The head of the Iowa Department of Public Safety plans to replace retiring state troopers, but the budget outline Public Safety Commissioner Larry Noble has drafted does not call for expanding the ranks of the Iowa State Highway Patrol. The union for state troopers argues about 100 more officers should be hired to adequately patrol the state’s highways and respond to emergencies at all hours of the day and night.

Noble acknowledges some troopers may have to travel greater distances or work more overtime. “I think that we will sustain coverage,” Noble says. “…We are going to provide services to the citizens of Iowa.” Noble expects 19 troopers to retire within the 18 months — and he says it takes a year to 18 months to train a replacement. “We’re going to have an academy this summer so that way we can prepare for that,” Noble says.  As of today, there are 348 state troopers on the payroll.

“We do more than just write tickets,” Noble says. “We go beyond the stop and we work in criminal interdiction, such as drugs (and) human trafficking. We’ve had instances of that where people are taken against their will.” Noble says. The patrol is now a “stable” organization, according to Noble, a former state trooper who says deep budget cuts in the past have been gradually restored.

Noble presented a budget outline for his entire agency to Governor Branstad on Tuesday afternoon. He proposes NO increase, but the same level of spending as the current year.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Adams County report the arrest Tuesday night, of Tommy Watters, from Corning. Watters was taken into custody at around 8-p.m. after his vehicle was stopped on Corning Carl Road for having a headlight out. During an investigation, deputies learned Watters had a suspended license. He was taken into custody for Driving Under Suspension and brought to the Adams County Jail, where Watters was released later on $566 bond.

Police in Red Oak arrested a local woman Tuesday night on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Contempt of Court. 40-year old Tiffany Lea Palmer, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9:45-p.m. in the 1800 block of Highway 48. She was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held without bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A popular deer donation program is starting up again in Iowa. The state Department of Natural Resources says the program, Help Us Stop Hunger, involves hunters bringing in a whole deer that will be processed into packages of ground meat. The Food Bank of Iowa coordinates the distribution of the meat to local food pantries.

Jim Coffey, who coordinates the program, says hunters simultaneously reduce the deer herd and provide needed protein to the food bank. Iowa hunters have donated more than 56,000 deer to the program since it began. More than 5,200 deer were donated last year, resulting in 800,000 meals.

Firefighters from Shelby and Avoca were on the scene of a grain bin fire early this (Wednesday) morning, east of Shelby, north of Interstate 80. The bin was located at 33804 400th Street. The Harlan and Minden Fire Departments were requested at 3:50-a.m., to send their tanker and pumper trucks, to help fight the blaze. Defiance Fire was requested to send their Rehab truck to the scene, just after 4:30-a.m.

No other details are immediately available.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The foreclosure rates in Nebraska and Iowa are continuing to improve. Real estate data provider CoreLogic said Tuesday that in September Nebraska’s foreclosure rate improved to 0.66 percent from last year’s 0.86 percent and Iowa’s was 1.61 percent, down from 2.11 percent. The national rate was 2.29 percent in September, down from 3.25 percent a year earlier.

In the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area that straddles the Nebraska-Iowa border the foreclosure rate was 0.87 percent in September, down from 1.21 percent in 2012. In Des Moines, Iowa, the foreclosure rate improved to 1.82 percent over last September’s 2.47 percent.

The foreclosure rate reflects the percentage of home loans involved in some stage of the foreclosure process. CoreLogic says its data covers about 85 percent of the foreclosure data nationwide.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) — An 81-year-old northern Iowa man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for sexually abusing two 8-year-old girls. Clarence Miller, of Thompson, received 25 years on each count of second-degree sexual abuse. Miller must serve at least 35 years before he is eligible for parole. A jury convicted Miller in September of two counts of sexual abuse involving the girls. Prosecutors say Miller assaulted the girls at his home between January 2010 and August 2012.

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A southwest Iowa man has reached a plea deal in connection with the death of a 13-month-old girl he was babysitting. Twenty-three–year-old Colby Puckett, of Pacific Junction, pleaded guilty Monday in Mills County Court to second-degree murder in the February 2012 death of Aliyanna May. Puckett was dating the infant’s mother when he was watching the girl and two of her siblings. Authorities say the infant sustained extensive injuries to her head and eyes while in Puckett’s care. Officials later ruled her death a homicide.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Falls is expanding outward by 100 acres for residential housing. The City Council approved three annexation applications and the City Development Board in Des Moines must now approve it before it can receive residential zoning status. The three properties include dozens of acres of farmland. A developer plans to build single-family units on the site, which is close to the city’s industrial park.

CLINTON, Iowa (AP) — Police in eastern Iowa are investigating a hit-and-run collision involving two patrol cars. Clinton police say two marked squad cars were parked Monday night when a vehicle traveling at a high speed crossed into an opposite lane of travel and hit them. The crash caused considerable damage to the patrol cars. The high-speed vehicle fled the scene.

Authorities in Page County say one person died following an accident Tuesday morning, in Essex. 39-year old David McCue, of Farragut, was flown from the scene by helicopter to the Shenandoah Medical Center, where he died from injuries suffered in the crash. The accident happened at the intersection of Highway 48 and Forbes Street, in Essex, at around 8:45-a.m.

Officials sayMcCue was driving a car north on Highway 48, when a pickup driven by 18-year old Brett Johnson, of Essex, turned south from Highway 48 in front of him, onto Forbes Street.  Johnson was not injured in the crash. The accident remains under investigation.

Shenandoah Police, deputies from the Page County Sheriff’s Department, Page County Emergency Management and the Essex Fire and Rescue all assisted at the scene.

Cass County Naturalist Lora Kanning says a winner has been selected in a contest to guess the arrival date of Trumpeter Swans at the Schildberg Recreation Area. Kanning says the sponsors of the contest have determined the official arrival of the swans as November 12th. On that day, 12 Trumpeter Swans were there and stayed more than twenty-four hours. The winner is Jean Granger, of Atlantic. She will receive a Trumpeter Swan 8×10 print from the Cass County Conservation Board.  Cass County Conservation thanks to all who participated.

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A southwest Iowa man has reached a plea deal in connection with the death of a 13-month-old girl he was babysitting. The Council Bluffs Nonpareil reports 23-year-old Colby Puckett, of Pacific Junction, pleaded guilty Monday in Mills County Court to second-degree murder in the February 2012 death of Aliyanna May. The plea deal drops charges of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death.

Puckett was dating the infant’s mother when he was watching the girl and two of her siblings. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says the infant sustained extensive injuries to her head and eyes while in Puckett’s care. Aliyanna was treated at a hospital and died. Officials later ruled her death a homicide.

Puckett is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13.