SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – More than five dozen people will be losing their jobs with the closure of a Sioux City bakery.  Bimbo Bakeries USA says it will close its Sioux City operation March 28. A company spokesman says 64 people and their union representatives have met with company personnel officials to discuss severance and other benefits. Production will move to other Bimbo bakeries.

A regional vice president, Didier Moleres, says the company concluded that the aging Sioux City facility “could not compete in the marketplace.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A new survey of business leaders suggests the economy will continue growing in nine Midwestern and Plains states in the months ahead.  The monthly Mid-America Business Conditions Index rose to 57.7 last month, compared with 53.2 in December.  Looking six months ahead, the business confidence index dropped to a still strong 62.2 from 66.5 in December.

The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth, while a score below that suggests decline. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) – A 120-pound Nebraska woman has set another record during the Adam Emmenecker Challenge at Jethro’s BBQ n’ Pork Chop Grill in Johnston.  The Des Moines Register says Molly Schuyler, of Bellevue, Neb., on Sunday downed the 5-pound championship meal in four minutes and 50 seconds, paring more than 2 minutes off her old record. The competition is named for a former Drake University basketball player.  Schuyler says she wasn’t feeling so well after so much competition over the past few days.

On Friday she won $22,000 at Philadelphia’s Wing Bowl by consuming 363 wings in 30 minutes. On Saturday she won the Pancake Bowl at the International House of Pancakes in Urbandale. Later in the day she won again at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival.

Two people were arrested over the weekend on separate charges, in Red Oak. Authorities say 43-year-old Shelby Joann Olivares Carmack, of Red Oak was arrested on a Trespassing charge.  And, 43-year-old Clinton Joe Hans England was arrested Sunday night on a Public Intoxication charge. Both persons were being held in the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond each.

A 24-year old woman from New York was injured during a collision Sunday evening in Fremont County, after the vehicle she was driving hit a horse that escaped from a fenced-in field. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2003 Nissan Murano driven by Jessica Strope, of Addison, NY, was traveling south on Interstate 29 at around 6:40-p.m. just north of Exit 20, when two horses in a field west of the Interstate got loose and ran onto the traveled portion of the road. Strope was unable to avoid hitting one of the animals. After the collision, her vehicle drove off the road to left and came to rest in the median.

Strope, who was wearing her seat belt, was transported by Tabor Rescue to the UNMC in Omaha.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press….

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As the 2014 election cycle takes shape, no clear leader has broken out in the Republican race to take on Democrat Bruce Braley in the fall. At least six candidates are competing to run against Braley, a congressman from Waterloo and the only Democrat in the field to replace retiring Democratic Senator Tom Harkin.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Muscatine County officials are refusing to release the medical records of a woman who was shocked with a stun gun four times last fall as officers tried to get her to change clothing. The Des Moines Register reports the woman, Marie Franks, has asked officials to release the records to the newspaper but so far officials have refused. Franks suffers from bipolar disorder and was off her medication at the time of the altercation.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two Iowa couples decided to tie the knot at this weekend’s bacon festival at the state fairgrounds. The Des Moines Register reports Tricia Snider and Tom Watson were the first to wed Saturday at the Blue Ribbon Bacon Festival. Craig and April Rouch got married a short while later.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — One man was hospitalized and another suffered less serious injuries in a house fire in Waterloo. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports firefighters were called to the fire late Friday and found flames in a basement. The cause of the fire hasn’t been determined.