A fast food restaurant parking lot in Council Bluffs was the scene of a chain reaction accident Friday afternoon. Council Bluffs Police say 61-year old Michael Forbes, of Council Bluffs, was parking his 2002 Toyota 4Runner in the parking lot of The Great Wall restaurant in the 400 Block of East Broadway at around 12:45-p.m., when he apparently hit the accelerator pedal instead of the brake.

His vehicle jumped the curb and struck two vehicles that were parked in the Jimmy Johns parking lot. The passenger side tires of the SUV struck the front of a 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix, which caused it to ramp onto the driver’s side and come to rest against a 2015 Ford Fusion. All vehicles sustained moderate damage, but all remained driveable. The Grand Prix and Fusion were both unoccupied.

Forbes was not hurt, but he was trapped inside the vehicle until Fire Department personnel braced the vehicle and were able to extricate him. No citations were issued as the incident happened on private property.

Officials with the Cass County Health System in Atlantic said today (Friday), that the next session of Healthy U is scheduled to take place at noon Thursday, February 23rd, and will focus on Diagnostic Imaging. Director of Diagnostic Imaging, Carrie Schmitt, will present during the session.

Schmitt says she will “briefly cover all of the services [they] offer including radiography, MRI, CT, ultrasound, and more.”  The presentation will then take a more in-depth look at DEXA and osteoporosis, as well as mammography and breast cancer.

CCHS Director of Diagnostic Imaging, Carrie Schmitt (photo submitted)

Healthy U is a free educational lunch series at Cass County Health System held monthly in Conference Room 2. The public is invited and welcome to attend, but reservations are required as lunch is provided for all attendees. Call 712-243-7479 to reserve your seat.

The Ambassadors were hosted by the Atlantic Parks & Recreation Thursday, February 9th, 2017. The Ambassadors had the opportunity to visit the Sunnyside Ice Skating Rink that opened the beginning of January. Seth Staashelm, Parks & Recreation Director, said the idea came to him when the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce hosted their Holiday Skating Rink event.

Staashelm received a lot of positive feedback from the community and their desires to have a more permanent rink available during the winter months. The rink is made up of six inches of ice with a protective liner covering the basketball courts, funded by the Community Promotions Commission, to protect the court from damage. The rink is open Sunday – Thursday, 6 AM – 10 PM and Friday – Saturday, 6 AM – 11 PM. For more information, visit the Sunnyside Ice Rink Facebook page.

Staff Pictured: Seth Staashelm (Director), Stuart Dusenberry (Board Member), Jolene Smith (Board Member)
Ambassadors Pictured: Haley Kickland, Debbie Leistad, Carole Schuler, Michelle Heath, Sue Muri, Melanie Petty, Tammy Waters, Casey Symonds, Dr. Jim Kickland, Donnie Drennan, Dr. Keith Leonard, Steve Anderson, Lucas Mosier, Kent Hanson and Dawn Marnin. (Photo submitted)

A divided Iowa Supreme Court has reversed the conviction of an eastern Iowa man who was arrested after a routine traffic stop. An Eldridge police officer stopped a car that was registered to a woman who had a suspended driver’s license. The officer found a man, Jayel Coleman driving the car that he said he had borrowed from his sister. The officer checked Coleman’s driver’s license and determined he was driving while barred.

Coleman appealed, saying the officer had no reason to question him. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled the reason for the traffic stop was resolved when the officer found Coleman driving and it was unconstitutional to continue the stop. Three justices issued a dissent, saying the ruling gives Coleman a free pass and determines the routine request to see a driver’s license and registration in a traffic stop violates the search and seizure provision of the Iowa Constitution.

The dissent says the case goes out of its way to connect the case to racial profiling and does not consider the multiple driving violations and other arrests of Coleman.

(Radio Iowa)

Republicans in the Iowa House have passed a bill designed to cut some of the “strings” on federal block grant money for city and county road and bridge projects. Cities and counties would send their money to the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Iowa D-O-T would send the same amount back, without enforcing the federal requirements. Representative Gary Worthan, a Republican from Storm Lake, says other states have made this move and hundreds of thousands of dollars that would have been spent complying with federal rules was spent on new bridges and roads instead.

“This process will eliminate a lot of paperwork, a lot of requirements on the cities and counties when they go to do their local road projects,” Worthan says. Democrats like Representative Abby Finkenaur of Dubuque say the bill is designed to avoid federal wage rules for construction crews and “Buy American” requirements for construction materials.  “Buying U.S. steel, buying American-made products with American tax dollars is restrictive and cumbersome? I don’t think so,” she said.

And Finkenaur says getting rid of the federal “prevailing wage” rules will lower pay for crews working on city and county road projects in rural Iowa. Representative Jerry Kearns, a Democrat from Keokuk, says the bill’s a “swipe” at American workers. “We should not be trying to see how we can legislative less pay. Our our governor says we need good paying jobs,” Kearns says. “This flies in the face of what the president says about American products and, here we are, trying to do exactly the opposite.”

Worthan says he’s confident contractors will continue to pay their crews well. “I don’t think that wages are going to change a whole lot,” Worthan said. “In fact, I find it somewhat offensive that’s the premise that the argument is being based on.”

A similar bill has cleared a COMMITTEE in the Iowa SENATE.

(Radio Iowa)