In an update to our earlier report, the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports what’s believed to be an isolated road rage incident involving shots-fired occurred early this (Tuesday) morning, on Interstate 80, about four-miles west of the Neola exit. According to Lt. Rob Ambrose with the Pott. County Sheriff’s Office, the Pottawattamie County Communications Center received a 911 call at around 5:19-a.m. with regard to shots being fired on Interstate 80 near the 24 mile marker eastbound.

Deputies made contact with the reporting party, 20-year old Tyler Carfora, of Colorado, who was driving a 2010 Audi.  The woman said a white male, in his 20’s, driving a gray car with Wisconsin plates had pulled beside her and fired a handgun toward her vehicle, striking the passenger side rear tire.

The suspect vehicle had stickers on the rear of the vehicle and blankets in the rear window. Carfora’s tire did have damage consistent with being shot with a firearm. Neither the male subject or his vehicle was located.

The incident remains under investigation.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s population grew at a modest rate to 3.12 million this year, but the growth rate trailed behind the national rate. The U.S. Census Bureau released new estimates Tuesday showing state and national populations as of July 1. Iowa’s population grew by 14,418, or 0.5 percent, over last year’s total of 3.11 million.

The national population grew 0.8 percent to 321.4 million between last year and this year. Iowa remains 30th in population among the states. Iowa lost a U.S. House seat after the 2010 Census because the state’s population grew more slowly than other states. So the state’s current four House seats are likely safe even with Iowa’s continued slow growth.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Lawmakers say a delay in privatization of Iowa’s Medicaid program means that most of the 37,000 children enrolled in a special health care program must transition to a new insurance carrier by the new year. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa terminated its contract with two companies that managed the hawk-i program, anticipating that the state’s Medicaid program would be almost completely privatized by Jan. 1.

Last week, the federal government rejected that target date, saying Iowa was not ready for the transition. Iowa asked UnitedHealthcare and Wellmark to extend their contracts, but Wellmark declined. Iowa Medicaid Director Mikki Stier said Monday about 75 percent of the program’s children are currently insured through Wellmark.

Board members for hawk-i said they would help Iowa persuade Wellmark to extend its contract.

Farm fertilizer retailers in Iowa and nationwide were spared expensive new OHSA regulations by Congressional action in the big budget bill that was passed last week. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the bill included a rider that blocked OSHA from implementing new safety rules on all retailers that sell anhydrous ammonia. Compliance could have cost some retailers up to 60-thousand dollars and forced many of them to stop selling the popular fertilizer.

Grassley says, “That would’ve applied to great big facilities right now but it got down to a point where it would apply to your local co-op and drive up the cost of operating, the cost of product, all that sort of stuff.” The proposed rules from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration were sparked by an explosion in 2013 at a fertilizer storage and distribution facility in Texas that killed 15 people and injured more than 160.

“That was a great big facility and it would’ve applied changes of rules to apply to them,” Grassley says. “It would have affected every small retailer around the country.” Officials with the Ag Retailers Association called OSHA a “runaway federal agency” due to the new safety rules it wanted to enforce. Grassley says the regulations OSHA demanded were simply too restrictive and too expensive.

“It just figured that the safety effects weren’t as realistic to challenge, that a regulation was justified,” Grassley says, “and that’s why it was stalled.” Under the legislation, the ban on OSHA requiring higher safety rules for anhydrous retailers lasts until the end of calendar year 2016.

(Radio Iowa)

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports a Creston man was arrested Monday night on a warrant. Ryan Patrick Dukleth was taken into custody at the Union County Law Enforcement Center on a Union County bench warrant for failure to appear on child support matters/Contempt of Court. Dukleth was being held in the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.

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

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Authorities in western Iowa are on the lookout for a vehicle and driver possibly involved in a road rage incident this morning, with shots allegedly fired. According to the State Patrol Communications Center near Lewis, the incident happened on Interstate 80 eastbound at the 25 mile marker, at around 5:20-a.m.

The vehicle was described as being gray, with Wisconsin plates, inside back window full of debris and bumper stickers all over the rear of the vehicle. A partial, possible description of the plates may include the numbers 337.

If you see this vehicle, call 9-1-1 or your local law enforcement agency.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reported Monday, one person suffered possible/minor injuries during a single-vehicle accident that took place Friday night. Authorities say 22-year old Rebecca A. Holbrook, of Lenox, was driving a 2000 Dodge Intrepid north on Iowa Highway 25 at around 9:20-p.m., when a deer ran across the road. When Holbrook  swerved to avoid hitting the animal, her car entered a ditch on the east side of the road.

The woman complained of possible injuries and was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Creston. Damage to her vehicle was estimated at $100 or less.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office said Monday a woman from Thayer reported a theft had occurred Friday afternoon. The woman said sometime during the night, someone broke into her house located on the 300 block of 3rd Avenue, in Thayer. A door was damaged and the items were taken from inside the home, including a 36-inch Sony flat screen tv, a jar of loose change, and two table lamps. The loss was estimated at $610.