One person was injured during a collision Wednesday evening, in Council Bluffs. According to Bluffs Police, 21-year old Nathan Maxwell Hall, of Council Bluffs, was transported to Creighton Medical Center in Omaha for treatment of possible, unknown injuries, after his 2007 Pontiac Vibe was hit at a high rate of speed by a 2001 Volvo driven by 21-year old Matthew Howell, of Council Bluffs.

Officials say Howell’s car had been involved in a hit-and-run accident near 29th and Broadway before fleeing north on 29th at speeds of about 60-to 70-miles per hour. A witness said the car “blew through the stop sign” at the intersection of 29th and Avenue B at around 6:10-p.m. at speeds estimated at 70-to 80-mph, and collided with Hall’s Pontiac.

After the initial impact, the Volvo went airborne and hit a power pole. The car then spun around while airborne, and landed on a legally parked, unoccupied 1994 Saturn. A small fire that started in the engine compartment of the Volvo was quickly extinguished by local residents.

Howell and a passenger in his car were trapped in the vehicle, but were extricated and transported to Creighton Hospital, along with Nathan Hall. Damage from the crash amounted to $16,000.

The Mentor in Violence Prevention program is teaching Iowa high school and college students how to prevent sexual assault. M-V-P coaches the students to intercede when they recognize signs of looming sexual violence. Iowa State University student Tucker Carrell participated in M-V-P while in high school and says sometimes it’s hard to speak up, but it’s important to act.

“I know one of the biggest things that we consistently talked about and that I really took from this whole program was just listening to things happen, being that bystander,” Carrell says. “It really almost hurts you more and affects you more because you hang on to that and you remember that as well as letting you know whoever is committing some kind of action or harmful act know that’s okay or think that is okay.”

A recent study found one in five women are sexually assaulted while in college. Alan Heisterkamp, director of the Mentors in Violence Prevention Leadership Institute, says silence in the face of disrespect or assault condones sexual violence, so the program teaches bystander intervention.

Heisterkamp says, “You may think that it’s wrong but if we speak out or respond in a way to correct the behavior, often times the abuse or the inappropriate comments can come back on me because the culture of that system doesn’t support those prosocial behaviors.” Carrell and Heisterkamp made their comments on the Iowa Public Radio program, “River to River.”

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Congressman Steve King says the reaction will be “politically nuclear” if President Obama bypasses congress and issues an executive order granting some sort of legal status to illegal immigrants. “First, the president has no constitutional authority to make up laws as he wishes they would be, but he threatens to do so anyway,” King says. “…If the president does this and five to nine or more million people get a ‘you are now legal’ slip from the president of the United States, that throws us into an instantaneous constitutional crisis.”

Congress faces another deadline in September to approve a federal budget or pass a stop-gap measure to avoid a government shutdown. King says those discussions may break down if President Obama uses an executive order on immigration policy. “This would be the most blatantly unconstitutional act by any president of the United States ever if he does what his trial balloons and his own threats have promised to do,” King says. “And so, as the intensity of that gets closer and closer, it’s more and more likely that something like that will happen.”

Reports indicate President Obama is considering executive action that would make more undocumented immigrants eligible for green cards and place more people on the “deferred action” list, so deportation proceedings are delayed. White House spokesman Josh Earnest says it “would be a shame” if Republicans in congress decide to shut down the government over the immigration issue.

(Radio Iowa)