HINTON, Iowa (AP) — Two people were seriously injured in a northwest Iowa grain elevator explosion. The Sioux City Journal reports the explosion occurred just after 1 p.m. Thursday at Central Valley Ag in Hinton. Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo says two people were taken to a Sioux City hospital in serious condition. Authorities have not identified the victims, and the cause of the explosion hasn’t been determined.

U.S. Highway 75 and a county road were closed through Hinton to allow emergency crews to quickly reach the grain elevator, but the roads were later reopened. Authorities had asked that trains not travel through the area but rails also were reopened.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Thursday, said that in a little more than three-weeks since it was set-up to collect unwanted prescription medications, the Prescription Drug Drop Box in the lobby at the Sheriff’s Office, has collected 50-pounds of medications. The meds are currently awaiting proper disposal.

Sheriff Jeff Danker said that the Sheriff’s Office partnership with the Governor’s Drug Control Office is valuable, in that it provides the public a proper place for unneeded prescription drugs to be disposed of reducing the possibility that the medications fall into the wrong hands.

Sheriff Danker continues to encourage anyone who has prescription drugs that are no longer needed or are out of date to consider utilizing the services of the Drop Box, which can be found at the Sheriff’s Office located at 1400 Big Lake Road, in Council Bluffs.

Remember, the drop box is not intended for the disposal of “sharps” such as syringes.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a Mexican citizen was sentenced to prison Wednesday on a drug charge, in U-S District Court in Pottawattamie County. 29-year old Jonathon Oros-Moreno, received a sentenced of a little more than eight-years in prison, from Senior United States District Court Judge James E. Gritzner.  The 100 months prison term for Possession with the Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, will followed by five years of supervised release.

Oros-Moreno entered a guilty plea on July 24, 2015, to the possession charge following his arrest one-year earlier. He was taken into custody by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Force working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Safe Streets Task Force. On July 24, 2014, law enforcement purchased two one-pound packages of methamphetamine from Oros-Moreno before serving a search warrant on the Council Bluffs apartment where he was staying. At the apartment, law enforcement located an additional twelve one-pound packages of methamphetamine.

The investigation was conducted by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Force, Council Bluffs Police Department, the Bellevue (Nebraska) Police Department, the Omaha (Nebraska) Police Department and the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A survey of rural bankers in 10 Western and Plains states suggests a slightly brighter economic picture that remains shadowed by lower agriculture and energy commodity prices. A March report released Thursday (Today) says the Rural Mainstreet Index rose to 40.2 from 37.0 in February and 34.8 in January. Survey officials say any score below 50 on any of the survey’s indexes suggests that factor will decline.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the monthly survey, and he says prices for farm products have fallen about 11 percent and fuel roughly 25 percent since June. Goss says the confidence index dropped to 30.1 this month from 30.4 in February, reflecting the bankers’ pessimism.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

A restaurant chain based in northwest Iowa has been linked to a food poisoning outbreak in at least nine states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed 13 people who were sickened by E. Coli reported they ate at a Pizza Ranch restaurant prior to becoming ill. Health officials have declared the E. Coli outbreak has come to an end.

Officials with Pizza Ranch, based in Orange City, say their independent testing on different products found no problems but the restaurant has temporarily discontinued the use of a dough mix from an ingredient supplier that may’ve been a factor in the outbreak. Pizza Ranch has more than 180 locations in 13 states, including restaurants in more than 75 Iowa towns and cities.

(Radio Iowa)