The Iowa State Patrol reports one person died and two others were injured during a crash Thursday night in northern Iowa’s Butler County. A 2000 Ford F-150 pickup was traveling east on County Road C-33, about a mile east of Willow Avenue, when the vehicle drifted off the road and into the south ditch, where it struck a box culvert.

The driver of the pickup, 44-year old Matthew DeWitt, of Shell Rock, and a passenger, 28-year old Andrew Baker, of Waverly, were injured. Baker was not wearing a seat belt. Both were transported by ambulance to the hospital in Waverly. A second passenger, 41-year old Jeffrey DeWitt, of Shell Rock, who was wearing a seat belt, died at the hospital.

The accident, which happened at around 7:06-p.m., Thursday, remains under investigation.

Police in Red Oak, Thursday evening, arrested 31-year old Colbie Jo Sue Fike, of Red Oak. Fike was taken into custody at around 6:50-p.m. for Driving While Suspended, (a simple misdemeanor) and on a valid Red Oak P-D warrant for ID Theft (an aggravated misdemeanor). She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond.

Iowa-born astronaut Peggy Whitson is preparing for her third rocket ride to the International Space Station and spoke to Radio Iowa’s Matt Kelley Thursday, from the training center in Russia. The Beaconsfield native has already spent 377 days aboard the orbiting station during missions in 2002 and 2007. This coming February, Whitson will celebrate her 57th birthday there, some 220 miles up, and she’ll be the oldest woman ever in space, American, Russian or otherwise.

American John Glenn took his final spaceflight aboard the shuttle Discovery at age 77, so is there the possibility this may not be her last mission? “I’d love to go when I’m 77, as long as I’m not dead,” Whitson says, laughing. The rigorous training regimen astronauts must endure is legendary but she says it’s gotten a little easier each time.
“Definitely,” Whitson says. “Knowing what you need to worry about and what not to worry about definitely makes preparation for the flight much easier. It helps you prioritize the things you need to do to get ready for a flight. It’s definitely easier the third time around, second time, too.”

Peggy Whitson in her Russian space suit

Speaking via NASA-TV from Star City, near Moscow, Whitson says there’s really nothing about the upcoming six-month mission that frightens her. “I don’t think anything particularly apprehensive,” Whitson says. “I do think there are always going to be challenges onboard which is part of what makes it a little bit more interesting and fun. I look forward to those challenges, whether it’s fixing things that break or just the challenge of trying to get as much scientific work done as we can.”

Whitson has an impressive resume: She was the first Iowa woman in space. She was the space station’s first science officer, its first woman commander and she’ll be the first woman to command the station twice. She’s already logged more time in space and has done more EVAs — or spacewalks — than any other woman. There’s even a Peggy Whitson Science Center at her old school in Mount Ayr. Still, the former Iowa farm girl is humble about her long list of firsts and records.

“I really feel very privileged and honored to be able to participate in the space program at all,” Whitson says, her voice cracking. “That’s what I’m most proud of.” Launch aboard the Soyuz MS-2 spacecraft from Kazakhstan is scheduled for November 15th. She’ll return to Earth next May.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:52 a.m. CDT

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Law enforcement in North Dakota moved in Thursday to remove activists protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline who had set up a camp on private property owned by the pipeline developer. It was the latest development in a long-running dispute over a thousand-mile pipeline that protesters say threatens drinking water.

CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Authorities have updated to 141 the number of people arrested when law enforcement officers evicted protesters from private property in the path of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Donnell Hushka, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, says most of the protesters were arrested for conspiracy to endanger by fire or explosion, engaging in a riot and maintaining a public nuisance. The nearly six-hour operation to evict the protesters began at 11:15 a.m. Thursday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines hospital says a pharmacy tech removed a potent painkiller from hundreds of vials and replaced it with saline solution. UnityPoint Health – Des Moines spokeswoman Amy Varcoe says Methodist Medical Center contacted 731 patients because they may not have received full doses of fentanyl. Varcoe says about 250 vials were affected, but that she doesn’t know how many patients received vials containing saline.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says one of its deputies accused of having a weapon with him while drunkenly assaulting someone has resigned in lieu of being fired. The former deputy, 34-year-old Erick McFerran on Friday, is charged with carrying weapons, assault causing bodily injury and harassment. He was charged after Waterloo police say they were called to a gas station on Oct. 14 and found that McFerran had assaulted someone.