Police in Red Oak arrested a man Thursday night, for Disorderly Conduct. Weston Price Jespersen, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 8:45-p.m. in the 300 block of W. Washington Avenue. He was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, and held on a $300 cash bond.

Anita Rescue and Wiota 1st Responders were called to the 65-mile marker of Interstate 80 westbound at around 4:40-a.m. today for a car versus semi-tractor trailer accident. A female in a Hyundai Sonata was trapped in the vehicle and extrication was requested. A medical helicopter was also dispatched to the scene. The woman was said to have suffered head and other, unknown injuries.

Additional information is currently not available.

The 22 women competing to be “Miss Iowa 2018” next week will still be evaluated for their appearances in swimsuits and evening gowns. Changes announced this week to the Miss America competition — like the end of the swimsuit competition — will be in place for the NEXT round of state and local pageants. Racheal Vopatek is president of the Miss Iowa Competition Board. “Swimsuit going away is a big change and I think there are a lot of mixed feelings out there,” Vopatek says. “We’re all still processing it.”

Miss Iowa 2017 Chelsea Dubczak of Urbandale says change was needed because the swimsuit competition tended to focus on the “physique” of the women, but Dubczak disagrees with eliminating it altogether. “There should still be some component that takes into consideration the lifestyle and the fitness of the title holder so that she can be a positive role model and a good representative in all facets of life,” Dubczak says.

The Miss America organization emphasizes it is a scholarship competition, not a beauty pageant. Dubczak says evaluating how well contestants speak and how well educated they are is important — but she says with obesity and chronic diseases associated with a sedentary lifestyle on the rise, physical fitness is important, too. “Day in and day out, how do you take care of yourself? How do you show people to respect people and admire your body, not just by how it looks, but by how well it functions?” she says.

For the past year, Dubczak has promoted a “Ladies Who Lift” platform, emphasizing weight lifting and other activities that focus on what a woman’s body is capable of doing rather than what it looks like. The opening round of competition among the women vying to be Miss Iowa 2018 starts next Thursday. A winner will be crowned on Saturday, the 16th.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — For a Republican Party that celebrates capitalism and the American dream of building wealth, the GOP’s initial line of attack against the new Iowa Democratic nominee for governor appears a bit out of character. Fred Hubbell, a former life insurance executive whose family wealth in Des Moines dates back to the mid-1800s, won the Democratic nomination Tuesday. Gov. Kim Reynolds and party leaders were quick to question how voters could trust a candidate who was born into a rich family.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge has found that Iowa cannot deny two transgender women Medicaid coverage for sex reassignment surgery declaring the state’s policy denying their care violates the Iowa Constitution and the state’s civil rights law. Carol Ann Beal of northwest Iowa and EerieAnna Good of the Quad Cities in eastern Iowa filed the lawsuit last year after their Medicaid provider and Iowa Department of Human Services denied surgery requests recommended by doctors.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — A state audit has found nearly $7,000 in improper and unsupported payments and undeposited collections at the University of Northern Iowa’s Study Abroad Center. The audit found the problems from July 2011 to June 2014, when the program was run by Yana Cornish. Iowa State Auditor Mary Mosiman says the audit shows $5,768 in payments that did not comply with UNI policies and also found $922 in undeposited collections related to air travel costs that Cornish had paid with university card.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Police in the central Iowa city of Ankeny have identified two people whose bodies were found earlier this week inside a mobile home. Police said in a news release Thursday that autopsies reveal 44-year-old Karen Jayne Edsinga and 45-year-old Lonnie Robert Perry died of gunshot wounds. An autopsy showed Edsinga died of a self-inflicted gunshot and that Perry also died of a gunshot wound. Police say they were unable to determine if Perry’s wound was self-inflicted or at the hands of Edsinga.