Creston Police say no injuries were reported following a three-vehicle accident Friday afternoon. Officials say a 2005 Toyota Camry driven by 68-year old Earl Ritter, of Omaha, was in the right eastbound lane of Highway 34, and a 2002 Buick Century driven by 96-year old John May, of Mount Ayr, was in the left westbound lane. A 2013 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 58-year old Robbie Jo Tanner, of Greenfield, was stopped at the red light at the intersection of Laurel Street and Highway 34. An unknown vehicle in the left eastbound lane of Highway 34 waiting to turn north onto Sumner Street created a blind spot for John May.

May began to turn south onto Laurel Street and did not see Ritter’s oncoming Toyota.  Ritter did not have time to stop. His vehicle broadsided the Buick, which was spun into the northbound lane of Laurel Street before striking Tanner’s pickup head-on. The accident happened at around 12:30-p.m. Police said May was at fault for Failure to Yield upon making a left turn, but no citations were issued. Damage from the collisions amounted to $4,500.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — A grateful mother is thanking an emergency services dispatcher in eastern Iowa for calmly guiding her husband as he helped her deliver their baby daughter. Twenty-seven-year-old Kala Walker gave birth to little Kalee last week at home with her 29-year-old husband, Lee Walker, assisting. Kala Walker says Ben Sharpe at Muscatine County Joint Communications knew what to say to her husband and “knew how to walk him through it, which was wonderful.”

The Walkers had been sent home from Trinity Hospital earlier because she was dilating, but not long after they arrived Kala Walker began having contractions. Lee Walker called 911 for help, and after five minutes on the phone with Sharpe, the little girl arrived. Paramedics soon were on the scene to cut the umbilical cord and take mom and baby to the hospital.

(Radio Iowa) — The company that’s the first to produce medical marijuana in Iowa will also run two of the dispensaries which sell the products. MedPharm Iowa’s Stephen Wilson oversees the dispensary program and says the dispensaries are very modern looking. “If you walk in, it’s very much like a Verizon store if you will — it’s a very open, inviting environment so that patients feel comfortable. Because a lot of times, these patients have very debilitating conditions that take a mental and physical toll on themselves,” Wilson explains.

Other companies will run facilities in Council Bluffs, Davenport and Waterloo. Wilson is not sure how those dispensaries will look. “I have not seen the dispensaries themselves, however I can imagine they’re going to have a similar type of atmosphere — very inviting. It’s pretty typical as far was what you see in cannabis dispensaries across the nation,” Wilson says. He says the MedPharm facilities will have a high level of security. “We want our patients to feel comfortable,” Wilson says, “a lot of people coming in recognize the fact that they are purchasing medical cannabis products. They want to feel secure in that they know that their privacy is going to be taken very seriously. And that’s one of the things, we have several safeguards built in.”

He says they will cover all aspects of security involving prescription medications. “We have a state of the art security system in place to prevent diversion, theft, release of private health information, things like that,” Wilson explained. Wilson says when patients come in they will meet with an expert and an I-pad right in front of them. He says the give the patients a degree of freedom to learn about the products and as well as other information the patient consultant deems necessary. Wilson says they hope to have an open house at their dispensaries in November. He made his comments during a news conference to unveil the company’s products.

(Radio Iowa) — This is Teen Driver Safety Week and Iowa leaders suggest parents have a conversation with their teens about the rules of the road. Genie Clemens, youth coordinator for the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says 22 Iowans under the age of 20 were killed in crashes last year. “Any life lost in a motor vehicle crash is too many,” Clemens says, “so we’re doing everything we can to help teens and other drivers to remember to drive safely and always wear their seat belts, obey the laws and obviously, not drive distracted.”

In 2016, there were nearly 23-hundred people killed in crashes involving a teen driver nationwide, and 814 of those killed were the teen drivers. Clemens says alcohol and drugs often play a factor in teen crashes and the odds are worse if a teen driver has one or more teen passengers. “In 2016, nearly one out of every five teen drivers was involved in a fatality crash,” Clemens says. “They actually had been drinking. That’s a sad statistic and we need to do everything we can to prevent our teens from using alcohol and drugs.”

The radio, the cell phone and passengers can all create potentially-deadly distractions for teen drivers, and Clemens warns them to pay attention to the task at hand — driving. “In 2016, among teen drivers involved in fatal crashes, 10% were reported as distracted at the time of the crash,” Clemens says. “We know that our teens are definitely always connected to their phones, but when they’re driving, they should be putting those phones down and focusing strictly on their driving.”

A Triple-A study found that when a teen driver has only teen passengers in their vehicle, the fatality rate for all people involved in a crash increased 51 percent.

Police in Council Bluffs say two suspects entered White Oak Station (2024 5th Avenue) at around 9:37-p.m., Sunday. One subject held a box cutter, the other a table leg. The suspects demanded money from the register. The clerk cooperated and was not injured during the incident.

(see pictures below) If anyone recognizes these individuals, please call 712-328-STOP.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

CHICAGO (AP) — From San Diego to New York, Mega Millions players are dreaming of how they would spend the record $1.6 billion jackpot should they beat the astronomical odds of winning. The next drawing is Tuesday. Some would pay off bills and give to charity. Others would buy a new house, travel and put money away for their kids. Nebraska mom Michelle Connaghan said she would do “surprise good deeds for people.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot will top $620 million this week because no one won Saturday’s drawing, but that may seem relatively small compared to the $1.6 billion Mega Millions drawing expected on Tuesday. Both lottery jackpots are approaching new heights this week.

INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — Simpson College students have staged a protest at the south-central Iowa school over faculty and program cuts announced last week. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that Simpson College President Jay Simmons announced last week that the college will cut 13 full-time employees, the art department, and French and German majors. Students packed the Kent Campus Center on Friday to voice their anger over the cuts.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa City officials have named the black-eyed Susan as the city’s official flower. The City Council on Tuesday passed a resolution adopting the flower with gold petals and a black center. The plant is native to Iowa city and attracts a wide variety of insects, including butterflies and bees. Its seeds are a favorite of songbirds, such as goldfinches, sparrows and chickadees. The flower’s colors are also shared by the University of Iowa.

In an update to our earlier reports, Shelby County Emergency Management Operations Officer Jason Wickizer, Sunday, provided additional information with regard to the death of Earling Fire Chief Tom Henrich. According to the report, at around 2:40-p.m. Saturday, Henrich fell ill while working a fire call involving a combine and field fire. Immediate Emergency Medical Assistance was provided by Shelby County Sheriff’s Deputies, Earling, Defiance and Irwin EMT’s, who witnessed the incident.

Chief Henrich was transported to Myrtue Medical Center in Harlan. Wickizer said “Unfortunately Chief Henrich did not survived the event. Funeral arrangements are pending, and will be announced {later}.” The incident occurred in the vicinity of Highway 37 and Hazel Road, in Shelby County. Numerous posts of condolences, and support for Earling Fire Department personnel and Henrich’s family, have been posted on social media sites.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Powerball jackpot will top $620 million this week because no one won Saturday’s drawing, but that may seem relatively small compared to the $1.6 billion Mega Millions drawing expected on Tuesday.

Both lottery jackpots will approach new heights this week. The Mega Millions jackpot will likely set a new record, and the Powerball jackpot will be the third largest ever for that game on Wednesday.
The second-largest jackpot was a $1.586 billion Powerball drawing on Jan. 13, 2016.

The Mega Millions jackpot has been growing since July, when a group of 11 California office workers won $543 million. It costs $2 to play either game. The odds of winning Mega Millions are about one in 302 million. The Powerball odds are slightly better at one in 292.2 million.

(Radio Iowa) –The third and final televised debate between Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and Democratic challenger Fred Hubbell was held early Sunday morning. The candidates clashed over a variety of topics, each accusing the other of misleading Iowans. Hubbell says the G-O-P tax plan Reynolds touts has restrictions that may not allow it to fully go into effect.

“The likelihood that tax cut for the middle class is going to happen in 2024 is no more likely than than the cow jumping over the moon,” Hubbell said. Reynolds says the promise of those tax cuts has been an economic driver. “We’re reducing taxes and regulations and created a pro-growth environment,” Reynolds said, “where we’re seeing our economy grow.” The pace of growth in state support of public schools was also a point of debate. Reynolds says you can’t measure the success of a program by the sheer amount of dollars put into it.

“(I’m) proud of our investment in education, as I’ve said, fourth in the country,” Reynolds said. “And I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do even with higher education.” Hubbell pointed to the mid-year budget cuts to the state universities and argued K-through-12 schools are being asked to do more and more with less. “We’ve had eight years in a row of about a 1.3 percent average increase in student funding in our schools,” Hubbell said. “Inflation has been 2.5 to 3 percent in each of those eight years.” Reynolds has been airing campaign ads hammering Hubbell’s management of the Younkers department store chain and she used the debate to make this charge:

“Fred, when you were the CEO of Younkers, the IRS said you owed, that Younkers owed, $9 million in back taxes. That doesn’t sound like fiscal responsibility to me.” Hubbell responded, saying the payment was the outcome of a 1992 tax audit.  “I knew that the governor was going to be throwing the kitchen sink at me,” Hubbell said. “…Younkers had a tax reserve, which most public companies do. They negotiated with the IRS. The actual change in the reserves was very small. It did not affect gross income of Younkers at all and it was a perfectly normal situation.”

Reynolds twice accused her opponent of favoring repeal of Iowa’s “right-to-work” law that forbids forced union membership, prompting this response from Hubbell:  “If the legislature determines that the right-to-work bill should be passed and they give me a bill that’s good for small businesses and the economy, I will sign that bill,” Hubbell said. Hubbell accused Reynolds of supporting the roll-back of Iowa’s collective bargaining law for “purely political reasons.”

“They wanted to reduce the impact of labor unions in the state to strengthen the Republican Party. It had nothing to do with being good for our state,” Hubbell said. “…Now, teachers and state workers don’t have the right to strike or collectively bargain. It’s not fair.” Reynolds says the new law which limits contract talks to salaries only “put taxpayers at the negotiating table.” In responding to questions about immigration, Reynolds said she is open to sending Iowa National Guard troops to seal the southern border. Hubbell said such a move would put Iowa soldiers in harm’s way for political reasons.

The debate was sponsored by the Quad City Times, K-W-Q-C in the Quad Cities and K-C-R-G in Cedar Rapids. W-O-W-T in Omaha also broadcast the debate, which started at 8 a.m. Sunday.

The Iowa State Patrol reports one person died and four others were injured during a collision that happened at around 7:45-p.m. Saturday on Highway 71 and Casey Road. The Patrol says a 2013 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 72-year old Ronald Ray Nelson, of Exira, was traveling north on Highway 71 and was approaching the red traffic light at a bridge construction site south of “The Valley,” when for reasons unknown, he failed to stop, and rear-ended a 2011 Ford Explorer driven by 34-year old Travis Wayne Anthofer, of Exira.

Following the collision, the pickup entered the east ditch. The SUV was pushed into the open lane on the bridge, where it blocked Highway 71. Dispatch reports at the time said Nelson was unresponsive, and rescue crews were performing CPR. The man died at the scene, though. Antohofer, and his passengers, 33-year old Kaitlin Ann Anthofer, 7-year old Ryleigh Anthofer, and 9-year old Gavin Joseph Anthofer, all of Exira, were transported by other family members to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, to be checked for injuries.