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.