TYNDALL, S.D. (AP) – An Iowa man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for assaulting a South Dakota police officer with his vehicle. Thirty-seven-year-old Travis McPeek, of Sioux City, Iowa, was accused of striking Tyndall Police Officer Kelly Young with his vehicle during a traffic stop on Aug. 6, 2016, dragging him across a parking lot and driving away. He was arrested in Arizona two months later.

Young suffered broken ribs, cuts, bruises and an injured foot. He was out of work for a month. He tells The Daily Republic that he still struggles with physical and emotional injuries.

A jury last month convicted McPeek of aggravated assault against a law officer, and he was sentenced this week to prison and ordered to pay more than $14,000 in restitution.

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A judge has decided the trials won’t be moved out of Polk County for the adoptive parents of a West Des Moines teenager who officials say was starved to death. Court records say Judge Karen Romano ruled Monday that Nicole Finn and Joseph Finn II have not sufficiently shown that pretrial publicity has ruined any chance for fair trials in Polk County.

Nicole Finn is charged with murder and other charges in the death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn. Her trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 23. Joseph Finn II is charged with kidnapping, neglect or abandonment and child endangerment. His trial is set to begin Nov. 27.

The judge says she’ll reconsider her ruling if it becomes apparent that further pretrial publicity will prevent fair Polk County trials for both.

Four people were arrested on separate Union County warrants, Tuesday. The Creston Police Department reports 24-year old Rebecca Holbrook, of Lenox, who was being held in the Ringgold County Jail, was served with two Union County warrants charging her with Unauthorized Use of a Credit Card (Under $2,000), and Trespassing/1st offense. Holbrook remains in the Ringgold County Jail on a $7,300 bond.

24-year old Kevin Davis, of Creston, was arrested at around 5:50-p.m., Tuesday on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear (in court) on a Possession of Controlled Substance/1st offense, charge. Davis was also charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance at the time of his arrest. Bond was set at $1,000.

Arrested at around 11:10-a.m. Tuesday, in Creston, was 45-year old Jason Miller, of Creston. Miller was arrested on a Union County warrant for Controlled Substance Violation. He was later released from the Union County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

And, 54-year old Timothy Fechter, of Creston, was arrested at around 10:20-a.m. Tuesday at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Union County warrant for Violation of Parole related to previous charges of Attempted Burglary/2nd degree, and Burglary/3rd degree. Fechter remains held in the Union County Jail without bond.

The Iowa Department of Transportation took action at its meeting Tuesday in Shenandoah, to single out some sections of Highway 30 as priority projects. D-O-T spokesman Craig Markley says there are four specific segments of the highway. “They are the Missouri Valley bypass and then the stretch of U-S 30 from Ogden to Jefferson, from Lisbon to Stanwood, and then from Calamus to Dewitt,” Markley says. “They did consider and action to add those as priority corridors and that action was approved.”

Commissioner David Rose of Clinton requested the vote on the Highway 30 corridors. Markley says “There’s no commitment behind this action for future programming, all it is is an identification of what hey want to keep track of and prioritize for future consideration,” Markley explains. “We’ve had projects in the past that were identified as priority corridors that ultimately didn’t get approved. And then obviously we’ve had a lot of corridors that haven’t been identified as priority corridors that have been approved.”

Markley says it is a designation that has been used many times in the past. “Past priority corridors have included U-S 20, U-S 61 and then also other sections of U-S 30. For example, the Mt. Vernon-Lisbon bypass and the stretch of U-S 30 in Tama and Benton County both have been identified as priority corridors in the past — and both are under construction as we speak,” according to Markley.

The next step for a section of highway that’s designated a priority corridor would be to go onto the five-year construction plan that’s updated annually. Markley says that would be when the commission would take binding action to program the corridor for construction funding. He says it may not be next five-year program, but as they consider future programs that would be when they might be put in for construction funds.

(Radio Iowa)

A 29-year-old Minnesota man now faces criminal charges for a weekend car crash in Minnesota that claimed the life of an Iowa woman. Brandon Patrick Dellwo, of Shakopee, is accused of criminal vehicular homicide. According to the complaint, Dellwo was driving drunk and going the wrong way on Highway 19 near Lonsdale in Rice County around midnight Sunday morning when his SUV hit a car head-on. The car’s driver, Kacy Elizabeth Merseal of Des Moines, Iowa, was killed in the crash.

Her passenger, 30-year-old Tanya Marie Von Weine of Story City, Iowa, was hospitalized. Police say Dellwo, whose criminal history includes traffic, alcohol and drug convictions, had a blood-alcohol content of .266, more than three times the legal limit. Reports say Merseal was an attorney and engaged to be married next year.

(John Mickelson, Southern Minnesota News, via Radio Iowa)