A Casey’s Store in Atlantic was damaged during a traffic accident Wednesday in Atlantic.

At about 11:00 Wednesday morning, a vehicle driven by 19-year-old Brett Dennis of Atlantic pulled into the parking lot of Casey’s General Store at 701 Poplar Street.  When he applied his brakes to park, they failed, and he jumped a small curb and ran into the north side of the Casey’s building.

Damage to Casey’s was about $10,000, while damage to the Dennis vehicle was about $600.

No citations were issued by police.

Two southwest Iowa men were injured, one seriously, in a rear end accident Tuesday.

At about 10:30 Tuesday morning, a Page County Roads vehicle driven by 39-year-old Matthew Miers of Clarinda was beginning road work on county road J14 in the eastbound lane.  A 2008 Chevy truck driven by 77-year-old Michael Delehant of Imogene was also traveling eastbound on J14 when he rear ended the Miers truck, which was stopped in the roadway.

Both trucks sustained heavy damage from the accident.  Both men were transported to Montgomery County memorial Hospital in Red Oak where Miers was transported by lifenet helicopter to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha for further treatment of his injuries.  An update on Delehant’s injuries is not currently known.

The accident remains under investigation.

A horse named Chara is back at the stable after being recused from a ravine in western Iowa.

The Omaha World Herald (http://bit.ly/SdBCGn ) says the drama unfolded on Monday when the horse was found in the 15-foot-deep hole near Moorhead.

Owner Valerie Beauchamp says they returned home from vacation on Sunday couldn’t find Chara. They found her in the ravine the next day.

Help was enlisted – a neighbor with a harness, a plumber with a backhoe -but neither succeeded. Gary Stevens, who owns a concrete company, brought in a front-loader. He determined that digging Chara out wasn’t going to work. So, he dug up and pushed the dirt into the ravine and built a ramp.

Three hours later, Chara was led out of the hole. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

WASHINGTON (AP) – A pro-Republican group says it’s spending $8 million on new TV ads attacking President Barack Obama for sustained unemployment. The ads will air in Iowa and several other states. Crossroads GPS is launching the ads on the heels of recent government figures showing the economy added just 80,000 jobs in June.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – Fort Dodge police have arrested a man in the 2011 shooting of another man who died months later under his family’s care in Florida. Police say 26-year-old Derrick McElroy of Fort Dodge was charged yesterday with first-degree murder. He’s accused of shooting 19-year-old Brandyn Preston on May 8th, 2011, during a backyard party in Fort Dodge.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – A 19-year-old has been given five years of probation for the crash death of a 17-year-old during a party at a bonfire near Davenport. Cody Lantau was charged with vehicular homicide for the death of 17-year-old William Schwener last December.

OTTAWA – Drought conditions across large swaths of the Midwestern United States and parts of Europe are causing concern about a food price shock later this year.  But while consumers brace to pay higher prices for everything from corn flakes to beef, many Canadian farmers hope to reap rewards from historically high grain prices.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that U.S. farmers will see just a fraction of the corn they expected in the spring when the ground was seeded.

MOORHEAD, Iowa (AP) – A horse named Chara is back at the stable after being recused from a ravine in western Iowa. The Omaha World Herald reports the drama unfolded on Monday when the horse was found in the 15-foot-deep hole near Moorhead, Iowa. Three hours later, Chara was led out of the hole. She wasn’t seriously hurt.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A group of Iowa residents is going to court to require the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate emissions from livestock operations. Some Winneshiek County residents filed a federal lawsuit this week in Cedar Rapids. It claims the EPA’s failure to regulate pollutants commonly found in the air around the operations endanger public health.

Chances for relief from the drought conditions plaguing much of Iowa remain slim, but National Weather Service meteorologist Kevin Deitsch says showers and thunderstorms are possible late tonight into tomorrow.

“We have about a 40 to 50 percent chance going across much of the state,” Deitsch says. “Anything that falls will most likely be rather isolated and light, however there is an isolated chance of a severe storm which would obviously drop a little bit heavier amounts of rain.” A slight chance for showers and storms is forecast for Saturday as well. Temperatures, meanwhile, are expected to climb through the weekend.

“We’re looking for highs in the low to mid 90s for the weekend and then approaching the mid 90s for much of the state as we head into Monday and Tuesday,” Deitsch said. After Saturday, chances for rain drop off significantly.

“Drought concerns are really going to ramp up here as we head into next week,” Deitsch said. The new U.S. Drought Monitor map, released this morning (Thursday), shows all of Iowa is considered at least “abnormally dry” – while parts of eastern Iowa are placed in the “severe drought” category.

Two Atlantic women have received an award from Governor Branstad for their volunteer work.

Jan Burmeister and Marilyn Burmeister, who are both of Atlantic, each received a 2012 Governor’s Volunteer Award from Branstad during a special recognition ceremony held June 5 in Pleasant Hill.

The Governor’s Volunteer Awards (GVA) program was created in 1982, honoring several hundred volunteers from across Iowa in different categories each year.

The manager of Cass County Home Care Denise Coder says both Jan and Marilyn have provided many years of service helping seniors the community and that their contributions have been extremely valuable.

Jan and Marilyn have been involved with the Senior Health Insurance Information Program (SHIIP) for 10 years.  They were individually nominated for a Length of Service Award by Cass County Home Care for assisting seniors with their Medicare questions.

Jan Burmeister with Gov. Branstad

Marilyn Burmeister with Gov. Branstad