(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak say a woman was arrested Monday evening on a Pottawattamie County warrant. 29-year-old Nicole Anne Kimpson, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 7:42-p.m. on the warrant for Violation of Probation on original charges of Child Endangerment and Possession of a Controlled Substance. Her bond at the Montgomery County Jail was set at $5,000.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A semi tractor-trailer’s mechanical issues resulted in a an SUV being struck by pieces of the trailer’s brake shoes. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the driver of the semi, Jorge Urizar, of Bakersfield, CA, told deputies that he lost the set of dual tires on the trailer. He stopped and picked them up before continuing west on Highway 34.

While back on the road, the brake shoes fell off of the axle of the semi’s trailer, and damaged a 2020 Jeep Wagoneer, driven by Brandon Bennett, of Arlington, WA. The accident happened at around 4:30-p.m. The SUV sustained disabling damage. Urizar was cited for Driving or Towing an Unsafe Vehicle. No injuries were reported.

Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies were assisted by Red Oak Police.

(Radio Iowa) – There will soon be just one Ben Franklin store left in Iowa. Fifty years ago, there were more than 100 Ben Franklin stores in the state, but there’s a store closing sale underway at the Ben Franklin in Eagle Grove — and the Ben Franklin in Sheldon will be the last one operating in Iowa. Phil Warnke says he and his wife were relatively young when they bought the store in 1991.

“Most of the others have retired as they get into their 70s,” Warnke says. “Some of the other younger ones did change the name and go with other names, where we chose to go with the Ben Franklin name.” The original Ben Franklin chain went bankrupt in 1996, but Warnke has been paying a licensing fee just to be able to keep the name on the building.

“There’s been a store associated with that name in our town for over 100 years,” Warnke says. “We figured no matter what we changed the name to, to the local people it’s always be the old Ben Franklin store, so we thought it was just better identification if we just kept the name.” Warnke says when the Ben Franklin company went out of business 27 years ago, that actually helped his operation because as a franchise, his store had to buy and stock company products.

“It did open up different products for us that we weren’t able to carry by being just a strictly company Ben Franklin store,” Warnke says. The Ben Franklin store on the town square in Winterset closed in December after 83 years in business. The owner of the Ben Franklin store in Nevada retired last November and the store closed. The Ben Franklin store in Eagle Grove announced its “store closing” sale on Facebook a few weeks ago, but has not set an end date.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Atlantic Community School District (ACSD) say the District is currently hiring a variety of certified and support staff positions. The variety of positions varies greatly with the highest need under the umbrella of our Paraeducator support staff positions.  ACSD currently has multiple positions available for Paraeducators.

The State of Iowa has changed the online application website platform for which both certified and support staff employment opportunities in the educational sector are available to view and apply for.

Previously the website, TeachIowa was utilized. In July, the website changed to IowaWorks. Under this new IowaWorks website interested individuals can browse all state-based government and/or educational positions within the state of Iowa.

The new IowaWorks website also provides a significant amount of information and resources about employment in Iowa, resources and support for both job seekers and employers looking for the perfect candidate.

Interested in joining the ACSD team as a Paraeducator or one of the other current available positions? All available positions can be found and applied for under the new state website, IowaWorks.

Specific questions regarding employment can be directed to the ACSD Central Office: 712-243-4252.

(Radio Iowa) – A Texas firm that invested in Mercy hospital in Iowa City says the facility is on the verge of insolvency. Preston Hollow Community Capital, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, says it is seeking a court-appointed receivership to restructure the debt of Mercy hospital in Iowa City. The firm’s statement says Mercy Iowa City’s board of directors has failed to shift its approach to deal with unsustainable financial issues and avoid closure of the facility.

Two years ago, Mercy Iowa City rejected the University of Iowa’s more than 600 million dollar offer to buy Mercy Iowa City and turn it into a community division of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

According to Mercy Iowa City’s website, 250 doctors are on staff and the hospital has 194 beds for acute care, 25 outpatient surgery rooms and a 23-bed nursery. A spokesperson for the hospital was not immediately available for comment.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa-born astronaut Peggy Whitson is featured in a national interview with Norah O’Donnell on the C-B-S program “Person to Person.” The Beaconsfield native reflected on her recent space flight, the fourth in her long career. In May, Whitson led a crew to the International Space Station as part of the private Axiom 2 mission. Whitson says the toughest part about the flight was readjusting to Earth’s gravity after the 10-day mission was over.

She retired from NASA in 2018 and joined Axiom, which plans to build a commercial space station beginning as early as 2025. Whitson hopes the company will expand on some of the medical experiments that were conducted during her latest mission, including cancer research. With her latest flight, Whitson increased her U-S record for most time spent in space — to 675 days.