(Updated 10/27/14)

Firefighters from Menlo, Casey and Stuart battled a tractor-trailer fire on eastbound Interstate 80 in Adair County overnight. The blaze at the 88-mile marker (the Menlo exit) was reported at around 10:15-p.m., Thursday.  The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says the vehicle was a double-bottom Fed Ex truck. Guthrie County deputies assisted with traffic control at the scene.

Photo’s from the Stuart VFD’s Facebook page.

No other details are currently available. (https://www.facebook.com/StuartFireDepartment)

The two major party candidates in Iowa’s fourth congressional district engaged in a bit of verbal combat last night (Thursday) during a televised debate held at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake. Democrat Jim Mowrer of Boone criticized Congressman Steve King of Kiron for suggesting the American soldiers being sent into west Africa to deal with the Ebola epidemic should be volunteers, since Ebola is a “silent killer.”

“As a soldier I understand that you volunteer when you raise your right hand and you’re willing to sacrifice everything for this country. Soldiers follow orders. This is a job that needs to be done. That’s why Congressman King never volunteered for the military,” Mowrer said. As many in the audience murmured, King responded: “I think that this judgement to do this debate should speak for itself.” After the debate, King told reporters Mowrer’s remark was an act of “desperation.”

“I think what’s going to happen is that people review this debate and they’ll go back and look at the facts and they’ll find out that we had a really good debate tonight and he had a really bad night of desperation,” King said. Mowrer accused King of inciting panic about Ebola.  “We need to confront this outbreak in a calm, concise, deliberate way. We need to stop it from spreading here in the United States,” Mowrer said. “We need to confront it at the source in Africa…but Congressman King again has a TV ad up on the air telling people that they should be afraid.”

King, meanwhile, challenged claims in one of Mowrer’s ads that King had voted to raise his own pay “by 20-thousand a year.” “If you do the calculation on his rational, it comes to $2610, not $20,000 and my pay again has been frozen since 2009, so many of those statements are completely, blatantly, fabricated-from-thin-air false,” King said.

Last night’s (Thursday’s) debate aired live on Iowa Public Television and is the only face-to-face meeting of the two candidates this election season. The fourth district is the state’s largest, geographically, covering 39 counties in northwest and north central Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

Joni Ernst, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, has declined invitations to speak with a handful of Iowa newspaper editorial boards, decisions that became public Thursday after The Des Moines Register revealed Ernst had cancelled a Thursday appointment with the paper’s editorial writers. Sarah Benzing is the campaign manager for Bruce Braley — Ernst’s Democratic opponent — and Benzing spoke during a conference call arranged by the campaign.

“We don’t hide from questions or fail to have an open and honest debate,” Benzing said. “We talk about the issues, we lay out where we stand and that’s exactly what voters deserve from Joni Ernst and Bruce Braley.” Braley’s campaign manager suggests Ernst is trying to avoid unscripted moments.

“It’s one thing to stick to talking points at events,” Benzing said. “It’s another to sit down with an ed board and answer tough questions.” Ernst answered questions from Radio Iowa and other media outlets twice this week after campaign events in Boone and Des Moines. Ernst campaign spokesperson Gretchen Hamel says “recent editorials in The Des Moines Register make their position in this race perfectly clear” and the Ernst campaign decided with less than 12 days to go, Ernst “wants to spend every minute talking to undecided voters.”

Ernst also declined to meet with editorial writers for The Cedar Rapids Gazette, The Dubuque Telegraph Herald, The Quad-City Times and The Waterloo Courier. Ernst won The Des Moines Register’s endorsement during the Republican Primary in June, but the Ernst campaign cites five recent editorials in the newspaper that criticized Ernst’s past statements or positions on issues for leading to their decision to cancel a meeting with the paper’s editorial board.

The Des Moines Register endorsed Mitt Romney late in the 2012 campaign after Romney met with the paper’s editorial writers in a barn on a farm near Adel. President Obama had granted the paper an off-the-record interview that became public after the paper’s lead editor concluded Obama’s statements about his post-election agenda were newsworthy and merited publication.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst cancelled a meeting with The Des Moines Register’s editorial board Thursday, saying her time was better spent campaigning in Iowa. Editors at the newspaper say Ernst notified them Wednesday night that she wouldn’t attend the Thursday meeting. Publisher Rick Green says he was disappointed.

WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say three men who walked away from a residential correctional facility in northeast Iowa last Friday are back in custody. The state Department of Corrections says Shaun McBride and Taylor Oakes were arrested Wednesday night in Mitchell County. Tyler Roe was arrested Tuesday in Howard County.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Supporters of a proposed historic district in downtown Cedar Rapids say the designation would enable property owners to get big tax breaks when renovating their buildings. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG-TV reports the Cedar Rapids Community Development Department hosted two meetings to discuss the idea yesterday.

WAVERLY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 67-year-old woman has died in a single-vehicle crash in northeast Iowa. The Bremer County Sheriff’s Office says Kathleen Kerr of Tripoli, Iowa was driving Wednesday afternoon on a county road near Waverly when her car drifted off the road and struck a tree.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Key members of the governing board of Iowa’s three public universities say they want to table a proposed 1.75 percent tuition increase and freeze rates for the third year. In a surprise, three members of the Iowa Board of Regents said they supported the freeze for in-state students Thursday. The nine-member board will vote on the plan in December.

Their statements came as the regents considered a plan to raise the cost of tuition and mandatory fees for undergraduates at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. The board froze tuition rates for the previous two school years, for the first time since the 1970s.

The proposed increase would have covered the expected cost of inflation and generated $14.5 million in new revenue.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Online retailor Amazon has agreed to refund more than 1,000 Iowa customers over issues regarding a subscription service. The state Attorney General’s Office says the agreement means Amazon.com Inc. and Amazon Services LLC will give $122,000 in refunds and credits to Iowa customers.  State officials say a free shipping promotion enrolled Iowa customers in a free trial of the Amazon Prime subscription service. Its annual $99 membership fee offers shipping discounts, streaming video and other features.

Customers who didn’t cancel during the free-trial period were shifted to regular Prime memberships. The agreement requires that Amazon comply with state law aimed at making the enrollment process for club memberships clear. As part of the deal, Amazon denies any wrongdoing or liability. The company will contact qualifying customers for refunds and credits.