(Creston, Iowa) – In an update to our earlier report, the Iowa State Patrol, Monday, released the names of two people involved in a single-vehicle crash Saturday night, in Creston. The Patrol says a male passenger in the car, 27-year-old Young Seok Moon, of Creston, died at the hospital, from injuries suffered in the crash. The driver, 26-year-old Myung Jo Kang, of Creston, was injured and flown to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

As previously mentioned, that crash happened at around 9:45-p.m. Saturday, in Creston. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2001 Ford Mustang was traveling south on Highway 25 in Creston, when the driver lost control near the intersection of Sumner and Howard Streets.

The car left the roadway to the left and struck a parked vehicle before vaulting and striking the front of two houses on the east side of the road. The vehicle flipped over and came to rest on its top at 313 Sumner Avenue.

Both occupants were wearing their seat belts.  The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by Creston Police and the Union County Sheriff’s Office.

CORALVILLE – Steven Andrew Mauck was pronounced dead due to natural causes at 12:35 a.m. on Friday, August 4, 2023 while in hospice at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center where he had been housed due to chronic illness. Mauck was 41 years old at the time of his death.

Mauck had been serving a 25-year maximum term for the crime of Sex Abuse – 2nd Degree from Des Moines County. His sentence began on January 22, 2020.

DES MOINES – Fermani Jose Maldonado, convicted of Robbery 1st Degree, Willful Injury and Conspiracy to Commit Forcible Felony in Polk and Marshall Counties, failed to report back to the Fort Des Moines Reentry Center as required last Friday.

Maldonado is a 26-year-old black male, height 5’9″, and weighs 219 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on March 28, 2023.

Fermani Jose Maldonado

Persons with information on Maldonado’s whereabouts should contact local police.

(Radio Iowa) – The Mega Millions jackpot is estimated at an all-time high for the game for Tuesday’s drawing of one-point-55 BILLION dollars. Iowa Lottery spokesperson, Mary Neubauer, says big jackpots often lead to people pooling their money to buy tickets, and you need to keep a record to avoid issues. “Write down everybody who was in your group how much they contributed and when they did it that way there’s not a question later about who was in and who was out,” she says. Neubauer says you should document the tickets to keep everyone in the loop.

“Take pictures on your phone or photocopy the tickets before the drawing happens,” she says. “And make sure that everybody in the group has a copy of the tickets that were purchased for the group — again then there’s no question about what the tickets were what the numbers were that were on the tickets.” If you are buying tickets for your group, you might want to take another precaution.

“If you’re also buying tickets for yourself, you might want to consider buying them in two separate places — meaning going to one store for one purchase and another store for the others,” Neubauer says. “You just want it to be abundantly clear like here are the tickets for the group and here are the tickets that would be for me.” There is one standard safety measure whether you buy tickets in a group, or just buy one for yourself.

“If you are someone who wins a significant prize the first thing that we always tell people is sign the back of the ticket. That way it identifies the ticket and any prize you have won as belonging to you,” she says. Neubauer says all the tips for purchasing tickets in a group are on the Iowa Lottery’s website.

The Mega Millions cut off for buying tickets in Iowa is 8:59 p-m Tuesday. The drawing is at 10 p-m.

(Radio Iowa) – A state senator from southeast Iowa is being sued by his daughter. Korynn Dickey, the daughter of Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood, alleges her father purchased a vehicle for her in 2020, but then forged her signature to place a lien on the vehicle. In May, Korynn Dickey’s vehicle was totaled in an accident, but her insurance company refused to pay on the policy because of the lien. Senator Dickey has denied the allegations.

Another defendant in the lawsuit is Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Myers on allegations of civil conspiracy. Myers’s attorney, Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, is seeking to have the charges dropped, stating Myers could not have known that the signature was forged. Judge Lucy Gamon has scheduled a court date to hear the county’s motion for dismissal which will be held on August 28th. A court date for the lawsuit has not yet been set.

Dickey indicated he has documents showing his daughter knew he held the lien on the vehicle and he did so to prevent her from selling the car for quick cash or trading it in for a vehicle she could not afford. Dickey says that he paid for the entire car, no one else has ever paid a dime for it. Dickey says the lawsuit does not affect his constituents since neither his daughter nor his ex-wife live in the area.

(Radio Iowa) – When the pandemic forced Iowa State University to switch from in-person to remote learning in the spring of 2020, I-S-U psychology professor Jason Chan feared unsupervised online exams would unleash rampant cheating. Chan figured students would be at home where they could look up anything in the textbook or online. When scores came back, Chan was surprised to see they were very close to the scores students got before moving online.

It led to an I-S-U study of the scores of nearly two-thousand students in 18 classes. Chan says students who were receiving Bs before the lockdown were still pulling in Bs when the tests were moved online and unsupervised.

While the study results indicate online exams still provide a reliable assessment of student learning, Chan warns there are potential weak spots, especially with the emergence of Chat-G-P-T and A-I writing tools.

(Radio Iowa) – The states of Iowa and Nebraska are suing the Environmental Protection Agency. The attorneys general for the two states are accusing federal regulators of illegally delaying year-round sales of gas with a 15 percent ethanol blend. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird says they sent a notice to the E-P-A that they were going to sue.

Governor Reynolds and the governors of six other Midwest states asked the E-P-A in 2022 to allow E-15 sales in their states THIS summer. Bird says the E-P-A has done nothing and they are dragging their feet. The E-P-A has restricted sales of E-15 in the summer months, citing concerns about air pollution.

In a written statement, Reynolds said the E-P-A is showing its disdain towards clean, renewable, American-produced ethanol.

(Atlantic, IA) – As school approaches, Southwest Iowa Transit Agency (SWITA) wants to remind everyone who plans to have their student ride SWITA to school that they need to register by August 14, 2023 in order to be able to ride the SWITA bus during the first week of school.

Registration and payment can be done online at www.swita.com, or by calling the SWITA office at 712-243-2518. Rides are $1.50 each way and a minimum payment of $30 is required to start transportation. SWITA transportation is completely separate from the yellow school bus, so simply informing the school you plan to ride SWITA does not mean you are registered to ride, you must register with SWITA. Transportation is open to the public and is ADA accessible.

Transportation is available to the following schools:

• Atlantic K-12
• Atlantic Pre-Schools
• Glenwood K-12
• Glenwood Pre-Schools
• Harlan K-12
• Harlan Little Cyclones Pre-School
• Shelby County Catholic School
• Red Oak K-12
• Red Oak Pre-School

Registrations that come in after the August 14 deadline will be scheduled for the second week of school that starts August 28, 2023. This allows SWITA staff and drivers to build routes efficiently to serve you better. Any questions, please contact SWITA at 712-243-2518 or email swita@swipco.org. SWIPCO is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender.