The Iowa State Patrol said Friday no serious injuries were reported following a two-vehicle collision Thursday afternoon, in Creston. Officials say a 1988 Toyota Pickup driven by 16-year old Carson Whittington, of Creston, was exiting a parking lot just south of Prairie Street and attempting to enter the southbound lanes of Highway 25/Sumner Streets, when he failed to see a southbound 1999 Mazda because of another vehicle, which was sitting a stop sign on Prairie Street.

The pickup pulled out onto Highway 25 and hit the right the right front side of the Mazda, driven by 24-year old Sarah Hughes, of Creston. Both drivers were wearing their seatbelts, and suffered only minor injuries. They both refused transport to the hospital.. Whittington was cited by the Patrol for Failure to Yield. Damage from the crash, which happened at around 3:25-p.m., Thursday, amounted to $3,000.

The Iowa State Patrol says a Creston woman who lost control of her car and crashed in Union County Thursday night, was cited for OWI 1st Offense and Improper Use of Lanes. Officials say 49-year old Lori Ann Wray was traveling east on Highway 34/New York Avenue in Creston, at around 10:25-p.m., when the 2007 Dodge Caliber she was driving came into contact with the north curb of the road. Wray over corrected and lost control of the car, which left the road and rolled onto the drivers’ side and came to rest on its top against a pole for a billboard sign. Wray was transported to the Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston, treated, and later released. Damage to the car was estimated at $15,500.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — The mayors of Council Bluffs and Cedar Rapids are defending their cities’ use of traffic enforcement cameras. They’re also welcoming comments from key lawmakers who say effort to ban the devices seem to have stalled in the Legislature. Speaking Friday on the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press,” Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett called the cameras a cheap and effective way to reduce accidents and slow down traffic. Corbett says officials aren’t trying to gouge anyone with citations, but they want motorists to follow the law. They welcomed comments from House Speaker Kraig Paulsen, who acknowledged he doesn’t have enough votes to ban the cameras. Paulsen says that could change.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say no one was injured after a fire caused propane tanks to explode inside a grocery store in Sioux City. The fire broke out about Friday afternoon at the grocery store, Carniceria el Michoacano, on the city’s west side. Heavy smoke was pouring out of the back of the building when firefighters arrived. Officials say everyone safely evacuated the store.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman said Friday County Board of Supervisors Chairman Duane McFadden has filed nomination papers for re-election. On March 5th, Sunderman and Sheriff Darby McLaren also filed papers to run for re-election in the June 5th, 2012 Primary. The final date for filing nomination papers is Wednesday, March 28th, 2012.

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest of two people Friday.

Twenty-nine-year-old Robert Tomlinson of Atlantic was cited and released for driving while suspended.

And 19-year-old Alex J Rutledge of Atlantic was arrested for OWI 1st.  He was transported to the Cass County Jail and booked in.

Legislators in Iowa are considering a proposal that would increase the surcharge on cell phone bills to help cover the costs of emergency 9-1-1 calls. Iowans with a land line currently pay a one-dollar 9-1-1 surcharge every month, but the 9-1-1 surcharge on cell phones is only 65 cents. The bill would raise the cell phone surcharge to a buck a month. Craig Walter is a lobbyist for Verizon. “We do have some concerns, certainly, with the 35-cent increase to our customers,” Walter says. “It will impact, certainly, every phone that you have within your family for the additional costs.” Senator Tom Hancock, a Democrat from Epworth, says surcharge revenue to finance 9-1-1 operations continues to fall as more people drop their land lines.

“That leaves our local PSAPs — Public Safety Answering Points — with less funding,” Hancock says,”and there’s a lot of them out there struggling right now.” Officials say 70 percent of 9-1-1 calls now come from cell phones. Without additional fees from cell phone customers, emergency service providers say the cost of 9-1-1 upgrades will fall to property tax payers. A bill that would increase the 9-1-1 surcharge on cell phone users has cleared a three-member subcommittee and must next be considered by the Senate’s Ways and Means tax-writing Committee.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

Officials with the Cass County Community Foundation have announced applications are now being accepted for the Dustin McCurdy Endowed Scholarship Fund.  The McCurdy Scholarship provides two scholarships of approximately $500 each to high school seniors from Cumberland Anita Massena High School (CAM). Applications are available from your high school guidance counselor.  Applications are due to your guidance counselor no later than March 31^st.  

The scholarship was created to honor the memory of Dustin McCurdy, a Broadcasting major who died from cardiac arhythmia due to an overwhelming viral infection in January 2001, during his Senior year, while attending college at Northwest Missouri State University, in Maryville.

Iowa Congressman Leonard Boswell was in Atlantic this (Friday) morning, where he held one of several planned public “Listening Posts on Agriculture.”

Congressman Leonard Boswell (D-IA) listens to a constituent speak at the Atlantic Public Library Friday morning

The session took place before a crowd of a little more than a dozen people, and while it was designed to gain input as preparations are made to craft the next farm bill, it also covered several issues of concern to area residents, including the Inheritance, or “Death Tax,” affordable health care, and what can be done to stop the partisan bickering in Congress. Boswell said “This is a challenging time in the history of this County,” and there are a lot of issues that need attention. One of those concerns, he says, is the Farm Bill, which will come up for a vote this Fall. Boswell says discussion on the bill is one of the few instances where partisan politics were set aside, but didn’t to get anywhere because the “Super Committee” tasked with cutting the budget failed to act.

Regardless, he thinks there will be an agreement on a Farm Bill that will meet with approval of the full Congress.” Of concern though, he says, is a “Safety Net” for farmers, which basically comes down now, to crop insurance. He says crops insurance needs to be affordable and accessible, and available. He also warned Direct Payments to farmers and producers will likely go away. The cuts, he says, will have reduced the bill by about 23-billion dollars, but before any more cuts are made, agencies other than the USDA will have to make sacrifices before any further action is taken on addition cuts to the bill.

The inheritance, or “Death Tax,” cuts set in-place during the first Bush Administration, and is set to expire at the end of this year, was a hot topic at the meeting. One of those in attendance proposed eliminating it entirely on land, if the land will be used for the same purpose the person who passed away used it for. The unidentified man said if the land is used for anything other than what is was formally used for, the person receiving that land should pay the taxes owed, because they’ve changed the use of the land. The same thing he said, could apply to small, family-owned businesses. Boswell said that was an “interesting idea,” but didn’t say whether he would mention it when Congress acts on the Obama Administration’s 2013 budget, which by some accounts, calls for $2-Trillion in new taxes and fees.

Boswell says he hopes Congress can work together to compromise on the budget and other matters. He says work on the Farm Bill has been “very bi-partisan” up to this point, but he blamed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s 1994 Republican “Contract with America” for much of the partisan bickering that has occurred over the years, and divided the Country.