(Clear Lake, Iowa) – A pedestrian is dead after being struck by a box truck early Saturday morning (Nov. 2nd) along Interstate 35 in northern Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol says the accident happened at around 1:15-a.m. on southbound I-35, as 59-year-old Michelle Schutz, of Mason City and another pedestrian walking with her, was struck by a 2019 Kenworth box truck, driven by 60-year-old Henry Moss, Jr., of Des Moines. Schutz died at the scene. The other pedestrian was not injured.

The Patrol says the truck continued southbound on I-35 and was located by a State Trooper near Des Moines.

Assisting at the accident scene were Cerro Gordo County Sheriff’s deputies, along with Clear Lake Fire and EMS personnel.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Iowa’s Board of Pharmacy is warning of fake prescriptions for opioid painkillers.

The Board sent an alert to pharmacies reporting scammers are using the real credentials of doctors to fill prescriptions for Oxycodone and Promethazine with Codeine. Both drugs are schedule 2 controlled substances and are potentially addictive painkillers when abused.

The Board says the scammers use convincing security paper with providers’ credentials and use “software failure” on the prescription pad to get around electronic prescribing. On some occasions, the violators use a license number from an out-of-state doctor.

The Board says the scammers are targeting pharmacies in Eastern Iowa and that law enforcement has been contacted.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A woman from the east central Iowa community of Toledo will spend two years in federal prison after stealing $453,672.68 from a family-business where she once worked. A judge, Friday, sentenced 51-year-old Leann Rouse, and ordered her to pay back the entire amount she stole as restitution. Rouse must also serve three years supervised released once she’s let out of prison.

Rouse worked as a bookkeeper for a trucking company in Traer. While hired in July 2011, evidence revealed Friday shows she manipulated the books from January 2015 to August of 2020 while overseeing financial accounting software and payroll.

Rouse wrote roughly 242 unauthorized checks to herself in that time, then used the software to make it look as though the money was going toward business expenditures related to other companies the business worked with. But that was not the case.

Rouse pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on May 31, 2024. She was released on bond before Friday‘s sentencing, and must surrender to the Bureau of Prisons in the future, but a date hasn’t been set.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A woman is dead and a man was in critical condition, following a shooting Friday evening on the north side of Des Moines.

According to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded at around 5:20-p.m. to the incident that took place in the 200 block of NW 51st place, in Des Moines. First responders arriving on the scene located two shooting victims, and adult female and an adult male.

A suspect in the shootings, 24-year-old Hamza Smajlovic, was taken into custody on charges that include first-degree murder, attempted murder, and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said Smajlovic lives at the residence where the shootings took place.

The names of the victims were withheld by authorities, pending notification of family.

(Lee County, Iowa) – A collision between a car and a semi early Saturday morning (Nov. 2nd) in southeastern Iowa, claimed the life of a man from Florida. The Iowa State Patrol says at around 12:o8-a.m., a 2017 BMW driven by 24-year-old Josue Alexander Boton Pinula, of Middleburg, FL, was traveling west on Iowa Highway 16.

When the man failed to obey at stop sign at the intersection with Highway 218, his car and was struck by a southbound 1995 Kenworth tractor-trailer driven by 68-year-old Paul Douglas White, of Patterson, MO. The accident happened as the car was entering the southbound lanes.

Pinula died at the scene. White was injured and transported by Lee County EMS to the Henry County Hospital in Mount Pleasant.Both drivers were wearing their seat belts. The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Firefighters from Atlantic were called to a residential structure fire just before 5-p.m. Friday, at 601 E. 6th Street. Heavy brownish gray smoke was seen forming over the area. Fire Chief Tom Cappel….

Cappel said the home’s residents were gone when crews arrived, but showed-up at the scene once they learned of the fire.

Numerous people were out watching firefighters battle the blaze.

(As mentioned) Initial dispatch reports said started in an oven in the kitchen, but Chief Cappel said the cause remained under investigation. Two Iowa Fire Marshals were on the scene late Friday evening, looking into the cause. Marne and Lewis Fire provided mutual aid.

Cass EMS, Atlantic Police and the American Red Cross were also on the scene Friday evening. The Red Cross was working to secure temporary housing for the home’s residents.

Fire at 601 E. 6th. Photo by Ric Hanson taken at around 5:09-p.m.

(Radio Iowa) – Black Friday is just a few weeks away, launching another holiday shopping season, but a University of Iowa study finds people who are lonely may find themselves unable to resist the impulse to buy. Marketing Professor Alice Wang, in the U-I’s Tippie College of Business, says loneliness is different for everyone, but if someone perceives themselves as having a relationship deficit, they may be more susceptible to compulsive shopping.

In the U-I study, Wang says they asked people to think about their existing relationships, and to elaborate on them in writing, perhaps how your current friends helped you through a tough time. Such an exercise can help to change perspectives, she says, and change habits.

Of course, there’s no magic number of friends we all require, it depends on the individual, but Wang says some of us may benefit from focusing less on what we don’t have and more on all we -do- have.

As we near the holidays, she suggests people who may be feeling lonely and isolated take stock of the good things in their lives, possessions -and- people, and work to monitor themselves so they don’t buy things they don’t need.

(Radio Iowa) – State climatologist Justin Glisan (like listen) says the rain across the state this week helped bump the month of October down the dry weather record book.

He says much of the state got some rainfall to impact the average for October, which still ended up below normal.

The storms that brought the late October rain also brought in some cold weather — including some snowflakes in northern Iowa. Glisan says the lack of moisture impacted overall temperatures.

Glisan says the early indicators for November are showing the potential for above average temperatures, with a potential for more precipitation.

The Winneshiek County Auditor is raising concerns about Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s order to challenge the ballots of over two-thousand Iowans flagged as potential non-citizens. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports.

This (Friday) afternoon, a federal judge heard arguments in the lawsuit that alleges Pate’s order is violating the rights of Iowans who have recently become U-S citizens. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office defended the action and Bird says it’s about making sure legally cast votes aren’t cancelled out by non-citizens.

Secretary of State Pate says the federal government is refusing the share data that’s critical to ensuring only eligible U.S. citizens vote in our elections. The driver’s license data Pate used indicates at some point in the past two decades over two-thousand people who are on Iowa’s list of registered voters told the D-O-T they were legal residents, but not citizens of the United States.