(Radio Iowa) – A man died and three juveniles were seriously hurt following a car crash early Monday morning near Northwest Community College in Sheldon. The Iowa State Patrol’s accident report indicates that just before 6:30 Monday morning, the teenage driver of a car crossed the center line of Highway 18 west of Sheldon and hit a semi head on. All four occupants of the car were trapped inside the vehicle and had to be freed by emergency crews. A passenger in the back seat, 44-year-old Samuel Garcia-Ruiz of Worthington, Minnesota, was killed. The 17 year old male who was driving has life-threatening injuries according to the State Patrol and two 17 year old females who were passengers were seriously injured. All three teenagers are hospitalized in Sheldon.

The semi driver was not hurt. Both lanes Highway 18 were closed for several hours.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Governor Kim Reynolds and Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear outlined diverging paths on taxes, abortion and carbon pipelines during their debate last night on Iowa P-B-S. Reynolds said eminent domain should be a last resort for pipelines that would ship carbon out of Iowa ethanol plants and she supports current rules for how developers may get authority to seize property along the pipeline routes from unwilling landowners.

“Fifty-five percent of our corn goes to ethanol plants today and if we lose that ethanol industry, that will have a tremendous impact on farmers,” Reynolds said. DeJear said she opposes the use of eminent domain for the pipelines. “I believe that the landowner should have power in this situation because they put their blood, sweat and tears into their land,” DeJear said. DeJear called the individual income tax cuts Reynolds signed into law in March shortsighted.

“The vast majority of Iowans are going to get about $50 to $55 a month…It doesn’t do anything to resolve the issues with our education system today, our mental health care system today and so rather than cutting, I think this is a moment where we should be investing so that we can restore Iowans and they can have sustainability.” Reynolds said: “I’d like to respond to that. Talk to the working families, $55, $25, that matters to them, it makes a difference, especially as they’re seeing grocery prices skyrocket…Everything is increasing across the board, so any time that we can help Iowans keep more of their hard earned money it does matter.”

The two candidates had an extended and sometimes tense discussion about abortion. Reynolds declined to say whether she’d seek new restrictions beyond the 2018 law to ban abortions after about the sixth week of pregnancy, a law that’s in limbo due to a lawsuit. “When it’s going through the courts, I’m not going to weigh in either way,” Reynolds said, “but my goal is to make sure that we make the law that’s on the books law.” DeJear said Roe v Wade had provided reasonable restrictions with exceptions and that policy should become Iowa law.

“I believe that it is undemocratic and irresponsible for us to try to dictate in black and white this situation that has infinite variable as it relates to pregnancy,” DeJear said. DeJear said politicians shouldn’t inject themselves in conversations women have with doctors about a pregnancy. “We cannot put Iowans in those types of situations. My faith teaches me to trust people and I trust women to make that decision,” DeJear said.

Reynolds interjected: “So it’s late term abortion. They believe you can abort a baby right up until the moment it’s born.” DeJear replied: “That’s not what you just heard from me.” Reynolds said: “Yeah, that is what you’re saying. You’re not answering the question. You’re saying it’s up to the woman to decide.”

The hour-long debate was the only face-to-face meeting between Reynolds and DeJear before the November 8th General Election. A debate tonight (Tuesday) between Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson and Liz Mathis, the Democratic challenger in Iowa’s second congressional district, has been cancelled. Hinson was admitted to a Cedar Rapids hospital on Sunday night for treatment of a kidney infection. Last (Monday) night, her chief of staff says Hinson is feeling better, but was still in the hospital undergoing treatment.

(Atlantic, Iowa) –  A chain-reaction collision on southwest 7th Street Monday evening in Atlantic, resulted in two people suffering from non life-threatening injuries. According to Atlantic Police Sgt. Caleb Smith, the accident across from Villa Dance happened at around 5:04-p.m., when a car and an SUV stopped for traffic as both vehicles were northbound on southwest 7th. The driver of a pickup truck was distracted, and unable to stop before they struck the rear of the SUV. That vehicle was then shoved into the rear of the car.

The injured parties were transported to Cass Health.  No names were immediately released. Atlantic Police were assisted at the scene by Cass EMS, Atlantic Fire and Rescue and the Cass County Sheriff’s Office.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City of Atlantic’s Parks and Recreation Department Board of Directors, Monday evening, received a check from the Atlantic Rotary Club, for improvements to the Ross Camblin Addition at Sunnyside Park, such as sandblasting the shelter and repainting it. Ross Camblin is the great uncle of Atlantic businessman Bob Camblin. He served on the Parks Board 55-years, from 1918 to 1973.

Bob Camblin said his uncle was “A visionary and he liked to take action and get things done.” Ross was also a founding member of the Atlantic Rotary Club. The Rotary Board wanted to make a connection between what Ross Camblin did back then, and the impact he had on Sunnyside Park.

Atlantic Parks & Rec Board Mtg., 10-17-22

Rotary President Ruth Sears presented a check for $2,500 to City Clerk Barb Barrick.

The check is just the first of many annual installment payments to come. By-the-way, Ruth noted that Bob Camblin has been a member of the Rotary for 55 years, as well as past President. In other business, the Parks and Rec Board approved an agreement with Snyder and Associates Engineers, for the engineering aspect of the future splash pad, which includes surveying, site layout and other aspects of the design phase. The agreement is in the amount of $35,800, $11,500 of which will from the pool planning section of the budget. The rest comes from the Local Option Sales Tax and Hotel/Motel Tax Park Reserve fund.

Byrant Rasmussen receives a $2,500 from Atlantic Rotary President Ruth Sears.

They also agreed to install flag pole landscaping at the Schildberg Rec Area, near the shelter on the west side of the lake by the parking lot. In his report to the Board, Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen said the Tour De Parks last Saturday was a big hit, with people coming from all over southwest Iowa to partake in the free event.

Another free event is the Zombie Run on Oct. 29, from 5-until 9-p.m., at the Schildberg Recreation Area. Assistant to Bryant Rasmussen, Jeff Christensen, explained how the event will unfold.

Bryant Rasmussen thanked the Atlantic Kiwanis for putting in a new flag pole at Sunnyside Park near the historic school house.

This was the last Parks and Rec Board meeting for Byrant Rasmussen, who has accepted a position in Mills County with the USDA’s Soil and Water Conservation District. Board President Jolene Smith thanked him for his hard work and dedication, and programs he’s established for people of all ages. Rasmussen’s last day in Atlantic is Friday.

(Radio Iowa) – A new study suggests Iowa workers are underpaid by at least 900 million dollars a year. Common Good Iowa, the group issuing the report, calls that wage theft. Sean Finn, the report’s author, says an estimated 250-thousand Iowans are impacted. “That means that on average one in seven workers in Iowa are shorted $300 a week,” Finn says. Finn says some workers are not paid the overtime they’re owed or their employers fails to follow minimum wage laws. Other full-time workers are mis-classified as a independent contractor, which Finn says lets the employer avoid paying taxes and benefits.

“Theft in Iowa whether it’s larceny, robbery, burglary — all of those crimes, costs around $90 million a year according to the FBI,” Finn says. “We estimate wage theft being at least $900 million a year, so this problem is ten times greater than other theft and, at the same time, very little is being done to stop it.” Finn’s report is titled “A Heist in Plain Sight” and he argues businesses that are violating wage laws are hurting responsible employers who are following the rules.

“Businesses are using wage theft to cut costs and illegally cut corners,” Finn says. “They can artificially lower their costs and offer lower bids on projects or just run with lower operating costs, maybe keep their prices lower.”The Iowa Workforce Development agency is using part of a federal grant to investigate businesses that may be mis-classifying employees as independent contractors.

Last year the agency collected a quarter of a million dollars to settle 341 claims over unpaid or underpaid wages.

(Radio Iowa) – Low levels on the Mississippi River are leading to problems with commodity movements as barge traffic slows to a crawl. Flows from the Missouri River won’t be much help either, according to John Remus, chief of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers’ Missouri River Basin Water Management Office in Omaha. “The Missouri River mainstream reservoir system does not operate to support navigation on the Mississippi River,” Remus says. “We are not authorized to do that, so we do not make any release decisions from our system for the sole purpose of benefits on the Mississippi River, whether that’s navigation or flood control.”

Remus says the Corps has minimal options for flow control on the Mississippi River. “The Mississippi Valley Division districts have some capacity to provide some flow support, but not a lot,” Remus says, “and then the Ohio River system can supply some water for downstream of Cairo, Illinois, but in that stretch from St. Louis to Cairo, that’s really basically the Mississippi Valley Division.” Remus says the Missouri River does, at times, provide a good portion of the flow in the Mississippi above St Louis.

“It can vary anywhere from 10% to 80% depending on the time of year and how dry or how wet it is in the Mississippi River Basin,” Remus says. “It’s going to be a tough winter for them, just from a flow situation.” The 2022 calendar year runoff forecast for the upper basin is only 76% of average. The total system storage was 48.5 million acre feet, which is 7.6 million acre feet below the base of the flood control zone.

(Radio Iowa) – Tomorrow (Tuesday) marks 50 years since passage of the federal Clean Water Act, a landmark environmental law which created the first national standards for water quality. It stemmed from public outcry over widespread pollution from cities and industry. University of Iowa law professor Shannon Roesler says there have been legal battles over the scope of the law ever since. Earlier this month, the U-S Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging protections for wetlands.

“And that will affect permitting programs that regulate land development, by and large,” Roesler says, “so this is a major question.” Roesler says Iowa’s current water quality problems are tied to the original structure of the Clean Water Act. When it was passed in 1972, some cities and industrial plants were releasing raw sewage and untreated waste into lakes and rivers. Professor David Cwiertny, at the U-I’s Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, says that kind of pollution is now largely under control. Instead, one of the main challenges for Iowa water is agricultural runoff, which was left out of the Clean Water Act.

“That’s the problem today is, it’s a law that has worked, but it was a law that was limited in scope to begin with,” Cwiertny says, “and as a result, most of our pollution struggles today are all things that are falling outside that scope.” Fertilizer runoff from farm fields is exempt under the law, and has become a major contributor to nutrient pollution in Iowa lakes and rivers. Cwiertny says legal battles over the reach of the Clean Water Act started as soon as it was passed.

(Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

Officials with the Creston Police Department say no injuries were reported following a collision this morning, at the intersection of Highway 34 and S. Sumner Street. Authorities say a 2005 Chevy Impala driven by 82-year-old Elsie Shepherd, of Prescott, was making a left turn onto Highway 34, when her car was hit by a 2014 Ford Fusion driven by 56-year-old Steven Pettit, of Prescott. Both drivers claimed to have had the green light.

Damage from the collision amounted to $3,500. No citations were issued.

Officials with the Glenwood (Iowa) Police Department report three arrests. On Sunday, 25-year-old Kayla Yale, of Glenwood, was arrested for OWI/2nd offense ($2,000 cash or surety bond). And, there were two arrests last Friday, in Glenwood:

• 34-year-old Jessie Harman, of Glenwood, was arrested on a Mills County warrant for Probation Violation ($5,000 c/s bond)
• 30-year-old William Lewis, of Glenwood,was arrested for Driving Under Suspension ($300 c/s bond).

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Sheriff’s Office released a very short report today (Monday). Sheriff’ Jeff Vandewater’s report showed one arrest took place last week: 38-year-old Luke Daniel Hommes, of Adair, was arrested in Adair Thursday night, on an Adair County warrant for Obstruction of Emergency Communications. Hommes was released from the Adair County Jail about 90-minutes later, on a $300 bond.