The main entrance of Cass County Health System will be closed for maintenance beginning at NOON, Saturday, August 24^th and will reopen on Monday, August 26^th.  Patients and visitors are asked to please use the Emergency Department entrance during this time.

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — A farmer who appeared on ABC’s “The Bachelor” has accepted a suspended two-year prison sentence for his role in a 2017 Iowa crash that killed another man.

Court records show that Chris Soules entered written consent documents on Friday agreeing to the suspended sentence and supervised release. He also agreed to pay a $625 fine. A judge must still sign off on the sentencing. Soules had been set to appear for sentencing on Tuesday. In light of the agreement, he waived his right to appear for sentencing.

Soules pleaded guilty in November to a reduced charge of leaving the scene of a serious injury accident for the April 2017 crash that killed 66-year-old Kenny Mosher. Soules was arrested after he rear-ended Mosher’s tractor. Soules called 911, performed CPR on Mosher and waited for first responders, but left the scene before officers arrived.

Soules appeared on “The Bachelor” and “Dancing With The Stars” in 2015.

(Radio Iowa) Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says she talked with President Trump twice on Thursday about E-P-A waivers to big oil companies that have reduced the amount of ethanol that must be blended into gasoline.

Trump, as well as EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue, and other White House staff were on a conference call. They discussed a number of different options for farmers and those employed in the ethanol industry.

The ethanol industry has been harshly critical of the latest round of ethanol waivers. POET Biorefining, which operates six plants in Iowa, has shut down its ethanol plant in Indiana and announced this week it is reducing production at others. Ernst says given the make-up of a key committee in the U.S. Senate, there’s little chance for a pro-ethanol bill to clear congress. She’s optimistic the Trump Administration will come up with a solution.

Ernst said. Ernst made her comments last (Thursday) night after a G-O-P fundraiser in Forest City. She’s holding town hall meetings in Humbolt, Emmetsburg AND Forest City today (Friday).

AMES, Iowa (AP) — The man who fatally stabbed a former Iowa State University golfer from Spain while she was playing a round near the school was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Collin Richards pleaded guilty on June 14 to first-degree murder in the Sept. 17 slaying of 22-year-old Celia Barquin Arozamena. Police said Richards stabbed her on the course near the central Iowa campus in Ames and left her body in a pond.

Richards had been staying at a homeless encampment in nearby woods. Ames police reports show that Richards struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems and homelessness after he got out of prison three months before he killed Barquin. He had served roughly seven months behind bars for violating the terms of his probation on convictions for burglary and other crimes.

Richards, 22, told a judge earlier this month that he was sorry for his crime. He said in a handwritten letter that he wanted to show remorse “for stripping a life from society … worse, from a loving family.”

Barquin was a top golfer in Spain as a teenager and came to Iowa State to pursue her career.

Her family is aware of Richards’ expression of remorse but “they don’t give too much credit to that apology at this time,” the family’s lawyer, Leon Vidaller, told The Des Moines Register for a story published Thursday.

Authorities have not been able to explain why Richards did it, which makes the loss even worse, Vidaller said. Richards’ family and friends have said his dependence on methamphetamine and other drugs likely led to mental health issues and the violence.

Richards being imprisoned for life — a mandatory sentence — won’t bring Barquin back, but it will give the family some closure, the lawyer said.

The Creston Police Department reports an arrest on Thursday. At 1:20pm Officers arrested 60-year-old Martin Dennis Kelly of Creston at the intersection of Patt and Lincoln Streets for Public Intoxication. Kelly was taken to the Union County Jail and held on $300 cash or surety bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Health officials say four cases of respiratory illness have been confirmed in four young Iowans with a history of vaping.

The Iowa Department of Public Health said in a news release Thursday that several other states have recently reported cases of severe respiratory illness among teenagers and young adults who’d been vaping. Their symptoms include cough, fatigue, dizziness, headache, vomiting and diarrhea, chest pain and worsening difficulty breathing. The cases are still being investigated.

The department director, Dr. Caitlin Pedati, is asking health care providers to watch for cases of severe respiratory illness among teenagers and young adults and to inquire about their recent vaping and e-cigarette use. The providers also are asked to report any cases to the Iowa Public Health Department.

Work is expected to begin soon on a section of Olive Street on the north side of Atlantic. The construction is a resurfacing project of about a six mile stretch of Olive Street from the Atlantic city limits to the Audubon County line.

A pilot car will be in place to control traffic on the roadway as the road is milled down and re-surfaced with asphalt. The roadway will also be widened by two feet on each side.

Once started the project has a 35 working day timeline and is expected to be completed by mid to late September.

w/ Chris Parks

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A day after Griswold School Officials celebrated a new addition, the Red Oak School District hosted a ribbon-cutting for their new school facilities upgrade on Thursday.

The project is a $29 million new school facilities upgrade that started after $19.9 million in obligation bonds was approved by district patrons in 2017. Construction started at the end of the 2017-18 school year and adjustments were made to hold activities around the work last year. Red Oak students will get to use the new facility today.

The complete plan closed the middle school building and converted the Washington Elementary building to house early elementary. The Inman building houses first through sixth grade students. The new high school campus will house 7th through 12th grade students.

CLOVERDALE, Ind. (AP) — The owner of a western Indiana ethanol plant is blaming its shut down on the Trump administration allowing some refineries to not blend ethanol with gasoline as required under federal law.

South Dakota-based ethanol producer Poet says it will cease production by mid-October at its Cloverdale plant, one of four it operates in Indiana. A company notification says 50 workers will lose jobs from the closure.

The company says production is being cut at half of its 28 plants where corn is processed into ethanol. Poet says it’s consolidating jobs at plants in Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota and Missouri.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued gasoline refinery exemptions removing 2.6 billion gallons (9.8 billion liters) of ethanol from production.

Poet calls those exemptions “bailouts to oil companies.”