(Massena, Iowa) – The CAM and Nodaway Valley Community School District’s Boards of Education will hold a joint, Special (Closed) Session this evening in Massena, to review applicants for the Superintendent’s position. When their open session resumes, the Board will discuss the Superintendent’s contract.

Thirteen applications were received for the shared Nodaway Valley/CAM School District position.  Both Boards met last week in a joint closed session to review the applicants and narrow down the field of candidates to six, for tonight’s meeting.  That list will be pared to three names after the meeting tonight in the CAM Elementary School Media Center. The meeting begins at 6-p.m.

The boards had hired the search firm McPherson and Jacobson out of Omaha in January to assist in finding Superintendent Paul Croghan’s successor. In November, the Nodaway Valley School board voted to terminate Croghan’s contract at the end of the current school year.

(Radio Iowa) – An executive with one of the country’s largest banks is believed to have been killed when a small plane that departed from Des Moines crashed in a Minneapolis suburb early Saturday afternoon. The plane was registered to Terry Dolan, the vice chair and chief administrative officer of U-S Bank, which is based in Minneapolis. A spokesperson for U-S Bank says the company believes Dolan was on the plane.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Tim Sorensen spoke at a news conference yesterday (Sunday). “The current information we have and this preliminary…is that there was one individual on board,” he said. “…I am not prepared confirm anything as far as an identity.”

F-A-A records show the single-plane left Naples, Florida, stopped in Des Moines, and minutes away from landing at an airport north of the Twin Cities when it crashed into the roof of a home. The home was destroyed by fire. A person inside the house at the time the crash was able to escape safely.

(Radio Iowa) – An analysis by an Iowa-based think tank has found the percentage of working age men who have a job or are looking for work is falling faster in Iowa than in the country as a whole. Ben Murrey — director of policy and research at the Common Sense Institute — says it’s a significant, but under-recognized challenge in Iowa’s economy. The group’s report — titled “Where are the men?” — shows things like marital status and whether a man has a college degree appear to be factors.

“Iowa men ages 25-54 — prime working age — with less than an associates degree are 39% less likely to participate in the labor force compared with those with higher educations,” he says. “The average never married man is 51% less likely to be in the labor force than a married man.” Working age Iowa men who live with a relative are 61 percent less likely to be employed compared to men who are the head of their household.

Iowa has historically had a higher percent of working age men AND women in the labor market compared to the nation as a whole. “But in the last five decades — really 47 years over the time period we looked at from 1977 to 2024, prime working age male labor force participation rate in Iowa has declined at 6.5 percentage points,” he said. That is a deeper drop than in the nation as a whole. The data in the report comes from the U-S Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Murrey says it shows there’s been a three percent drop in the number of men in the Iowa workforce compared to 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic started. “That translates to a $10 billion annual reduction in economic output and GDP. It translates to a $4 billion decline in statewide personal income,” Murrey says, “so these labor force shifts are having a really big impact on Iowa’s economy.”

The Common Sense Institute report shows about one in five Iowa men who are working are employed in the manufacturing sector, however about 40 percent of all initial unemployment claims last year came from men working in manufacturing.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court, Friday, issued a ruling in the appeal of a Pottawattamie man, who was convicted on two counts of sexual abuse in the second degree. 61-year-old Allan Robert Sievers had argued the district court erred: 1) In admitting evidence of the victim’s initial disclosures under a section of the Iowa Code; 2) in admitting explicit photographs located on his computer; 3) in ordering a witness to testify while shackled and in jail attire when the State elicited testimony from the witness that he was Sievers’ best friend; 4) in permitting the State to cross-examine Sievers beyond the scope of his testimony on direct examination; and, 5) in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal.

The High Court ruled the District Court erred in allowing hearsay evidence, because the testimony was prejudicial. The Court’s opinion was delivered by Justice Matthew McDermott. It reverses the District Court’s action and overturns Sievers’ conviction. The court ordered a new trial, the date for which has not yet been set.

Read the full-opinion, here: 230413_FD12B0B199B7C

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors are set to meet in a regular session, beginning at 9-a.m. on Tuesday, April 1st. On their agenda, is action on setting the date and time for a public hearing on the proposed FY26 Cass County Budget, as April 22nd, beginning at 9-a.m.  The Board is expected to act also, on appointing former Sheriff Darby McLaren as a Reserve Deputy, effective April 1st, with a wage of just One-dollar per year.

The Board will also resume discussion from their last meeting, with regard to a Resolution Adopting a policy for Indigent Remains’ Final Disposition, followed by action on passing the resolution. They will also discuss and/or approve costs associated with employee use of County vehicles, and, approve the Cass County Hazard Mitigation Grant Project application, in the amount of $3,375, which is 15-percent of the total grant amount of $22,500.

Reports are expected, Tuesday, from Cass County Community Services Director Debbie Schuler, and Cass County Engineer Trent Wolken, along with Supervisors and Committee reports. The Board is expecting to receive a presentation by the Child Abuse Prevention Council and act on a Declaration of April as “Child Abuse Awareness Month.” Their final order of business, is to discuss a potential Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget Amendment.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors meeting takes place in their Board Room at the Cass County Courthouse, and is viewable electronically by Zoom  (Meeting ID: 289 919 5216; Passcode: 012064) and by Call In: 312-626-6799 (press *9 to indicate you wish to speak).

(Red Oak, Iowa)- A man from Red Oak man was arrested on three charges Saturday afternoon. According to Red Oak Police, 25-year-old Jacob David Berggren was taken into custody at around 2-p.m., on two counts of possession of a controlled substance/3rd offense, and operating [a vehicle]  without the owner’s consent.

His arrest occurred in the 600 block of Skyline Drive, in Red Oak. Berggren was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Council Bluffs, Iowa – Sheriff’s Deputies in Pottawattamie County along with Lewis Township Fire and Rescue and Council Bluffs Fire and Rescue were dispatched Saturday, to the area of Wabash Avenue and Ashwood Road for a two vehicle broadside collision with injuries.

First responders say a 2004 Hyundai Santa Fe, driven by Renrenay Marie Thomas, of Glenwood, and a 2023 Cadillac XT5 driven by Theresa Ellsworth, of Council Bluffs, collided in the southbound lane of Wabash Avenue in a broadside manner. An initial investigation determined that the Santa Fe was traveling north and when it lost control and crossed the center line of the road. The SUV’s driver side then struck the front end of the XT5 causing both vehicles to come to rest near the point of impact.

Thomas became trapped and was extricated by Lewis Township Fire crews. She was transported to Nebraska Medicine with life threatening injuries, and later pronounced deceased at the hospital.

Ellsworth and a 9-year-old male in her vehicle were transported to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs with non-life threatening injuries.

This incident is being investigated by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Collision Investigation Division. Anyone with information on this collision is encouraged to contact Sergeant Tony Leick 78-51 at 712-890-2288 or aleick@sheriff.pottcounty-ia.gov

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. — (CNN) — A small plane crashed into a suburban home about 11-miles north of Minneapolis, this (Saturday) afternoon, killing all on-board. The incident happened in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. According to a statement from the FAA reported by CNN, the aircraft, a small executive transport plane capable of carrying six people, struck the home around 12:20 p.m. local time as it was headed to Anoka County-Blaine Airport in Minneapolis from Des Moines International Airport in Iowa.

It’s unclear how many people were onboard the plane. No fatalities were reported from inside the house. When the fire department arrived on scene, the house was fully engulfed in flames.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating, the FAA said. The NTSB will lead that probe and provide any updates.

SIOUX CITY  – The man accused of killing a young woman in Sioux City over 40 years ago has entered a plea and he now has a jury trial scheduled. KTIV-TV in Sioux City reports court documents show 62-year-old Thomas Popp pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Terri McCauley, who was killed in 1983. Popp entered his plea on Thursday, March 27, and the court has set his jury trial for Tuesday, June 3.

In January 2025, a Woodbury County grand jury indicted Popp on the murder charge, which began the process of bringing him to Woodbury County to face trial. After being indicted, Popp was taken into custody and held in Washington State before being extradited to Iowa.

In 1983, the 18-year-old McCauley met with some friends in downtown Sioux City during late September and never came home. On Oct. 1 of that year, McCauley’s mother contacted the Sioux City Police Department and filed an “attempt to locate” report to find her daughter.

With no success, McCauley’s mother filed an official missing person report on Oct. 5. McCauley’s body was found less than 24 hours later. Investigators say she had been shot point-blank with a 20-gauge shotgun. The gravel road where her body was found no longer exists in Sioux City, it has since been paved over.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed nearly a dozen bills into law Friday. Among them is a new law that would require anyone convicted of grooming to register as a tier 1 sex offender. She also signed a law to expand Iowa’s open container law to include beverages with THC and a law that allows essential EMS funding to be used for salaries of Emergency Medical Care providers.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (Official photo)

Reynolds also gave her approval of a law that will make it so all sports betting winnings are considered earned income, making them subject to state and federal income tax laws.

You can see the full list of bills signed below (SF stands for Senate File bill/HF is a House File bill)