The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, today (Monday), released a report on recent arrests and incidents. Officials say on June 1st, 22-year old Joseph Alan Muellner, of Randolph, was arrested on two counts of Simple Domestic Assault. And, there were two arrests on May 30th: 19-year old Alexander Matthew Fuller, of Sidney, was arrested on charges of Aggravated Assault, Serious Assault, and Disorderly Conduct. And, 20-year old Bragun Michael Michaelsen, of Pacific Junction, was arrested on charges that include Burglary in the 3rd degree, Theft in the 2nd, Criminal Mischief in the 4th degree, Violation of Probation, and on a Mills County Theft charge.

Fremont County deputies also investigated an assault on a Randolph man, and a trailer fire. Both events were reported June 1st.

(9-a.m. News)

The results of last Tuesday’s Primary election will be canvassed tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, in Atlantic and Greenfield. In Atlantic, the Cass County Board of Supervisors meet at 8:30-a.m. and will canvass the results at 9-a.m.  The Board will also discuss and/or act on Fireworks Display permits.

In Greenfield, the Adair County Board of Supervisors will canvass election results beginning at 9-a.m., Tuesday. They’ll also hear reports from County Engineer Nick Kauffman, with regard to a Union Step Raise, and his regularly scheduled report, and, Stacie Hull from the Greenfield Chamber will discuss/request a Courtyard permit.

(9-a.m. News)

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A collision early Friday afternoon in Atlantic caused a total of $3,000 damage, but no one was injured. The Atlantic Police Department says vehicles driven by Jeremy Brix, of Elk Horn, and Jessica Aupperle, of Wiota, collided at around 12:15-p.m. at the intersection of 7th and Chestnut, when Brix slowed to turn south onto Chestnut Street from 7th, and was rear-ended by the Aupperle vehicle.

No citations were issued.

Two Cass County men were arrested on weapons charges Friday evening in Lewis, after authorities responded to a report of a man waving a gun at another man. Deputies were called to the scene in the 400 block of Oregon Street at around 7:46-p.m., Friday. Following an investigation, 44-year old Craig Allen Griffen, of Atlantic, and 43-year old Stanley Oral Rossell, of Lewis, were taken into custody in front of 311 Oregon Street. Both faces charges of Going Armed with Intent. Griffen faces an additional charge of Carrying a Concealed Weapon. Both men were brought to the Cass County Jail, in Atlantic.

Rossell was released later that evening on $5,000 bond. Griffen was released Saturday, on $7,000 bond.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Educators in Iowa say another round school district consolidation is likely in the years ahead due to dwindling rural populations and the expiration of a state provision that allows districts with declining enrollment to recoup some budget losses. The Des Moines Register reports 14 districts will merge to become seven in July. Iowa will start the 2014-15 academic year with 338 school districts. The state had 367 districts a decade ago. In 1990, there were 430.

Merging two or more neighboring school districts brings both benefits and challenges. Larger districts can offer more courses and extracurricular activities. But consolidation also can result in long bus rides for students, lost jobs at shuttered schools and weakened hometown ties. Education officials predict Iowa will see an uptick in consolidations in coming years, reigniting conversations about how to best serve rural students in a state that’s seen significant urban migration in the past decade.

Budget troubles play a big role in the reason for consolidation. In Iowa, it is illegal for a school district to operate in the red. State officials sent notices to roughly 65 districts last year that were in danger of deficit spending. Twelve of those districts — all in rural areas — recorded negative balances in the 2013 fiscal year.

Districts receive state money on a per-pupil basis. More than half of all Iowa districts reported a decrease in student enrollment last fall. Financial incentives from the state encourage small districts to share resources. Extra money is given to school systems that enter whole-grade sharing agreements, a partnership where students from two or more districts attend all or most of their classes together.

Districts that share superintendents or other key personnel are also eligible for additional state money, helping small districts stay afloat. A fiscal tool called the budget guarantee passed by lawmakers in 2001, expired this year, putting further pressure on rural schools. The budget guarantee had allowed some districts to use local property tax revenue to boost their spending authority despite declining enrollment.

Data from a 2010 report by the Iowa Policy Research Organization suggests that districts operate best with at least 500 students. Districts with 500 or more students benefit from operational cost-savings, increased course offerings and an increase in property values, the report said. The East Mills district, formed in 2011 when the Malvern and Nishna Valley districts merged, educated 494 students in preschool through 12th grade this year. The western Iowa districts had participated in whole-grade sharing for four years before the reorganization.

State officials don’t have a threshold for how small is too small, but Iowa code requires newly formed districts to enroll at least 300 students.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has looked through more than four-thousand samples and did not find any news cases of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer. D-N-R Wildlife Research Supervisor, Willie Suchy, a deer shot in Allamakee County remains the only positive case in the wild deer population. “It’s good news, we wish there were zero, but we knew the day would come when we would end up with a positive given the proximity of C-W-D in other states,” Suchy says. It’s pretty likely since the deer was shot in a border county that the animal was visiting Iowa from one of those other states.

“We think that the most likely scenario is that this is a deer that was probably in Wisconsin — or it could have been Illinois or Minnesota — and migrated over and showed up in Iowa. It was a mature adult buck and those are — when they’re yearling, some of the animals that travel the furthest,” according to Suchy.  Suchy says. “If we don’t detect any new cases, then we would conclude that we are back to just normal surveillance.” The D-N-R held three public meetings in Allamakee And Clayton County on C-W-D, and Suchy says those residents appear willing to help.

“People are very willing at this point to work with us to get more samples and find out more and then down the road someday there may have to be some harder decisions if we find more,” Suchy says. He says controlling the spread of C-W-D all depends on how large an infestation there is.  Suchy says it’s possibly that natural mortality and the annual hunting seasons could wipe out the infected deer if the infestation is at a low level.

The D-N-R has taken samples from nearly 51-thousand wild deer and 35-hundred captive deer and elk for C-W-D since 2002. Most of the samples are taken in the 11 counties in northeast Iowa which is the area closest to states that have C-W-D infestations.

(Radio Iowa)

The summer concert season has arrived, but there are a number of dangers lurking amongst the music and the crowds that can lead to tragedy mainly for teens and young adults. A new analysis from ClickitTicket reviewed more than 200 fatalities at concerts since 1969 and about three-dozen were drug-related. C-E-O Jason O’Connor says the drugs used at concerts include cocaine, heroin, bath salts, meth and one of the most mentioned – M-D-M-A, also known as “ecstasy,” “Molly,” which can lead to hyperthermia.

“Often times, people become very dehydrated and they don’t realize what they’re doing to their body, because let’s say they’re at a concert and they’re dancing around and they’re taking this. They don’t notice that they’re thirsty. They don’t notice anything. And that’s when you start to get into
problems.” O’Connor also notes that there have been stories of bad batches of M-D-M-A, laced with dangerous chemicals. In addition to the drug-related deaths, the other leading causes of fatalities at concerts are stampedes, structural failures and violence.

While overdoses or deaths can happen at any music venue, O’ Connor points to festivals such as Bonnaroo, where there have been 10 fatalities over the past decade, at least half drug-related.
“And Phish shows do seem to have quite a bit of drugs there. That’s sort of an extension of the Grateful Dead and there were a lot of drugs in that culture. And then the other real big one that we talked about was EDM or electronic dance music.”

O’Connor says concert and festival promoters and organizers can’t ensure that all attendees are drug free, but they can take simple steps to make their events as safe as possible for young people including education, parent involvement and policing.

(Iowa News Service)