(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report there were two recent accidents. Monday afternoon, vehicles driven by 43-year-old Rocky Howard Rocha, of Stanton, and 68-year-old John Thomas Anderson, of Maryville, MO, collided on Highway 34, just south of the Red Coach Inn, in Red Oak. The accident happened at around 2:52-p.m., when Rocha – who was driving a 2019 Dodge SUV eastbound – made a left turn into oncoming traffic, and struck a westbound 2019 Chevy pickup driven by Anderson. The Chevy then entered the north ditch. Both drivers suffered minor injuries, but were not transported to the hospital. Both vehicles were a total loss. Red Oak Police cited Rocha for Failure to Yield upon making a left turn.

The second accident happened Nov. 12th, at around 3-a.m.  Red Oak Police say a 2011 Chevy Cruze driven by 18-year-old Emma Joann Nilson, of Red Oak, was leaving a residence at a fast pace (according to surveillance footage), when her vehicle struck a legally parked 2019 Ford Fusion. Nilson got out to look at the damage, then reportedly walked down the street away from the accident. Police say she tried contact the owner of the Ford and share insurance information, but would not meet. And then through messages, wanted to exchange cash.

Authorities say damage to the Ford was estimated at $1,550, while the Chevy sustained $500 damage. No citations were issued.

(Lewis, Iowa) – Much needed reconstructive work on the historic Revered George B. Hitchock House near Lewis recently wrapped-up. The nearly 168-year-old Hitchcock House is one of more than 2000 locations on Iowa the National Register of Historic Places and Landmarks (NRHP). It was closed to the public for tours, on July 23, 2023 after concerns about public safety was raised following the much publicized collapse of a building in Davenport. Hitchcock House Board Chair Sharon Guffey-Lewis said also, the Board had an obligation and a responsibility to repair it.

She said the work began in August, after they secured a contractor out of Pottawattamie County who has 46-years of experience in building restoration, especially in Omaha’s historic Old Market.

Sharon said the south wall in the basement is now secured.

Lewis said they’re very pleased with the work. The project was paid for in-part by funds from the Cass County Board of Conservation and Cass County Board of Supervisors. The Cass County Supervisors, Tuesday (11/28), unanimously passed a Resolution “Allocating ARPA funds (in the amount of $47,932) to [the] Hitchcock House [near Lewis] for foundation repairs,” allowing for the project to be paid in full, within a week.

Guffey-Lewis says the Hitchcock House is heated during the Winter, solely to help preserve the structure. It is not lived in on a regular basis. She says just because this segment of repairs is finished, doesn’t mean work on the structure will end entirely. And those repairs have to be done according to the standards set forth by the NRHP.

Guffey-Lewis said they are always open to receive donations for the care of the landmark Hitchcock House.

If you would like to help, send your donations to the Hitchcock House at:

63788 567th Lane

Lewis IA 51544

For more information email hitchcockhouse1@gmail.com, or call 712-769-2323 .

JOHNSTON, Iowa [KCCI] —A Dallas County woman accused of neglecting dozens of horses on her property is pleading not guilty to charges of livestock neglect. Linda Kilbourne, of Johnston, had 46 horses seized from her Dallas County property in early November. KCCI reports Kilbourne’s defense team is now requesting the State disclose any evidence. This includes Kilbourne’s prior criminal records, statements and testimony before a grand jury. Court documents also say Kilbourne is not requesting a hearing at this time.

Officials say many of the 46 animals seized were severely injured and malnourished. One of those horses died despite efforts to save it. Some horses have returned to the property under the care of a third party. The rest are now being cared for by the Animal Rescue League.

STATE CENTER, Iowa (KCCI) — A State Center man is grappling with the loss of his woodworking warehouse just months after his son died in a car crash. Barry York is a sixth-generation woodworker. He told KCCI ever since his ancestors came to Davis County in 1846, there’s been a carpenter in the family.On Thanksgiving Day, his warehouse was destroyed in a fire.

According to the State Center Police Department, the Marshall County Communications Center received a report of a commercial structure fire in State Center around noon on Nov. 23. Firefighters from State Center, Rhodes, Melbourne, Colorado, and Clemons responded. Barry York said there is $200,000-$250,000 in damage. Investigators will be at the warehouse Thursday to try to figure out the cause of the fire. York said his business would make anything and everything out of wood. It was a well-known trade in the community.

His son, 43-year-old Bruce York, of Ames, was his longtime business partner, making him a seventh-generation woodworker. Barry York said he was planning on passing the business to his son once he was done. But Bruce was killed in a car crash just months ago. The wreck happened around 8:40 a.m. on July 6 on the south side of State Center. Troopers say a pickup driven by Bruce York was attempting to make a turn when it was struck by another vehicle.  The Marshall County Sheriff’s Office said the younger York was pronounced dead on the scene.

FORT DODGE, Iowa — Fort Dodge police are working to figure out if a threat made at Walmart is credible. Police confirm a picture was posted on social media, showing a threat written on a bathroom stall. The threat says they will “shoot it up tomorrow” (with Tuesday’s date). It also said “good luck” and included vulgarity. Investigators are working to find out who wrote the message. They have extra patrols at the store.

SANTA ANA, California (KCRG) – A John Doe homicide victim who was discovered 49 years ago in southern California has finally been identified. KCRG reports the victim was from eastern Iowa.  Authorities in California, say that on September 14th, 1974, a deceased teenage male was located near an off-road. Authorities at the time determined his death to be accidental, due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication in his system. They also determined he died 3 to 5 days before his body was found. At the time, officials were unable to establish his identity. Then, in 1980, Orange County, California, Homicide investigators noted that there were other young male deaths in 1978 due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication in that same area. The deaths were classified as homicides.

In 1983, Randy Steven Kraft, later known as the “Scorecard Killer” was arrested for murder after a highway patrol officer conducted a traffic stop on Kraft and located a deceased male in the front passenger seat. In the trunk of Kraft’s vehicle was a coded list believed to be upwards of 67 victims. John Doe was believed to be an early victim of his. Kraft was eventually convicted of 16 murders and sentenced to death. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.

In November 2022, Orange County investigators submitted tissue samples for John Doe to a private forensic biotechnology company to develop a DNA profile. In October 2023, after months of work building the genealogy database, investigators identified the possible grandparents of John Doe. After obtaining a DNA sample from a woman believed to be the mother of John Doe, investigators were able to positively identify John Doe as Michael Ray Schlicht, of Cedar Rapids, IA.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department says that family members have been notified and are in the process of having a headstone installed to mark his final resting place. Investigators are continuing to work on Michael’s case. Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS or crimestoppers.org.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University’s Extension Department has grants available for organizations to use to grow vegetables for food banks. Katie Sorrell is the coordinator for the “Growing Together Iowa” grant program. “Communities either start a garden or they convert a previous community garden. And all of the produce grown at these gardens is donated to local food pantries, along with nutrition education materials,” she says. Sorrell says Grow Together was created after they got a grant to educate people on the SNAP program, which used to be known as food stamps.

“Back in 2016, we were brainstorming how can we combine this nutrition education grant we have along with the Master Gardener Program. And that’s where we dreamed up this growing together Iowa program” Sorrell says. “So it’s been going on, this will be our eighth year as we enter into 2024.” The funding from the U-S-D-A provide for grants of up to four-thousand dollars. “The county extension office staff work closely with Master Gardeners and with staff at the local food pantry, and usually they create a new garden, whether that’s with raised garden beds or an in-ground garden, specifically for that donation piece,” she explains. Sorrell says the food grown in the gardens is popular.

“When we asked food pantry clients, what would you most like to see in the food pantry? Like what foods would you most want to have? Fresh fruits and vegetables are almost always at the top of the list because all cultures use fresh fruits and vegetables. It’s not tied with a certain culture,” she says. Sorrell says having the fresh fruits and vegetables at the food pantries gives people a healthy option, and it frees up food dollars they can spend on other items. They had 33 Growing Together Iowa county projects in 2023. “And they donated to 100 pantries. And you won’t believe this, they donated 103-thousand pounds of fresh produce to local pantries,” Sorrell says.

December 18th is the deadline to sign up. You can find the application on the I-S-U Extension website.

(Radio Iowa) – The husband of a Sioux City woman convicted of voter fraud says he intends to complete his term on the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. Jeremy Taylor’s term ends next year. His wife was convicted last week of illegally collecting votes in Sioux City’s Vietnamese community for her husband when he was running for office in 2020. Mathew Ung, chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, is among those who’ve called on Taylor to resign.

“Three of us have made public comment on this matter,” Ung says, “which is as good as a proclamation at a board meeting.” During Tuesday’s Woodbury County Board of Supervisors meeting, Ung again questioned whether Taylor was unaware of his wife’s election-related activities. “It’s hard to imagine a world where what actions and steps that were taken by one were not known by the other and that is where there’s a lot of public heartburn,” Ung says. Taylor has agreed to step down from his role as vice chair of the county board.

“But I will work hard to continue to complete my term and then I will focus on my family, because this has been very hard on them,” Taylor said. Taylor and his wife are the parents of six children. Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill is calling on the board to ask Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to investigate both Jeremy and Kim Taylor’s activities during the primary and general elections in 2020.

Taylor, who is a Republican, has accused Gill, who is a Democrat, of trying to get him fired from his job in the Sioux City school district while he was deployed to Iraq. Taylor is an Iowa National Guard chaplain. Taylor did resign from the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors in early 2020 after the address listed on his voter registration was successfully challenged. Taylor lost a bid for congress in the June Primary that year, then was reelected to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors in November of 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says the government should not grant carbon pipeline developers authority to seize land from Iowans who do not want the pipeline on their property.  “You have a lot of other Republicans that have been trained to behave like circus monkeys on this issue. You’re supposed to dance to the tune of certain puppet masters. I refuse to do that,” Ramaswamy says. “Eminent domain should not be an option for anything to do with a carbon dioxide pipeline because it is not necessary.”

On Friday in Des Moines, Ramaswamy will appear at an event with a group of carbon pipeline opponents called the Free Soil Coalition. “Eminent domain is legally inappropriate,” Ramaswamy says. “I believe it is illegal and unconstitutional and I would like for at least Republicans to have the spine to stand up and at least speak that obvious truth.” Ramaswamy says his competitors for the G-O-P presidential nomination should clearly state their views on the issue. He’s also challenging Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed rival Ron DeSantis, to say whether she’s on the side of eminent domain or not.

“Anybody who is implicitly or explicitly supporting the use of eminent domain for this carbon dioxide capture pipeline is on the wrong side of this issue,” Ramaswamy says. “I don’t care if they have an R after their name. I don’t care if they’re a governor you’re supposed to otherwise bow down to in the state of Iowa.” Ramaswamy says the issue exposes what he describes as the broken and corrupt state of the Republican Party establishment.  “And I’m frankly ashamed of a Republican Party that hasn’t had the spine to speak up about an issue that matters to this many constituents,” Ramaswamy says.

Ramaswamy says he’s met with influential Republican donor Bruce Rastetter, who owns Summit Carbon Solutions — the Iowa company seeking a state permit to construct and operate a pipeline to ship carbon out of ethanol plants to underground storage in North Dakota. Ramaswamy says pipeline backers are welcome to show up at Friday’s event to have a civil, open debate about the Summit and Wolf pipelines. Ramaswamy says the projects make no sense and the risks of running liquid carbon through an underground pipeline do not match the purported benefits.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa author who wrote the novel that was turned into a movie featuring Julia Roberts has died. Nancy Jane Price’s 1987 novel “Sleeping with the Enemy” was set in her hometown of Cedar Falls and turned into the film of the same name that and featured Roberts.

Price taught at U-N-I and “Sleeping with the Enemy” was her third novel along with dozens of others and hundreds of poems. Price was 98 and died November 20th. She had just completed her final novel, which is also set in Cedar Falls, and will be released next year.