(Afton, Iowa) – A collision in Afton Saturday evening resulted in two people being transported to the hospital, in Creston. According to the Union County Sheriff’s Department, a 2007 Chevy Impala driven by 18-year-old Raenna Price, of Afton, was traveling north on U-S Highway 169 at around 5:50-p.m.  A 1998 Volvo semi tractor-trailer driven by 40-year-old Chad Pontier, of Osceola, was stopped at the stop sign on Railroad Street. Officials say Pontier looked, but did not see the Chevy. When he proceeded to turn north onto Highway 169, he struck the Impala on the passenger side.

Pontier was not injured in the collision, but Price complained of pain afterward and was transported to the hospital by private vehicle, to be checked-out. A passenger in her car, 17-year-old Terence Sheley, of Lenox, was injured and transported by EMS Air to the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston. The car sustained $5,000 damage. Damage to the semi was estimated at $2,500. While no citations were issued at the scene, authorities noted Pontier failed to yield the right of way to Price, when he pulled away from the stop sign.

Both drivers and the passenger were wearing their seat belts.

(Atkins, Iowa) – A head-on crash west of Cedar Rapids resulted in injuries to six people (including three juveniles), Saturday night. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened on Highway 30 just east of 32nd Avenue, west of Cedar Rapids, at around 8:30-p.m.  Officials say a 2017 Toyota Corolla was traveling east in the westbound inside lane of Highway 30, when it struck a 2010 Dodge Avenger traveling west in the westbound inside lane. A non-contact, third vehicle..a 2014 Ford Fiesta…was struck by and ran over debris from the initial collision.

The names and ages of the injured were not immediately released.  One of the injured was transported by EMS to a hospital in Cedar Rapids. Another was transported by helicopter to the University of Iowa Health Center, in Iowa City. The report did not indicate if the remaining individuals were transported to a hospital or treated at the scene and released.

The accident remains under investigation. Benton County Sheriff’s Deputies assisted the Patrol at the crash scene.

A traffic stop on a speeding vehicle Saturday morning in Montgomery County, resulted in the arrest of a man from Madison County. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 28-year-old Matthew R. Garcia, of Macksburg, was arrested a little before 8-a.m. Saturday, after it was determined he was Driving While Revoked for a prior offense. Garcia was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 bond.

[Updated 10/24] (Des Moines, Iowa/KCCI) -The Des Moines Police Department announced an arrest Saturday, in the city’s ninth homicide of 2021. According to police, 27-year-old Darren Antwon Diggs, of Des Moines, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in a deadly Friday morning shooting.

Early Friday morning, police were called to the 1600 block of Hull Avenue to investigate multiple reports of gunfire heard in the area. Arriving officers found 21-year-old Kalvyn Roy Kline dead after suffering from gunshot wounds inside a vehicle at an apartment complex.

Diggs is being held in the Polk County Jail, awaiting an initial court appearance. Police said Diggs and Kline knew each other. The motive appears to be a drug-related robbery, according to police. According to police, this is the ninth Des Moines homicide of 2021. There were 21 homicides in Des Moines in 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says the Biden Administration needs to focus on the supply chain issues that have ships backed up waiting to unload and businesses not getting what they need. Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says she saw issues first hand during a tour of Oak Street Manufacturing in Monticello Monday. “They told me they had to raise their prices more this year than in the last 25 years combined — that’s because the cost of the materials they use has skyrocketed,” Hinson says. “And then on top of that, the supply chain bottleneck has seriously impacted their operations. You talk about a cost differential here — they told me they typically spend about four thousand dollars on a shipping container — last month they spent 29-thousand-500 dollars.”

The company makes furniture primarily for restaurants. Hinson says the extra federal unemployment payments are one of the issues. “We paid people to stay home for far too long and that obviously has had ripple effects. And so when you see proposals coming out of Democrats in Congress like Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to continue those unemployment benefits — I can tell you that’s the fastest way to continue to have these supply problems long-term,” according to Hinson. She says forcing workers to get vaccinated is also an issue. “Vaccine mandates are torpedoing the workforce as well. All of these things I think are problematic in terms of policy coming out of the administration. I think getting those barriers out of the way is step one,” she says.

Hinson says the administration is spending too much time trying to pass the multi-trillion-dollar reconciliation package. “The Biden Administration is not focused on fixing that supply chain, they seem more focused on spending money right now. So, we need to work together on this and work all the way up and down the chain, state, federal, and local to make sure we are fixing this problem,” Hinson says.

Hinson made her comments during her weekly conference call with reporters.