(Radio Iowa) – Several parents and educators spoke during the State Board of Education meeting today (Thursday), asking the board to pressure state lawmakers to reverse course and allow schools to require masks in classrooms. Central Springs school board member Jean Schilling says the law against mask mandates in schools was passed in May before the C-D-C began warning against the coronavirus delta variant.

” Please encourage the governor to allow local school districts to follow local public health recommendations to keep kids safe.” Schill said. Linda Reddy is the mother of an 8th grader and two elementary students in West Des Moines. “My children were online last year. My younger two have severe asthma. It is not a choice right now for us to be online. All I’m asking is that they’re given a chance at education like all the other children have,” Reddy says.

Reddy’s children can wear masks if they want — but other students are not required to wear masks around them. The Board of Education did not discuss the issue because it was not on their meeting agenda. Governor Reynolds said earlier this week that students can return to class safely.

(By Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

One person was flown by helicopter from the scene of a motorcycle accident Thursday morning, in Mills County. The Sheriff’s Office reports the Mills County Communications Center received a 9-1-1 call at around 10:25-a.m., about an accident on 215th Street, south of Glenwood.

Law enforcement arriving on the scene called for LifeNet prior to the arrival of Glenwood Rescue, due to the nature of the accident victims’ critical injuries. Glenwood Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene and attended to the victim until LifeNet arrived. The motorcycle rider was transported the UNMC in Omaha. The person’s name was not released.

An initial investigation by the Mills County Sheriff’s Office determined the accident was caused by an animal on the roadway. The accident remains under investigation. Assisting the Mills County S/O at the scene, was the Iowa State Patrol, and the aforementioned Glenwood Fire/Rescue and LifeNet.

The Adair County Engineers Office reports beginning Wednesday Aug. 11th and lasting until Friday, Oct. 15th (weather permitting), a portion of 310th St. (G61) and Adair-Cass Ave. will be closed to traffic for a box culvert and grading project. The project is approximately 0.43 miles in length along 310th St., including 1200′ east and west of Adair-Cass Ave. Adair-Cass Ave. will be closed 600′ south of 310th St.

(Radio Iowa) – Around 45 police dogs and their handlers from around the Midwest are in Sioux City doing advanced training with their animals. Sergeant Jay Nix of the Marion County Florida Sheriff’s Office is on the trainers and C-O-O of K-9’s United, a non-profit organization that works with law officers and their dogs. “So our job initially when the foundation started was things like equipment. As we progress through that we realized there was some shortfalls in these guys using some of the training equipment we were providing,” according to Nix. “We realized they did not have good home field advantages — as far as quality training in their hometown, quality training in their agency — there’s a lot of shortfalls in that area.”

Nix has been in law enforcement 21 years and a dog handler for 18 of those years. His group is providing advanced training to establish K-9 units from Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin. “We’re providing problem solving from all areas of patrol work — meaning apprehension, criminal apprehension, which is criminal apprehension. biting, tracking, searching, any type of building search, area searches article searches, which is evidence recovery, narcotics detection, explosive detection. Whatever their need is, is what we are providing,” Nix says.

Sergeant Jake Noltze of the Sioux City Police Department is one of the trainees. “It’s humbling, because when we train with the same group we are ‘yeah we know what we are doing and we are doing really well,’ and then you have people who are extremely competent and professional come in and say ‘no, there is a better way,” Noltze says. “And that better way then leads us to be more professional when we deal with the civilian population, so our dogs than are more valuable to the team, to the police department and to the community.”

The training is not free, and was sponsored by a Sioux City company. The four-day training session wraps up today (Thursday) at the Sioux City police training center.

(Radio Iowa) – It’s been one year since Governor Kim Reynolds signed an executive order restoring voting rights to an estimated 40-thousand Iowans with felony convictions. About five-thousand of them have since registered to vote and voting rights advocates say state officials should try to reach more people. Betty Andrews, president of the Iowa-Nebraska NAACP, says it’s going to take more work to make sure people with past felony convictions get to the polls.  “There should be an ongoing promotion of this new right just because it’s so new,” Andrews says. “And also because there is hesitancy, and there is concern in terms of trust with a system that may have had you confined for a number of years.”

Eric Harris of Iowa City was able to vote in the 2020 election after having his rights restored. He also plans to do more outreach in his neighborhood to help other former inmates register to vote ahead of this fall’s local elections. ) Harris says, “I think that’d be a good start to get people to be aware that they can vote, and voting is a thing that every American should be able to do and should do.”

The state sends general voting information to all eligible Iowans. And the Department of Corrections sends a letter to people finishing their sentences informing them that they can vote. State agencies have -not- made targeted efforts to contact people who finished their sentence before the executive order was signed.

(By Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol says one person died when a tow truck and an SUV collided on Interstate 35 in rural Hamilton County last (Wednesday) night. A 2007 International tow truck driven by Anthony Nessa of Webster City was traveling northbound at the time. While accelerating, the Nessa tow truck was struck from behind by a 2000 model Suzuki Grand Vitara, driven by James Bergert of Williams. A passenger in the Bergert SUV, 51-year-old Joanna Rizzo of Williams, died of her injuries in the crash. Bergert suffered minor injuries.

The Glenwood Police Department reports the arrest this (Thursday) morning, of a man from Nebraska. Authorities say 37-year-old Robert Stanton, of Papillion was arrested for OWI 1st Offense. His cash or surety bond was set at $1,000.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – An old Rock Island Railroad box car that sat on the tracks near Olsen’s BP in Atlantic for more years than most people can remember, has found a new home in Sioux City. Gary Richter, with Richter and Sons Towing, in Atlantic, was busy overseeing the loading of the rail car onto his flatbed truck Thursday.

Photo courtesy Becky Christensen

Olsen BP owner Keith Olsen has donated the rail car to the Sioux City Railroad Museum. Richter told KJAN News they began the process at around 9-a.m.

The car weighs about 30-thousand pounds, which is why Richter brought out his big boom truck to load the railcar. He estimated it would take about 3 hours to load and lock-down onto the heavy duty trailer. The rail car is not the heaviest piece of equipment they’ve loaded, though.

Making the move from the track to the truck takes a bit of choreography.

Keith Olsen told KJAN News he doesn’t know the entire history of the rail car, but he knows it had been used to store things for more than 60-years.

Olsen said he was contacted this past Winter about the metal box on wheels, that’s referred to as a “Tool Car,” after someone saw it and inquired if they could have it for the Sioux City Museum.

(Left) Matt Merke with the Sioux City Railroad Museum, and Keith Olsen, with Olsen’s BP.

He called it “Coincidental Luck.” He said the Siouxland Museum is the third to have contacted him over the years, but was the first to follow through on making the arrangements.

The Sioux City Railroad Museum has a spot all picked out for Atlantic’s box car.