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EARLY VOTING STARTS
Area athletes kicked off the 2015 track season at the Iowa State University Indoor Meet. See the full report in SPORTS, page 7A. >>
Early voting for the consolidation of Prescott School District with Creston starts today at the Union County Courthouse. The special election is slated for April 7.
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Budget vote delayed over battle between House GOP factions The House plan, stalled over the fight between defense hawks and tea party forces, would add $36 billion to Obama’s $58 billion request for overseas military and diplomatic efforts in the war against terror. ■
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Seldin Companhy of Omaha, Neb., plans to transform Lincoln School in Creston into rental housing with construction starting as early as July 1 and completion taking nine to 12 months.
Lincoln School housing project receives funding By KYLE WILSON
CNA managing editor kwilson@crestonnews.com
The project will move forward. City officials were recently notified that Seldin Company’s Lincoln School apartment project in Creston did receive funding through Iowa Finance Authority’s Housing Tax Credit. The project was awarded $412,731. Lincoln School was sold by Creston City Council to Seldin Company of Omaha, Neb., for $10,000 in August 2014. The development company plans to use the funding from Iowa Finance Authority to help transform the old school building into rental housing. The building would in-
Seldin Company awarded $412,731 for Lincoln School apartment project through Iowa Finance Authority. Construction on the site could be completed by July 2016 ■
clude 16 units, adequate commons and fitness areas. “We are pleased and excited to get this project started in Creston,” said Mike Fallesen, vice president of Affordable Housing Development with Seldin Company. “We knew there was a strong need for housing in Creston and a market analysis used in this application process concluded we were right.” The 16 rental units would be a combination of one and two bedroom apartments. Seldin — who
currently manages 13,000 units across the Midwest including Green Valley Manor in Creston — also plans to construct 11, threeand four-bedroom town homes on the green space between the school and Adams Street during this project. Those units would be two-story rentals with about 1,200 square feet. To help get this funding, the city contributed $154,200 from its Low-to-Moderate Income (LMI) fund for Seldin’s Lincoln School project.
Money in that LMI fund is primarily generated through the James Addition TIF and can only be used on LMI projects like Seldin’s. Fallesen said the plan moving forward is to legally obtain the Lincoln School property by June 1 and begin construction July 1 inside the school building and rental units on the green space, simultaneously, by July 1. He said construction on the site will take between nine months and one year with completion estimated July 1, 2016. In all, 13 projects in nine counties across Iowa were awarded the Iowa Finance Authority Housing Tax Credit. The financing this year will preserve or build 523 affordable housing units in Iowa.
Osceola man pleads not guilty to double homicide charges By AMY HANSEN OST news editor
ahansen@osceolaiowa.com
An Osceola man has pleaded not guilty to two charges of double homicide. Richard Ryan Lamb Carson, 38, of Osceola has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Erick Reyna, 22, and Noe Flores Rascon, 27, both of Osceola. According to a record search of Iowa Courts Online, an arraignment for Carson was scheduled for
9:30 a.m. Thursd a y , March 12. However, a written arraignment and Carson plea of not guilty was issued before the scheduled date.
The homicides The double homicide dates back to the beginning of the year. On Saturday, Jan. 24, at approximate-
ly 9:30 p.m., Osceola Police Department received a report that Reyna and Rascon had gone missing during the evening hours Friday, Jan. 23. After further investigation, the two men were located Sunday, Jan. 25, in a vehicle at 1305 255th Ave., Osceola, in rural northern Clarke County. They were deceased. It appears both victims died of gunshot wounds.
Court report According to court doc-
uments, a female reported, “Carson spoke of beating up her two friends and taking them into the county to dump them off.” The documents state Carson told state investigators that he did get into an altercation with Rascon while in a vehicle outside of a residence in Osceola. Carson said that during the altercation, a gun was presented and discharged. Carson later told state investigators, “It was self-defense.”
Iowa Senate OKs bill to add fine arts to K-12 curriculum DES MOINES (AP) — The Senate has voted in support of a bill that would add fine arts to Iowa’s mandated education curriculum for K-12 students, though it’s unclear what kind of support it would get in the House. The Senate voted 26-23 Wednesday. It now heads to the Republican-con-
trolled House, where a similar bill has been introduced but it’s unclear if either will advance over concerns about potential costs. The bill would add music, theater, visual art and other fine arts to the Iowa Core, the state’s mandated academic standards. Sen. Amy Sinclair, an
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Allerton Republican, says the bill has high potential costs for school districts. Sen. Herman Quirmbach, an Ames Democrat leading the bill, countered the true extent of those costs. Similar legislation has failed to garner enough support in previous sessions.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing resistance from GOP fiscal conservatives, a House panel abruptly called off a vote aimed at tamping down an uprising among pro-Pentagon lawmakers. The scuttled vote would have been on a plan to remove restrict i o n s on additional defense funding aimed at matching President B a r a c k Obama Obama’s $38 billion increase for the department. The failure of the House Budget Committee Wednesday to approve its budget as scheduled was unprecedented in recent memory and could delay floor debate into April. Conservative Budget Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., appeared out of synch with GOP leaders seeking to placate defense hawks. Two Senate Republican defense hawks were joining House rebels in trying to rewrite the party’s budget plans to add tens of billions of dollars to ease deficit-driven cuts to the military. The developments arrived as Republicans in both the House and the Senate were trying to advance budget blueprints designed to show how they would carry out promises to balance the budget within a decade without raising taxes. Both plans rely on deep but often unspecified cuts to the social safety net that advocates for the poor say could drive millions of people from programs like Medicaid and food stamps. Republicans counter that balancing the budget is a moral imperative and that controlling Washington’s spiraling spending will strengthen the economy and preserve retirement programs like Medicare for
decades. “The budget proposal we are considering here today is a plan to make Washington more efficient, more effective, and more accountable to those we serve — to create genuine opportunity and a healthier economy,” House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., said Wednesday. The cuts aren’t going anywhere so long as Obama occupies the Oval Office. And Republicans aren’t showing much interest in advancing them beyond the hypothetical confines of Congress’ arcane budget process, which involves first passing a nonbinding budget measure and then following up with binding legislation to implement it. Senate Republicans, already eying the 2016 elections, balked at a politically sensitive House plan to turn health care coverage for seniors into a voucher-like program for those who enroll beginning in 2024. But most of the focus behind the scenes was on efforts by defense hawks to add to the Pentagon’s budget, whose core would essentially be frozen for the third year in a row in the fiscal year beginning in October unless lawmakers intervene. Procedural obstacles prevent Republicans from simply increasing the budget for defense as Obama recommended in his budget, financed by tax increases and spending cuts elsewhere. The GOP solution is to pad war accounts that aren’t bound by tight budget limits set by the return of automatic cuts known as sequestration. The House plan, stalled over the fight between defense hawks and tea party forces, would add $36 billion to Obama’s $58 billion request for overseas military and diplomatic efforts in the war against terror. To mollify the GOP’s sizable pro-defense bloc, GOP leaders agreed during the day to drop restrictions that threatened the release of more than half of the additional war money. But the plan stalled in the Budget panel. In the Senate, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., were poised to try to rewrite the budget to add war funding in hopes of matching Obama’s request for a $38 billion Pentagon increase. The original Please see BUDGET, Page 2
Saturday, March 21st
Winterset Elementary Gym
9am - 4pm
— Winterset —
A one-day retail event featuring hand-spun, hand-dyed yarn and fiber and hand-knitted and crocheted items PLUS classes and demonstrations all day! Breakfast & Lunch Served • www.heartlandfiber.com • 515-468-8593