One person was injured during a single-vehicle accident this (Saturday) morning, about three and one-half miles east of Earling, in Shelby County. Deputy Glenn Birks with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office told KJAN News two motorcycles were traveling north on Highway 59 at around 9:20-a.m, when for reasons unknown, one of the cycles, a Harley Davidson, went out of control about 2.5-miles north of Highway 37/F-24. The cycle ended-up on its side, skidding on the highway before coming to rest. The female driver was tossed off the machine and suffered head injuries. Birks said she was not wearing a helmet.

The unidentified woman was transported to Myrtue Memorial Hospital in Harlan. A report on her condition is not available. The accident remains under investigation. Assisting sheriffs deputies at the scene, were rescue crews from Westphalia 1st Responders, Earling Rescue, Medivac, and the Iowa State Patrol.

The National Weather Service says people in Iowa should be prepared for severe weather, especially this afternoon and this evening. In their web briefing late this (Saturday) morning, officials said the primary threat from storms will be damaging winds and large hail, lightening, and heavy downpours of rain.

Winds of 60-to 80-miles per hour can have the same effect as an EF-0 tornado. The level of storm activity will vary widely, depending on how far north a frontal boundary that pushes north from Missouri will end up. Right now, the target is southern Iowa, but southwest and western Iowa could be affected…especially by strong winds and large hail.

Timing for these events will be this afternoon through the midnight hours. Most of the State of Iowa is under a “Slight” risk for severe weather. The greatest chance for severe weather will be in far southeast Iowa into central Illinois. Stay tuned to KJAN for further weather updates.

w/ Chris Parks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.8MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of a Red Oak man early Saturday (7/26) morning.  At approximately 3:00am officers arrested 36-year-old Kale Alan Wenberg of Red Oak for Interference with official acts in the 300 Block of West Washington Street in Red Oak.  Wenberg was taken to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and is being held on $300 cash bond.

Iowa’s annual roadside survey of small game animals, from pheasants to quail to rabbits, is now underway. D-N-R wildlife biologist Todd Bogenschutz says specially-trained crews will cover 210 routes across Iowa totaling about five-thousand miles during the coming two-week period. “It gives us a real good indication of what our small game populations are doing and what hunters can expect,” Bogenschutz says. “Mainly pheasant hunters are most interested in what’s going to happen this fall and how it compares to last year. The survey is our best statewide snapshot.”

He says it’s too early to predict what kind of season pheasant hunters will see. He notes, this past winter was quite harsh while many areas of Iowa had flooding this spring and summer — all of which could impact the various wildlife populations. “Most of our critters are fairly resilient so we’ll wait and see,” Bogenschutz says. “Right now, we’re thinking we’re going to see small declines or maybe populations real similar to last year.”

The roadside surveys first started in Iowa in the 1930s and were standardized in the 1960s. The survey began yesterday (Friday). The results should be ready by early to mid-September.

(Radio Iowa)

A straight truck driver from Illinois was injured Friday evening during an accident in Interstate 80, in Cass County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 48-year old Armando Ramon, of Naperville, IL, was transported by Atlantic Fire and Rescue to the Cass County Memorial Hospital, in Atlantic.

Photos courtesy Mike Kennon, Cass County EMA

Authorities say the U-D straight truck driven by Ramon, and a 2000 Freightliner semi driven by 34-year old Joel Manressa, of Orlando, FL, were both traveling east on I-80 at around 7:10-p.m. about a mile and a half east of the exit to Highway 71, when the semi rear-ended the straight truck, which was traveling at just 35-miles per hour.

Following the collision, the U-D truck entered the south ditch and rolled over.

Wrecker crews wrangle with the rolled over straight truck Friday evening. (phot by Mike Kennnon/Cass Co. Emergency Management)

Ramon was wearing his seat belt at the time the incident occurred. A report on his injuries is not available, but they are not believed to be life threatening. The Iowa State Patrol was assisted at the scene by deputies with the Cass and Audubon County Sheriff’s Departments, Atlantic Police and Atlantic Fire and Rescue.

A Hollywood actor who portrayed a soldier in an academy award-winning movie is helping raise money for a variety of veterans causes, including repair of the U-S-S Iowa.

Gary Sinise

Gary Sinise — who played the character Lieutenant Dan in “Forrest Gump” — hosted a fundraiser last night (Thursday aboard the ship, which is now a floating museum in the Los Angeles harbor. Becky Beach of Des Moines, the founder of the “Puppy Jake Foundation”, was there because a portion of last night’s money haul is going to help her group that trains service dogs for veterans.

“All Lieutenant Dan wanted to do was honor veterans and serve his country well and that’s what he’s trying to do with his Gary Sinise Foundation,” Beach says. “He mixed and mingled with the folks. He very graciously spent quite a bit of time with the Puppy Jake volunteers and the dogs and then, after his remarks, he presented the honorees with their awards and it was quite moving.” Three gravely wounded soldiers and their primary caregivers were honored, including Iowa native Taylor Morris, a Navy sailor who lost both legs, his left arm up to the elbow and his right hand in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. Sinise is a leader in the “Hope for the Warriors” non-profit group and last night’s event raised money for that organization as well. The U-S-S Iowa needs more upgrades and some of the proceeds from last night will help in that effort.

“The battleship is up and running,” Beach says. “We’ve got record attendance, but there are tremendous needs still to be done.” Beach has also worked to raise money to save the ship and make it into a museum. She says the deck, which is made of teak wood, needs to be restored. The ship will soon have running water and restrooms on board. The next goal is to raise enough money for lifts or

“The reason it’s so critical is, as you know, we are losing WWII veterans daily unfortunately and they come to the ship and it’s difficult for them to get on board,” Beach says. “Having said that, the crew makes every arrangement and gets them on board, but we want to make it much easier so people can just simply come and go up an elevator lift and the teak deck plays a role in that because the deck is not even in some places for wheelchairs.” Beach, often seen around Iowa with a puppy she’s training to be a service today, is at Disneyland this afternoon (Friday) with a small group of other “Puppy Jake Foundation” volunteers who are in L-A with eight dogs-in-training. Beach says taking mass transit in L-A and going to public places like Disneyland will help train the dogs to handle the stress of large crowds when they’re matched with a veteran who needs a service dog.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad is renewing a call to maintain the amount of ethanol in the nation’s fuel supply, after a report that the Environmental Protection Agency may scale back proposed cuts to renewable fuel production. Branstad issued his statement Friday. An EPA proposal for renewable fuel standards would reduce by almost 3 billion gallons the amounts of ethanol and other biofuels blended into gasoline in 2014 than the law requires.

The governor’s comments came after Minnesota Sen. Al Franken said a discussion with a White House official led him to believe the EPA will reduce the cuts. He still expects an overall drop in renewable fuel quotas. Iowa is the nation’s leading producer of ethanol, a fuel additive primarily made from corn that produces lower carbon emissions than gasoline

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Congressman Steve King says he’ll travel to Texas this weekend to learn more about a surge in unaccompanied children from other countries who are entering the U.S. King announced he’ll accompany Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann on Friday on a trip to Texas.

They will visit Brownsville, McAllen and Laredo, where they will meet with border patrol authorities and other officials. They will return Monday. More than 57,000 minors have arrived at the border since October. Most are from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

In an update to our noon report on an accident in Atlantic, authorities say a central Iowa man was transported to the hospital, after the vehicle he was driving collided with another vehicle at the intersection of 7th and Chestnut. The accident happened at around 11:10-a.m.

Officials say Robert Lyst, of Urbandale, was traveling west on 7th Street and in the process of turning left onto southbound Chestnut Street when his van struck an eastbound car on the driver’s side. Lyst was transported to Cass County Memorial Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The driver of the car, Steven Christman, of Atlantic, was checked for injuries but refused transportation to the hospital.

Lyst was cited for Failure to Yield Making a Left Turn. Damage from the crash amounted to $19,000.