Both drivers and a passenger in one vehicle were injured during a collision Friday afternoon, in Red Oak. According to Red Oak Police, just before 2-p.m., officers were called to the intersection of Highway 34 and N. 8th Street, for a two car accident with possible injuries. Upon arrival, Officers found a 2002 Chrysler Town & Country van was facing southbound.

An investigation determined the driver of the van, 84-year old Joan Konopasek, of Red Oak, failed to obey the stop sign, and went southbound from the intersection when it was not clear. A 2005 Ford Freestyle van driven by 59-year old Wilma Keesis, of Red Oak, was eastbound and struck the other van. Both vehicles then came to rest in the southeast ditch.

Konopasek was manually extricated from her van by Red Oak Fire & Rescue. She was not wearing a seat belt and suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries. The woman was transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital. Keesis, and her front seat passenger, 29-year old Chad Perkins, of Shenandoah, suffered minor injuries, and were also transported to the hospital by Red Oak Rescue.

A third passenger in her van was not hurt. Both vehicles were a total loss, with the damage estimated at $11,500 altogether. No citations had been issued as of the latest report. Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies, the Iowa State Patrol, and Red Oak Fire & Rescue.

The Cass County Community Foundation today (Friday) announced that grants totaling $27,230 were awarded to 12 Cass County nonprofit agencies and local municipalities. With these grants, the Cass County Community Foundation has distributed over $2 million in grants and scholarships over the last 21 years.

The following organizations were awarded grants by the Cass County Community Foundation Advisory Board at a check presentation:

• Anita Health & Wellness Center – $3,000 for exercise equipment.
• Anita Public Library – $1,000 for an AED (Automated external defibrillator)
• Anita Volunteer Fire Assoc. – $3,130 for air tanks w/regulators.
• Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center – $5,000 for indoor interactive technology & gym games.
• Atlantic Public Library – $3,000 for shelving & furniture for Youth Service.
• Atlantic Rock Island Society Enterprise (ARISE) – $1,400 for Rock Island Depot interior window coverings.
• Cass County Historical Museum – $1,250 for signage.
• City of Griswold – $1,750 for ADA compliant doors at the Griswold Community Bldg.
• Friends of the Griswold Public Library – $2,450 for a lighting update.
• Griswold Rescue – $1,250 for an ambulance pharmaceutical refrigerator.
• Massena Public Library – $1,500 for an upgrade to a digital system check-out process.
• Nishna Valley YMCA – $2,500 for a replacement fire alarm system.

All grantees met the criteria as Cass County nonprofit agencies or organizations with charitable missions supporting community needs in the areas of civic engagement, culture, health, education, and social services. Only organizations providing services in Cass County were eligible to apply.

These grant funds were made possible by the generosity of donors to the Cass County Community Foundation and the following charitable funds through the community foundation:Griswold Community Development Endowed Fund and Triumph Endowed Fund for Cass County.

The Cass County Community Foundation works with individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to create permanent and expendable funds—such as those above—that address changing, vital community needs and interests. To inquire about donating to the Cass County Community Foundation, please contact the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa staff or any board member listed below. Gifts to permanently endowed funds through the Cass County Community Foundation may be eligible to receive a 25% Endow Iowa Tax Credit.

For information about donating or establishing an individual foundation/fund, please contact Stacey Goodman, Iowa Foundations Director, at 800-794-3458 or stacey@omahafoundation.org.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — A state board has approved post-traumatic stress disorder and intellectual disability with aggression to the number of medical conditions that can legally be treated by medical marijuana in Iowa but rejected two other conditions petitioners had requested.

The Iowa Medical Cannabidiol Board voted Friday to not allow patients with opioid dependency and those with Alzheimer’s Disease to have legal access to medical marijuana. Board members expressed concern over lack of studies or other evidence that medical marijuana would help those conditions.

The Iowa Board of Medicine must agree with the addition of PTSD and intellectual disability before they can be added to a list of diagnoses for which medical marijuana can be prescribed. The conditions would join seizures, Crohn’s disease, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease and Parkinson’s disease as approved conditions.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man has been sentenced for his involvement in a conspiracy targeting a potential drug trafficking witness in Iowa. Federal court records say 24-year-old Andrew Nissen was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to 15 years and eight months. He’d pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime.

The Sioux City Journal reports that as part of a plea agreement, charges of conspiracy to tamper with a witness by attempting to kill a person and tampering with a witness by attempting to kill a person were dismissed. Nissen, of South Sioux City, Nebraska, admits in the plea agreement that on Aug. 1 last year, he drove Isaac McDonald to a Sioux City location where McDonald shot John Mercure in order to keep him from speaking to police about drug trafficking and firearms. Mercure soon crashed into a tree but survived.

McDonald has pleaded guilty to charges for drug, weapons and other crimes.

Police in Red Oak report a woman was taken into custody late this (Friday) morning, for Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree. 18-year old Hannah Marie Leigh, of Red Oak, was arrested at the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, for vandalism. Her bond was set at $300.

The Audubon County Community Foundation has announced that grants totaling $41,515 were awarded today (Friday), to five Audubon County non-profit agencies. With this latest round of grant funding, the ACCF has distributed more than $2.1-million in grants and scholarships over the last 22-year.

The following were awarded grants by the Audubon County Community Foundation:

• Audubon County Conservation Board – $15,015 for a playground at the Littlefield Rec. Area.
• Audubon County Fair Board – $20,000 for the Grandstand renovation.
• Aud. County Fire and Rescue Assoc. – $2,500 for Fire state construction & relocation.
• Nathaniel Hamlin Park & Museums – $1,500 for restoration of the Nathaniel Hamlin Museum House.
• The Children’s Nest – $2,500 for renovation to a classroom.

All grantees met the criteria as Audubon County nonprofit agencies or organizations with charitable missions supporting community needs in the areas of civic engagement, culture, health, education, and social services. Only organizations providing services in Audubon County were eligible to apply.

These grant funds were made possible by the generosity of donors to the Audubon County Community Foundation and the following charitable funds through the community foundation:Audubon Masonic Association Endowed Fund; Audubon State Bank/Stephen Garst Endowed Fund;Charles T. and Kathleen K. Manatt Endowed Fund; Leon and Iva Milliman Endowed Fund for Audubon County, Iowa; Fred and Evelyn Nissen Endowed Fund for Audubon; and Merle and Norma Petersen Endowed Fund.

The Audubon County Community Foundation works with individuals, families, businesses, and organizations to create permanent and expendable funds—such as those above—that address changing, vital community needs and interests. To inquire about donating to the Audubon County Community Foundation, please contact the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa staff or any board member listed below. Gifts to permanently endowed funds through the Audubon County Community Foundation may be eligible to receive a 25% Endow Iowa Tax Credit.

For information about donating or establishing an individual foundation/fund, please contact Stacey Goodman, Iowa Foundations Director, at 800-794-3458 or stacey@omahafoundation.org.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack says Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s increase in taxes on wealthy Americans to finance her health care proposal is unrealistic. Warren is promising to spend more than $20 trillion over the next decade to provide government-funded health care to every American without raising middle class taxes. Detailed in a 20-page online post, Warren’s proposal relies on employers transferring to the government nearly all of what they currently spend on private health insurance for employees.

During a panel discussion on rural politics in Iowa today (Friday), Vilsack said Warren’s plan wrongly suggests voters will accept that an increase in her proposed tax on the wealthiest Americans won’t affect their own pocketbooks. Vilsack, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture, says “One sliver of society isn’t going to pay for the rest of us.”

Vilsack, who has not endorsed a candidate, also says it’s unlikely there will be sufficient support in the Senate to pass such a measure, even if Democrats take control of the GOP-controlled Senate after the 2020 elections. Vilsack, who has consulted Warren on rural policy, adds “and then there’s the practical application of getting 60 people in the Senate who are going to vote for this.”

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is asking for your help in finding a vehicle and two men believed to be involved in the theft of four rims and tires from a car dealership, in Red Oak. Authorities say the wheels were stolen off of a 2019 Ford Taurus on the Hawkeye Ford lot, sometime between 1:57-a.m. and 2:15-a.m. today (Friday). The suspect vehicle is a mid-2000 model year, grey, 4-door Pontiac Grand AM, with a trunk spoiler. The vehicle was occupied by two men.

Anyone with information about the theft is asked to contact Montgomery County Crime Stoppers, at 1-888-434-2712. Callers may remain anonymous.

(Radio Iowa) — Trick-or-Treaters had to thaw out their mini candy bars when they got home for the evening Thursday. State Climatologist Justin Glisan (like listen) says the cold and snowy spook night summed up the story on October. “It was a cold and wet month across the state,” Glisan says. Weather data for the month of October, compiled at the KJAN Studios (the Official National Weather Service reporting site), show the Average High for the month of 58.2-degrees, was almost 6-degrees below normal. The Average Low was 33.8, which was slightly more than 5 degrees below normal. Rainfall and melted snow for the month amounted to 4.73-inches, which was nearly 2-inches above average.

Glisan says there were very few days where you could go without a jacket for the month. “If you look at the average temperature — we were bout 46-point-six degrees — and that’s almost five degrees below normal. And that’s colder than we would expect in October,” according to Glisan. The cold temperatures came with plenty of rain and snow. “We were about four-point-nine-three inches — which is two-point-three-two inches above average — so very wet,” Glisan says. “The wettest areas of the state seemed to be in a southwest to northeast stretch in central Iowa, anywhere from four to five inches above average in some spots.”

One area of the state got most of its precipitation in the frozen form. “The southeastern part of the state actually was below average in rainfall — but you look at the snowfall maps and they were actually above average in snowfall,” Glisan says. “So anywhere from four to six inches in the eastern part of the state…they got their share of snow for October.”  Glisan says the cold patter is expected to continue through mid-November.

One person was injured during a three-vehicle collision Thursday evening, in Union County. The Sheriff’s Office reports a 2006 Chevy Impala driven by 28-year old Dakota Gaulden, of Orient, was traveling north in the southbound lane of Highway 25 just before 6-p.m., when he struck a southbound 2011 KIA Forte EX. The driver of the KIA, 30-year old Christal Hagle, of Creston, saw Gaulden’s car approaching in her lane, and tried to move over, but her vehicle was hit on the front passenger side.

The Impala continued to sideswipe the KIA before striking a south bound 2011 Chevy Equinox on its front passenger side. The SUV was driven by 56-year old Leann Warrior, of Bridgewater. After it hit the SUV, the Impala continued off the road and came to rest in the west ditch, which had running water. Gaulden complained of pain, and was transported by EMS to a hospital. He was cited for Driving While Suspended and Driving on the Wrong Side of the road.

All three vehicles were declared a total loss, with the damage totaling $26,000. Neither of the other drivers reported any injuries.