The Iowa State Patrol reports six people were injured during a multi-vehicle collision late Sunday evening, in northern Dallas County. Authorities say a stolen 2002 GMC pickup driven by 31-year old Samantha N. Whitney, of Joplin, MO., was traveling west on Highway 44 near Sportsman Club Road at around 7:40-p.m., when the vehicle crossed the center line of the road and struck a 2006 Dodge pickup driven by 45-year old Trevor Cozad, of Yale, and a trailer being pulled by his pickup. The trailer became disconnected and struck a 2013 Hyundai Elantra driven by 42-year old Erika N. Cozad, of Yale.

Whitney was transported to Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines by air ambulance. Several passengers in the vehicles were injured including: 58-year-old Rhonda Gragg of Perry, who was flown to MercyOne Hospital in Des Moines by air ambulance; Trevor and Erika Cozad, and two 16-year old’s, Natalie and Jessica Watson, both of Yale, were transported to Methodist Medical Center by Dallas County Emergency Medical Services. Whitney and Gragg suffered serious-to life-threatening injuries. Trevor and Erika Cozad along with the two teens, suffered minor to serious injuries. All of the injured were wearing a seat belt.

An initial investigation indicated alcohol may have played a role in the crash.  The State Patrol was assisted by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office and Dallas County EMS.

(Radio Iowa) – Congress is back in session after its summer recess and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says one of the top priorities is crafting another incarnation of the CARES Act to help businesses and individuals weather the continuing storm of coronavirus. Grassley says direct payments of up to 12-hundred dollars to nearly every American are again being discussed, as are a host of other elements designed to stimulate the economy. “Our four previous bills to help with the pandemic, we’ve been able to come to a bipartisan consensus,” Grassley says. “Each of those bills passed with overwhelming support and the biggest one passed unanimously, and I hope this one will be no different.”

The original Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act was signed into law by President Trump on March 27th. It allotted a record two-point-two trillion dollars to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Grassley says there are many possibilities to consider for the next piece of legislation.”Leader McConnell wants liability protection to protect folks from frivolous lawsuits that are related to the virus,” Grassley says. “President Trump has listed a handful of options that he wants Congress to consider and at this point, we’re only in a discussion phase.”

Grassley says hammering out the details of the bill will likely take two to three weeks though it has to be before President Trump by August 7th. Grassley, a Republican, says there’s been much conversation already about another cash infusion where Uncle Sam would send checks directly to most Americans. “I think this is the one that gets the most economic impact if you’re thinking about stimulating the economy, putting money in people’s pockets,” Grassley says. “I’m not sure it’s going to be exactly $1,200 but it’s going to be a sizable amount of money if there is checks go out.”

The payment process would likely be set up much like the last time, he says, in order to expedite the checks. Otherwise, Grassley says, they may not arrive until after Christmas.

The Griswold School Board met Monday evening and spent a good portion of their time discussing the district’s Return-to-Learn plan. Griswold Superintendent Dave Henrichs told KJAN News the Board came to a decision on how they will proceed, given the information they have at-hand.

The other option is to educate students on-site like a normal school year.

He said the Board discussed the process for trying to keep kids and staff safe, but a lot of the plan still depends on what the State Board of Education determines is necessary.

In other business, the Griswold School Board accepted the 2018-19 Audit report

And, the Board approved Dan Rold as Business Manager/Treasurer, and Board Secretary as Hannah Bierbaum, who started in June.

INDIANOLA, Iowa (AP) — Leaders in the south-central Iowa city of Indianola have approved a measure to remove Native American imagery from its city logo, including from police cars, badges and patches. Television station KCCI reports that the Indianola City Council voted unanimously Monday to remove the depiction of a Native American chief in full feathered headdress. Council members say the logo will be removed immediately, but creating a new logo will take time and cost about $27,000.

The move comes as corporations and sports teams around the country face increasing pressure to dump nicknames and depictions that reference American Indians amid a nationwide movement calling for racial justice.

A Creston man was arrested Monday morning on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault, and Possession of Paraphernalia. Creston Police report 27-year old Rogelio Olivera Martinez, was arrested at his home at around 10:30-a.m.  He was later released from the Union County Jail on a Promise to Appear in court.

And, a little before 5-p.m., Monday, a Creston man reported to Police that sometime between July 10th and the 20th, someone stole the rear license plate off of his vehicle while it was parked on the 100 block of N. Elm St. The plate taken was issued by the State of Florida.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa College Aid reports a slight drop in the number of students filing the information that’s used to determine if they qualify for federal aid, state-funded grants, and scholarships provided by colleges and universities. Spokesperson Elizabeth Keest Sedrel says the filing rate for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA fell from 54 to 52 percent. “We’ve been working on pumping up the FAFSA filing numbers for several years — and we’ve been very successful — we’ve been seeing year-over-year increases,” according to Sedrel. “And, along about March when COVID really became a big issue in the United States, Iowa like all of the states in the country, really saw those rates start to dip.”

She says part of the issue could be the seniors have been at home and not in school. “When K-through-12 schools closed the physical campuses, high school seniors wouldn’t have had regular personal contact with their school counselors any longer. And a lot of times these school counselors are the ones who facilitate that filing for financial aid,” Sedrel says. She says it could also be due to uncertainty about what would happen with colleges. “We do think that there was in issue with students not being sure what was going to happen with schools in the fall,” she says. “A lot of the time period we are looking at here — physical campuses has closed for the remainder of that school year — but schools hadn’t yet announced their plans for the fall of 2020.”

Sedrel says the positive is Iowa hasn’t seen the drop that other states have. “It’s happened all across the country. Iowa has actually seen a smaller dip than most other states — so we don’t want to paint this out to be a dire situation,” Sedrel says. But we are going to have to offset the loses from this year as we do look to moving forward on these FAFSA numbers.”  She says getting financial aid for students aligns with the Future Ready Iowa goal of having 70 percent of the workforce with education or training beyond high school by 2025. Sedrel says students and families can go online and file for FAFSA to find out how much aid is available.