The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest Friday of a Red Oak man.  At 10:30am Officers arrested 26-year-old Devon Keith Hale for Public Intoxication, a simple misdemeanor. Hale was arrested in the 700 block of East Knuckols Street. He was taken to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on $300 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge has ruled that the details of “shadow insurance” subsidiaries created by several life insurers can remain confidential. Indiana University professor emeritus Joseph Belth sought the documents last year under Iowa’s open records law, saying he believes they would expose risky financial practices that could bankrupt some insurers.

Judge Lawrence McLellan sided Thursday with the industry and state regulators, saying the documents are part of the companies’ “plans of operations” and exempt from disclosure. Companies such as TransAmerica have taken advantage of an Iowa law to transfer billions of dollars in liabilities to subsidiaries. Insurers say the arrangements free them from accounting rules mandating that they hold excess cash reserves.

Belth is seeking copies of the financial guarantees the companies made to their subsidiaries, saying policyholders and shareholders should know whether they’re sound.

Several individuals filed nomination papers for the City Elections in Cass County, today (Friday). According to the Cass County Auditor’s Office the following submitted papers and will have their names on their respective city ballots:

Julianne M Adams-Griswold City Council

Mark Harris-Anita City Council

Rick Sanny-Lewis City Council

Kathy Somers-Atlantic Ward 2 City Council (Incumbent)

Brad A Rhine-Griswold Mayor

There’s less than a week to go now before the filing deadline (Sept. 21st at 5-p.m.)

A traffic stop on Highway 71 near 130th Street in Audubon County at around 1-a.m. today (Friday) resulted in the arrest of two people on drug charges. According to the Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, 39-year old Nancy Beth Nelson, and 30-year old Dustin Douglas Williams, both of Audubon, were taken into custody.

Nelson was charged with: Intent to Deliver Methamphetamine over 5 grams: Possession Marijuana; 3 counts of Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drugs; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, No Insurance and Insufficient number of headlights. Williams was charged with Intent to Deliver Methamphetamine over 5 grams, Possession Marijuana, and two counts of Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Nelson and Williams were transported to the Audubon County Jail and held. K-9 Axel assisted at the scene and detected narcotics in the vehicle. The incident remains under investigation.

A businessman and farmer from Atlantic received notice Thursday that was nominated to be a Member of the Farm Credit Administration Board, Farm Credit Administration.

Glen R. Smith (Photo courtesy Fischer Photography)

The nomination of Glen R. Smith, of Atlantic, was announced Thursday by the White House Press Secretary. The nomination has been sent to the U-S Senate for confirmation, and Smith will appear before the Senate Ag Committee later this Fall for a hearing, prior to any action on approval.

Smith is currently the President of Smith Land Service, Co., and owner/operator of a corn and soybean farm in western Iowa, in partnership with his wife Fauzan and son, Peter. He told KJAN News the process of being nominated began “By happenstance.”

After a brief conversation with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, Smith said his curiosity led him to apply to the Trump transition team website. It wasn’t long afterward that he was called to Washington, D-C and interviewed at the White House at the end of April.

He says they called back in May and “Passed the mustard,” as far as receiving clearance checks in July. Since then, he’s been waited for word on whether or not he would be nominated.

If he is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, Smith will serve on an advisory policy and rates Board for the Farm Credit Administration, an independent Federal agency that regulates and examines the banks, associations, and related entities of the Farm Credit System (FCS).  FCS is the largest agricultural lender in the U-S, and is a nationwide network of lending institutions that are owned by their borrowers. It serves all 50 states, and Puerto Rico.

The advisory Board members, Smith says, typically serve a six-year term, but he would be filling the term of a board member who died in March. Therefore his term would expire 2022. If he is appointed, Smith says he’ll need to make accommodations for himself and his family in Washington, D-C. 

(That includes trying to find a residence there, along the lines of a modest condominium or apartment. They will continue to maintain their home in Atlantic.)

The former Navy Seal most often credited with killing Osama Bin-Laden was in northwest Iowa Thursday night. Robert O’Neill told the crowd gathered at the 32nd Annual Siouxland Chamber of Commerce Banquet that he took part in roughly 400 combat missions, but the one most people are interested in hearing about is the May 2011 shooting of the founder of al-Qaeda. “That one sunk in right away, not because we got (Bin-Laden), but because we lived,” O’Neill said. “It’s never not interesting to go through that one.”

Bin-Laden was said to be the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S. that killed nearly 3,000 people. The 41-year-old O’Neill recalled meeting family members of 9/11 victims. “Everyone was crying, people with heads in their hands, and they told me ‘there will be no closure for 9/11, but this helps with the healing – a real face and a real name, someone who was there and saw (Bin-Laden dead), there’s no conspiracy about it.’ That’s when I started to realize if I can help this many people in this room, I could help thousands,” O’Neill said.

Robert O’Neill in Sioux City

In his book, “The Operator,” O’Neill wrote about the Bin-Laden mission and others he was involved in – including the 2005 rescue of Navy Seal Marcus Luttrell. O’Neill told the group in Sioux City the lessons learned in his combat training can be applied to business and everyday life.  “Even if I had a decision already made when I was a team leader, I would always ask for input from others anyway, to make sure they knew they were apart it,” O’Neill said. “I talk a lot about stress management and how stress is in your mind, it’s a choice and you can drop it anytime you want. You can only get as stressed as you allow yourself.”

O’Neill joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 19, one year after graduating from high school in Butte, Montana. He left the Navy in 2012 and now works as a public speaker.

(Radio Iowa)

An Army veteran from central Iowa has embarked on a journey to run across the state — from west to east — as a way of drawing attention to veteran suicide and P-T-S-D. Josh Jorgensen left Council Bluffs on Thursday and plans to spend ten days running the 330 miles to Burlington. Jorgenson, who’s from Adel, is a member of Team Fidelis, a national group that’s working to end the epidemic of veteran suicide.

Jorgensen says, “I found this to be a way to raise awareness for our organization and also to reach out to the veterans themselves who maybe don’t think there’s a finish line there, that are struggling at the moment.”

Jorgensen, who served in Iraq as a member of the 101st Airborne, says he’s been planning the run for more than a year but was thrown a curve ball when he was told he had to have open heart surgery six months ago. “I wasn’t going to let that be a barrier if it didn’t have to be,” he says. “When I got wheeled in to my operation, I told the doctor, ‘Hey, make sure I get off the table and I’ll do the rest.'”

While he knew he could postpone the run because of the surgery, he decided to go ahead with it as the cause is so important to him. To further challenge himself, Jorgensen is making the border-to-border run across Iowa while wearing a military-issued gas mask which covers his entire face. He says the mask helps him to start conversations about veteran suicide and P-T-S-D.

“We can create the awareness of the help that we’re trying to get for other veterans and the struggles they’re going through,” he says. He plans to run about 33 miles a day across Iowa and should reach the Mississippi River next weekend. (More info. at www.teamfidelis.org)

(Radio Iowa)