DECORAH, Iowa (AP) — An August trial is scheduled for a northeast Iowa woman accused of hitting and starving her 3-year-old daughter. Court records say 28-year-old Monica Flores, of rural Cresco, entered a written plea of not guilty Tuesday to a charge of child endangerment. Her trial is set to begin Aug. 29th. Authorities say the little girl had bruising on her neck, torso and legs and was malnourished.

Creston Police report two men were arrested Thursday on separate Driving While Suspended charges. 24-year old Cody Joseph Parmenter, of Creston, was arrested at around 3:45-p.m., and 37-year old Briankeith Andre Whitfield, of Creston, was arrested at 6:40-p.m.  Both men were being held in the Union County Jail on a $300 bond, each.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A convicted Nebraska sex offender has been given 15 years in an Iowa prison for taking video of a college student showering in a residence hall. Authorities say 30-year-old Zachary Person was sentenced Wednesday in Sioux City. He’d pleaded guilty to burglary and invasion of privacy. Prosecutors say he took the video March 1, 2017, in a bathroom at Morningside College’s Dimmitt Hall.

The Sioux City Journal reports that in return for Person’s pleas, prosecutors dropped charges related to separate attacks that occurred Feb. 12, 2017, on another woman at Morningside College and on a woman at a Sioux City hotel. Nebraska records say Person, from Norfolk, was sentenced in October to 15 to 20 years for trying to assault a woman in Omaha. The Nebraska Sex Offender Registry says he’d also been convicted of sex crimes in 2012 and 2016.

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Motor Vehicle Enforcement officers will participate in the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Alliance’s Operation Safe Driver Week July 16-20 at various locations around the state. This initiative is aimed at identifying unsafe driving behaviors by commercial motor vehicle drivers and those drivers of other vehicles operating around the commercial motor vehicles. The events will be held in Council Bluffs, Mason City, Iowa City, Davenport, Des Moines, Sioux City and the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area. During each event, officers will be issuing citations and warnings to those drivers in an effort to reduce crashes caused by dangerous driving behaviors.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, more than 94 percent of all crashes can be attributed to some form of driver error. MVE Chief David Lorenzen said, “With these events, we’re actively seeking out those drivers who pose a danger on the road.”  Examples of dangerous driver behaviors that enforcement personnel will be tracking throughout Operation Safe Driver Week are speeding, distracted driving, texting, failure to use a seatbelt while operating a CMV or in a passenger vehicle, following too closely, improper lane change, failure to obey traffic control devices, etc.

Operation Safe Driver Week is sponsored by CVSA, in partnership with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and with support from industry and transportation safety organization.

Adair County Deputy Auditor Sandy Mitchell, Thursday, reported that County Offices on the November 6th General Election ballot, will include: Supervisor District 2NE; Supervisor District 4SE; Treasurer; Recorder; Attorney, and one clerk and two trustees for the Richland and Washington Townships. The candidate filing dates with the Auditor’s Office are Monday, August 6th through Wednesday, August 29th. Candidate packets are available in the Auditor’s Office or at the Secretary of State’s website www.sos.ia.org.

Fred Hubbell, the Democratic candidate for governor, visited four farms this week and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds went to two farms in northwest Iowa yesterday (Thursday) — as both candidates emphasize the financial impact of President Trump’s tariffs. Reynolds says she told Vice President Pence when he was in Iowa on Wednesday that farmers need to see “some positive things happening.” “Nobody wins in a trade war and it’s important that we get something done and that our farmers and producers and manufacturers see some movement,” Reynolds said. “This is having a devastating impact on Iowa farmers and we’re really interested on growing markets, not contracting them.”

Hubbell says Iowa livestock producers already have lost half a billion dollars because of the trade disputes with China, Mexico and Canada. “You look at the crops in the field, corn and soybeans today, if they came out at today’s prices, they’re all losing money,” Hubbell says, “and I don’t think it makes sense to hold Iowa farmers, Iowa families, rural Iowa to be the victims of a trade war that didn’t need to happen.” Hubbell says Reynolds should quit “talking behind closed doors” with Trump Administration officials. “When I talk to farmers, they don’t know what she’s doing. They don’t hear her saying anything. They don’t see her doing much. She should be holding press conferences,” Hubbell said. “She should be going together will other governors that have the same problem that Iowa does.”

Reynolds says Vice President Pence assured her during their discussion Wednesday that real progress is being made on NAFTA negotiations. “We need movement. We need something done. We want to support him in his negotiations, but this can’t linger on, especially as we move into August and we’ve got farmers that are trying to sell beans that they have stored…before they go into harvest.” Reynolds says Iowa farmers know China has taken advantage of the U.S. and something needs to change, but she says the tariffs are having a negative impact. Hubbell says President Trump should have opted for diplomacy or an appeal to the World Trade Organization rather than imposing tariffs.

(Radio Iowa)