(New London, Iowa) – A head-on collision Wednesday afternoon in southeast Iowa’s Henry County resulted in one death and another person injured. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2000 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck driven by 68-year-old Norman E. Hirschy, of Mount Pleasant, was traveling westbound in the 2500 block of 260th Street on the west side of New London. At around 2:55-p.m., his vehicle crossed the center line of the road and struck an eastbound 2006 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. Hirschy died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the other pickup was identified as 57-year-old Sheila K. Wilkerson, of New London. She was wearing her seat belt. Wilkerson was transported from the scene by Medforce Air Medical to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain reports a strong second quarter. Casey’s C-E-O, Darren Rebellez, spoke during a conference call Wednesday with investors. “Inside Sales remained strong despite the challenging economic environment, frightening inside gross profit up almost nine percent to almost 504 million dollars. The company generated 138 million in net income, an increase of 42 percent,” according to Rebellez. He says some easing of supply issues helped with the sale of prepared foods. “Sales were up due to strong performance and pizza slices and whole pies, as well as cold dispensed beverages. We had better product availability in both cups and doughnuts, which led to improved performance within the bakery and dispense beverage categories,” he says.

Inflation continues to be an issue with supplies and Rebellez says cheese costs in particular have been up 14 percent. He says they have had to offset some of that with price increases. “In about the last 14 months, we’ve taken for different price increases. We’ve tried to keep pace to a certain extent with inflation, but but we’re also trying to balance that with our relative value proposition to our guests,” Rebellez says. He says they feel like they’re striking the right balance in adjusting prices for now.  “We continue to keep an eye on on those commodity costs. And when we think those are a little more permanent in nature, than we’ll take pricing action to offset that,” he says. ” But right now, it’s, it’s fairly volatile. And what we don’t want to do is raise prices too much — and then have to whipsawed the customer and go backwards.”

The company continued to make a generous margin on gas sales of 40-and-a-half cents. Rebellez says they make more profit on gas when prices are falling than when they are going up.  “Right now, since really the beginning of October, we’ve experienced a steadily declining wholesale environment, so you would expect those margins to expand,” Rebellez says. “What I would remind everybody of is that we saw the same thing happen last year. In the month of November last year, wholesale costs drop 40 cents a gallon. And then over the next two months, they rose 60 cents a gallon. It’s a dynamic environment.”

Their total gallons increased around three percent compared to last year due to an increase in the number of stores. The same-store gallons sold were down two-point-three percent compared to last year.

(Radio Iowa) – The holidays aren’t so happy for Iowans who are dealing with economic hardships and hunger, as the state’s largest food bank is seeing records for demand set month after month. Michelle Book, C-E-O and president of the Des Moines-based Food Bank of Iowa, says there’s still an impact being felt from the pandemic. “Pair that with the incredible inflation we’ve seen, and then a decrease in federal support for many of these families that are living right at or below the poverty level,” Book says. “So we have many of our pantry partners across our 55 counties have seen double, triple and some of them four times the need than a year ago at this time.” The organization just marked its 40th year of service and saw an increasing need throughout 2022.

“May was a record breaker in 40 years, and then June broke that record, July broke it, August broke it, and so forth as we’ve gone into fall,” Book says. “We have served close to 150,000 individuals and 53,000 households every month for the past six months.” They’re seeing young couples and their children using the services, and she notes that people typically don’t enter the pantry network unless there’s been a significant change in their world.

“Maybe a car repair, they’ve lost their job, their refrigerator doesn’t work,” Book says. “Most people are using the pantry maybe three or four times a year. They’re not there every day that the door opens, but they’re there when there’s some sort of catastrophe within their household where they just don’t have money left over to pay for food.” Book says donations are welcome and monetary gifts go farthest as the food bank can buy in bulk.

On the web at foodbankiowa.org

(Webster County, Iowa) – Police in Fort Dodge, Wednesday, arrested a man and a woman in connection with the murder of a newborn baby. Authorities report 24-year-old Taylor Blaha and 31-year-old Brandon Thoma,each face a charge of first-degree murder. Blaha is the mother of the newborn, and Thoma is the father. Thoma also faces an abuse of a corpse charge. His cash bond was set at slightly more than $1-million, while Blaha’s bond is $1-million.

Police have been searching for the baby’s remains since late November. The baby’s remains have not been found. Police say they got their first tip on Nov. 22 that a baby was born inside a home, later died and that their body was moved.

Police say lab results and interviews led to the couple’s arrests.

Blakesburg, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports the Iowa DCI (Division of Criminal Investigation) was called to an officer involved shooting Wednesday, near rural Blakesburg, in Wapello County. The incident occurred at the conclusion of a pursuit of an armed robbery suspect. The suspect was being treated for an apparent gunshot wound(s) at an area hospital.

No further information is being released at this time.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The City Council in Atlantic, Wednesday, passed a Resolution approving the Amended Calendar Year (CY) Budget for the Atlantic Municipal Utilities (AMU).
AMU General Manager Steve Tjepkes said during the meeting, that the main reason for the amendment, is the increased costs of their purchased power. The wholesale market price of power in our area, he said, increased 67%, resulting in $1.8-million dollars in higher purchased power costs.

Despite the huge increase, Tjepkes said there is some good news….

He says there will not be an increase in electric rates for 2023, but for the first time in the last 3-years, the AMU Board of Directors has approved a slight increase in water rates, beginning with your February 2023 billing cycle. The increase is necessary, he said, due to a failing underground storage tank

Tjepkes said they will be replacing an underground water holding tank with an above ground tank. The project is expected to cost $1.8-million.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council approved a Class-C Liquor permit for Weitzel’s Restaurant, and the appointments of: David Schwab to the Atlantic Library Board of Trustees; Bill Garrett to the Atlantic Airport Commission, and Kyle Steffens to the Planning and Zoning Commission.

They also passed a Resolution approving the sale of City-owned property at 301 Maple Street (the structure was demolished and only the lot remains). Jamie Joyce has agreed to purchase to property for $10,000, with the intent to expand his graphic and design business.