(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report seven arrests occurred over the past three days. At around 2-a.m. today (Dec. 9th), 37-year-old Kristine Lee Pearson, of Creston, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault. Pearson was taken to the Union County Jail where she is being held without no bond.

There were three arrests Sunday, in Creston: 58-year-old Teresa Ann Moore, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st Offense. Moore was taken to the Union County Jail where she later posted a $1,000 bond; 20-year-old Keaton Micheal Ballinger, of Creston, was arrested and charged with 11 counts of Theft in the 5th Degree. Ballinger was taken to the Union County Jail where he later posted a $3,300 bond. And 42-year-old Nicki Renee Jones, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Barred. Jones was taken to the Union County Jail where she later released on a $2,000 bond.

Two people were arrested on separate charges Saturday, in Creston: 60-year-old Robbie Allen Dohrn, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County Warrant for OWI/2nd Offense. Dohrn was later released after posting a $2,000 bond. And, 25-year-old Noah Alexander Young, of Creston, was arrested for Interference with Official Acts and on three Union County Warrants for: Failure to Appear on a Theft in the 5th Degree charge; and two warrants for Failure to Appear on Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charges. Young was being held in the Union County Jail on a $3,000 bond.

Friday evening, 43-year-old David Junior Richman, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County Warrant for Failure to Appear on a Probation Violation charge for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana. Richman was being held on a $5,000 cash only bond.

AMES, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) — National Farmers Union President Rob Larew spoke about the stalled reauthorization of the Farm Bill and strategies to promote agriculture and conservation within the upcoming administration Saturday at the Iowa Farmers Union annual conference. “I am so tired of talking about this farm bill,” Larew said with a laugh to a full conference room at the Quality Inn in Ames.

The Farm Bill is a bipartisan package of legislation, typically reauthorized every five years, regulating and funding food and farm programs from the U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation initiatives to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The 2018 Farm Bill, however, was extended in 2023, expired in fall 2024 and awaits an unknown fate in the rapidly approaching close to the congressional lame-duck session. Larew said coming into 2023, the attitude with the Farm Bill was to take what happened in the pandemic and craft better provisions to protect farmers and the U.S. food system.

“And then nothing happened,” Larew said, and detailed how perspectives changed as Farm Bill deadlines came and went. “Now we are where we are, which is very likely another extension, pushing us into a lot of uncertainty for next year,” Larew said.  The reelected Farmers Union president said a Farm Bill is hard to pass in a normal year, let alone in a year when the legislation is “low on the list” of a new administration’s priorities.  Larew said he hopes the president-elect’s plans to slash government spending does not impact the Farm Bill, and said he will continue to push the message that “you can never balance a budget on the back of a Farm Bill.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence.

Panelists speak about the Farm Bill at the Iowa Farmers Union annual conference. From left are Cheryl Tevis, Rob Larew, and Chris Clayton. (Photo by Cami Koons/Iowa Capital Dispatch)

Larew spoke as part of the “Farm Bill Limbo” panel at the 2024 convention, titled “Fairness in Farming,” along with DTN Progressive Farmer Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton and Cheryl Tevis, an ag-focused writer with the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. The other panelists expressed similar concerns toward changes to agriculture policy that could come from the upcoming administration, including tariffs, mass deportations, decreasing the abilities of USDA, and the conflicting interests of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is slated to run the Department of Health and Human Services and Brooke Rollins,who Trump plans to nominate as secretary of Agriculture. Tevis said she’s “not holding (her) breath” that Congress will agree on the “fragile marriage of convenience” that is the Farm Bill before the end of the year.

Before the panel, Iowa Farmers Union members shared stories of their participation in USDA programs, like cover crops subsidies, conservation easements, energy programs that allowed them to update freezers and install solar panels and local food procurement funding. Iowa Farmers Union President Aaron Lehman opened the Saturday sessions with an overview of the union’s accomplishments in 2024, including another year of membership growth consistent with what the union has seen over the past 12 years.  Lehman commended union staff and members for their organized opposition to the sale of a nitrogen fertilizer plant to Koch Industries in the spring, a successful Farmers Union Day at the state fair and continued efforts to promote local food and conservation.

Lehman also highlighted the union’s efforts to oppose a lawsuit aimed at dismantling a federal provision that protects wetlands. Iowa Farmers Union, along with Iowa Environmental Council and several other groups, were approved Tuesday as intervenors in the lawsuit over the swampbuster provision. “We are responsible for those things being put into law,” Lehman said. “The Department of Justice and the USDA should be defending themselves when they are challenged … but it’s important for us to be there at the table too, because we’re not sure where this new administration will defend themselves.” Lehman championed union efforts at the Statehouse to secure “the first ever state-funded procurement of local food” which was accomplished in collaboration with the Iowa Food System Coalition.

Union members were invited to the local food policy summit on Friday to talk about the work of the Iowa Food System Coalition and 2025 plans to grow the Iowa local food economy.  Lehman said union members can be “proud” that they were “the only farm group opposed to a pesticide liability shield for pesticide companies.” Lehman said the group plans to oppose the Bayer-led bill about pesticide labeling again in 2025. Lehman said there is much more to be done in the coming year.  “We won’t get it just by working at the Statehouse,” Lehman said. “We have to work together in the countryside. We have to work at it around tables in our communities and on our farms in order to make a real difference from the ground up.”

(Radio Iowa) – An emergency physician is urging Iowa parents and anyone else buying gifts for children this holiday season to closely follow the labeling and to only purchase toys, crafts and sporting goods that are age appropriate. Dr. Benjamin Orozco, with Gundersen Health System, says pay close attention to the packaging for age recommendations, but he stresses, that shouldn’t be the only deciding factor. “When you’re shopping for a toy, you need to consider all the kids in the house, not just the recipient of that toy,” Orozco says. “Disasters are rare, but there are about a dozen kids a year in the United States that die from a toy, and maybe 250,000 kids who get injured in some way by toys.” It’s crucial to use common sense when buying gifts for children, he says, especially if there are younger siblings in the house.

“We know that the most vulnerable for the catastrophic injuries from choking and ingestion are kids four and under, especially that toddler range where they’re going to be putting things into their mouth,” Orozco says, “and that accounts, unfortunately, for a few deaths every year from choking on a small piece or wrapping or a piece of a toy.” The hazards are different for older children and teenagers, and a full complement of safety gear is a must for many purchases. “Scooters account for most significant injuries. Think of your broken wrists, your bumps, bruises, but also sometimes significant head injuries,” Orozco says. “My advice is to put the safety equipment right with the toy. When you buy a scooter, it should come with a helmet and any other safety equipment that you want used with that item.”

He says agencies like the Consumer Product Safety Commission do a great job of keeping dangerous toys off the shelves, but occasionally, something will slip through. “There were some very powerful magnets that came out, they’re fun, teenagers can use them. They would stick together and if a small child ingested two of them, they could stick together and pin pieces of the intestine together, and their intestines would actually burst as a result of that,” Orozco says. “It’s really rare that something like that makes it onto the market before the dangers are recognized, but it does happen.” Some new toys are still coated with hazardous lead-based paint, typically items being imported from other countries, so beware. Orozco encourages the purchasing of games, balls, and other activity-related toys that get kids outside to play, to stimulate their minds and their bodies.

Gundersen Health System has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.

(Radio Iowa) – The southern part of the state took a little longer to finish up the harvest this year compared to the north. Iowa State Extension field agronomist, Aaron Saeugling covers the southwest corner of the state, and says a wet spring is to blame. “Clearly, a lot of that was delayed planting. We had a pretty good stretch of rain in May, and so I had a lot of corn that was planted the last week of May, in the first two weeks of June, and so that delays harvest.” he says. He says a delay in southern counties has less of an impact that in the north. “We have a longer window in the fall than northern Iowa in terms of harvest. And so occasionally, if you have later higher moisture corn, they’ll kind of hold off combining,” Saeugling says. “So it’s not unusual for us to combine corn at Thanksgiving, and in northern Iowa, that’s they don’t like to do that, because Mother Nature can come.”

Saeugling covers Pottawattamie, Cass, Adair, Mills, Montgomery, Adams, Union, Fremont, Page and Ringgold counties. He says the late start and later harvest didn’t seem to impact harvest results. “You know, ironically, they still pulled some pretty good yields. There were isolated pockets, kind of depending on, you know, when the dry spell came through. I mean, we were, we were in the Drought Monitor at certain parts of the summer,” he says. “So depending if that corn was, you know, silken tasseling at the wrong time, those fields were probably impacted a little more than others, but I have other places that corn yields were exceptionally good.” Northeast Iowa saw a relatively wet summer, but I-S-U field agronomist Terry Basol says things dried out to allow for a quick harvest and dry crops.

“The moisture was low enough so that there wasn’t as much drying needed. That helped the economics, especially considering the lower commodity prices over the past few years. Every little bit certainly helps the growers,” Basol says. Basol says dry weather had a secondary impact as lower river levels impacted shipping. “There’s a fair amount of fertilizer that comes up from the Gulf to Iowa, Minnesota, and the other states along the river, so that’s another thing to keep an eye on, as well,” he says.

This marks the third fall in a row the southern Mississippi has been below average levels.

(Grant Winterer, Iowa Public Radio, contributed to this story.)

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A traffic stop early this (Monday) morning in Montgomery County, resulted in the arrest of a woman from Polk County. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says the stop was conducted at around 12:45-a.m. on Highway 71, near 265th Street. Upon further investigation, Deputies arrested 51-year-old April Michelle Nehls, of Des Moines, for Driving While Barred. Nehls was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

AMES, Iowa (Des Moines Register via KCRG) – An Iowa State University football player was arrested early Sunday morning for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. According to the Des Moines Register, running back Jaylon Jackson was arrested at 2:38 A.M. at 618 South 17th Street on Sunday. This is Jackson’s first O.W.I arrest.

This year Jackson recorded 388 yards and two touchdowns on 93 total carries. He also has seven receptions for 41 yards and one touchdown. During Saturday’s Big 12 championship loss to Arizona State, Jackson recorded 15 yards in four carries.

In a statement, an Iowa State University football spokesperson said “We are aware of the situation and have no further comment at this time.”

Iowa State will take on Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl on December 28th in Orlando, Florida.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa food pantries and food banks could lose a major source of food if the current Farm Bill isn’t extended. Michelle Book is C-E-O of the Food Bank of Iowa, which distributes food to pantries and other feeding organizations in 55 Iowa counties.

“Of 2.5 million pounds that we distributed in November, 1.25 million of that came from USDA,” Book says. “We have 37 trucks that will arrive at the Food Bank of Iowa to unload in December and 24 of those are USDA loads, so it’s critically important that we continue to be supported in that way by the USDA.”

The U-S Department of Agriculture provides about half of the food the Food Bank of Iowa distributes. Book says it’s not only canned fruits and vegetables, but meat, and sometimes fresh produce. “The USDA Commodity Food started in the 1980s with the blocks of orange cheese and today the variety of just astounding,” Book says. “Over the course of my time at the Food Bank of Iowa, we’ve received leg of lamb and white fish, a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables. We get a lot of dairy from the USDA.”

Book, who’s been C-E-O of the Food Bank of Iowa for nearly nine years, says she’s concerned budget-cutting talks in D.C. might lead to a new Farm Bill that provides less emergency food. “That food has proven to be, over the last few years, very healthy, nutritious food. It helps the food banks serve neighbors in need,” Book says. “It also helps our local agricultural producers as well, keeping prices up, but we are concerned that we’ll see a lack of USDA food coming our way in upcoming years.”

Book made her comments during an appearance this weekend on the “Iowa Press” program on Iowa P-B-S.

(Iowa News Service) – A team of scientists at Iowa State University has discovered new ways to use stem cells to treat blood disorders. This advancement in what’s known as “regenerative medicine” could eliminate the need for bone marrow transplants. This discovery essentially gives scientists the ability to stop the body’s so-called biological clock to treat potentially lethal blood diseases.

Iowa State Assistant Genetics Professor Clyde Campbell said scientists now have the ability to inject patients with their own stem cells to fight leukemia, lymphoma, and anemia. “So, the more stem cells we have,” said Campbell, “the better our chances to generate enough tissue to actually be beneficial to patients suffering from certain disorders.” The group’s research was published in the journal Nature Communications in the Fall.

The body develops a lifetime’s worth of stem cells before birth. But Campbell said the Iowa State advancement allows scientists to develop them specifically for therapeutic use, which is new.

A Liquid Nitrogen bank containing suspension of stem cells. Cell culture for the biomedical diagnostic.

He said scientists can now manipulate switches in the body’s biological clock that tell stem cells when to expand and when to stop expanding. “And so,” said Campbell, “now we have the capability of manipulating these switches to generate more stem cells in the laboratory.”

Campbell said now scientists will focus on how to integrate the patient’s lab-grown stem cells into their treatment options, and potentially eliminate the need for painful – and often unsuccessful – bone marrow transplants.

UPDATE 9:30-a.m. 12/9 (Washington County, Iowa) – A pursuit in eastern Iowa Sunday afternoon resulted in a double-fatal, head-on crash. According to Muscatine Police, at approximately 3:15 p.m. the Muscatine Police Department responded to multiple reports of a woman later identified as 36-year-old Brittany Miles, of Cedar Rapids, driving a 2021 Nissan Rogue SUV through Muscatine shooting at people. Officers located the vehicle along Park Avenue and attempted to initiate a traffic stop. Miles refused to yield, and the pursuit lead out of Muscatine along 231st Street, police say.

A Muscatine Police Officer was who involved in the chase lost control of his car and crashed near the Cedar River. According to authorities, the officer sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to a hospital for treatment. The pursuit continued west onto US Highway 218 and was picked up by outside law enforcement agencies. Miles began driving the wrong direction into oncoming traffic and eventually struck a 2017 Ford Explorer head on. The crash occurred at around 3:50-p.m.

Brittany Miles died upon impact. 27-year-old Olivia Alvarez, of Cedar Rapids, who was driving the Ford, died after life-saving measures were performed.

The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by the DNR officers, Washington County EMS, 911, the Medical Examiner’s Office, Riverside Fire/EMS, Ainsworth Fire/EMS, the Louisa County Sheriff’s Office and Muscatine County Sheriff’s Office.

BELLEVUE – The Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources says that on Sunday, December 8th, at approximately 11 a.m., a boat with three occupants capsized below Lock and Dam No. 12 in Bellevue on the Mississippi River. The victims were fishing in a restricted area directly beneath the dam when their boat overturned.

According to preliminary reports, the boat was pulled into the hazardous waters below the dam due to a strong back flow current created by the dam’s operation.  The men were pulled from the water and taken to shore. Emergency responders arrived and administered lifesaving measures, but two were confirmed dead at the scene. One victim was transported by ambulance to the MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center and was later pronounced dead.

The names of the victims are currently being withheld pending notification of their families. The incident is under active investigation. Iowa DNR was assisted by the Jackson County Sheriff, Bellevue Fire & Rescue, Bellevue EMS, Illinois DNR, Key West Fire/EMS, University of Iowa Air Care 3, University of Iowa Air Care 4, Jackson County Emergency Management, and Springbrook Fire/EMS.