A rural Pottawattamie County family’s estate has donated a huge sum of money to the Neola Fire and Rescue Department. According to the Daily NonPareil, the Helen Darrington estate made a donation of $102,000 to Neola Fire and Rescue. Fire Chief Bill Schierbrock said the Darringtons were a family the department responded to a few times over the years, and the family had always donated to the department’s fundraisers in the past.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An arbitrator has sided with Iowa state employees who objected to a state proposal that would have forced them to pay up to 20 percent of their monthly health care premiums. The arbitrator sided with the employees’ union on Saturday, saying the employee union’s proposal to instead pay $20 a month toward their health care premiums was the most reasonable.

The wage proposals of both the state and union leaders were much the same. State employees will get a pay hike of about 6 percent over two years. Union president Danny Homan on Saturday lauded the decision, saying it will “help put money in the pockets of state employees.” But Gov. Terry Branstad’s office says the decision will “cost the Iowa taxpayers an additional $24 million.”

An accident on Interstate 80 eastbound in Adair County blocked one of the lanes for a little more than 40-minutes, Saturday. Stuart Fire and Rescue and Menlo Rescue were dispatched to the scene at 3-p.m., near the 92 mile marker, but Guthrie County Deputies arriving on the scene reported there were no injuries. According to scanner traffic, a vehicle, a 2011 Toyota driven by a woman from Lincoln, NE., went through the cable barrier in the median. No other details were immediately available.

The annual “Cancer in Iowa” report released Friday shows the number of skin cancer cases in Iowa has been increasing. Mary Charlton with the University of Iowa College of Public Health says it is one of the most preventable cancers, and many efforts are underway to try and reverse the trend. Charlton says there are many initiatives where groups are handing out sunscreen at events like minor league and little baseball games. “People are starting to build more shade, sort of shelters at ballparks and things like that to keep themselves protected. Wearing hats to keep them protect them, all of that is relatively simple,” Charlton says.

She says you can do a lot on your own to help keep skin cancer from becoming deadly. “Early detection is important, and just looking at your skin once a month and going in to see a health care provider who could diagnose skin cancer about once a year would help detect those lesions very early when they are more treatable,” Charlton says. Charlton is an epidemiologist and says there are many things you can do to avoid all types of cancer.

She says you can not smoke, or quit smoking, minimize your time in the sunlight or in tanning beds and eat a balanced diet. You can see the full state report on cancer at the U-I College of Public Health’s website at: www.public-health.uiowa.edu.

(Radio Iowa)