, who was still at large as of the last report, is described as being a white male, 6’0, and 185-pounds. Deputies recovered a handgun believed to belong to Jones. They say it’s not clear if he is still armed. Authorities warn if you see Jones, do not approach him. Instead, you should contact your local authorities.

A jury in eastern Iowa, Monday, found a central Iowa man guilty in the deaths of two Guthrie County girls. According to KCCI, 27-year old Patrick Ryan Thompson, of Story County, was convicted on two felony charges of Murder in the 1^st degree and one felony charge of arson, in the May 2017 Guthrie Center deaths of Thompson’s 12-year-old stepsister, Paige Exline, and her 16-year-old cousin, Shakiah Cockerham, both of whom died in the blaze.

The first trial last month ended in a mistrial. The judge took the action after someone started loudly discussing the case with prospective jurors while the judge and lawyers were outside the courtroom. The trial had been moved out of Guthrie County because of pretrial publicity. It took the jury in Albia 11 days and two hours to find Thompson guilty of all charges against him. Prosecutors said he started the fire to prevent Exline from testifying that she had been sexually abused by her father.

Thompson will receive a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

The National Weather Service says strong to severe thunderstorms are possible during the afternoon through evening hours today across mostly eastern and parts of southern Iowa, with damaging winds and a few tornadoes are the main threats. Most of these storms should weaken by 11 pm. However, the heavy rain threat will persist through today and tonight before the rain eventually ends on Wednesday morning.

Excessive rainfall is expected in a large swath of the state from Mason City and Decorah southwestward, to the southeast quarter of Fremont County. Cities included in the path of heavy rain include Waterloo, Ames, Marshalltown, Des Moines, Osceola and Lamoni.

The southeastern half of Cass and Guthrie Counties and all of Adair, Adams, Madison, Union, Taylor and Ringgold Counties, can also expect heavy rain today, causing ponding of water on roads and localized flash flooding along with extensive overland flooding.

(Radio Iowa) — A state audit report on the county district court clerk offices raises questions about several procedures and make recommendations on how to improve their operations. Deputy State Auditor Andy Nielson says the concerns centered on the segregation of duties in the offices. “We also made some comments to strengthen controls over cash receipts, cash disbursements and financial reporting,” Nielson says. Nielson says many of these issues are not new and it is an issue with the size of staff. “In some cases it’s just that they’re small enough that they don’t have enough redundancy to accomplish those things — and obviously you’re not going to hire individuals just for segregation of duties — so sometimes you have to live with those,” Nielson says.

He says the Judicial Branch which oversees the 99 county offices is trying to address the concerns, but it is important to keep detailing them each year in the audit. “The reason why we keep commenting on those items is that it is something that management needs to be aware of so that they are doing some other procedures to be able to make sure that there aren’t some things that’re going on behind the scenes,” Nielson says. Nielson says a good example is a program used to delete case files. “The significance there is there are some employees who have access to a case delete program,” Nielson says, “The reason why that is dangerous is if someone were to want to hide something — basically all they have to do is delete the case and there is no backup — it’s just gone.”

Nielson says it’s again a case where some offices don’t have enough employees to follow through on policies requiring a written order to delete a case. Nielson says the small size of some clerk of courts offices will continue to be an issue that has to be addressed. He says small cities run into many of the same problems. “It does put more onus on the management of the city — or in this case the judicial districts — to be able to follow up and make sure that the things that are supposed to work do work,” according to Nielson. “The Judicial Department does have a good internal audit presence and I know that they work on things as well. And they are using personnel from different clerks offices to review reconciliation and those types of thing. So, they do have independent people working on reconciliation.”

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — A March trial has been scheduled for an Iowa grandmother charged with killing a man in 1992. Muscatine County court records say 55-year-old Annette Cahill, of Tipton, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder. Authorities say she used a baseball bat to kill 22-year-old Corey Wieneke. He was found dead on the floor of his bedroom in rural West Liberty in October 1992.

Police have said Cahill had been in a sexual relationship with Wieneke and that they had a heated argument about his involvement with another woman. A witness came forward last year, saying Cahill had implicated herself in the death in 1992, prompting authorities to re-examine the case.

Cahill is now a mother of three adult children and a grandmother of four. Her trial is set to begin March 4.

Two people were injured during an accident that occurred a little after 7-a.m. Monday, in Creston. Authorities say a 2000 Chevy Blazer driven by 19-year old Nathaniel L. Fletchall, of Mt. Ayr, was traveling west on Taylor Street in Creston, and was making a left turn with a green light onto Sumner Street, when the SUV struck an eastbound  2015 Chevy Equinox driven by 60-year old Jane A. Briley, of Creston. Briley also had a green light at the intersection.

Fletchall suffered suspected, serious injuries, but was not transported to the hospital. Briley was transported to the Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston by ground EMS, for treatment of suspected, minor injuries. Police cited Fletchall for Failure to Yield upon making a left turn, and failure to provide proof of insurance, accident related. Authorities said speed was a factor in the crash. Damage to the vehicles amounted to $5,000.

Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports the Fremont County K9 Unit, Monday night, arrested 67-year old Michael Tiemeyer, of Hamburg. Tiemeyer was arrested at his residence on a valid Fremont County Warrant for Delivery of Methamphetamine. He was transported to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center and held pending an initial appearance before the magistrate, with further charges pending.

Mike Tiermeyer

The narcotics investigation is still ongoing, as Sheriff Aistrope expects more arrests following the investigation.