(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report the arrest at around 10:30-p.m. Tuesday, of 45-year-old Crystal Marie Mack, from Red Oak. She was taken into custody in the 1400 block of N. 7th Street in Red Oak, on an active warrant out of Clarke County, for Violation of Probation. Mack was being held without bond, in the Montgomery County Jail.

RAYMOND, Iowa (KCRG) – The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says a juvenile is dead and five more people are injured after a crash east of Raymond Tuesday night. According to a press release, sheriff’s deputies were called to the intersection of Dubuque Road and South Canfield Road for a report of a two vehicle crash at 9:45 p.m.

At the scene, investigators determined a Nissan Pathfinder SUV had been traveling south on South Canfield and ran a stop sign at Dubuque Road before colliding with a Buick Rendezvous SUV in the intersection. A juvenile in the Nissan was killed in the crash. Four other juveniles in the Nissan were all assessed or transported to the hospital for injuries. All four are expected to survive.

An adult woman in the Buick was airlifted to University of Iowa Health Care in Iowa City for what the sheriff’s office describes as a “possible serious injury.”

The crash is under investigation by the Black Hawk County Sherriff’s Office.

GRIMES, Iowa – Sept. 6, 2024 – Nighttime construction work on the pavement of westbound Interstate 80 will require closing the road to traffic beginning at 10 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 16 until 5 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, and from 10 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17 until 5 a.m. Wednesday, Sept. 18, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s Grimes Construction office.

On Wednesday, Sept.18, traffic will use the new ramp from westbound I-80 to northbound I-35.

While the road is closed you will follow a marked detour route using the U.S. 65 bypass, Hubbell Avenue, Euclid Avenue, and I-235 (see map).

The Iowa DOT reminds motorists to drive with caution, obey the posted speed limit and other signs in the work area, and be aware that traffic fines for moving violations are at least double in work zones. As in all work zones, drivers should stay alert, allow ample space between vehicles, and wear seat belts.

(Radio Ipwa) – The Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule today (Wednesday) on an appeal from Libertarian congressional candidates seeking to have their names printed on General Election ballots. Two weeks ago, the State Objection Panel kicked Libertarians running in the first, third and fourth congressional districts off the ballot after Republicans pointed out the Libertarian Party failed to follow state law and held its caucuses and county conventions on the same day.

Yesterday (Tuesday), during a hearing in Des Moines, the justices on the Iowa Supreme Court asked pointed questions of attorneys for both sides in the case. Chief Justice Susan Christensen called it a “kind of ticky tack” violation, but she asked an attorney for the Libertarians why the law shouldn’t be enforced.  “I don’t think it’s as obtrusive to require strict compliance before an election,” she said. “Get your ducks in a row.” Justice Dana Oxley asked a follow up.

“If everyone in the party agrees that, ‘We’re just going to ignore all the rules in the statute,’ then no one can challenge that?” she asked. Justice Christopher McDonald outlined his biggest concern with the Libertarians’ position.  “You could have under your argument, I think, complete non-compliance,” McDonald said. “I mean if the party didn’t have a precinct caucus or a county convention and they didn’t have delegates and they didn’t file any paperwork with the county auditors and they just said they had a state convention — maybe they did, maybe they didn’t…that would be OK.”

Later, as other attorneys were arguing the Libertarians didn’t qualify for the ballot, Justice McDonald noted the issue wouldn’t be before the court if Libertarians had waited 181 minutes and started their county conventions after midnight. “Why should we care if there’s no contest as to who the actual delegates are and there’s no contest that they would have had legal authority…to vote…if they had waited a sufficient amount of time?” McDonald said. “It seems like the case law is pretty clear that we’re not going to allow these kind of collateral challenges.”

Justice Oxley asked a similar question of an attorney asking the court to uphold the decision to keep the Libertarians’ names off the ballot. “Why is the remedy for the fact that they held the county convention three hours early nullification of everything that happened?” Oxley asked. At the end of the hearing, Justice Edward Mansfield said the Republicans who objected to having Libertarians run in three Iowa congressional districts did so for a reason. “They view having the candidacies on the ballot as an injury to the candidates they’ve nominated,” Waterman said.

The Libertarian candidates say they will run write-in campaigns if their names are not printed on ballots in the first, third and fourth congressional districts.

HARDIN COUNTY, Iowa — Authorities have identified the two people killed in a head-on collision in northern Iowa.

According to an Iowa State Patrol crash report, a Ford Edge driven by 31-year-old Tevin Williams, of Paris, Texas, was traveling northbound on a Hardin County road Monday afternoon when it collided head-on with a southbound Isuzu NQR truck driven by 74-year-old Steven Kramer, of Waterloo. The drivers of both vehicles were pronounced dead.

According to the ISP, Williams was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. The crash remains under investigation.

According to the latest data from the Iowa Department of Transportation, 221 people have died so far this year on Iowa roads. That number is 42 fewer than at the same point in 2023. Over the last five years, an average of 350 people have been killed in statewide crashes annually.

DES MOINES, Iowa – An Ottumwa man was sentenced on September 6, 2024, to 40 years in federal prison for sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion of two victims, sex trafficking of one child, enticement and attempted enticement of two minors, and using the internet to facilitate prostitution after pleading guilty to all six charges in April 2024, roughly a week before his trial was scheduled to begin.

According to public court documents, from 2018 to 2023, Darnell Keith Jones, 32, victimized at least five individuals—two children and three adults—throughout parts of Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, including in the areas of Ottumwa, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and Chicago. Jones successfully sex trafficked one adult and one child. To cause his victims to engage in sex acts in exchange for money, Jones used physical assaults, harassment, and threats. He also acted like a boyfriend to his victims, attempting to convince victims that they could demonstrate their loyalty and love by completing sex acts for money. Among other things, Jones threatened a victim with a knife, hit a victim with a brick, and choked and strangled victims with such force that his victims lost consciousness or even urinated. Jones raped one victim and attempted to rape another. Jones admitted that he drove his victims to locations where they completed sex acts for money and that he used various internet websites to advertise the adult victims.

Jones coerced and attempted to coerce two female children to engage in illegal sexual conduct, including prostitution. One child was just fourteen years old, and Jones used text-message communications to persuade the child to engage in prostitution and to engage in sex acts with him.

“This case and many similar cases have a lifelong impact on the victims, which is not something the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office takes lightly,” said Wapello County Sheriff Don Phillips. “Local, state, and federal agencies worked together towards the common goal of ensuring justice for the victims and protecting the community. I will always make sure the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office does our part in combating human trafficking in the State of Iowa.”

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This criminal case was investigated jointly by the Ottumwa Police Department, Wapello County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations.

Wapello County Sheriff’s Office Detective Aaron McConnell, Ottumwa Police Department Investigator Jeremy Tosh, and Ottumwa Police Department Investigator Caleb Mitchell served as case agents, with assistance from Special Agent Hai Tran, of Homeland Security Investigations and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Kyle Essley and Laura Roan prosecuted the case.

Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of youth under the age of 18 for commercial sex; the exploitation of adults for commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion; and the exploitation of any individual for compelled labor. Human trafficking does not require the transportation of individuals across state lines, or that someone is physically restrained. Signs that a person is being trafficked can include working excessively long hours, unexplained gifts, physical injury, substance abuse issues, running away from home, isolation from others, or having a person in their life controlling them or monitoring them closely. Victims particularly susceptible to being trafficked include those with criminal histories, a history of physical or sexual abuse, uncertain legal status, and dependency on controlled substances. Individuals who purchase sex from minors or from those who are otherwise exploited for commercial sex are also subject to prosecution for sex trafficking under federal law, if they knew or were in reckless disregard of the fact that they were under the age of 18, or that force, fraud, or coercion was used.

Anyone who suspects human trafficking is occurring, be it a minor engaging in paid sex acts, or anyone being coerced into prostitution or labor, is urged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.

(Radio Iowa) – The Hamilton County Supervisors this (Tuesday) morning approved a resolution objecting to eminent domain for the Summit Carbon Pipeline that will be coming through the county. Rick Young of Jewell read a portion of the resolution and says using eminent domain for a carbon pipeline for private benefit is not appropriate and should never be done.

“People in Iowa work way too hard for their to earn their money, to pay for their property, to have somebody come along and say, I want to use it. I want to dig it up and damage your property just because I want to put a pipeline through,” he says. Young says the pipeline will do other damage as well. “With all the drainage we have in our county, you go for the pipeline through and think that you’re not going to hurt drainage, you’re going to hurt drainage because it’s all going to settle differently,” Young.

Hamilton County Supervisor Jerry Kloberdanz  shared his opinion on the rejection of eminent domain. “Hamilton County Boards of Supervisors objects to the use of eminent domain for private economic gain and urges the Iowa Utilities Commission not to grant Carbon Solutions and their affiliates the use of eminent domain for this project,” he says.

Summit Carbon Solutions is holding informational meetings on the expansion its project in Titonka today (Tuesday). Summit has information meetings scheduled in Butler and Floyd Counties for Wednesday.