The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says four people were arrested Wednesday, and one person was arrested early this (Thursday) morning. 33-year old Gaylene Yvonne Laate, of Glenwood, was arrested at around 2:20-this (Thursday) morning, for Public Intoxication and Interference with Official Acts. Her bond was set at $600. Wednesday evening, 33-year old Christopher Allen Lundgren, of Red Oak, was arrested on a Warrant for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was taken into custody at the Mills/Montgomery County line and held on a $300 bond.

Wednesday afternoon, 29-year old Damingo Dupree Burks, of Omaha, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office for Assault Causing Bodily Injury. His bond was set at $1,000. And, 31-year old Brian Robert Vanderpool was arrested on a warrant for 2nd Degree Theft. His bond was set at $5,000. Wednesday morning, 31-year old Jessica Rose Minor, of Plattsmouth, NE, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office on a warrant for Failure to Appear on a Citation. Her bond was set at $1000.

Atlantic City Council Members were led on a tour of the new Elite Octane Ethanol Plant on Wednesday night by Elite Octane President and CEO Nick Bowdish. The dry mill ethanol plant intends to begin operating near full capacity sometime next week.

The plant is very visible on the north side of Atlantic due to its two 156-foot in diameter, 150-foot tall Sukup corn storage bins. Each bin (which Sukup says can encase a 757) has the capacity for 2 million bushels for a total corn storage capacity of 4 million bushels. Mr. Bowdish talked about the supporting structure of those bins.

One of the first stops on the tour was the corn-receiving area near those large bins. One of the highlights of the operation is the speed and efficiency of the grain dumping process.

The corn that is received goes through a grinding process to create a flour for the first part of the ethanol making process which Bowdish explained.

After the starches are converted to sugar, Bowdish said the process becomes akin to brewing beer.

Further processing separates the alcohol from the dry distillers grain and water. The dry distillers grain is sold as livestock feed around the world. The plant also yields some corn oil that is mostly sold to bio-diesel plants to use in their process.  The ethanol eventually has to be blended with 2% gasoline to comply with federal regulations and prevent the alcohol from being used in other ways.

Bowdish thanked the council for their work in helping get the gray water project completed to the plant. He said that water will supply all of the cooling needs for the plant and will cut down the use of fresh water that a normal plant would use by about 2/3. He said due to new FDA regulations they will have to use wells for the water that contacts the grain.

During the process the only product emitted out of the stack from the plant will be water vapor.

Bowdish addressed concerns about odor coming from the plant saying he doesn’t expect there to be much that is noticeable but will let the public decide for themselves.

The plant has the holding capacity for 6 million gallons of ethanol which Bowdish said is about 15 days of production for the plant.

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Republican Senator Joni Ernst is calling for a senate hearing “on E-P-A Administrator Scott Pruitt’s scandals.” Ernst says she appreciates “some” of the regulatory changes Pruitt has made. “But I’ve got some real heartburn over the fact that he has been undermining the RFS,” Ernst said. “I’ve called him a liar. What he put on paper to me, he is not standing by.” Pruitt served as attorney general in oil-rich Oklahoma and Ernst says he has repeatedly failed to follow through on the president’s promises on the federal ethanol production mandate. Ernst opposes the so-called “hardship” waivers Pruitt recently has granted, exempting oil refineries from the federal requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline.  “He’s got a long ways to go to repair any damage he’s done in our relationship,” Ernst said, “what little there was.”

According to Ernst, Pruitt “is about as swampy” as it gets. “He is swampy and we’re trying to drain the swamp, right? Ernst asked rhetorically. “So even outside of the RFS and the fact that we do not agree on the RFS, there are a lot of other transgressions out there that Scott Pruitt has had that the American taxpayer does not appreciate.”

The Washington Post reported Pruitt asked E-P-A staff and political donors to find his wife a job, That prompted Republicans like Ernst to call on Pruitt to testify before the senate about those actions, as well as his lavish office spending, first-class travel and private security paid for by taxpayers.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials with MidAmerican Energy report one person died and another was injured during an accident near Emerson, Wednesday. According to MidAmerican Spokesman Geoff Greenwood, the accident involved private contractors working for the company to restore power. Greenwood released a statement saying the crews were working to repair storm damage when the accident occurred. The names of the victims weren’t immediately released, and the incident remains under investigation. Greenwood said the company was heartbroken by what transpired, and that their thoughts are with the family and friends of both linemen.

Reports say more than 4,000 people in MidAmerican’s coverage area lost power during peak of the storms, Monday. Power to those residences and/or businesses had been restored since then.

ROCKFORD, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa man was driving through a storm when his truck was lifted in the air and carried into a farm field. The Globe Gazette reports that 22-year-old Parker Brumm left Rockford on Saturday before the storm became severe to visit a friend in Nora Springs. Brumm says conditions worsened so he decided to turn back, but the storm lifted his vehicle off the ground before he could return home.
Rockford volunteer firefighters Corey Johnson and Jim Moore spotted Brumm’s truck in the air. The pair helped Brumm to safety once his truck hit the ground. Moore estimates that the storm carried the truck about 50 feet. The National Weather Service says it can’t confirm tornado activity in Rockford Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve King is a Republican congressman from Iowa who’s a hard-liner on immigration with a penchant for making racially charged comments. Now he’s facing heat for sharing a Twitter post by a Nazi sympathizer from Britain. Mark Collett posted a screenshot of a Breitbart.com story citing opinion in Italy on immigration, where the new government recently refused to admit a vessel carrying African migrants. Collett is a self-described admirer of Adolf Hitler and is active in the digital “alt-right.”

King retweeted the post and added: “‘Europe is waking up … Will America … in time?” King has stirred controversy with previous anti-immigrant comments such as a tweet last year that said, “We can’t restore our civilization with somebody else’s babies.”

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (AP) — A jury has awarded $29.5 million to the family of a northwest Iowa woman who died after she had an allergic reaction to a dye she was given for a medical scan. The Sioux County jury made the negligence award Wednesday to the family of 40-year-old Carrie DeJongh. She died June 9, 2015, after receiving the dye at Sioux Center Health in Sioux Center.

Her attorney Nicholas Rowley says DeJongh went into anaphylactic shock and lost consciousness upon receiving the contrast dye for a CT scan. Rowley says Dr. Roy Slice gave her an antihistamine drug but didn’t immediately take her vital signs or administer epinephrine, which could have countered her shock. The doctor and Sioux Center Health denied the negligence allegations.

The monthly Healthy Cass County meeting was held Monday, June 11 at Cass County Memorial Hospital. The group watched a documentary titled ”Wasted – The Story of Food Waste,” which was followed with a short discussion led by Lora Kanning, Cass County Naturalist. Additionally, walking maps for each community in Cass County have been printed and will be distributed in each town, soon. If businesses would like to have their town walking routes on display, please contact Public Health at (712) 243-7552 for copies.

Healthy Cass County would like to remind all residents of the Urgent Need Community Resource Guide, which is reviewed and updated at a minimum bi-annually. The guide is available online at the Public Health, Healthy Cass County and Cass County Extension websites for easy access to the latest version. For more information on local health and wellness events or resources, follow the Healthy Cass County Facebook page.