DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s unemployment rate is holding steady, despite the loss of more than 3,000 jobs. The number of unemployed people in Iowa was estimated at 85,200 in May. The number released yesterday was up from 85,000 in April. A year ago, there were over 99,000 unemployed in Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Larry Noble is retiring as commissioner of the Iowa Department of Public Safety. Branstad has named the department’s executive officer, Steve Ponsetto, as interim commissioner effective July 5th. Noble is a former Republican state senator from Ankeny and a retired Iowa State Patrol trooper.

BOSTON (AP) – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney says the Obama administration is smothering “small-town dreams.” In remarks prepared for delivery before he began a six-state bus tour yesterday, Romney says President Barack Obama isn’t giving middle-class America “a fair shot.” Romney’s campaign stops next week include Iowa and other states that Obama won in 2008.

MILFORD, N.H. (AP) – Softening his rhetoric on immigration, likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said yesterday that the status of people brought illegally into the U.S. as minors was important. But Romney says the issue must be addressed through legislation, not executive orders. Romney would not say yesterday whether he would reverse President Barack Obama’s decision announced yesterday to stop deporting illegal immigrants under thirty years of age who came to the U.S. as children.

The Cass County Memorial Hospital began caring for its patients in the new Emergency Department (ED) effective 2:00 pm, Friday, June 15th. Officials say patients coming to the new Emergency Department will still use the south ambulance drive.  The new ED Garage doors will open automatically when a vehicle approaches.  Patients may park outside the ED and enter on foot through the new ED entrance, which is to the right of the temporary ED entrance that has been in use for the past year.

The Same Day Surgery and Surgery Departments also moved into the new facility on June 15^th.  Beginning Monday, June 18^th, all scheduled surgery patients will register in the new ED Admissions, just inside the ED entrance, and utilize the new Same Day Surgery Department and operating rooms.

Patients or visitors who are unsure about how to access any hospital services during this transition are encouraged to call ahead for clarification, or ask any hospital staff member for assistance.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says a rural Hancock man suffered serious, but non-life threatening injuries during a single-vehicle accident Thursday night. Danker says 46-year old Darren Jacobsen was transported by Oakland Rescue to Mercy Medical Center in Council Bluffs following the crash, which happened at around 10:20-p.m. at the Hancock Cemetery.

The Sheriff says Jacobsen was driving a 2011 Ford F-250 pickup that missed a curve on southbound Highway 59 near the intersection of Mahogany Road, and went off into a ditch. The pickup continued up a steep embankment, through a fence and into the Hancock Cemetery. The vehicle went through the cemetery southbound, crashed through the south fence and came to rest in the north ditch. None of the headstones in the cemetery were damaged.

Danker says tests were being conducted to determine if alcohol was involved. The only charge that has been filed for now, is Failure to Maintain Control.