(LE MARS)–There’s a new incentive for good behavior in the Plymouth County Jail.
Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo says inmates can work in a garden.
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A 20 by 25 foot area was tilled for a vegetable garden that includes six tomato plants.
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The sheriff hopes some produce can be sold to the company that provides meals. But Van Otterloo doesn’t expect to make a lot of money.
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Only some of the 54 inmates are eligible to work in the garden on the grounds where they’re behind bars.
(LE MARS)–Two people were taken to Floyd Valley Hospital by Ambulance after a two-vehicle accident Monday.
According to a Le Mars Police report, a mini-van driven by 54-year-old Susan Eubanks of rural Remsen was stopped at the stop sign at Sixth Avenue and Second Street.
As Eubanks drove north away from the stop sign, police report she failed to see the Sport Utility Vehicle being driven by 34-year-old Jill Mary Holzman of Le Mars. Holzman was driving west on Second Street Southeast.
After the collision, both vehicles went into the yard on the northwest corner of the intersection.
Police listed Eubanks and Holzman as possibly injured.
The accident was reported about eight Monday morning.
Sioux City proposal targets gang turf
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) Sioux City authorities are trying to take turf away from the city’s gang members.
The City Council gave the first approval Monday night to an ordinance that let police arrest people who have been ordered to disperse from an area if the people return to the area within eight hours. The proposal faces two more council votes.
Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young says the ordinance would give police a weapon in removing some of the turf that gangs tend to claim. For example, if the gang members gathered at a playground but were ordered to disperse, they could be arrested if they soon returned to that turf.
The city also intends to seek injunctions against some gang members, barring them from specific public areas.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Iowa banker sentenced to 18 months
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) A former Woodbine banker has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to making a false statement to influence the action of a bank’s loan committee.
The U.S. Department of Justice says 59-year-old Kenneth Waite was sentenced May 20 in U.S. District Court in Council Bluffs.
Waite was indicted on 50 financial counts in August 2010. He pleaded guilty to one of the charges in January.
He was accused of making a false loan application to his former employer, Commercial Federal Bank, to obtain a $2.3 million line of credit for a financially distressed customer. He funneled funds into the customer’s account by altering bank records to increase funds available to other customers and transferring funds from those loans into the customer’s account.
Storms bring strong winds, hail to Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Strong thunderstorms brought strong winds, hail and heavy rain to Iowa.
The National Weather Service says wind gusts of 60 mph were reported Tuesday afternoon near Jamaica in Guthrie County in west central Iowa, where a grain bin and a shed were damaged. In central Iowa, power lines were downed in Woodward.
In Grimes, trees were snapped and a front porch was damaged.
Earlier Tuesday, storms dumped heavy rain in eastern Nebraska. In Omaha, up to a half-inch of rain fell around noon.
Officials confirm measles case in central Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Department of Public Health says they’ve confirmed a case of measles in a Dallas County resident.
The department says the discovery is being treated as a public health emergency because measles spreads easily and can cause serious illness and death.
Local and state health officials are trying to determine who the unidentified person may have exposed to measles.
Officials are looking for anyone who took a late-morning flight from Chicago to Des Moines on May 11 and visited the main terminal and baggage area in Des Moines. They’re also seeking those who visited Mercy Central Pediatric Clinic and Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines on May 14.
Officials want to ensure those who visited those areas have received measles and mumps vaccines.
Feathers fly at hearing on Iowa dove hunting
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Dove hunters and bird lovers are clashing as officials take up proposed rules for Iowa’s new dove hunting law.
The Des Moines Register says emotions were high at a public meeting on Tuesday. The state’s natural resources committee has proposed rules that would allow the hunt to last 70 days a year, with a daily limit of 15 birds. The first hunt is tentatively set for Sept. 1.
Tuesday’s hearing was not intended to debate the merits of the law, but about two dozen people spoke in a mix of people who support and oppose dove hunting. At one point, the moderator scolded the audience for their taunts and interruptions.
The rules will be voted on by the Iowa Natural Resource Commission on Aug. 11.
Nebraska man sentenced in Iowa for threatening Obama
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) A Nebraska man who wrote a letter while he was in prison in Iowa that threatened President Barack Obama and federal buildings has been sentenced to 8 years in federal prison.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Davenport said Tuesday that Terrence Dunn, formerly of Lincoln, Neb., was sentenced to 60 months on one count of threats against the president and 96 months for one count of making a threat to blow up two buildings. The sentences will run concurrently.
Officials say the Secret Service received Dunn’s letter from the FBI in February 2010. The letter was addressed to the FBI in Washington, D.C., and included Dunn’s return address the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville, where Dunn was an inmate. The letter was postmarked Nov. 3, 2009.
Former Humboldt official seeks probation
FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) A former Humboldt city administrator who pleaded guilty to theft is asking the court to reconsider her 10-year jail sentence.
Lori Rickfels has been held at a Mitchellville prison since February for stealing more than $100,000 from Mid Iowa Growth Partnership and the city of Humboldt.
Iowa Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown says Ricklefs is asking the judge to be placed on probation instead.
Ricklefs’s attorney, Dani Eisentrager, of Eagle Grove, says in a statement that Ricklefs hasn’t been a disciplinary problem during the course of her incarceration.
Eisentragers also says Rickfels has demonstrated an interest in her own rehabilitation.
The Fort Dodge Messenger reports Ricklefs pleaded guilty on Jan. 5 to first-degree theft and felonious misconduct in office.
A hearing date for the motion has not been set.
Railroad worker seriously injured in Boone
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A Union Pacific railroad worker has had his arm amputated after he was struck by a passing train in Boone.
KCCI-TV is reporting that the accident happened early Monday in the Union Pacific rail yard in Boone.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says the employee was getting off a locomotive when he was hit by a passing train. The employee was taken by helicopter to a Des Moines hospital where his arm was amputated.
The employee’s name has not been released.
Iowa man charged in bank deposit scam
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) An Iowa City man is suspected of making empty-envelope deposits at a bank and then withdrawing cash.
The Gazette in Cedar Rapids says 19-year-old Yshan (EE’-suhn) Rogers was charged on Monday with third-degree theft. Police say he allegedly made several deposits at ATMs at Hills Bank and Trust in Iowa City and Coralville in April.
According to police, Rogers and another man used the man’s ATM card to make the empty-envelope deposits. They withdrew cash and split the money. Police say the amount is around $800. The other man hasn’t been identified.
Rogers was in the Johnson County jail on Tuesday on $5,000 bond. A telephone message from The Association Press to his attorney, public defender John Robertson, wasn’t immediately returned.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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