PEOSTA, Iowa (AP) — The City Council in the small eastern Iowa city of Peosta has set a special election to choose the community’s mayor. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald reports the council last week set the election for Jan. 14. The council initially opted to appoint a new mayor but changed course after over 130 residents signed a petition demanding an election.

Former mayor Larry Mescher quit in an email he sent Oct. 13 to council members after a contentious meeting. Two days later he asked the council to rescind his resignation but the members declined. Peosta is a city of about 1,400, located just southwest of Dubuque.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — After 11 years of temporary lanes and closed exit ramps, work is finally nearly complete on an Interstate 29 expansion project through Sioux City. The Sioux City Journal reports the Iowa Department of Transportation hopes to finish work on the project by Christmas. Final construction includes pouring concrete bridge approaches, installing guardrails and painting pavement.

It was 2008 when crews began the $400 million to widen the freeway to three lanes in each direction from Sergeant Bluff through Sioux City and to the South Dakota border. Although major construction will be over, workers still will need to make unexpected repairs to a bridge damaged by fire this fall. State transportation planner Dakin Schultz acknowledged “there are times when it seemed it would never end.”

(Radio Iowa) — The open enrollment period for Medicare is rapidly coming to an end. The final date to sign up or make changes to your plan is Saturday December 7th. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services handles the questions on the open enrollment and spokesperson Julie Brookhart says it is important for users to be sure they are on the Medicare-dot-gov website.”There are other websites out there that folks think it’s the federal website — they might be dot-com — they’re not. The official website is Medicare-dot-gov, and then you would click on the plan finder tool link,” Brookhart explains.

She says you’ve likely seen promotional materials from various plan providers in mailings and T-V ads. “Those probably are legitimate marketing pieces from all of the health plans that contract with Medicare,” she says, “but we tell Medicare beneficiaries that they can’t call you up, they can’t come door-to-door, they can’t solicit really.” Brookhart says you should be aware that there are some scams out there too. “If you get any callers calling you, asking you for your Medicare number or if you sign up for my plan you’ll get a gift — if it all sounds too good to be true — it probably is. Medicare is never going to call you and ask for that type of information,” Brookhart says.

She says you should be a little skeptical. “Just be on guard. If it doesn’t sound right, it probably isn’t, she says. Brookhart says they ask you to call them at 1-800-633-4227 to report any possible Medicare fraud. You can also call that number if you need help with your plan. There are some 625-thousand Iowans who use Medicare.

(Radio Iowa) — The federal government is launching a campaign to hire thousands of people across Iowa and the nation to help with the 2020 Census. The bureau’s Sam Fettig urges anyone who’s interested to apply right away. “There may only be a certain number of jobs in any given area, so once those jobs in a certain area are filled, they’re filled,” Fettig says. “So if someone’s interested, the sooner, the better to get that application in.”

Fettig says workers go door-to-door to follow up when someone doesn’t respond to census questions on-line, by phone or on the paper form: “We’re hoping to hire really locally,” he says, “so that when someone comes knocking at your door, it’s someone you know and it’s someone who knows your community.” Fettig says work hours are flexible and the pay starts at 14-dollars an hour and is in some cases 16 or even 20-dollars an hour.  “For someone even who might have a 9 to 5 job already, it’s a good way to get involved, to help your community, ensure that you have the federal resources and political representation for the next 10 years,” he says.

Fettig says the application review and hiring process will begin in January. “It’s important that we hire workers who have connections in the community, who already have pre-existing relationships and trust,” he says. “To help bridge those gaps in understanding or to help address concerns, it really helps if we can hire from local communities.”

To apply, visit: 2020census.gov/jobs.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol says one person died and three others were injured in a weekend rollover crash near Des Moines. The State Patrol says the crash happened around 1:30 a.m. Saturday on an eastbound ramp connecting Interstate 235 to Interstate 80 in Polk County. The driver of a Chevrolet Silverado lost control of the truck on the onramp before it went into a ditch and rolled onto its roof.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors plan to call an 8-year-old boy to testify against his father in an Iowa triple-homicide trial. KCCI-TV reports that the state on Wednesday filed a motion that would allow the boy to testify via a closed-circuit TV feed. The child is the son of Marvin Esquivel-Lopez of Guatemala. He is charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the July shooting deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Cedar Rapids man who lied about his drug use so he could buy guns has been sentenced to nearly two years in prison. Dustin Herubin was sentenced earlier this week. He’d pleaded guilty to drug and weapons charges. Authorities say Herubin’s home was struck by gunfire on Oct. 11 last year. Officers found guns and marijuana. Authorities say he lied about the drug use on federal forms so he could buy guns.

Cass County Health System Public Information Director Ann McCurdy reports the phone lines are down at Cass County Health System. McCurdy says Mediacom Representatives are investigating the incident. In the meantime, anyone needing to contact the hospital for an emergency is asked to dial 9-1-1.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa State Patrol says one person died and three others were injured in a weekend rollover crash near Des Moines. The State Patrol says the crash happened around 1:30 a.m. Saturday on an eastbound ramp connecting Interstate 235 to Interstate 80 in Polk County.

The driver of a Chevrolet Silverado lost control of the truck on the onramp before it went into a ditch and rolled onto its roof. Iowa State Patrol spokesman Sgt. Alex Dinkla says 20-year-old Taylor Dean Babcock died at the scene. He was a passenger in the truck,

The driver and two other passengers were hurt in the crash. One person had serious injuries while the other two suffered only minor injuries.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports a man a woman were arrested Saturday evening, with assistance from a bystander. Authorities say at around 6:36-p.m., the Adams County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a man identifying himself as “Jawanza Curtis,” who said he saw a media release containing his name, but that the arrested person was in fact his brother. At the Casey’s Store in Corning, Deputies located the person who had just posted bond and had been released from jail. They questioned the subject, and while attempting to place him into custody, the man attempted to flee on foot through the parking lot.

Deputies were able to take him into custody, and identified him as Kaijuan Avonte Curtis, of Council Bluffs. Kaijuan had outstanding warrants for his arrest through another agency. He was transported to the Adams County Jail and booked in on the following felony charges: A Controlled Substance Violation; Possession of Contraband, and two counts Interference with Officials Acts. He faces additional, lesser charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance; Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Providing False Identification Information.

Deputies also made contact with Kaijuan’s girlfriend, Gabrielle Hunke, of Mount Ayr, who posted bond for Kaijuan. She continued to provide deputies with false ID information for her boyfriend, and was placed under arrest for Accessory After the Fact, along with Providing False ID information. Deputies were assisted at the scene by the Iowa State Patrol. The Sheriff’s Department extends its since “Thank you” as well, to the bystander who assisted in taking Kaijuan Curtis into custody.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden launched an eight-day bus tour of Iowa on Saturday projecting confidence, ignoring his many Democratic presidential competitors and pledging that he will unseat President Donald Trump in 2020. The former vice president pledged first to win the Feb. 3 Iowa caucuses, despite recent polls suggesting his standing there has slipped in recent months.

“I promise you, I promise you,” Biden told a few hundred supporters outside his Council Bluff campaign office, “we’re going to win this race, and we’re going to beat Donald Trump, and we’re going to change America.” Behind the optimism, Biden aides acknowledge he must sharpen his message and bolster his voter outreach operation ahead of the caucuses that start Democrats’ 2020 voting. But his advisers also insist he has wide support and remains well-positioned to recover any lost ground.

His chief argument — his perceived strength against Trump — was on clear display Saturday. Sidestepping his philosophical tussle with progressive Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders over the party’s direction, Biden struck a general-election posture. He added an emphasis on small town and rural America, an electoral swath where Democrats have struggled in recent elections but that could prove critical in both the nominating fight and November battlegrounds.

“We’re going to touch on what we think is a forgotten part of this campaign,” Biden said, bemoaning the effects of Trump’s tariffs on Iowa farmers and highlighting his own rural policy plans shaped with the help of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. The former Obama agriculture secretary recently gave Biden his most high-profile Iowa endorsement.

Iowa polls suggest that Biden, while a front-runner nationally, is in a jumble near the top. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 37, of South Bend, Indiana, appears to hold a narrow edge over Biden, 77; Warren, 70; and Sanders, 78. The senators have animated the party’s left flank, while Buttigieg joins Biden in Democrats’ center-left wing but is calling for generational change. Thus far, Buttigieg, Warren and Sanders have drawn consistently larger Iowa crowds than Biden, while some party activists criticize his campaign as insufficiently aggressive.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors plan to call an 8-year-old boy to testify against his father in an Iowa triple-homicide trial. KCCI-TV reports that the state on Wednesday filed a motion that would allow the boy to testify via a closed-circuit TV feed. The child is the son of Marvin Esquivel-Lopez of Guatemala, who faces three counts of first-degree murder in the July shooting deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and her 5-year-old son.

The killings happened in Des Moines. Court documents say the child was an eyewitness. Esquivel-Lopez pleaded not guilty. His trial starts Jan. 27. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have said Escobar-Orellana is in the United States illegally and had twice been deported before the shooting. He was convicted in 2010 of illegal entry into the U.S.