SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say they’re looking for two suspects in connection to a stolen car that reportedly crashed into a house in Sioux City. The Sioux City Police Department says it received a report Thursday night of a vehicle that damaged the side of a house.

Michael Vogt tells Sioux City television station KTIV he reported the car stolen earlier in the day. He later told police he spotted the car in use on the street while he was driving another vehicle. Vogt says he chased it. Vogt told police he saw a man and woman jump out of the stolen car before it hit the house. He says the suspects ran away on foot.

Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Public Safety report one person has been arrested in connection with the June 29^th, 2016 robbery of a bank in Fort Madison. 56-year old Kenneth Lee Lilly, of Fort Madison, was arrested on charges that include Aiding and Abetting, and Robbery in the 1^st Degree, which is a felony punishably by up to 25-years in prison. Lilly was taken into custody following an investigation into the robbery of the Fort Madison Bank and Trust.

The investigation was conducted by the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Iowa State Patrol (ISP), Lee County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Natural Resource and the Lee County Attorney’s Office.

Three people from Texas were injured during a collision early this (Friday) morning, in central Iowa’s Warren County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2017 Toyota RAV 4 driven by a man from Des Moines, struck a deer on southbound Interstate 35, and was disabled in the left lane. A 2014 Nissan Versa, driven by 47-year old Gerardo Lara, of Amarillo, TX, struck the Toyota in the rear.

Lara, and his passengers, Michael Huelster, of Amarillo, and Juan Solis, of Roscoe, TX, were injured and transported by Norwalk EMS to Methodist Hospital. The accident happened at around 1-a.m., today (Friday).

The Iowa State Patrol reports one person died and two others were injured during a crash Thursday night in northern Iowa’s Butler County. A 2000 Ford F-150 pickup was traveling east on County Road C-33, about a mile east of Willow Avenue, when the vehicle drifted off the road and into the south ditch, where it struck a box culvert.

The driver of the pickup, 44-year old Matthew DeWitt, of Shell Rock, and a passenger, 28-year old Andrew Baker, of Waverly, were injured. Baker was not wearing a seat belt. Both were transported by ambulance to the hospital in Waverly. A second passenger, 41-year old Jeffrey DeWitt, of Shell Rock, who was wearing a seat belt, died at the hospital.

The accident, which happened at around 7:06-p.m., Thursday, remains under investigation.

Police in Red Oak, Thursday evening, arrested 31-year old Colbie Jo Sue Fike, of Red Oak. Fike was taken into custody at around 6:50-p.m. for Driving While Suspended, (a simple misdemeanor) and on a valid Red Oak P-D warrant for ID Theft (an aggravated misdemeanor). She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond.

Iowa-born astronaut Peggy Whitson is preparing for her third rocket ride to the International Space Station and spoke to Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley Thursday, from the training center in Russia. The Beaconsfield native has already spent 377 days aboard the orbiting station during missions in 2002 and 2007. This coming February, Whitson will celebrate her 57th birthday there, some 220 miles up, and she’ll be the oldest woman ever in space, American, Russian or otherwise.

American John Glenn took his final spaceflight aboard the shuttle Discovery at age 77, so is there the possibility this may not be her last mission? “I’d love to go when I’m 77, as long as I’m not dead,” Whitson says, laughing. The rigorous training regimen astronauts must endure is legendary but she says it’s gotten a little easier each time.
“Definitely,” Whitson says. “Knowing what you need to worry about and what not to worry about definitely makes preparation for the flight much easier. It helps you prioritize the things you need to do to get ready for a flight. It’s definitely easier the third time around, second time, too.”

Peggy Whitson in her Russian space suit

Speaking via NASA-TV from Star City, near Moscow, Whitson says there’s really nothing about the upcoming six-month mission that frightens her. “I don’t think anything particularly apprehensive,” Whitson says. “I do think there are always going to be challenges onboard which is part of what makes it a little bit more interesting and fun. I look forward to those challenges, whether it’s fixing things that break or just the challenge of trying to get as much scientific work done as we can.”

Whitson has an impressive resume: She was the first Iowa woman in space. She was the space station’s first science officer, its first woman commander and she’ll be the first woman to command the station twice. She’s already logged more time in space and has done more EVAs — or spacewalks — than any other woman. There’s even a Peggy Whitson Science Center at her old school in Mount Ayr. Still, the former Iowa farm girl is humble about her long list of firsts and records.

“I really feel very privileged and honored to be able to participate in the space program at all,” Whitson says, her voice cracking. “That’s what I’m most proud of.” Launch aboard the Soyuz MS-2 spacecraft from Kazakhstan is scheduled for November 15th. She’ll return to Earth next May.

(Radio Iowa)