(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report three recent arrests. Friday night, 20-year-old Nathan Lee Novotny, was arrested for Driving Suspended. Novotny was taken to the Union County Jail where he later released on a $300 bond.  Early Saturday morning, Creston Police arrested 52-year-old Daniel D. Hoffman, of Shannon City, on charges that include Disorderly Conduct – Fighting/Violent Behavior, and Public Intoxication – 1st Offense. Hoffman was taken to the Union County Jail and later released on his own recognizance.

Saturday evening, 21-year-old Jonathan Dean Williams, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County Warrant for OWI/1st Offense. Williams was later released on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A Marshalltown man faces 329 felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. An internet search engine company gave law enforcement a tip in 2023 that child sex abuse material was being downloaded at a specific web address. The Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force determined 65-year-old Michael Lynn Benson owned that online address.

Benson was arrested last Thursday outside his home in Marshalltown.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report a man from Red Oak was arrested at around 6:35-p.m. Friday. Authorities say 27-year-old Gage Michael Dixon was arrested for Theft in the 5th Degree (A Simple Misdemeanor). Dixon was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Red Oak was issued a written warning following a collision Friday afternoon at N. 4th and Nuckols Streets. Red Oak Police say vehicles driven by 33-year-old James Christensen, of Council Bluffs, and 35-year-old Kristopher Friesenhahn, of Red Oak, collided at around 4:25-p.m., after a car driven by Friesenhahn stopped at the intersection traveling east, and proceeded cross the street, believing the intersection was clear. His vision was partially obstructed by a box truck parked just south of the intersection, on 4th Street.

When his 2015 Mitsubishi Lancer entered the intersection, it struck a 2005 GMC pickup driven by Christensen, as the truck was traveling north on 4th. Damage from the collision amounted to $15,000. Red Oak Police issued Friesenhahn a written warning for Failure to Obey a stop sign/yield the right-of-way.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop Sunday evening in Montgomery County resulted in the arrest on drug charges, of a woman from Mills County. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies stopped a vehicle near Highway 34 and Evergreen Avenue, at around 6:50-p.m., Sunday. Upon further investigation, deputies took into custody 51-year-old Lorelei Pierce, of Hastings (IA). She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense-marijuana, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Bond was set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) – North America’s first commercial-scale “green ammonia” field trial is underway in Boone. Landus Cooperative partnered with the company Talusag to produce farm fertilizer using solar energy, air and water. Hiro Iwanaga is C-E-O of the start-up. “Traditional ammonia depends on, depends on a global supply chain that’s costly, that’s unreliable, that’s carbon intensive. We manufacture closer to where the product is used. We cut down risk while giving farmers a stable, more predictable source of one of the most critical inputs,” he says. Landus vice president for strategic initiatives, Brian Crowe, says the process reworks the entire system.

“We’re not only changing how fertilizer is produced, but where it’s made, how it gets to our growers,” Crowe says. He says the system in Boone can produce around one ton per day, but a larger scale model being built in Eagle Grove will produce twenty times more.

Earlier this month, Landus applied green ammonia to corn field trial plots on-site and will compare results with control strips throughout the growing season. The partners hope to have green ammonia commercially available next year.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Voters in Lewis will have a chance to cast their ballot for Mayor, during a Special Election on Tuesday (April 29th). Candidates (all from Lewis) whose names will appear on the ballot for the April 29th Special Election include:

• Christopher Jahnke
• Russell L. Miller
• Jeffrey Witt
• Anthony L. Sorbello
• Nancy J Cerica-Joens

The polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m., Tuesday.  The polling site is the Lewis Community Center.

The Special Election in the City of Lewis is to fill the position that was recently left vacant. Persons with questions may call the Cass County Auditor’s Office at (712)-243-4570.

(Radio Iowa) – Trump Administration budget cuts proposed for the U-S Department of Health and Human Services could reduce the budget for the Iowa Cancer Registry. The Registry operates with a combination of state and federal funding. Sarah Nash is director of research at the Iowa Cancer Registry. “There’s a lot of uncertainty and we don’t yet know where the cuts are going to have an impact,” Nash says.

In 1973, the National Cancer Institute launched registries in Iowa and eight other states to track cancer rates and there are now cancer registries in 46 states, gathering data on cancer cases. While the president’s budget plan does not call for elimination of the National Cancer Institute, it does call for a 44 percent cut in funding of the agency that oversees the institute. Nash says federal funding touches every part of the effort to reduce cancer.

“The research, the surveillance, the screening, the early detection, the access to care pieces,” Nash says. “…Having the federal cuts, it could potentially devastating, I think, to this problem that we’re all trying to address together.” The Iowa Cancer Registry’s annual report shows Iowa continues to have the second highest rate of newly diagnosed cancers. Governor Kim Reynolds has proposed spending a MILLION dollars in state funds to support University of Iowa research to evaluate the risk factors that may be contributing to Iowa’s rising cancer rate.

Sarah Nash of the Iowa Cancer Registry and Kelly Wells Sittig of the Iowa Cancer Consortium on the “Iowa Press” set. (Iowa PBS photo)

Kelly Wells Sittig is executive director of the Iowa Cancer Consortium, a non-profit that provides resources and technical assistance to agencies and institutions that are working to address cancer-related issues. “We’re really pleased the governor has shown support in acknowledging the importance of figuring out what’s happening with cancer here in Iowa and making an investment in that,” Wells Sittig said. “…I think it’s also important to note that cancer is so complex…and that means we are going to need to invest for a long term and in a lot of different ways.”

Wells Sittig and Nash made their comments on a recent episode of “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans for Tax Relief has created an online portal with information about every public school in Iowa. Sarah Curry — research director for the Iowans for Tax Relief Foundation — says it includes the graduation rate for each district, as well as things like A-C-T scores, enrollment and budget data. “To help parents, school board members, taxpayers and just everybody in Iowa learn a little bit more about what their school districts are doing and how students are doing.” Curry says the website will let Iowans compare the performance of school districts.

“It’s really important to me personally because I’m a mom and I’ve got three kids here in Iowa that are attending public school,” Curry said. “Just like any parent, I want what’s best for my kids and a quality education that sets them up for success.”

The website shows the percentage of third graders in each district who are reading at their grade level. “Parents should know their school board members and they should have open lines of communication and sometimes that intimidation factor is so high because they don’t know the information and they don’t know what questions to ask,” Curry says, “and we’re here to bridge that gap and help parents get the information and feel empowered to talk to their school board members, ultimately, for our children so that way they can do better.”

The website shows property tax levy rates for each school district, but is also includes the Iowans for Tax Relief opinion on whether it’s reasonable. Iowans for Tax Relief is lobbying legislators to cut property taxes.