Sheriff’s Deputies in Page County, Friday, served an “Ex-Parte” order for Temporary removal of a minor child, at a residence in Clarinda. During the removal process, 33-year old Amanda Maria Carlson, of New Market, was arrested for Interference with Official Acts. Carlson was transported to the Page County jail and held on $300 bond, pending further court proceedings.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports five arrests over the past few days. Sunday night, 39-year old Daniel Charles Thomas, of Honey Creek, was arrested following a traffic stop near Crescent. Thomas was taken into custody for Driving While Barred (DWB)-Habitual Offender. Bond was set at $2,000. Sunday evening, 57-year old Kimberly Ann Thomas was arrested following a traffic stop in Avoca. She too, was charged with Driving While Barred. Early Sunday morning, 33-year old Brian Joseph McCormick was arrested for OWI/1st offense, following a traffic stop in Council Bluffs.

Saturday night, 21-year old Andrew Robert Dilley was arrested in Treynor, following a traffic stop on a vehicle with no license plates. Dilley was charged with DWB-Habitual Offender. And, Friday morning, 45-year old Denice Ann Giovannoni turned herself-in to the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office. Once a warrant for Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree was confirmed, Giovannoni was transported to the Pott. County Jail and turned over to Corrections Staff.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The owner of a 20-foot-tall, 110-ton limestone statue succeeded in a slow process last week of moving the sculpture across a street in Iowa City. The giant statue, called “Man on a Bench,” had gazed out over a nature preserve in the northeast corner of Iowa City for five years. But the Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that after its sculptor and the property owner, Doug Paul, completed a land swap with the education organization ACT, the statue had to be moved across a street. Last week, stonemason JB Barnhouse oversaw the move with the help of crane and excavation companies. They detached a 11 blocks of carved Indiana limestone and hauled the statue to its new home, one block at a time.

(Radio Iowa) – One person was killed when an apartment caught fire in Fort Dodge on Sunday afternoon. The Fort Dodge Fire Department responded to the fire at 629 Central Avenue shortly 2:00 p.m. When they arrived smoke was coming from an apartment. A resident of the building had called 911 after smelling smoke and activated the smoke alarm. Fire fighters discovered an adult female unresponsive in the apartment. She died of her injuries with the body taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny. The name of the victim has not been released.

(Radio Iowa) – Thanks to changes in federal rules, more people are now eligible to give blood, and more donors are needed as hundreds of Iowa blood drives have been cancelled because of the pandemic. Pete Lux, director of donor services at the Davenport-based Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, says under the old rules, people who lived in Europe for three months or more were not allowed to donate blood in the U-S.  “People who were deferred for living in Europe on a military base, that’s no longer a deferral,” Lux says. “We want to make sure we can contact those people, get them back in our systems and get them back to getting calls and reminders.”

The regulations were put in place years ago due to Mad Cow Disease, but the Food and Drug Administration has lifted restrictions for certain countries. The United Kingdom, Ireland, and France are not on the list. The blood center needs to collect about 35-hundred units of whole blood per week. Now, it’s only collecting 32-hundred due to the pandemic and Lux says they can’t store whole blood indefinitely.  “Not really. It’s good for six weeks, so we can work that far out and plan promotions and everything around that expiration date,” Lux says. “My boss calls it trying to catch a falling knife.”

Other eligibility rules have changed. For example, those who’ve had a tattoo or piercing -are- allowed to donate blood after a three-month wait instead of a year. The same waiting period applies to those who may have been exposed to HIV. The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center serves 115 hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri.