Senator Joni Ernst has credentials that check some of the boxes on Donald Trump’s list of qualities he’s seeking in a running mate. Ernst is a combat veteran and she has experience in government at the county, state and federal level. So, if asked, would she agree to be Trump’s V-P? “That’s a hypothetical, of course, and I’m very focused on Iowa issues right now,” Ernst says. “No one from the campaign has reached out.”

Earlier this month, Governor Branstad indicated he was seeking a private meeting with Trump in order to tout Ernst as a running mate. Ernst has not met personally with Trump, but she’s talked with other members of congress who did meet Trump privately last week. “A number of my colleagues stated that they really appreciated the fact that he was very thoughtful in his responses to them,” Ernst says. “He was very serious. He was very different in those meetings maybe than what you’ll see out on a stage somewhere, what you might see in Twitter.”

A few months ago Ernst aired concerns about some of the comments Trump made on the campaign trail. “I did have concern about his tone,” Ernst says. “…I don’t agree with every statement that Donald Trump has said, but I will tell you that there are other candidates as well that I would probably not agree 100 percent with their statements either. I would like to see as we move forward more talk about policy…Now that he is the presumptive nominee, I think he has that opportunity.”

Ernst made her comments during taping of the Iowa Press program that will air at 7:30 this evening (Friday) on Iowa Public Television.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The parties involved apparently have settled a lawsuit stemming from a medical helicopter crash that killed three people in northern Iowa.
The helicopter carrying pilot Gene Grell, nurse Shelly Lair-Langenbau and paramedic Russ Piehl went down Jan. 2, 2013, near Ventura while on their way to pick up a patient. Federal investigators blamed ice on the helicopter and said the aircraft was not equipped to fly in winter weather.

Lair-Langenbau’s family sued the helicopter operator, Med Trans Corp. Mason City television station KIMT reports that settlement details haven’t been released. Court documents filed this week show the case has been removed from the court calendar and that documents to dismiss the case will be filed by mid-June.

A federal trial in Sioux City was scheduled to begin June 6.

Police in Red Oak arrested a man early this (Friday) morning, on a Trespassing charge. 29-year old Benjamin William Hrabik, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 300 block of E. Washington Street in Red Oak, at around 12:10-a.m. He was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center has held on a $300 cash bond.

Fremont County Sheriff’s Department said today (Friday), deputies discovered a one-vehicle accident near the intersection of 220^th St and 230^th Avenue. A deputy with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office observed a 2004 Mazda RX8 partially submerged in the drainage ditch located east of the intersection of 220^th Street and 230^th Ave.

An investigation determined the driver of the vehicle, 18-year old Dustin Rutledge, of Sidney, was westbound on 220^th Street when he lost control of his car, which entered the north ditch.  The vehicle traveled in the ditch along the creek bed, struck a culvert and came to rest in the drainage ditch. The car was a total loss. Rutledge was not injured, and left the scene prior to law enforcement arrival.

Alcohol is not believed to be a factor, seatbelts were in use, and authorities say charges are pending.

Authorities in Montgomery County said Thursday that a Villisca man was arrested that day on a charge of 2nd Degree Sexual Abuse. The arrest of 30-year-old Robert Dumler was the result of an investigation involving officials with Project Harmony and the Iowa Dept. of Human Services that began May 2nd. Dumler was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $25,000 bond.