The Creston Police Department reports 46-year old Dennis Green, of Creston, was arrested at around 11:35-p.m. Wednesday. Green was arrested at his residence on a Union County warrant for OWI/3rd offense. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

Atlantic Fire was dispatched this (Thursday) morning, to a report of a semi on fire at the westbound 57-mile marker (Olive Street) on-ramp. The rig was hauling peanut butter. The driver of the semi evacuated safely. Reports indicated the drive wheels near the fuel tank were on fire. The call came in just before 6:15-a.m. The fire was reported out at 6:41-a.m. Fire officials said a mechanical issue caused the tires to overheat. The trailer was separated from the tractor portion of the semi and the fire extinguished. No injuries were reported, and the cab of the tractor was undamaged.

The president of the board that oversees the three state universities is promising tuition for Iowa residents will go up NO MORE than four percent in the next academic year. Board of Regents president Michael Richards acknowledges that’s less than what the presidents of the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa recommended.  “Our job is to come up with what the families in the state of Iowa can live with,” Richards told reporters, Wednesday.  Richards testified at the state capitol Wednesday, asking legislators for more STATE support of the three public universities. “The exceptional quality at our institutions has taken generations to build and it is imperative that we work together to continue the progress made by those that came before us.”

The presidents of the three universities asked legislators to at least stabilize state support of the schools. Iowa State University president Wendy Wintersteen says tuition rates have been the same for seven out of the last 12 semesters, while state support of I-S-U “is trending down significantly.” “We’ve stretched the university too thin. Our faculty and staff are maxed out,” she said. “With strong enrollment and declining state support, we are tipping the balance between efficiency, education quality and accessibility.”

University of Iowa president Bruce Harreld told lawmakers his school is “under-resourced.” “What is quite clear is that if we do not establish a plan for stable resources which are necessary to improve our quality, Iowans will be forced to pay non-resident tuition at Michigan or Wisconsin or Minnesota in order to obtain the quality they demand and deserve,” Harreld said.  University of Northern Iowa president Mark Nook says each university has “very different missions.” “The State of Iowa really got the university systems right. There are only three institutions. We have not overbuilt our infrastructure,” Nook, a native of Holstein, Iowa, told legislators. “It allows us to adequately fund our universities, if we choose to do that.”

The three universities are asking legislators for 12 million dollars in new state money next year exclusively for student financial aid. House Appropriations Committee chairman Pat Grassley told the presidents legislators want more information about efficiencies at the universities before making a decision about state funding.

(Radio Iowa)

AMES, Iowa (AP) — The Ames district plans to begin including students in school shooter safety drills. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that district officials have not included students in past drills for fear the drills might be traumatizing. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Florida, changed the Ames officials’ minds: Their students must be ready for anything.

The school district works with the Ames Police Department to provide what’s known as A.L.I.C.E. training: alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate.