The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Oakland was arrested Thursday night for OWI/1st Offense, and Driving While Barred. Authorities say just after 10-p.m., a deputy on patrol in Oakland saw an SUV traveling toward him on Highway 59. The deputy recognized the vehicle as one known to be driven by a man whose driver’s license was revoked. A short while later, he saw the driver, 53-year old Christopher Scott Donaldson, of Oakland, walking toward his home. An investigation revealed Donaldson had asked a passenger in the vehicle to drive after the deputy initially lost sight of the SUV as he was turning around to make a traffic stop.

Once located, Donaldson admitted he had been driving the vehicle. He was arrested for Driving While Barred, and was charged with OWI at the Pott. County Jail, after he refused chemical testing. The deputy who arrested him believed Donaldson to be under the influence of a substance other than alcohol. Donaldson admitted to the deputy that he is a Meth user.

A Pott. County Sheriff’s Deputy also arrested 23-year old Marcus Allen Holstein, of Council Bluffs, Thursday evening for Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense. His arrest followed a search for Holstein, who while handcuffed, had earlier escaped other deputies. He was found hiding behind a fence and trash can. Holstein was brought to the Pott. County Jail and found to have a warrant for Failure to Appear on a Domestic Assault charge. Because the man claimed he had ingested Meth, Holstein was transported to a hospital in Council Bluffs for treatment, before being returned to the jail.

Police in Glenwood have arrested a man on a Mills County warrant. 29-year old Jeffrey Neppl, of Glenwood, was arrested Thursday on the warrant charging him with two counts of Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drugs. His bond was set at $2,000.

Deputies in Union County arrested a Madison County man on an OWI charge Thursday afternoon. 31-year old Joshua John Weeks, of Macksburg, was arrested at around 2-p.m., at the intersection of highway 34 and 169, near Afton.  Weeks was charged with OWI 3rd offense, and driving while revoked.  He as being held in the Union County Jail on $5,000 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Citizens are set to voice their opinions to state lawmakers on whether a weapons ban at the Iowa State Fair should be lifted. The Des Moines Register reports that a special review is scheduled for Friday to discuss the matter. The Iowa Code prevents people from bringing weapons of any kind onto the fairgrounds without permission from the fair’s board of directors.

The chairman of the committee that will consider the matter, state Rep. Dawn Pettengill, says the issue was brought up after a citizen requested that the committee consider it. Committee members will also hear from the State Fair Board. The committee is limited in the action that it can take. It cannot require the State Fair Board to lift the ban, or impose its own restrictions on the agency.

Police in Creston say an Indiana man was arrested early this (Friday) morning, on an OWI charge. 49-year old Mark D. Leckie, of Hobart, IN., was arrested at around 2:30-a.m., at the intersection of Highway 34 and Maple Street in Creston. Leckie was charged with OWI/1st offense. He was brought to the Union County Jail, where his bond was set at $1,000.

(8-a.m. News)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – An online fundraising campaign has raised enough money to throw a retirement bash for a western Iowa police force’s lone K-9 officer.
The Daily Nonpareil reports the party planned for Aug. 12th at Council Bluffs Community Hall will fete 6-year-old Willy, who joined the Council Bluffs force in 2011. Organizers say on their gofundme web page that Willy’s service is equally deserving of appreciation and recognition as that of any other police officer.

On Friday morning the web page (http://bit.ly/2aW2Zs3) said $720 had been raised – $220 more than the organizers’ $500 goal. The page says the extra money will go to a charity that helps support K-9 officers and their handlers.

K9 Willy

A traffic stop early this (Friday) morning in Fremont County, resulted in the arrest of two Nebraska men on drug charges. Sheriff Kevin Aistrope reports a vehicle whose occupants were suspected of being involved in the trafficking of narcotics, was pulled over by the Fremont County K9 Unit. A subsequent investigation resulted in the arrest of 33-year old Jason Stoops, of Nebraska City, NE. and 21-year old Marcus Taylor, of Union, NE.

Marcus Taylor

Jason Stoops

Stoops was charged with Conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, while Taylor was charged with Delivery of Methamphetamine, Possession of Contraband in a jail facility, and a drug tax stamp violation. Both men were transported to the Fremont County Law Enforcement Center, where Stoops’ bond was set at $100,000, and Taylor’s bond was $110,000.

An investigation into the men’s activities is ongoing.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.7MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The State Board of Education is discussing the rules for open enrollment and possible changes to allow a student who may not suffer what’s legally defined as bullying to still enroll at a new school. Nicole Proesch is the administrative law judge who hears the cases and advises the board once an appeal makes it get to the state level. She says after listening at several hearings she feels there is a disconnect between the parents feeling heard and the districts running through a process.

Proesch says the districts get the request form, and it is filed in time they move it on, if it is not, they deny it. “So, there’s probably a little bit a discussion lacking on a local level about what we really think about these kids who are moving and wanting to move out of the district. There’s a reason why the kids want to leave, and I am sympathetic and you are all sympathetic when you hear a situation where an individual is sad and the student doesn’t want to go to school and you know at night the parents at night have to deal with that situation,” Proesch says.

Proesch says these students get overlooked if their situation doesn’t fall under the bullying law. “There’s another conversation that needs to happen at a lower level about how our kids feel in school…and that they want to come to school and that they want to be safe, that they want to be there beyond bullying and harassment. That safety that they need beyond the legal definition,” Proesch says.

She says schools boards have a hard time separating bad behavior to a student from bullying. “I don’t think boards are trying to do the wrong thing, I don’t. You know, they are trying to apply the law the way it’s supposed to be applied,” Proesch says. “There’s just a general frustration from parents then. Again then there’s the disconnect between what bullying and harassment is versus bad behavior.”

Board member Mike May of Spirit Lake says he has been frustrated by open enrollment appeals where the student is treated badly, but there is not enough for the board to approve the open enrollment to another school. “We are not talking about a huge amount of kids, but we’re talking about a significant amount of kids too. And I think as a board we just have a heart for all the kids in our district. And may sometimes those who particularly find themselves on the outside of the in group or in groups and just can’t find a place. I think we find that continually and we find kids who are easy targets,” May says.

May says it can be harder to define kids who fall in this group. “We beat a kid up every day it’s pretty easy that he is getting bullied and harassed right? I mean we beat him up every day before school. But if we give him a frown or me make gestures or we do all kinds of things to that particular person that’s the one that gets at these kids in many cases,” May says. “It’s not that they are getting beat up physically but we tend to ignore that for some reason.”

He says there’s frustration when cases do reach the state level as the board rules conflict with the local control given to school boards. He says the state board has wide latitude in what we can look at and what they can discuss on those appeals — but the rules also say they cannot overrule a local board unless their decision is unreasonable and contrary to the best interest of education. “Whatever that means….to me folks that is a contradiction.”

Board member Mary Ellen Miller of Mason City says it is a “manufactured problem” because of the March 1st open enrollment deadline. She says schools don’t want to let students open enroll to another district and lose the state funding they get for that student.  “We can’t say that out load, but it is all about money, it’s not about the student,” Miller says. Board member Michael Bearden of Gladbrook says it is about money as there needs to be some deadline so districts know if students are leaving and can plan accordingly.

“If we got rid of the open enrollment deadline, the school would pay more attention to what is going on in their school. Right now they have no incentive to do that,” Miller says. She asked that the open enrollment deadline be part of the discussion. May says it is an issue they will continue to work on and will likely have some sort of solution to discuss in a couple of months. Proesch says they have had eight and nine requests for open enrollment the last two years. She says some of those could be medical related.

(Radio Iowa)