Seven people were arrested recently, in Creston. Authorities say 30-year old Ryan Neal, of Orient, and 31-year old Marrell Beaman, of Creston, were arrested at McKinley Park in Creston, a little after 8-p.m., Monday. Both were taken into custody by Creston Police with the assistance of the K9 “Jax.” Neal was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/1^st offense, as well as Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was later released on a $1,300 bond. Beaman was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/2^nd offense. He was later released on a $1,000 bond.

Monday afternoon, 24-year old Richard Leingang, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original charges of OWI/1^st offense. Leingang was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.

Creston Police report 36-year old Savannah McVay, of Creston, was arrested at around 12:20-a.m. Monday at her home, on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault/Display or Use of a Weapon – 1^st offense. McVay was being held in the Adams County Jail, while awaiting a bond hearing.

Sunday afternoon, 69-year old Richard Cunningham, of Creston, was arrested at the Creston Wal-Mart, for Theft in the 5^th Degree, and Trespass. He was cited at the scene and released on a Promise to Appear in Court. Saturday evening, 40-year old Aaron Riepe and 33-year old Jessica Swietlik, both of Creston, were arrested at their residence. Each was charged with (Simple) Domestic Assault, and later released on $300 bonds.

And, a Creston resident reported to police that sometime between 5:30-p.m. Sunday and 8-a.m. Monday, someone vandalised the Car Wash at 801 S. Lincoln Street, causing considerable damage. A coin machine and two control facesplates in the car wash bays were damaged. The loss was estimated at $1,400.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (The Gazette) — Court records say an Iowa man made a woman watch the miniseries “Roots,” and told her it would make her better understand her racism. Robert Noye is charged in Cedar Rapids with harassment and false imprisonment. The miniseries was based on author Alex Haley’s family history, starting with the capture and enslavement of his ancestor Kunta Kinte in Africa. The woman reported that when she tried to move, Noye told her to remain seated or he would “kill her and spread her body parts” across the interstate on the way to Chicago.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who opened fire on officers serving a warrant in Stuart, has pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug charges. 52-year old Randall Comly is scheduled to be sentenced June 12th in Des Moines. He pleaded guilty this month to possession of methamphetamine for sale and two weapons charges.

Comly is accused of firing a handgun at officers on Oct. 17, 2019, as they tried to arrest him on a warrant for second-degree arson, inside a Stuart apartment complex. The exchange of gunfire injured three law enforcement officers and Comly.

(Radio Iowa) — A report from the State Ombudsman says there could be more deaths unless the agency which investigates child abuse in Iowa gets more resources. The report from Ombudsman Kristie Hirschman focused on the death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn — who was found emaciated in her adoptive family’s West Des Moines home in October 2016 and died a few hours later at a local hospital.  “We found scenarios where there where there were child abuse reports made to the Department of Human Services and those reports were rejected rather than accepted. Which is problematic,” according to Hirschman. “We also found situations where the information wasn’t gathered or documented in those reports, and that may have played into the unfortunate decision to reject some of these.”

Hirschman says that 14 child abuse reports had been made to D-H-S on behalf of the Finn children — but many were not followed up. She says the record-retention policies of D-H-S caused problems. “It was problematic for us in doing a thorough investigation when records had been destroyed according to their redaction policy,” Hirschman says. Changing that policy is one of 14 recommendations her office is making. “They need to consider revising their statute and rules to address that. Because, in a lot of situations identifying historical pattern of similar abuse reports is significant in making determinations,” Hirschman says.

The Ombudsman says the key issue is the D-H-S workers are swamped. “In addition to their lunch break and their two 15 minutes brakes — it was determined that they get 40 minutes a month for personal breaks — so that’s basically two minutes a day. It’s just one call after another after another,” she says. “We identified a problem that they weren’t always able to check the history of previous reports.” Hirschman says a pattern was eventually notice by an after hours field worker who review some of the reports that said Finn was not getting enough nourishment. She says more funding has been put into some areas of the system — but the number of intake workers has not increased since 2011. “We have numbers in the report that the number of intake workers has pretty much remained static and yet the number of calls and reports of child abuse have increased significantly, especially since the death of Natalie Finn,” Hirschman says.

The report shows Finn’s death has resulted in a 36 percent increase to field workers’ average caseloads from 2016 to 2018. Hirschman says D-H-S has reviewed and responded to her report. “They accepted 11 of our 14 recommendations, so we’ll be following through on those and monitoring their implementation,” she explains, “and we will continue to pursue implementation of the other recommendations.”  Hirschman says the public and everyone else should continue to be aware of potential child abuse and report it. “Protecting our children and grandchildren is a group effort. We all need to work together to identify problems in the system so tragedies like this don’t happen again,” Hirschman says.

D-H-S Director Kelly Garcia wrote in their response: “This was a tragic case, the Finn children should never have had to endure the treatment they received. We will learn from this and improve the safety net D-H-S provides to Iowa’s children.” Garcia says some of the work to improve the Department’s response began immediately, “but a large part of the Department’s ongoing efforts will focus on finding better ways to support our team so they can better support the families we serve.” You can see the full report on the Ombudsman’s website.