(Radio Iowa) – A Chicago-based developer plans to build two wind farms in northwest Iowa. Invenergy says the projects will include more than 80 turbines each in Sac and Ida counties. Nick Matchin, Invenergy’s manager for renewable development, says the locations have easy access to the electrical grid and the area’s stronger winds make it more conducive to wind farms. “It’s simply windier,” Matchin says. “If you’re standing on average in western Iowa, you’re going to find it tends to be windier out. It’s relatively flat compared to other areas of the state.”

Both wind farms are designed to generate at least 200 megawatts of power. The company already operates facilities generating about 15-hundred megawatts of wind energy in the state. Both projects are on track for construction next year. It’s the first project the company has launched in Sac County and it’s second in Ida County. Matchin says they’ve found a lot of willing participants in the region.

Matchin says, “There was still plenty of interest there to be able to put a second project in the county and along with the transmission that goes through it as well as the great wind resource.” The plans call for a wind farm with 85 turbines in Sac County and 81 turbines in Ida County. The projects could be up and running by the end of 2019 or early 2020. Invenergy also has plans to develop a project in eastern Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man being sought in a fatal Des Moines hit-and-run crash has been found. Des Moines police say 32-year-old Anthony McGilvrey was found Tuesday morning, hiding in a Newton residence. Police say McGilvrey was driving his wife’s sport utility vehicle on July 28 when the SUV hit a bicyclist, who later died. He’s been identified as Darrel Ford. Police say the SUV McGilvrey was driving was found abandoned and hidden in a rural area east of Mitchellville.

McGilvrey is charged with driving while barred and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.  His wife, Jennifer McGilvrey, is charged with permitting an unauthorized person to operate a motor vehicle.

A traffic stop in Montgomery County Tuesday evening, resulted in a pursuit with speeds reaching up to 145-miles per hour. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies attempted to stop a 2011 Suzuki motorcycle traveling west on Highway 34 a little after 6-p.m. Tuesday, when the driver – later identified as 49-year old Todd Dean Breeden, of Honey Creek – failed to pull over. The cycle sped-off and continued at a high rate of speed through parts of western Montgomery County and briefly into Mills County, before Breeden wrecked the machine and ran into a corn field.

The man was quickly apprehended and checked out by Red Oak Rescue. He suffered only minor injuries in the crash. Breeden was transported to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where he was charged with Felony Eluding, Possession of a Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine-2nd offense, OWI, and Interference with Official Acts. His cash bond was set at $5,000.

Cass County Democratic Party Chair Sherry Toelle reports Rob Sand, candidate for Iowa State Auditor, and Denise O’Brien, candidate for Iowa House District #21, will be appearing together at the Sweet Joy Shoppe in Atlantic on Wednesday, September 5th, beginning at 4:30 PM.

Rob Sand

Toelle says Sand, a former Assistant Attorney General for the State of Iowa, has spent the past decade fighting public corruption and prosecuting white collar crime. He uncovered and led the prosecution of the nationwide lottery-rigging scheme. He also investigated and prosecuted fraud that was related to Iowa’s film tax credit program. As State Auditor, Toelle says his priority is to protect taxpayers by stopping waste and fraud, actions which will benefit the state economy. He believes that the Auditor’s Office needs to add a law enforcement professional who is unafraid to investigate taxpayer-funded corruption.

Denise O’Brien

Denise O’Brien is a lifelong public servant. She currently runs an organic vegetable farm with her husband. Toelle says O’Brien wants to bring her experience within the rural community to the Iowa State House, believing that there is much more the State Legislature can do for the agricultural community as well as for education, health care, the environment, and water quality.

The public is invited to participate in the Sept. 5th event.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has designated three Iowa counties as natural disaster areas due to severe drought. The USDA says in a statement released Tuesday farmers in Lee, Monroe and Wapello counties who suffered losses due to drought may be eligible for Farm Service Agency emergency loans to meet various recovery needs including replacing equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farming operation or refinance certain debts. Farmers in 11 other Iowa counties also are eligible.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa is challenging city ordinances that prevent homeless people from asking for money in public places saying the local laws are unconstitutional. The ACLU of Iowa says it sent on Tuesday formal demand letters to Council Bluffs, Des Moines, and Grimes insisting that they repeal their bans on panhandling. It’s part of a larger effort with other organizations to notify cities in 12 states that such ordinances are unconstitutional.

WOODWARD, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa school district official accused of embezzling nearly $217,000 over the course of several years has been arrested on first-degree theft charges. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says 35-year-old Melissa Lee Lantz turned herself in Tuesday at the Dallas County Jail and later was released on bond. The arrest follows a state audit that found that Lantz had cut herself 101 unauthorized checks over a five-year period.

VINTON, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa couple who kept hundreds of animals in and outside their home have been given two years of probation for child endangerment. Benton County court records say 36-year-old Marshall Galkowski and 38-year-old Barbara Galkowski pleaded guilty. Among the probation terms are limits on how many animals they can have in their Vinton home: fish, one dog, two cats and up to an additional six small animals inside the residence in a properly maintained cage.