One person died in a crash involving a car and a semi in Dallas County early this (Saturday) morning. The Iowa State Patrol says 28-year old Danny Lynn Dunton, of Van Meter, who was wearing his seat belt, died in the crash that happened at around 1:35-a.m. just off the Van Meter exit from Interstate 80 westbound.

Officials say Dunton had begun to exit the interstate, when the 2014 VW he was driving came into contact with a 2016 tractor-trailer that was parked on the shoulder of the exit ramp. Following the collision, the VW came to rest on its top in the ditch. The operator of the semi, 52-year old James Ronald Renshaw, of Council Bluffs, was not hurt.

The accident remains under investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Authorities say two men from California have been arrested after nearly 400 pounds of marijuana was found in a recreational vehicle in Omaha.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says the men, from Fontana, California, were taken into custody early Friday after a traffic stop in the city’s south side.

Authorities say a deputy’s dog indicated the odor of drugs in the RV. Twelve large boxes containing nearly 400 pounds of packaged marijuana was later discovered in various areas of the vehicle. The Omaha World-Herald reports a third man in the vehicle fled during the traffic stop. Authorities have been unable to find him.

About 12-hundred school board members and superintendents from across Iowa, including those from Atlantic, will be attending the Iowa Association of School Boards state convention next week. Luann Gvist is organizing the 70th annual meeting at the Iowa Events Center in Des Moines. Gvist says the three-day conference will feature several great keynote speakers. “One of the gentlemen is a school superintendent from Georgia who is doing a lot of innovative things in their public school district,” Gvist says. “Also, we’re excited to have one of our own teachers from Iowa who was the National Teacher of the Year in 2010, Sarah Brown-Wessling.”

Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds will be speaking at the convention on Thursday about the state of education in Iowa. A workshop on school finances will be very helpful, Gvist says, especially since the elections were just held a few weeks ago. “We’re welcoming a whole host of brand new school board members to our convention and we can provide them with in-depth learning on topics such as that and also board-superintendent relationships,” Gvist says, “and we also offer break-out sessions on a wide variety of topics.”

The convention runs next Wednesday through Friday. Learn more at the Iowa Association of School Boards website: www.ia-sb.org

(Radio Iowa)

Gas prices dropped a few pennies a gallon in the last week. Iowa Department of Natural Resources fuels analyst Harold Hommes says he’s seen the drop in and around the state’s capital. “Most here in the metro are on that two-14 mark. The state average would be a little bit higher than that, but are also certainly points in Iowa regionally that are somewhat under that two-14 mark, so that’s a pretty good competitive price now for fuels,” Hommes says. The statewide average is two-dollars, 30 cents a gallon. Hommes says good supplies have push down the wholesale terminal price of gas and that’s led to a drop in the retail cost.

“We’ve got a dollar-30 rack or terminal price in most points throughout Iowa, 130, 131, so that makes it a falling market,” Hommes says. “We started off the week at about 148 at the rack, so we’ve taken 18 cents down. I look for retail to fall a little bit further yet.” There are 47-and-a-half cents of taxes added to the rack price of gasoline, so that would put the cost at around one-dollar, 47 cents a gallon, leaving retailers with some 80 cents in profit depending on the rack price. Sumer holidays can make gas prices go up with increased demand, but Hommes says the Thanksgiving holiday isn’t expected to see an increase.

“It can lend to some temporary boosts, but the last few years frankly I haven’t seen that,” Hommes says. Hommes doesn’t see any big moves up in gas prices through the rest of this year. “I think that we’re going to see pretty favorable prices similar to what we have right now for the next couple of weeks,” according to Hommes. “If anything I think we may even see modest retreating from current levels and probably are going to get a little closer to that two-dollar mark in the next week to ten days.” The average price of a gallon of unleaded gasoline one year ago this week was two-dollars, 93 cents.

(Radio Iowa)