Creston Police say a man from Colorado was cited following a non-injury accident Wednesday morning. 53-year old Raymond Ferrington, of Limon, CO. was cited for Failure to Provide Proof of Financial Liability (Insurance) – accident related, after the 2001 Nissan Maxima he was driving slid through the intersection of Highway 25 and Adams Street in Creston, and collided with a 2005 Dodge Caravan. The driver of the van was identified as 19-year old Kirby Queener, of Creston. The accident happened at around 6:25-a.m., Wednesday.

Authorities say Ferrington was traveling on Highway 25 and tried to stop for the red light at the intersection, but was unable to do so, due to the weather/road conditions. Damage from the collision amounted to $5,000.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Sioux City woman has been given 30 months in prison for driving the getaway vehicle after a bank robbery. The Sioux City Journal reports that 36-year-old Karen Merrick was sentenced Thursday. She’d pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact. Prosecutors had charged her with bank robbery but changed the charge in return for her plea. Prosecutors say Merrick drove Phillip White away from Iowa State Bank in Le Mars after he robbed it on Dec. 12, 2018. Officers managed to flatten the vehicle’s tires during a chase and arrest the pair. White’s been sentenced to 12 years.

Police in Creston say two residents reported incidents of theft, Thursday. A man residing in the 300 block of South Division Street reported at around 8-a.m., that sometime between 9-a.m. Wednesday and 8-a.m. Thursday, someone broke into his car. Items missing from the vehicle included: a $100 Casey’s gift card; Hy-Vee Fuel Saver card; a pack of cigarettes; a Samsung phone charger, and two spare sets of keys. The loss was estimated at $227 altogether.

And, at around 11:50-p.m., a man residing in the 500 block of  North Vine Street in Creston, reported to police that sometime between 4-and 6-p.m., Thursday, someone broke into his home. He was missing a Howa 1500 .308 rifle with a scope, and a small bat. The items were valued at $720.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A deal has been struck that could avert a strike by unionized nurses at MercyOne Siouxland Medical Center in Sioux City. Nurses represented by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 222 voted earlier this month to authorize a walkout. The hospital announced the tentative agreement Thursday night, but details have not been publicly released. The union says voting dates on the deal will be announced soon. The local’s current contract expired Sept. 1. The nurses have been seeking a better nurse-to-patient ratio, higher pay, better benefits and an improved strategy to handle turnover at the hospital.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s public schools saw an increase in students and teachers in the last year. Iowa Department of Education spokesman, Jay Pennington, says the latest Condition of Education report shows an increase of nearly 14-hundred (1,388) students .”This is the eighth consecutive increase in student enrollment after about a 17-year decline,” according to Pennington. “So, it’s nice to see continued, sustained growth in our schools.” There were 487-thousand-652 students in the school system in the last year. Pennington says the increase is similar to the population growth of the state as whole. “Other places are growing at faster rates — but I think it’s definitely good for Iowa schools to see sustained, continued growth,” he says.

He says that growth has included an increase in another area. “While we’re seeing overall growth in the student population, we’re also seeing more and more diversity in our schools,” Pennington says.”In the most recent year, we have just under 25 percent or one-in-four students in Iowa schools is now a student of color.” The percent of students whose native language is not English is six-point-five percent — up from six-point-one percent the year before. Pennington says the state also has more teachers — an upward trend that started in 2001. “We seen about an addition of 37-hundred teachers over that period of time. We’ve also seen a significant increase in the average salaries of educators. So, I think two really good pieces of data from the most recent report.”

The 37-thousand-386 full-time teachers in public schools in the last year compares to 33-thousand-610 in the 2000-2001 year. The average salary is now 57-thousand-463 dollars. That ranks Iowa at 21st in the nation for average salary compared to 22nd the year before. Pennington says there are a lot of good numbers in the report — including an increase in the number of students taking higher-level mathematics, including calculus, statistics and trigonometry courses. But he says there is still a lot of area for improvement. “With the most recent data — we know that for the class of 2019 — 33 percent of students took physics. And while that is an all-time high — we know that there’s still 66 percent of students who are not taking that key course within high school.”

The report says the amount of state money spent on each student went up by 333 dollars to 10-thousand-536 dollars. That ranks the state per-pupil expense 30th in the nation ahead of other the nearby states of Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Michigan and South Dakota. You can see the full report on the Iowa Department of Education’s website.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A Cedar Rapids man has been given five years in prison for slamming his pregnant girlfriend into a wall. The Gazette reports that 29-year-old Randelle Brown was sentenced Wednesday in Cedar Rapids. A jury convicted him Oct. 2 of domestic abuse assault, abuse assault and other crimes. Prosecutors say Brown grabbed the 25-year-old woman by the neck and slammed her against the wall on Jan. 22, 2018. He also slapped her face. She was 25 weeks pregnant at the time. Prosecutors say he told her that if she tried to leave him he’d beat her again and that if she went to police, he would kill her.