Sheriff’s officials in Taylor County report the arrest on Tuesday, of 25-year old Rebecca Holbrook, from Lenox. She was arrested in the 600 block of E. Ohio Street in Lenox, and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. Holbrook was being held in the Taylor County Jail without bond, until making an appearance before the magistrate.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports that on Tuesday, Ben Reece, of New Market, plead guilty to the criminal offense of Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a class “B” forcible felony. Reece was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison on the charge. Back on Feb. 20th, his partner, Joanna Marie Gray, of New Market,  plead guilty to criminal offenses that include Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree, a class “B” forcible felony and Incest, a class “D’ felony. Gray was also sentenced to serve 25 years in prison on the Sexual Abuse charge plus 5 years in prison on the Incest charge, to be served consecutively.

Reece

Joanna Gray

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A top aide to Gov. Kim Reynolds has been hired by Apple months after helping promote a controversial $208 million incentive package for the company’s planned Iowa data center as a good deal for taxpayers. Tim Albrecht resigned as Reynolds’ deputy chief of staff, then began in March as a manager of strategic initiatives for Apple. The governor’s office says Albrecht’s position is “unrelated” to the $1.3 billion complex the company is building outside Des Moines.

MT. PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration officials have raided a precast concrete manufacturing plant in southeastern Iowa. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took 32 people at Midwest Precast Concrete in Mount Pleasant into custody Wednesday on suspicion of immigration violations. The agency says those detained came from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Health officials in northern Iowa have confirmed seven cases of whooping cough in Cerro Gordo County. Mason City television station KIMT reports that the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health says it’s investigating instances of the highly contagious disease in the Mason City Community School District and among staff at a local McDonald’s restaurant.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa agency that promotes affordable housing has suspended the use of employee credit cards that were issued outside the state’s normal program. The move by the Iowa Finance Authority comes as the agency faces investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and questionable financial practices by its former director, Dave Jamison. Documents show that 21 employees of the agency had been issued Visa credit cards through Wells Fargo to cover travel, meeting and other expenses.

While the Mississippi River is rising and starting to flood along Iowa’s eastern border, flooding is not a big worry on the state’s west side. Heavy snows this winter — and spring — are forcing the U-S Army Corps of Engineers to increase flows into the Missouri River, now that the snow is melting. Corps hydraulic engineer Nicole Shorney says they expect runoff much higher than usual.

“April runoff was 182% of average above Sioux City,” Shorney says. “Runoff was above average partly due to the heavy Plains snowpack in Montana melting. Mountain snowpack accumulation has peaked in both reaches.” Corps engineer Joel Knofczynski says they still have plenty of storage space in the reservoir system to handle the runoff.

“Reservoir system storage is currently 60.9 million acre feet or 4.8 million acre feet into the 16.3 million acre feet of available flood storage,” Knofczynski says. He notes they expect to ramp up outflows in the next couple of weeks. The average release from Gavins Point Dam during April was around 34-thousand cubic feet per second.

“Due to the higher-than-average runoff being forecast in the Missouri River basin above Sioux City, the service level has been increased 15,000 cubic feet per second above full service to facilitate the evacuation of stored floodwaters. As downstream flows recede, Gavins Point releases will be increased to about 42,000 cfps by around mid-May.” Even with the increased releases, Corps officials say river levels below Gavins Point Dam should stay well below flood stage.

(Radio Iowa)

The draft five-year transportation improvement plan that covers spending on all forms of transportation was presented to the Iowa Transportation Commission at their meeting Tuesday. Three-point-four BILLION dollars of the program goes for the state roadways and D-O-T spokesman Stuart Anderson says that includes a lot of ongoing work on the interstates.

“Probably the most significant projects on the interstates right now are what we would call modernization projects — so its totally reconstructing the interstate systems in Council Bluffs and Sioux City to meet modern design standards and to address increased traffic,” Anderson says. Another interstate project adds a segment to the work on the highway between Ankeny and Ames.

“This draft program does include the addition of reconstruction and improving I-35 from the north end of Ankeny up to Iowa 210 as you head towards Ames,” Anderson says. There are also several projects on non-interstate highway.

“We expect to complete the four-lanning of U-S 20 in western Iowa by this fall,” according to Anderson. “So that’ll complete the four-lane constructon of U-S 20 across the entire state. That’s been a project that’s been underway for many years.” Other state highway corridors are also in the plan.

“This five-year program continues work on four-lane improvements on U-S 30 in Tama and Benton County. And also U-S 61 down in southeast Iowa. So, significant corridor work will be continuing,” Anderson explains. Anderson says part of the funding comes form the gas tax increase.

He says this program includes a little more than 500 million dollars of the fuel tax increase implemented in March of 2015. The Transportation Commission will take a vote on the program next month. He says the plan is available on the D-O-T website for any comment and the commission will act on final approval during their business meeting on June 12th. Anderson says the years in this program have been some of the top years for the number of road construction projects.

(Radio Iowa)

MT. PLEASANT, Iowa (AP) — Federal immigration officials have raided a precast concrete manufacturing plant in southeastern Iowa. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers took an unknown number of people at Midwest Precast Concrete in Mount Pleasant into custody Wednesday.

The federal Justice Department said in a news release that special agents and deportation officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security executed a search warrant, along with help from local law enforcement. The department said there is “no threat to the public,” and said it would not comment further until court documents in the case had been filed.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Health officials in northern Iowa have confirmed seven cases of whooping cough in Cerro Gordo County. Mason City television station KIMT reports that the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health says it’s investigating instances of the highly contagious disease in the Mason City Community School District and among staff at a local McDonald’s restaurant.

Whooping cough, or pertussis, is spread when infected people cough or sneeze. It starts like the common cold but can progress into violent coughing spells.

Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees, Wednesday, said the Atlantic Fire Department held its recognition banquet earlier this year, but the announcement of the 2017 Firefighter of the Year award was delayed, due to the absence of the recipient Mitch Peerbolte, who works at Peerbolte Chiropractic. McNees said it took longer than normal for the presentation, as Peerbolte left for an extended basic training with the Army National Guard just prior to the department banquet.

(Left) Mitch Peerbolte, 2017 Atlantic Firefighter of the year, and Atlantic Fire Chief Mark McNees.

Peerbolte was surprised with the presentation of the award at the department’s recent monthly meeting. According to McNees, “We waited quite awhile for the presentation and it was difficult to keep it a secret, but Mitch was definitely surprised when he was presented the award at our meeting. Mitch has been a very active firefighter since he joined and has a tremendous record of response and training hours, he has definitely earned the honor.”

Other’s recognized were Pete Smith as the Rookie of the Year, and Dustin McLaren as the Officer of the Year.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports 33-year old George W. Poorker, of Emerson, was arrested at around 5:15-a.m. today (Wednesday). Poorker was taken into custody for Assault on Persons in Certain Occupations, and Interference with Official Acts. His bond was set at $3,000.

And, at around 4:55-p.m. Tuesday, 24-year old Joshua Michael Parker, of Glenwood, was arrested for Public Intoxication. His bond was set at $300.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa agency that promotes affordable housing has suspended the use of credit cards that were issued to employees outside the state’s normal program. The move by the Iowa Finance Authority comes as the agency faces multiple investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and questionable financial practices by its former director, Dave Jamison. Documents released under the open records law show that 21 employees of the agency had been issued Visa credit cards through Wells Fargo to cover travel, meeting and other expenses.

The agency’s board last week authorized an outside firm to review its budgeting and financial practices, including credit card spending. The state auditor is also investigating. Interim director Carolann Jensen said Wednesday that she doesn’t know why the cards were issued outside the state’s purchasing card program, which uses U.S. Bank.