(Radio Iowa) — Fort Dodge police are investigating the report of a double homicide. Officers were notified just after midnight this morning of shots being fired in the area of North 9th Street and Third Avenue North. When police arrived,they discovered the bodies of two men laying in the alleyway behind 910 Second Avenue North. Both men sustained gunshot wounds. The names of the two men are being withheld pending notification of family members. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Scene Team is assisting Fort Dodge Police in the investigation. Police said that the shooting appears to be an isolated incident with no immediate threat to the public.

Officials in Cass County report curbside voting assistance is being offered at the Cass County Courthouse. The service is being provided to make voting easier for everyone. For more information, call the Cass County Auditor’s Office at 243-4570. And, if you requested an absentee ballot by mail please make sure you SIGN the envelope before returning it to the auditor’s office. They cannot count your ballot unless the envelope is signed by you.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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IOWA FALLS, Iowa (AP) — A hospital in north-central Iowa says it’s going to stop delivering babies. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls announced last week that the doctor who performs most of the deliveries is leaving the hospital, so the deliveries will stop Nov. 23rd. The hospital says prenatal care will be provided by Iowa Falls providers, but late pregnancy appointments and deliveries will occur at partnership hospitals in neighboring communities, such as Mason City.

Hospital CEO Doug Morse says it’s difficult to find doctors willing to deliver babies in a rural setting with its attendance malpractice risk and call burdens. He says his hospital is one of eight rural Iowa hospitals stopping deliveries this year.

The City of Atlantic’s Personnel and Finance Committee is set to meet 5:30-p.m., today, in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On their agenda is consideration of:

• Options with regard to a dilapidated property at 301 Maple St.
• A Service Line proposal with Megan Roberts Agency.
• The Parks and Rec Board recommendation for Park Facility Reservation Fees.
• A Temporary Full-time position with the Street Dept.
• and, Consideration of Compensation and Benefits for the FY 2020 Budget and Union Negotiations.

(7-a.m. News) — Creston Police say two men were arrested over the past few days, on separate charges. At around 1:50-a.m. Friday, 28-year old David Downey, of Afton, was arrested in Creston for OWI/2nd offense. Downey was later released from the Union County Jail on a $2,000 bond. And, 21-year old Tyler Ray, of Creston, was arrested at around 11-a.m. Saturday, on a Union County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original, Driving While Barred, charge. Ray was being held in the Union County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

Early Wednesday morning, a Creston resident reported to Police that sometime overnight Tuesday into early Wednesday morning, someone removed or his the driver’s side mirror on this vehicle, while it was parked outside the residence in the 200 block of E. Mills Street. Damage from the incident amounted to about $150.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned this weekend with fourth district congressional candidate J.D. Scholten, with stops in Ames and Fort Dodge on Sunday. “This, in fact, is the most important midterm election in the history of the United States of America,” Sanders said in Ames. Over the past 15 months, Scholten has raised more than twice as much as the incumbent he’s running against — Republican Congressman Steve King. “You are going to un-elect one of the most reactionary members of the congress and elect J.D. Scholten,” Sanders said, to cheers. A crowd of nearly 800 gathered in the Iowa State University Memorial Union for the campaign rally. On Saturday evening, about 700 were in a Morningside College auditorium in Sioux City, which is Scholten’s hometown.

“If you build the right campaign and get out there to the people and earn it, they will vote for you and if you build something special, Senator Bernie Sanders will come,” Scholten said, drawing cheers. Sanders, as you may recall, nearly tied Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Iowa Caucuses and his speeches this weekend touched on familiar themes, like raising the minimum wage and having Medicare for All. “The ideas that we advocated are now not considered fringe ideas or radical ideas, they are ideas supported in many cases by the vast majority of the American people,” Sanders said, to cheers in Sioux City. “Thank you, Iowa.” Iowa’s fourth congressional district has a 70-thousand voter registration advantage for Republicans, but Sanders suggested intense interest among younger voters could spur record levels of voter turn-out.

“It is all together possible that at one or two o’clock in the morning on the night of November 6th we’re going to be looking at a House of Representatives where one party or the other party will have control by one or two votes,” Sanders said. “One of those votes could be the fourth district of Iowa.” Deidre DeJear, the Iowa Democratic Party’s candidate for secretary of state, joined Sanders and Scholten at Sunday’s rally in Ames. Sanders said the two Democrats — both of whom are decades younger than the 77-year-old Vermont senator — have a new vision about

where our country can go. Congressman King tweeted about Sanders this weekend, suggesting Sanders’ vision was akin to socialism in Venezuela and the former Soviet Union.

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.