(Battle Creek, Iowa) – A collision between a pickup and a car Friday morning in northwest Iowa’s Ida County, left one man dead and another injured. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened at around 7:30-a.m. on Ida County road L-51 south of Battle Creek, near 297th Street.

A 2013 Dodge pickup driven by 33-year-old Colton Claussen, of Schleswig, was traveling north on L-51, when the pickup crossed the center line, for reasons unknown. The vehicle struck a southbound 1999 Pontiac sedan driven by 59-year-old Russell Mefferd, of Battle Creek.

Following the collision, the pickup truck rolled over and landed on its wheels before coming to rest. The car spun around and came to rest in the west ditch off L51. Russell Mefferd died at the scene. He was wearing a seat belt. Claussen was not wearing his seat belt. He was transported by Ida County EMS to Horn Memorial Hospital, in Ida Grove.

The accident remains under investigation.

(Shenandoah, Iowa) — Officials with the Shenandoah Police Department, Friday, said a traffic stop for a seat belt violation Friday afternoon, resulted in the arrest of a man from Essex. 34-year-old Eric Michael Kievit was pulled-over in the 100 block of North Railroad Street, at around 2:48 PM. Following a further investigation, Officers arrested Kievit for driving while revoked. He was unable to post the $1,000 bond and was being held in the Page County Jail.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The Council Bluffs Police Department reports a technician who was servicing an ATM at the US Bank located at 2901 W. Broadway, was attacked at around 6:06-p.m., Friday.  Authorities say a black male approached the technician and assaulted him, in order to gain access to the ATM. The suspect stole cash from the machine and left the area in a silver 4 door vehicle.

The technician was not seriously injured during the Robbery. Officers were unable to locate the suspect(s) after a search of the area. If anyone has information about this incident please contact the Council Bluffs Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division at 712-328-4728.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department report Officers responded to a call received at around 1:30-p.m. Friday from the Thomas Jefferson High School Resource Officer. The SRO said unauthorized subject had apparently entered the school.

The School Resource Officer was shown a photo of a male subject and the school was placed in a hold status. As a result, there was a heavy police presence to the school, and the area surrounding it.

After a thorough search of the school and a review of surveillance footage it was determined the individual in question did not enter the school, and no unauthorized parties were located during the search.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has issued a disaster proclamation for Allamakee and Muscatine Counties in response to the Mississippi River flooding. The governor’s proclamation today (Friday)  activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and the Disaster Case Management Program for Allamakee and Muscatine Counties.

The Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program provides grants of up to $5,000 for households with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Grants are available for home or car repairs, replacement of clothing or food, and temporary housing expenses. Original receipts are required for those seeking reimbursement for actual expenses related to storm recovery. The grant application and instructions are available on the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services website at https://dhs.iowa.gov/disaster-assistance-programs. Potential applicants have 45 days from the date of the proclamation to submit a claim.

The Disaster Case Management Program addresses serious needs related to disaster-related hardship, injury, or adverse conditions. Disaster case managers work with clients to create a disaster recovery plan and provide guidance, advice, and referral to obtain a service or resource. There are no income eligibility requirements for this program; it closes 180 days from the date of the governor’s proclamation. For information on the Disaster Case Management Program, contact your local community action association or visit www.iowacommunityaction.org.

The governor issued a disaster proclamation on April 25 that made the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program and Disaster Case Management Program available to residents in Clayton, Clinton, Dubuque, Jackson, and Scott counties.

(Radio Iowa) – City staff in Dubuque are preparing for the Mississippi River to crest this weekend. John Klostermann has been in Dubuque’s Public Works department for 47 years and has been its director since 2016. His department has been preparing for this flood since February, but he says their work is built on decisions made half century ago. ) “It’s not something we just decided to do this year or last year,” he says. “It’s been building every year since it was dedicated in 1973.”

Klostermann says it’s normal for SOME of the 17 gates that form the city’s flood wall to be used during spring flood season. “All the gates have been closed and that’s only the third time since the levee system was constructed and completed in 1973 that we’ve closed all the gates,” he says, “so it’s an unusual type event.”

While the river will be at flood stage for another week or so, the National Weather Service anticipates the water cresting in Dubuque at 24-point-four feet on Saturday and then slowly coming down.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Supreme Court has ruled the Iowa Utilities Board should have considered whether operating coal plants is economical when it approved an emissions control plan from MidAmerican Energy in 2020. Environmental advocates sued the Iowa Utilities Board for rejecting a report that said retiring some coal-fired power plants would be the most cost-effective way to meet state and federal pollution standards.

The report suggested electric generation from wind turbines and solar installations could replace the power being produced at MidAmerican coal-fired plants near Sioux City, Council Bluffs, Ottumwa and Muscatine. The Iowa Utilities Board ruled that evidence was irrelevant. The Iowa Supreme Court ruling says the board is required by law to consider cost effectiveness, so the board must now redo its review of MidAmerican’s emissions control plans.

Governor Reynolds recently appointed two new members to the three-person Iowa Utilities Board — and their terms start Monday.

(Radio Iowa) – Members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation are praising a move by the Biden administration to issue a last-minute emergency waiver to allow the sales of E-15 gasoline during the summer driving season. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion says she is glad to see the waiver happen. “This is great news. It’s gonna save families money at the pump. It’ll help with as I said energy security in our country and of course, supporting our Iowa economy,” Hinson says.

Current E-P-A guidelines prohibit the sale of E-15 from terminals in about two-thirds of the country after April 30th. Senator Joni Ernst tweeted that the hard work in pushing for the waiver paid off — and it’s time to permanently approve the use of E-15 throughout the year. Hinson agrees.

“I want to say thank you to the administration for taking this necessary step that we’ve all been advocating for,” Hinson says. “I think you’ve heard me say a time or two that I think we need the all of the above energy strategy, so I will continue to push for EF-15 to be sold year-round permanently so that our hard working farmers and producers have much-needed certainty.”

Senator Chuck Grassley says the Triple-A survey finds the 15 percent blend of ethanol in gas costs about ten cents less a gallon than the E-10. Grassley says it’s a way to help drivers with high gas prices. Congresswoman Hinson says the E-15 waiver comes on the heels of the negotiations that kept five key biofuels tax credits from rolling back. She says the entire Iowa delegation was in lockstep as they pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to keep the credits.

“I think it was very critical that we had an open line of communication, and he could understand where we were coming from as a delegation. I think it was very clear that in those conversations, multiple conversations over the course of the last week, leadership did realize we were not going to cave,” Hinson says. She says they had to make it clear how important biofuels are.

“We made the point about this is about our economy in Iowa, this is about jobs. This is about protecting farmers, and we should not be moving forward on this policy to take Iowa farmers for granted in the process,” Hinson says. “So again, the whole idea of delegation remaining in lockstep and ensured our success.”

Governor Kim Reynolds released a statement that calls the waiver “a huge win for Iowa farmers and our ethanol industry and proves that even our biggest adversaries can’t ignore the advantage biofuels brings to our country’s economy and national security.”

(Radio Iowa) – The lead meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Johnston says it’s unlikely the rest of Iowa will experience the kind of flooding that’s hit the 10 counties along the Mississippi River. Brad Small says almost all of the flooding in eastern Iowa is caused by melting snow the fell in Minnesota and Wisconsin, “which is somewhat unusual because a lot of our spring floods are kind of a cumulative thing that started in the fall with maybe a wet fall and then we had a big winter of snowfall and then spring rains started and this is kind of unique that it’s almost entirely driven by the snow pack,” Small says.

“We’re actually kind of low on our rivers in central Iowa and the Missouri is quite low, too.” Drought conditions exist in many areas of western Iowa and Small says it would take a lot of rain to change that. There have already been more than two dozen confirmed tornadoes in Iowa so far this spring. That includes 11 that hit the state on March 31st. Donna Dubberke, the meteorologist in charge at the National Weather Service office in Johnston, says storm spotters are important in identifying where tornadoes are forming.

“They fill in some of the gaps, so it’s ‘ground truth,’” Dubberke says, “and it lets us in real time calibrate what we’re seeing with the technology to what’s actually occurring.”

Dubberke and Small made their comments during taping of “Iowa Press” which airs tonight on Iowa PBS. The five National Weather Service offices that provide forecasts and weather warnings for Iowa are located in Omaha; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Johnston, the Quad Cities and La Crosse, Wisconsin.