The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests: Today (Thursday), 34-year old Timothy Michael John Miller, Jr., of Carter Lake, was arrested on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Felony Theft in the 2nd Degree. Miller was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held on $5,000 bond. On Monday, 26-year old Joel Shawn Thomas White, of Atlantic, was arrested on a District Court warrant for Probation Violation. White was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held to serve time.

And, this past Sunday, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 33-year old Kelsey Deann Schmidt, of Massena, on charges of (Simple) Assault and Criminal Mischief 5th Degree. 42-year old Brian David Krauth, also of Massena, was arrested for Simple Assault. Both parties were taken to the Cass County Jail and released the following day on their own recognizance.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new survey of bankers suggests the economy remains weak in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states. The overall index for the region remained negative at 44.1 in July even though it improved from June’s 37.9. Any score below 50 suggests a shrinking economy, while a score above 50 suggests a growing economy, survey organizers say. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says weak agriculture crop prices, retail sales and layoffs have hurt the bankers’ economic confidence.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police say a man apparently shot and killed a woman and then killed himself. Police on Thursday identified the woman killed in the Wednesday afternoon shooting as 27-year-old Miranda Arlene Stierwalt. Investigators believe she was shot by 33-year-old Daniel Francis Dooley, who then shot and killed himself. The couple lived together in the Des Moines home. Officers found their bodies Wednesday after Stierwalt’s 10-year-old child entered the home and found her body. The child called 911 and said she was injured.

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — Investigators say they have launched a massive search for a 10-year-old missing girl in a rural area outside of Clinton, Iowa. Davenport Police Maj. Jeff Bladel said that “newly developed information” in the disappearance of 10-year-old Breasia Terrell has shifted the search to the Clinton and Camancha area in eastern Iowa. He says that a dozen law enforcement agencies and scores of volunteers were participating in the search, based in the tiny town of Low Moor.

Bladel says that investigators have identified a “wide area to search.” Terrell vanished last week after spending the night at the apartment of her half-brother’s father, who has been called a person of interest.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s attorney general filed suit today (Thursday) in Polk County District Court against a Nebraska-based stem cell therapy center. Attorney General Tom Miller accuses Regenerative Medicine and Anti-Aging Institutes of Omaha of making deceptive, misleading claims that targeted older Iowans.  “They made incredibly strong claims about dealing with pain, back pain, knees, hips, arthritis, but they went beyond that,” Miller says. “They made claims that they could reverse COPD to some extent, and even in the Alzheimer’s area.”

The suit alleges the company’s salespeople used high-pressure tactics to persuade possibly hundreds of Iowans to buy unproven, expensive procedures that aren’t covered by health insurance.  “They made claims that, as their title indicated, that they could roll back aging,” Miller says. “They even quantified it at some point as three years, they’d give you three years back in terms of aging.” The marketing campaigns were highly aggressive, Miller says. “They had newspaper ads, they had TV ads, and what they focused on in Iowa, they recruited people to come to educational seminars concerning their product and they did 90 of those in Iowa,” he says. “They were essentially high-pressure sales, it wasn’t a seminar as much as a high-pressure sales event.”

Those events were held in cities across the state between April of 2018 and September of 2019. Nebraska’s attorney general is also filing a simultaneous lawsuit in that state today, accusing the company of fraud. It’s still unclear, Miller says, how many people in the two states may have bought into the “wild” claims. “The cost is considerable, anywhere from $1,400 to $27,000 to have a treatment,” Miller says. “They pushed a lot for the treatments that cost $16- and $17,000.” Miller’s office is seeking an injunction against the defendants and consumer restitution.

The suit also seeks civil penalties of up to $40,000 for each violation of the Consumer Fraud Act and $5,000 for each violation of the Older Iowans Law.

(Radio Iowa) – The number of new and continuing unemployment claims both increased in the last week. Iowa Workforce Development says the first-time claims for unemployment hit 11-thousand-125 in the last week. That’s up by just about 12-hundred, and came after the U-S Labor Department adjusted the previously reported number for the prior week down by 741. The number of continuing claims was up by about 28-hundred. And that comes after the Labor Department adjusted the claims for the previous week done by 926. Manufacturing had the most NEW unemployment claims filed last week — with 4, 471.