(Radio Iowa) – The Academy of Country Music has recognized an eastern Iowa native as the New Female Artist of the Year.
Thirty-three-year-old Hailey Whitters is from Shueyville, a small town about 10 miles south of Cedar Rapids. She moved to Nashville after graduating from high school. Whitters has been a songwriter, with hits like “Happy People” by Little Big Town in 2017. She’s touring with Shania Twain and is the opening act at concerts next week in Madison, St. Paul and Lincoln.

Whitters is scheduled to perform in tonight’s (Thursday’s) Academy of Country Music Awards show that’ll be hosted by Dolly Parton and Garth Brooks. Last year’s New Female Artist of the Year was Lainey Wilson, who has a role as a musician in the T-V hit “Yellowstone” and is nominated for six Academy of County Music Awards this year. Wilson and Whitters have co-written some songs and performed together before.

(Drakesville, Iowa) – A head-on crash in southeast Iowa’s Davis County, Wednesday evening resulted in a death, and two people injured. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2017 Honda Accord was traveling north on Ice Avenue south of Main Street in Drakesville at around 5:45-p.m., when it crossed the onto the shoulder. The driver over-corrected, sending the car across the center line of the road and into the path of an oncoming 1999 Chevy Suburban, driven by 54-year-old James J. McKelvey, of Bloomfield.

The driver of the car died at the scene. Their name was being withheld pending notification of family. James McKelvey, and a passenger, 21-year-old Emma F. Beechy, of Bloomfield, were both injured, and transported by helicopter to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, Bloomfield and Drakesville Fire Departments, Davis County Ambulance, and Mercy1 helicopter. The crash remains under investigation.

Battle Creek, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Public Safety said Wednesday, that first responders were dispatched on May 4, 2023, to 500 Maple St. in Battle Creek, for a report of an unresponsive child. The child was transported to Horn Memorial Hospital in Ida Grove, and then transported to Children’s Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska.

The child died on May 5, 2023, at Children’s Hospital. An autopsy was performed by the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner on May 6, 2023. An investigation into the child’s death is on-going. The Ida County Sheriff’s Office is being assisted by the Ida County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Ida County Sheriff’s Office at 712-364-3146.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Police in Council Bluffs say a warrant has been issued for a man wanted in connection with a stabbing that occurred late Wednesday night. 55-year-old Jeff Edward Smith, of Council Bluffs, is wanted for Willful Injury, 1st Degree Kidnapping, Harassment in the 1st Degree, and Domestic Abuse Assault – Strangulation w/bodily Injury.

The warrant stems from an incident that took place at around 11:11-p.m., Wednesday, in the 600 block of 5th Avenue, in Council Bluffs. The suspect’s girlfriend told Police that Smith assaulted her, held her against her will in their bedroom, stabbed her in the hand with a knife, choked her and threatened to kill her. Smith left the scene before officers arrived.

Jeff Edward Smith

Anyone with information about this case or the whereabouts of Jeff Edward Smith, is asked to contact Pottawattamie County Dispatch at 712-328-5737.