An Atlantic woman already facing numerous charges associated with allegedly lying about her daughter’s terminal cancer, faces a new charge. According to online court records, Atlantic Police on Friday (today) filed a 1st Degree Theft charge against 30-year old Leatha Kaye Slauson.

The theft charge is with regard to the fundraising efforts she initiated for the medical care of her 5-year old daughter, Riley, whom Slauson claimed had cancer that was being treated by oral chemotherapy. An investigation however revealed the girl did not have such an illness, and that her symptoms were instead allegedly manufactured by Leatha Slauson administering cannabis oil and Neupogen, to make her appear ill.

Several fundraisers both locally and on the internet, raised about $25,000 for medical expenses, and to send the family on a trip to Disney World. In addition to the Theft charge, Slauson faces of two counts of Child Endangerment causing Bodily Injury, one count distributing drugs to a person under the age of 18, two counts of administering harmful substances, two counts of domestic abuse assault, and 10 counts of unlawful possession of a prescription drug or device.

Her Preliminary Hearing is set to take place September 22. A Pretrial Conference on October 13th, and her trial has been scheduled for November 12th. Slauson remains in the Cass County Jail on $35,000 bond.

RED OAK, Iowa (AP) — A man and a woman have been accused of threatening to kill three Montgomery County sheriff’s deputies in southwest Iowa. The Daily Nonpareil reports 25-year-old Mike Andrew Lawson, of Red Oak, and 24-year-old Justine Sheree Powers, of College Springs, were arrested Thursday on three counts each of threat of terrorism. Their attorneys did not respond immediately to messages left Friday.

Authorities say Lawson and Powers threatened the deputies on Aug. 29, though additional information has not been released. A criminal complaint says the pair also told one deputy they would blow up his house and hurt his family.

Lawson and Powers remain at the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing for both is set for Sept. 15.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) selected the name Omaha National Cemetery for the national cemetery that VA will construct in the Omaha region. Robert A. McDonald, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, said “The Veterans of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa deserve a final resting place worthy of their service to our nation.” The VA purchased the Sarpy County land located along South 144th St. (Highway 50), at 14250 Schram Road for $6 million in December 2012. The cemetery will serve more than 112,000 Veterans in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa not currently served with an open national, state or tribal Veterans cemetery within 75 miles of their residence.

In fall 2014, the VA plans to award a design/build construction contract to complete the remaining cemetery design work and construct the cemetery. The  VA anticipates that the initial phase of the design/build project will take 2 to 2 ½ years to complete and develop approximately 35 acres of land for approximately 5,500 interment sites. The project will also incorporate memorial walls to commemorate those whose remains are not available for interment.

In addition to the gravesite development, construction will include access roads, an entrance area, a flag/assembly area, committal shelters; an administration building/public information center with electronic gravesite locator, public restrooms, a memorial walkway, a maintenance complex and more.

National cemeteries are named based on the geographic area in which the cemetery is located. VA relies on local Veterans and community leaders to submit name suggestions. Of the names submitted, “Omaha National Cemetery” best met VA’s naming criteria and is consistent with the requirements specified in United States Code requiring VA property, including national cemeteries, to be named for the geographic area in which the facility is located.

Veterans with a qualifying discharge, their spouses and eligible dependent children may be buried in a VA national cemetery. Also eligible are military personnel who die on active duty, their spouses and eligible dependents. Other burial benefits available for all eligible Veterans, regardless of whether they are buried in a national cemetery or a private cemetery, include a burial flag, a Presidential Memorial Certificate and a Government headstone or marker.

Information on VA burial benefits can be obtained from national cemetery offices, from the Internet at http://www.cem.va.gov, or by calling VA regional offices toll-free at 800-827-1000. To make burial arrangements at any VA national cemetery at the time of need, call the National Cemetery Scheduling Office at 800-535-1117.

CLARION, Iowa (AP) — A jury has found a man guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a Rockwell City police officer last year. The Des Moines Register reports the jury returned the verdict Friday in the case of 33-year-old Corey Trott. Jurors reached a consensus after less than two hours of deliberations in the trial.

Authorities say Trott shot 37-year-old Jamie Buenting during a standoff at Trott’s house in September 2013. Officers were trying to arrest Trott after an alleged assault. Buenting was near a house window when he was shot.

Trott did not testify during the trial, but jurors heard a taped interview where he expressed no regret in shooting a law enforcement officer.

Two southwest Iowa residents were arrested Thursday evening on three counts each, of Threat of Terrorism. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says 25-year old Mike Andrew Lawson, Jr.,  and 24-year old Justine Sheree Powers, both of College Springs, were taken into custody at around 7:10-p.m.  The pair were originally arrested by deputies in Page County on the same date. Lawson, Jr. & Powers were being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $10,000 cash only bond, each.

Details of the investigation are currently limited, because the incident or incidents leading to the arrests are still under investigation.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office extends its thanks to the Red Oak Police Department, Page County Sheriff’s Office and Nodaway County, MO., Sheriff’s Office, for their assistance.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court says law students in Iowa should continue to take the bar exam before being admitted to practice law in the state. Chief Justice Mark Cady issued an order Friday saying the court will take no further action on the recommendation from the Iowa State Bar Association, which had suggested changes in admission procedures for lawyers.

The association, whose membership includes about 90 percent of the state’s lawyers, suggested Iowa do away with the bar exam for graduates of the University of Iowa and Drake University law schools who wish to practice in Iowa.

Currently Wisconsin is the only other state that offers the so-called diploma privilege.

There are more than 230 farmer’s markets across Iowa and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is hoping four new postage stamps will help keep those farmer’s markets on people’s minds. “A lot of folks have talked about the benefits of farmers markets and that’s certainly true. This postage stamp will give us the opportunity to focus on those benefits,” Vilsack said at a recent ceremony at a farmer’s market near the White House to celebrate the release of the new stamps. The former Iowa governor said the stamps are coming out at a great time, as farmers markets are very popular these days.

(Image courtesy US Postal Service)

“We’ve seen a dramatic increase in farmers markets across the United States, a 76-percent increase,” Vilsack said. “Today, we have over 8,268 markets throughout the United States.” The artist who created the stamps is Robin Moline of Lakeland, Minnesota. The stamps feature images of fruits, vegetables, eggs, cheese, baked goods, and cut flowers. “They show some of what you can get there and the freshness and the spirit of the market,” Moline said. “They’re a community gathering spot. They’re a wonderful place to get good, fresh food, and you get to meet your farmers.”

A recent survey found Iowa had about $38 million worth of direct sales at farmers markets, creating an impact of $71 million on the state’s economy.

directory of Iowa farmer’s markets:
https://www.idalsdata.org/fmnp/index.cfm?fuseaction=main.formFarmersMarketDirectory

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Union County say the driver of a pickup truck was injured when the vehicle went out of control Thursday night and rolled into a ditch. 49-year old Paul Burdett Pals, of Orient, was transported to the Greater Regional Hospital in Creston following the accident, which occurred at around 9:15-p.m. on Highway 25.
Authorities say Pals’ 2006 northbound Chevy Silverado pickup went off the road onto the shoulder and the veered across the southbound lane of Highway 25 before entering the west ditch, hitting a fence and ending up in a soybean field.

Officials with the State of Nebraska and the University of Nebraska say treating a doctor who contracted Ebola in Africa at an Omaha hospital poses no health risk to the public. Dr. Joseph Acierno  is director of the Nebraska Department of Health.  “Considering the way the facility has been designed, considering the expertise we have with that facility, considering our partners, we believe any risk is minimal and we think there shouldn’t be fear, but we understand there will be fear,” Acierno says. “We stand ready to answer those questions.”

Dr. Rick Sacra, the patient, went on a mission trip to Liberia in August to work in a hospital there. He got a fever last Friday and was diagnosed with Ebola early this week. Sacra was driven by ambulance to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha after landing a little after 6 a.m. today (Friday) at Offutt Air Force Base, just south of Omaha.

Dr. Phil Smith is director of the “biocontainment” unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where Sacra is being treated. “It’s likely that we’re going to continue to see people like this,” Smith  says. “They want to test the capacity of different places and have more than one facility on call.” Jeffery Gold, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, says staff at the hospital have been preparing for this type of situation for “a very long time.”   “Not only will this patient receive world-class care,” Gold says, ” but all of our patients, students, faculty and staff will be completely protected during this entire episode of care.”

During this Ebola outbreak in west Africa, 36-hundred people have fallen ill and more than half of them have died. Sacra is a family practice doctor who was volunteering in the obstetrics unit of a hospital in Liberia. Two other American medical missionaries were flown back to the U.S. and treated at an Atlanta hospital’s isolation unit. They have both been released. The unit at Emory University in Atlanta, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland and the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Montana operate containment units that are similar to the one in Omaha.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Lenox arrested a man Thursday night who was wanted on a warrant for Failure to Appear in Court. Officers took 21-year old German Phillip Rodriguez, of Lenox, into custody at around 11-p.m. at his place of employment.

German P. Rodriguez.

Rodriguez was wanted for failure to appear on an original charge of assault causing injury. He was transported to the Taylor County Jail where he was being held without bond, pending an appearance before the magistrate.