Red Oak Police report a woman from Elliott was arrested at around 12:50-a.m. today (Tuesday). Authorities say 30-year-old Michelle Lynn Kasha was taken into custody following a traffic stop. She faces charges that include Possession of a Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Kasha was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 bond. Red Oak Police were assisted at the scene by Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, the Montgomery County K9 Unit, and the Iowa State Patrol.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Safety says four officers who fired on the man accused of killing a State Trooper on April 9th have been cleared by the Iowa Attorney General’s office. DPS says a Hardin County Sheriff’s Department deputy fired and missed Michael Lang after Trooper Jim Smith was shot and killed by Lang as officers entered his Grundy Center home trying to arrest him.

Troopers later used an armored personnel carrier to enter Lang’s home and he was hit three times by officers after they say he fired on them. The 41-year-old Lang was hospitalized until April 21st when he was released and charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, and assault on a peace officer.

All of the officers who fired at Lang were on administrative leave while the Attorney General investigated the shooting. The report says the officer’s actions were “justified and reasonable.”

The names of the officers who returned fire at Lang are: Hardin County Sheriff’s Deputy Mitch Kappel, a 13-year veteran of the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office; Trooper Josh Guhl, a 13-year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol, Trooper Matt Costello, a 17-year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol, and Trooper Spencer Baltes, a four-year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol.

(Radio Iowa) – A House committee has approved legislation to forbid Iowa businesses, schools and government facilities from denying entry to people who haven’t had the Covid vaccine. In addition, all government entities in Iowa would be barred from issuing I-D cards with a person’s vaccination history. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, says employment, travel and normal participation in society shouldn’t be decided by whether someone has been vaccinated.

“I think vaccine passports are unAmerican,” Holt said. “I think they’re unconstitutional and I think they’re unacceptable.” During a public hearing on the bill, Nicole Hasso of Johnston told lawmakers she wants to return to B-C — Before Covid — and she opposes any kind of a vaccine mandate.

“This is a personal choice,” Hosse says. “This is an individual choice and we should not be told how to live our lives or what we’re going to put in our bodies or what we can’t put in our bodies.” A number of other speakers urged lawmakers to go farther and prohibit hospitals and health care facilities from requiring that patients or visitors be vaccinated against Covid-19. Courtney Collier of Waukee says it’s about body autonomy.

“Let’s not muddy the waters any more than we already have this last year with more inhumane and tyrannical dictates,” she said. Holt says he’s spent several weeks negotiating over the details — and is sympathetic to critics who say the bill doesn’t go far enough.

“I started out exactly where many of you talked about today and basically went backwards based upon getting to the point where I felt we could get something actually signed into law,” Holt says, “as opposed to academic discussions that don’t result in action.” A spokeswoman for the Iowa Hospital Association says hospitals need to have a patient’s medical history, including information about vaccinations, in order to provide the best care and the association opposes changes in the bill.

A pursuit that apparently started with a traffic stop on Interstate 80 late Monday night, ended with the suspect driver leading authorities into Exira via Highway 71 and County Road F-58. According to dispatch reports, the vehicle was abandoned in Exira and the suspect took off on foot.The man was said to have been wearing a white t-shirt, but no other description was available. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center told KJAN News (at 3:30-a.m.), that as of their last report, the subject had not been located.

During the chase, which began at around 11:30-p.m., speeds approached and/or exceeded 120 mph. A law enforcement vehicle said to have been taken out of commission near the Brayton curves, when its transmission failed.

Additional details are currently not available.

A man from Nebraska died during a collision between a pickup and a semi tractor-trailer Monday afternoon, in Fremont County. The Iowa State Patrol reports the driver of the pickup, 47-year-old Michael A. Cox, from Ravenna, NE, who was not wearing a seat belt, died when his eastbound vehicle crossed the center line of Highway 21 and struck the rear dual wheels of the westbound semi, driven by 35-year old Nathaniel J. Pegelow, of Salisbury, MO. The accident happened at around 1:45-p.m.

The Patrol says when the collision occurred, the left front tire of the pickup came off and struck a westbound SUV driven by 24-year-old Veronica Marie Barreto Rosa, from Lincoln, NE.  The pickup came to rest in a ditch. The other two vehicles came to rest on the roadway.