SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — A June trial has been scheduled for a woman whose sport utility vehicle collided with a car in northwest Iowa, fatally injuring the car driver and his 5-year-old son. Osceola County District Court records say 49-year-old Ann Vanderpool, of Milford, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to two counts of vehicular homicide while driving intoxicated and two counts of vehicular homicide by reckless driving. Her trial is set to begin June 26.

Authorities say the accident occurred June 10 on Iowa Highway 9 near Sibley, when Vanderpool’s vehicle crossed the center line and struck the car. The car driver, 48-year-old Travis Mier, of Spirit Lake, was pronounced dead at Osceola Community Hospital. His son Elliot was pronounced dead later at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hospital. Vanderpool also was hospitalized.

GARNER, Iowa (AP) — A man in northern Iowa’s Hancock County has been accused of burglarizing his grandparents’ home. Mason City station KIMT reports that 23-year-old Anthony Fickel Schoneman, of Garner, is charged with burglary, theft and two counts of possession of a controlled substance. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.

Authorities say more than $10,000 in cash, collector coins, a gun, ammunition and prescription pills were missing from the home in May last year when the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office began its investigation. Investigators say the burglar or burglars knew where the valuables were located, including money hidden in a bag of clothes.

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

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The Adams County Sheriff’s Office is asking the public to be on the lookout for numerous signs stolen from a storage unit in Corning. The items were taken from Carmichael Storage, 2066 Corning Carl Road. . (Click on the images below to view some of the signs)

Among the items reported missing was:

• a 6-foot long Firestone sign
• a 5-foot long Firestone Farm Tire Service sign
• a 6-foot long Filmore Oil sign
• 1 Westinghouse sign
• a curved Chapmans signs
• a Nichol Kola 5 cents sign
• a Hatchery Osage Kansas sign
• a flanged Sherwin Williams Paint sign
• two Diamond Edge Tool signs
• a Goodyear Tire stand sign
• and two school Stop signs

If you notice any of those items being sold, or in someone’s possession, notify the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Rare coins and jewelry are among valuable unclaimed property left in Iowa safe deposit boxes that are set to be auctioned off this month. Iowa State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald tells the Des Moines Register that his office acquired the items through the state’s unclaimed property program. That program collects more than $35 million annually in cash and an array of personal possessions. About half of the money is returned to rightful owners, but some cash and items are never claimed.

Twenty lots of unclaimed Iowa property from safety deposit boxes went up for bids on eBay on Tuesday. The group includes a diamond wedding band set, a gold bracelet, six silver-plated spoons, pocket watches and 20 Morgan silver dollars dated 1921. The auction will end April 17.

HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — A state oversight board has disciplined a northern Iowa teacher for giving some answers to students in his algebra class. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that Mark Drier had been charged with an administrative rule violation that barred providing test answers to students. The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners says he’s agreed to accept a written reprimand and complete a 15-hour educator ethics course.

He resigned from the Hampton-Dumont Community School District last May.

Red Oak Police reports 42-year old Marshall Larry Adams, of Stanton, was arrested at around 10:30-p.m., Wednesday. Adams was taken into custody in the 500 block of Prairie Avenue, for vandalism of a trash can. His cash bond was set at $300. And, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 20-year old Benjamin Parra-Moreno, of Lenox, was arrested with the assistance of Adams County Sheriff’s Deputies at around 12:11-a.m. today (Thursday), on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Failure to Appear in court, on an original charge of OWI. Parra-Moreno was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $3,000 cash only bond.

There’s going to be another chance for those who want to get into Iowa’s new medical marijuana business. Iowa Department of Public Health deputy director Sarah Reisetter says the law allows two licenses to manufacture — there were nine companies that showed interest the first time around — but only one followed through.”We did follow up with some of them after the fact to find out and see why they decided not to apply,” Reisetter says. “During the course of some of those conversations and based on contacts that we’ve received consistently since that happened, we are pretty confident that there is still interest in another manufacturing license in Iowa, so we decided to proceed.”

The sole license to produce medical marijuana products was awarded to MedPharm Iowa in November. Reisetter says things happened pretty quickly after the law was passed and that was part of the reason some of the companies didn’t follow through.
She says there was a very short time frame to get applications together in the fall and she says that’s what they heard from a lot of the applicants.

There are still a little more than 300 people who have gotten the cards needed to buy the cannibas oil products. Reisetter isn’t concerned that might keep another company from wanting to jump into the business. Reisetter says one of the things she learned from potential applicants who had experience in other states is that they are betting on the program expanding. She says MedPharm officials have said that as well.

She says while the patient pool is small right now they do anticipate it growing as the program gets underway and the products are available. Reisetter says if a second company is selected — they would face the same timeline as MedPharm. “MedPharm was licensed December 1st of 2017 and they have until December 1st of 2018 so our second manufacturer will also have a year to get up and running,” Reisetter explains.

The new license is expected to be awarded July 1st, and that would put the deadline for the second manufacturer to be running on July 1st of 2019. She says that company can begin making products as soon as it has the plant built and met all the requirements.”It will be in their best interest to get things up and running as quickly as possible I think in terms of a competitive marketplace,” Reisetter says.

MedPharm has the advantage of the being the first to produce products for the five state-licensed dispensaries. Reisetter says the state understands the jump start MedPharm has right now on a new production company. “One of those things that we do have in those regulations for dispensaries is that dispensaries in our state are going to be required to make available products from both manufacturers,” according to Reisetter. “So we did adopt a regulation to try to account for that a little bit.”

Businesses have until May 16th to notify the state of their intent to apply for a medical marijuana license. Formal applications will be due by May 31st.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) — Authorities say a Wyoming man has been ordered to pay $373,000 in restitution and penalties for allegations that he convinced two Iowa residents to invest in his company and then used the money to pay his personal credit card bill. The Casper Star-Tribune reports that the Iowa Insurance Division in August ordered Bruce Hauptman to pay the restitution.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A man who mailed at least 45 pounds of methamphetamine from Arizona to Iowa has been sentenced to more than 15 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 38-year-old Anthony Robert McCarron, of Dubuque, was sentenced Wednesday in Cedar Rapids to 190 months in prison. He pleaded guilty on Oct. 30 to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine near a school and money laundering.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans in control of the Iowa House have announced their proposal to cut state taxes, but it’s unclear if it has support in the GOP-majority Senate. House leaders released a plan Wednesday that they say would cut state tax revenue by $1.3 billion over five years. It would keep a contested deduction on federal income taxes known as federal deductibility.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Camanche woman has been sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for carrying out insurance fraud involving a fire that destroyed her boyfriend’s vacant house. Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 42-year-old Beth Galloway was sentenced in Cedar Rapids’ federal court. She was also ordered to make $152,875 in restitution. Galloway was convicted last month by a jury of mail fraud, using fire to commit mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Investigators in Pottawattamie County, Wednesday, filed criminal charges on a man who is alleged to have enter a home on Coldwater Avenue in rural Honey Creek, early Monday morning. A resident saw an unknown male with long hair and dressed in a black hoodie inside their home. While police were investigating the scene, another report came in about a similar incident in a different jurisdiction. The same subject was believed to be involved in both incidents. A man was arrested, and later identified as 49-year old John A. Pehanich, of Council Bluffs.

John Pehanich

Pehanich was charged with Burglary in the 2nd Degree and two counts of Burglary in the 3rd Degree. He was arrested Monday in Fremont County, on charges connected with the theft of a semi from Omaha. The vehicle was later recovered in Thurman.  Evidence located by both Pottawattamie and Fremont County investigators, along with assistance from the public led to the charges being filed.