INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — The state has told Warren County officials they must closed their troubled county jail by Feb. 2nd. The Iowa Corrections Department said in a notice issued Thursday that the state order “is the result of years of ongoing issues with the jail facility.” Among its problems: failing a state fire marshal’s inspection, inadequate water supplies, inmate escapes, mold, inadequate food storage, cleanliness. The jail is on the third floor of the county courthouse in Indianola.

Iowa’s chief jail inspector had warned the county supervisors the state would close the jail if the county did not set a bond referendum vote by Jan. 31 to pay for renovations or a new structure. The board was expected to set a May 2 bond vote, but the item was removed from Tuesday’s agenda.

The Creston Police Department says a resident of the 600 block of W. Montgomery Street reported Thursday evening, that someone apparently tried to break into his home. The man said his front door had been kicked in breaking the deadbolt and damaging the door frame. The damage amounted to about $200.

A bill to ease the penalty for first-time possession of a small amount of marijuana has cleared a Republican-led subcommittee in the Iowa Senate. Being caught with an amount of pot that’s five grams or less would be a simple misdemeanor if the bill becomes law. Republican Senator Brad Zaun of Urbandale says that kind of a youthful indiscretion is penalized too harshly under current law. “This charge follows these younger people or these adults that make these decisions which ruins, I think, their opportunities with jobs and employment,” Zaun says.

The bill cleared a three-member senate subcommittee Thursday, then it faces review in a full Senate committee. A similar bill cleared the Iowa Senate three years ago when Democrats held a majority of seats. Republicans now occupy 29 of the 50 seats in the state senate and Zaun is aware of the opposition from other Republicans. “I know this is an uphill climb,” Zaun says.

A recent analysis from the American Civil Liberties Union found that while the same percentages of whites and blacks use marijuana, black Iowans are eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa woman who worked for the Child Saving Institute in Omaha has been accused of having sex with a teenage boy who was staying at the institute’s shelter. Douglas County, NE., prosecutor Brenda Beadle says 23-year-old Hanna Dickerson, of Neola, will be charged today (Friday) with sexual abuse of a dependent.

The boy is a ward of the state who turned 17 in July. He said in an August interview that he and Dickerson engaged in sex several times in July and August. An institute spokeswoman has declined to describe Dickerson’s job duties. Dickerson’s no longer employed there.