(Radio Iowa) – A Girl Scout troop in Council Bluffs is turning cookie sales into opportunities for girls who are homeless. The Micah House Homeless Shelter sponsors a troop that’s sold more than four-thousand boxes of cookies so far, with the money raised going toward field trips for the girls and their families. Shelter associate director Ashley Flater says the troop gives the girls a chance for stability and fun.  “That’s the way that we’re going to improve their self confidence,” Flater says. “That’s how they’re going to learn and grow and make those connections that help determine what their future looks like.”

Last year, the troop sold more than 20-thousand cookies to customers in all 50 states. This year, the girls are asking each buyer to consider giving an additional box of cookies to a friend or neighbor. Kayla Terrillion oversees the shelter’s Girl Scout program. She says it’s about more than just badges. It’s about community. “Most of their friends probably have no idea what it’s like to be homeless,” Terrillion says. “And so for them, it’s the idea that I’m here, and everybody else is going through the same thing that I’m going through.”

Cookie sales can pay for things like zoo passes or going horseback riding, while Terrillion says meeting cookie sales goals empowers the girls. “Some of these kids are pushing against the odds right now,” she says, “and what better way to show that we can beat the odds then by starting with Girl Scout cookies?”

The troop will be accepting orders until the end of March.

(reporting by Kendall Crawford, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – Democrats are considering a plan that could bump the Iowa Caucuses out of the first-in-the-nation position — and the party will be hosting three forums to give Democrats across the country a chance to weigh in on how the party picks its presidential nominees. Later this summer, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is to recommend the sequence of voting events in 2024. Former Iowa Democratic Party chairman Scott Brennan is a member of the committee, which met this past weekend.

“I have been assured that it’s going to be a fair and open process,” Brennan says, “and I take everyone at their word that is going to be the case.” National party leaders have been encouraging states to hold primaries rather than caucuses. By 2020, Democratic Parties in just Iowa, Wyoming and Nevada held Caucuses — and officials in Nevada already are planning to hold a presidential primary in 2024.

“Caucuses have their challenges, but I think we want to work with the Rules and Bylaws Committee to come up with a proposal that makes the Caucuses even more open and accessible.” The Des Moines Register was first to report national party leaders have developed a memo that outlines some new rules for which states have early voting contests in the 2024 presidential election, but the committee took no action on the matter this weekend.

The chairman of the Iowa REPUBLICAN Party says national party leaders are poised to confirm that the Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses are to be first in 2024 and send the message that Middle America matters to the G-O-P.

(Creston, Iowa) – Authorities in Union County report two separate, non-injury accidents. In Creston, the Police Department says a 2020 Chevy Equinox was traveling west on Irving Street and approaching Elm Street, Saturday, when the SUV struck a legally parked, unoccupied 2018 Jeep Cherokee. The accident happened at around 1:17-p.m. The damage was estimated at $7,000 altogether. The driver of the SUV was identified as 40-year-old Emily Marie Edwards, of Creston. No citations were issued.

The second accident happened in Union County at around 7:26-p.m., Sunday. Sheriff’s officials report a 2004 Ford pickup driven by 69-year-old Dennis James Leith, of Creston, was traveling on Rea Road near Lark Avenue, when his leg cast (for a broken leg) got caught on the accelerator and caused him accelerate while attempting to negotiate a left curve in the road.

Leith tried to brake, but was unable to stop the pickup. The vehicle struck a Union County Secondary Roads Dept. sign, went around the curve and into the west ditch, where it rolled over and came to rest on its top. Leith was not injured. He was the vehicle removed by a tractor and towed back to his residence. The damage amounted to $5,100 altogether.

(Stanton, Iowa) — Charges are pending the results of an investigation into a single-vehicle rollover accident Sunday, in Montgomery County that resulted in two people being transported to the hospital.

According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, a 2003 Ford Ranger driven by 22-year-old Kylie Dickinson, of Griswold, was traveling southbound on O Avenue at around 5:30-a.m., when for reasons unknown, the pickup went out of control and rolled over. The vehicle continued into a ditch and rolled twice more before coming to rest. The crash happened north of Stanton, about one-half mile north of 170th Street.

Emergency personnel found a passenger in the pickup, 22-year-old Nathan Fournier, of Red Oak, in the ditch between the roadway and vehicle. Dickinson was trapped in the vehicle and extricated by rescue personnel. Dickinson and Fournier were flown by air ambulance to trauma centers in Omaha, for treatment of their injuries.

The Iowa State Patrol, Red Oak Fire and Rescue, and Stanton Fire assisted the Sheriff’s Office at the scene.