Two people were transported by Glenwood Rescue to Mercy Hospital, following a collision at around 6-p.m. Thursday. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports a 2016 Ram truck driven by 37-year old Michael Morelli, of Ruffin, NC., was traveling west on Highway 34 near Hillman Road. As he approached the crest of a hill, Morelli saw a Subaru in the roadway. Morelli tried to stop, but was unable to do so. His pickup hit the Subaru on its passenger side. Following the crash, the Subaru, driven by 56-year old Becky Decker, of Glenwood, came to rest in the north ditch. Decker was cited for Failure to Obey a Traffic Control Device.

The Sheriff’s office reports also, 54-year old Thomas Lee Chalupa, of Omaha, was arrested at the Mills County Jail, Thursday, for Criminal Mischief. His bond was set at $1,000.

(Sioux City, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man has been given 25 years in prison for trying to kill a police informant. The Sioux City Journal reports that Isaac McDonald was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City. He’d pleaded guilty to conspiracy to tamper with a witness by attempting to kill a person and guilty to other crimes. Authorities say McDonald shot John Mercure in the head on Aug. 1 as he passed the car Mercure was driving in Sioux City. Mercure, who was believed to be speaking to police about drug trafficking and firearms, survived after crashing his car into a tree.

(Update 10″10-a.m.) The Iowa Department of Transportations website 511ia.org, reports some roads in and around Cass County are partially covered with ice, and bridges are icy. The roads include

• Highway 71 north of Highway 34, to Highway 141 (South of Templeton)
• Highway 6, from I-80 west to Highway 48 (To Griswold)
• Highway 48 from Highway 6, south to Red Oak.
• Highway 92 from Cumberland, west to Griswold.
• I-80 between Stuart and the Olive Street exit to Atlantic.
• Highway 173 from Highway 6 north, to Kimballton.

Numerous accidents have been reported in the Council Bluffs/Omaha metro area this morning, resulting in travel delays on parts of I-29.

(Radio Iowa) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue was in southwest Iowa on Thursday afternoon to announce more than six-point-four million dollars in grants and loans to expand broadband service in rural Iowa. Stanton-based Farmers Mutual Telephone Company has a goal of 100-percent fiber optic coverage for Montgomery County. Perdue says F-M-T-C, coupled with funding allocated by Congress, is a partnership designed to benefit regional communications. “It makes a big difference in today’s world whether you’re connected or not,” Perdue says. “You know that and we know that. We’ve talked about some of the benefits — telemedicine, e-commerce, connecting to the world way out there, being able to provide and design things that can be sold across the world through the beauty of e-commerce.”

Through the U-S-D-A’s ReConnect program, F-M-T-C plans to expand broadband services through 214 square miles in Montgomery County and surrounding areas, serving 11-hundred customers. Perdue says high-speed internet is also a must for long-distance learning. “Why should kids in rural areas have to drive into somewhere in town into a parking lot to do their homework today?” he said. “Anybody use Google in here? You can’t do that without connectivity, right? And, you know how important that is.” Perdue says rural broadband expansion is necessary in order for small communities to survive.

“It literally is not a luxury any longer, but a necessity,” Perdue says, “if communities want to grow and to thrive and to have economic development.” Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds joined Perdue in Stanton. Reynolds praised F-M-T-C for the company’s “innovative, can-do attitude” in connecting the region. The governor says positioning Iowa to lead in the “information economy” is one of her administration’s goals. “From being able to connect our students in the classrooms to cutting edge careers,” Reynolds says, “to farmers checking crop conditions and precision farming, to small businesses processing credit card payments, to being able to sell our products abroad, connectivity is the expectation, no matter where you live.”

FMTC’s general manager and CEO Kevin Cabbage says expanding broadband to territory beyond its existing coverage area involves laying 185 miles of fiber optic cable. Federal regulations require the company to have the project completed in five years, though Cabbage boasts it’ll be done in two. The money awarded the company was part of Round 1 of the ReConnect funding process, made possible through $600 million awarded to the USDA by Congress in 2018. Cabbage says his company will apply for additional dollars in Round 2, which runs January 31st through March 16th.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a woman wanted on a Probation Violation warrant, has turned herself-in. 48-year old Keri Ann Harris appeared at the Pott. County Courthouse. After being taken into custody, Harris was transported to the Pottawattamie County Jail.