JEFFERSON, Iowa (AP) – Casino supporters have turned in petitions calling for a public vote on gambling in west-central Iowa’s Greene County.  A group called Grow Greene County submitted more than 750 signatures on Tuesday. Only about 460 verified signatures are needed to force supervisors to schedule a vote. An Aug. 6th election is expected.
 
Greene County Supervisor Guy Richardson backs the casino and says the county must grow in order to thrive.  The Rev. Julie Poulsen of First United Methodist Church in Jefferson is a leader of No Casino Greene County. She says she opposes gambling because of the harm to individuals and families.
 
A Greene County casino likely would be developed at the intersection of U.S. Highway 30 and Iowa Highway 4 in Jefferson.

Authorities in Pottawattamie County say a woman from Oakland was transported to the hospital by helicopter in criticial condition following a collision Tuesday afternoon between a car and a semi, just east of Oakland. Officials say 27-year old Jessica Luke failed to yield to a westbound semi at the intersection of 450th Street and Highway 6. After the two vehicles collided, the car ended-up beneath the trailer of the semi. Oakland and Carson Rescue responded to the scene of the crash, which happened at around 1:45-p.m., Tuesday, about three-miles east of Oakland.

Luke was extricated from her vehicle and flown to the Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha. The driver of the semi, Daniel Mueller, of Griswold, was not hurt.

A former state legislator and candidate for governor says he’s considering a run for the U.S. Senate. Fifty-five-year-old Rod Roberts served 10 years in the Iowa House, representing the Carroll area, before he ran for governor. Roberts got about nine percent of the votes cast in the 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary that Terry Branstad won. Roberts says he doesn’t want to be “impulsive” about running for the U.S. Senate and will announce his decision by the end of the summer.

“In a field of multiple candidates in a compressed timeline, you really have to think about the potential support that’s out there, the resources to put a viable campaign together,” Roberts says. “So now it’s: Can you do it in kind of a sprint to the finish line?” Roberts says just as he felt “called” to be an ordained minister in the Church of Christ, he feels a “calling” to public service. “When that’s in your background and that’s kind of how you’re wired, this comes very naturally to me to consider an opportunity like this, especially when you place a high regard on what others are saying to you,” Roberts says. “You know as that comes to you, you don’t just ignore it or disregard it. You think about it pretty seriously and I am.”

Governor Branstad appointed Roberts to serve as director of the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, a job Roberts would have to leave if he runs for the senate. “I do have a job I enjoy and people I enjoy working with and that weighs in my thinking, too,” Roberts says. Roberts is active on the online social network Twitter and his recent Tweets have addressed federal issues like immigration reform and the need for a “conservative candidate” to run for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat in 2014.

(Radio Iowa)