WOODRUFF, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say an Iowa woman died after a collision in northern Kansas. The Wichita Eagle reports that the accident occurred around 10:30 a.m. Friday east of Woodruff on U.S. Highway 183, just south of the Nebraska state line. The Kansas Highway Patrol says 61-year-old Jolene Nikl was driving east and had pulled to the right to do a U-turn when her car was struck on the driver’s side by an eastbound semitrailer.

The patrol says Nikl died at the scene. Her two passengers were taken to a hospital. The truck driver wasn’t injured.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the names of a mother and two children who were fatally injured in a mobile home fire in Davenport. Firefighters responded Thursday night to the fire at the Five Seasons mobile home park. Authorities identified the woman as 23-year-old Kelsey Clain and her children Jayden Smead, who was 5, and 2-year-old Carson Smead.

Interim Fire Marshal Jim Morris says two other children remained hospitalized Sunday at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Officials say there were no working smoke detectors in the home. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

A call about a physical disturbance early this (Monday) morning in Red Oak, resulted in an arrest. Red Oak Police say 39-year old Dustin Dean French, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 12:30-a.m. for Domestic Assault with injury, a serious misdemeanor. French was transported to the Montgomery County Jail where he was being held without bond until making an appearance before the magistrate.

The Iowa Law Enforcement Academy’s director says her agency trained a record number of officers this past year. Judy Bradshaw says it’s primarily because there are a growing number of job openings in Iowa police and sheriffs departments. There’s “a wave of retirements” as well as officers making an early exit from the profession, according to Bradshaw. “As we look at the trends in law enforcement, I think that a lot of this generation are getting into law enforcement and at the seven-to-eight-to-10-year time period, we’re finding that they’re leaving the profession,” Bradshaw says.

Bradshaw has worked in law enforcement for nearly four decades. She started in 1980 as a Des Moines Police Department Cadet and retired in mid-2014 as the department’s chief. In mid-2015, Bradshaw became director of the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. She says there are still enough candidates taking the training required to fill officer slots in Iowa.

“There are still a number of folks who are interested in this as a profession,” Bradshaw says, “and that’s why part of our training is to address the resilience and how do I not just survive within my career, but how do I thrive in my law enforcement career and that’s where the Blue Courage, we think, is valuable.”

Blue Courage is the name of the academy’s new, 40-hour-long course. It’s available to new recruits as well as law enforcement veterans. “First of all, talking about what the job will do to you, potentially, and we don’t do that in our training normally with the brand new hires,” Bradshaw says. “(We) sort of map out the things that will happen over time — the burn-out and how do you recognize burnout and what are the signs of that kind of anguish.”

Bradshaw says the class helps officers better recognize when they need to ask for help. During the last state fiscal year, more than nine-thousand sworn officers took classes at the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. About 300 recruits graduated from the academy during that 12-month period. Recent, local graduates of the Academy include Brock Thompson and Cameron Ward, who are Officers with the Atlantic Police Department.

(Radio Iowa)