(Mount Ayr, IA) – A man from Ringgold County was arrested Tuesday evening on an outstanding Ringgold County warrant. The Ringgold County Sheriff’s Office reports 36-year-old Kevin Lee Ray, of Delphos, was arrested just before 7-p.m. Tuesday. He was wanted on a warrant for Assault while displaying a dangerous weapon and Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense. Authorities say the warrant was based on an incident that took place Feb. 14th.

Ray was being held without bond in the Ringgold County Jail, until seen by a Magistrate.

(Corning, IA) – The Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday (Feb. 17th), reported there were six recent arrests:

• On or about Feb. 2nd, 28-year-old Sheldon Starr, of Corning, was arrested for OWI/1st offense, and Carrying Weapons while intoxicated.
• On or about Feb. 5th, Adams County Deputies arrested 54-year-old Robert Gard, of Corning, on an Adams County warrant for Failure To Appear.
• On or about Feb. 6th, 36-year-old Kyle Pack, of Corning, was arrested for Assault Causing Bodily Injury, and Harassment in the 3rd Degree (both Serious Misdemeanors).
• On or about Feb. 7th at around 3-a.m., Adams County Deputies conducted a traffic stop on Highway 34 and Fig Avenue. Upon further investigation, a 17-year-old juvenile was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance-marijuana/1st offense, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. The juvenile was released to a custodian and referred to Juvenile Services.
• Sheriff’s officials say on or about Feb. 14th at around 9-p.m., Deputies in Adams County arrested 50-year-old Erron Bolinger for Violation of a No Contact Order. And,
• on the 15th, 36-year-old Kyle Pack, of Corning, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense.

(Creston, IA) – The Creston Police Department reports an Adair County man was arrested Tuesday night. Authorities say 46-year-old Nicholas Arthur Hardisty, of Orient, was arrested at around 7:50-p.m. in the area of Division and Prairie Streets in Creston. Hardisty was charged with Public Intoxication and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. He was taken to Union County Jail and held on a $600 cash or surety bond.

(Amana, IA) – Officials with the Whirlpool Corporation have announced that around 400 employees will be let go from the company’s facility in Amana, effective March 9th. Additional job reductions may happen in the spring, according to the company, which told KCRG-TV that the change comes as park of a “broader multi-year transformation” that includes phasing out older refrigerator models, and expanding operations to upgraded products. The facility will continue to make refrigerators.

Last summer, Whirlpool’s Amana facility laid-off 250 workers. Company officials say the current layoff is unrelated to the 400 workers who were retained last year. Any union employees who are recalled will be in order of tenure and seniority, but the chances of that happening, are low, according to Whirlpool.

Whirlpool said affected employees will be supported with onside HR support, an employee assistance program, and guidance through Iowa Workforce Development’s unemployment benefits.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Congressman Randy Feenstra met with a crowd of avid Trump supporters last (Tuesday) night, fielding questions about his campaign for governor and his neutrality during the early months of the 2024 presidential campaign.

A woman in the audience noted Feenstra did not endorse Trump prior to the Iowa Caucuses and asked why Feenstra thought President Trump would endorse his run for governor. Feenstra, who recently spent time on Air Force One with Trump, said he’s working to earn Trump’s endorsement.

Another person in the crowd criticized Feenstra for not attending debates and forums alongside the other candidates in the race. Feenstra says he’s campaigning around the state, holding meet and greets and answering questions.

Feentra told reporters the time to debate will be after the March filing deadline passes and the field of Primary candidates is set.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Environmental Protection Commission is referring an alleged water pollution case to the Iowa Attorney General’s office. E-P-C Attorney Bradley Adams says Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy (SIRE) is illegally released sludge from its wastewater treatment facility near Council Bluffs into the Missouri River. He says they got a complaint August 25th of an orange sludge being released into the river. “On August 26th, Field Office 4 investigated the complaint and observed an orange wastewater discharging from the effluent pipe, orange coloration of the riverbank where the sludge deposits formed, and also orange sludge deposit buildup and the water beneath the effluent pipe,” he says. There was no fish kill found, but Adams says the sludge could harm wildlife. He says SIRE had been trucking the sludge away from the site.

“Beginning in March of 2025, SIRE began intentionally discharging the holding tank’s untreated clarifier sludge to Missouri River in violation of the facilities NPDES permit. According to Sire’s director of operations, approximately three-thousand of wastewater were discharged into Missouri every other day for a six-month period, beginning March of 2025 through August of 2025,” Adams says. Adams says SIRE sought to avoid the fees for trucking away the waste. “D-N-R estimates that sire avoided approximately 53-thousand dollars in disposal costs that other similarly situated businesses would pay. And, this is a clear and deliberate attempt to circumvent the law to save money,” he says. Adams says the D-N-R can only issue a penalty of up to ten-thousand dollars, and says by forwarding the case to the Attorney General, the state can seek a bigger penalty.

SIRE C-E-O Eric Fobes says they were trying to avoid the the truck traffic from hauling the material away. “It was never our intent to subvert a cost. We are not after cost savings of that magnitude at the plant. This is too small. It was more of an ease of execution not to haul it off site,” Fobes says. Fobes says his staff thought the discharge in the river was allowed. “Based on the permit as written, our team believed that sending backwash water to the permitted outfall was allowed. This was obviously a mistake. We now understand the department’s interpretation under the general water quality rule, and we respect that interpretation,” he says Fobes says they have made changes to do a better job of handling the requirements of the permit. He asked the Commission to not send the case to the Attorney General based on their response. “We acknowledge it happened. We are remorseful that it happened. I think we have learned a valuable lesson in that process. We’ve bolstered our internal compliance,” Fobes says.

The Commission voted to refer the case to the Attorney General with just two commissioners voting no.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents is proposing a three percent increase in resident tuition at the three state universities. The Regents will hold the first reading of the proposed tuition increase at their meeting next week. The proposal also includes an increase in mandatory student fees. The University of Iowa is seeking a 62 dollar increase in fees, for a total increase with tuition of 349 dollars.

Iowa State University is seeking a fee increase of 24 dollars, 50 cents, for a total increase of 310 dollars, 50 cents, and the University of Northern Iowa is seeking a 42 dollar increase in fees, for a total with the tuition increase of 304 dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa grocery shoppers are suddenly seeing packaging for all sorts of food products touting their protein content, and some of them are unlikely sources — like Brussels sprouts, Greek yogurt and even Pop-Tarts. Meredith Hink, a registered dietician and nutritionist at Emplify Health by Gundersen, points to one popular trend as the primary cause of the protein power craze. “A side effect of some of the current weight loss medications, the GLP-1s, is a concern about muscle wasting,” Hink says, “and one of the things that we talk about to help prevent muscle wasting is making sure that you’re getting an adequate amount of protein.” Our bodies need protein to grow, to repair themselves, and to work correctly, and the nutrient can be found in a wide range of foods.

“Oftentimes when we talk protein, people think, ‘Oh, it’s just in things like meat and poultry and eggs and fish,’ but it also is naturally occurring in plant-based sources like beans and peas and lentils, nuts and seeds,” Hink says. “Even some of our grain products like quinoa is high in protein.” Protein is an important part of our daily diet, but some people prefer to stick with plant-based proteins, while others crave meat. Hink says there are pros and cons in both, and everyone’s body is different.

“As a nutrition professional, I have to meet people where they are and try to, not just looking at protein, but also their overall calorie intake,” she says, “making sure that they’re also meeting their needs for carbohydrates, fats, minerals, and vitamins and things like that to help them to make the best choices.” How much protein should you take in daily? Again, everyone is different, and she says it depends on your weight, gender, age and overall health.

Emplify Health by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.

(IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources released a draft version of its 2026 biennial integrated report Tuesday, which listed more than 700 segments of rivers, lakes or wetlands in the state as impaired. The list includes the Boyer River, Carter Lake, the East Nishnabotna River, the East Nodaway River, Lake Manawa, and Middle Nodaway River, to name a few.

The impaired list looks at retroactive data and determines if a water segment meets, or fails to meet, designated criteria for uses like fishing, recreation or drinking water. Once a segment is listed as impaired, it triggers a restoration process under the federal Clean Water Act.

The recent draft of the list, which is open to public comment for 30 days before it will be sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, comprises water quality data from 2022-2024 for rivers and streams and data from 2020-2024 for lakes. With each report, segments move off the impaired list or are “delisted” and other segments are added to the list. The 2026 draft report has three fewer segments listed than the report did in 2024.

In a news release about the draft, DNR said the number of impaired segments have been “relatively stable” from 2014 to 2024.  These figures do not include, however, the seven segments that EPA attempted to add to the list in late 2024  due to nitrate impairment. DNR challenged EPA’s additions to the list and the segments were removed by EPA over the summer.

The 2026 draft lists two segments of river, one on the Iowa River and one on the Raccoon River that are impaired for nitrate. DNR said it did not change its criteria from 2024 to 2026 for assessing nitrates, but the data analyzed for the newest list warranted the impairment listing.

GRUNDY CENTER, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – Two Iowa nursing homes cited for resident abuse and dozens of other regulatory violations have been added to the federal government’s list of the nation’s worst care facilities.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has added Caring Acres Nursing and Rehab Center in Anita and Grundy Care Center in Grundy Center to its list of nursing homes eligible for inclusion on CMS’ periodic list of Special-Focus Facilities.

At any given time, no more than two nursing homes per state appear on CMS’ list of federally designated Special-Focus Facilities, which consists of homes that have recurring, serious problems with resident care.

In Iowa, those two homes are Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center in West Des Moines and Garden View Care Center in Shenandoah. Those two homes have had special-focus status for eight months and six months, respectively.

The federal list also includes hundreds of other nursing homes — typically, 10 per state — where ongoing quality-of-care violations have made them eligible for special-focus status. Caring Acres and Grundy Care Center are among the homes added recently to the eligibility list.

Once a home is designated a Special-Focus Facility, it receives additional oversight and assistance from the government that’s intended to improve resident care. The other homes that are merely deemed eligible do not receive that assistance. They appear on the list, some for as long as 10 years, and then drop off without ever receiving the federal help.