More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Department reports two arrests from over the weekend. 23-year old Christopher Palmer, of Liberty, MO., and 46-year old Angela Wimber, of Afton, were arrested on separate charges Saturday, at 104 W. Taylor Street. Palmer was arrested at around 11:04-p.m., for Simple Assault. Wimber was arrested at around 1:18-p.m., for Disorderly Conduct. Both were released from the scene on a Summons to Appear.

And, a Creston man reported to Police late Saturday morning, that sometime between Sept. 21st and 24th, someone entered his vehicle, which was parked outside his residence in the 500 block of N. Cherry Street. A Springfield Arms semi-automatic .380 was stolen from inside the vehicle. The weapon was valued at $400.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A southwest Iowa man died Saturday afternoon, after the truck he was driving was struck by a BNSF train in northwest Missouri’s Atchinson County. According to the Missouri Highway Patrol, 52-year-old Troy L. Landess, of Clarinda, was driving a 2009 Mack truck eastbound on a private levy access road five-miles south of Rock Port, and had attempted to cross a private railroad crossing that was controlled only by a stop sign, when the truck was hit on its passenger side by the northbound locomotive. The accident happened at around 2:30-p.m.

The Patrol says Landess was partially ejected from the truck during the collision. The vehicle came to rest down an embankment, while the train came to stop on the tracks. The Train Engineer, 55-year old Daniel F. Peterson, of Beatrice, NE., was not injured.

Landess was transported to the Nemaha County, MO., Hospital where he was pronounced dead. The Atchison County Sheriff’s Department and Burlington Northern Railroad Police assisted at the scene.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors, Tuesday, will hold an in-person and electronic meeting (Via Zoom) [Meeting ID: 138 870 131  Password: 012064 ], beginning at 9-a.m.  On their agenda is action on a Resolution assigning a county-held tax sale certificate to the City of Atlantic, and enter into an agreement to abate taxes, if Atlantic acquires ownership of the parcel (#303003963001000). The Board will also review and change the compensation rate for County Engineer Trent Wolken, following last week’s closed session for his six-month performance review.

The Board will act on entering into an agreement to compromise tax and abate interest, penalty and cost and assign tax sale certificates to private citizen on County Held Tax Sale Certificates for a parcel in Block 6, the 2nd Addition, in Cumberland. (More specifically: Certificates 2007-71 and 2018-118 S50’ N80’ of Block 6, 2nd Addition, Cumberland)

In other business, the Supervisors will act on a Resolution placing Stop signs at the intersection of 595th Street and Lansing Road. Last week, Jon Schwanke asked the Board to consider a stop sign or signs at the “Blind” intersection located at the top of a hill. It was noted the site had become a dangerous corner due to increased traffic associated with the opening of a new rock quarry. The Board concluded after considerable discussion last week, that a Stop sign is needed.

And, the Board of Supervisors will discuss the closing of a County Roadway at 570th Street and the I-80 underpass. The Iowa DOT plans to make I-80 a six-lane highway, which requires the closure of some underpasses. As an incentive, they are offering the County about $1.5-million dollars to close the road. After much discussion last week, including sharing of concerns from land owners and residents in the area, located both north- and south- of I-80, the Board decided to continue those discussions at future meetings, including the one set for Tuesday.

Caring for another individual can be challenging and rewarding and has been especially hard during Covid-19. Officials with Connections Area Agency on Aging ask, “Do you know someone, or are you, caring for an older individual? Do they live in Adair, Adams, Cass, Cherokee, Clarke, Decatur, Fremont, Harrison, Ida, Pottawattamie, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, Page, Plymouth, Ringgold, Shelby, Taylor, Union or Woodbury county?”

If so, the Agency we would like to hear about that caregiver. How do they take care of themselves and manage the stress? Connections will be honoring the great work of caregivers during National Family Caregiver Month – November 2020. Please share, in 250 words or less, how the awesome caregiver you’re writing about does with their caregiving duties.

Mail or e-mail submissions to:

Jan Schnack, Family Caregiver Specialist,

Connections Area Agency on Aging,

231 S. Main Street, Council Bluffs, IA 51503

or JSchnack@connectionsaaa.org

All caregivers submitted will be honored during November.

Atlantic’s Community Protection Committee will meet 5:30-p.m. Tuesday (Sept. 29), in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall. On their agenda for discussion with regard to:

• Parking restrictions on W. 12th Street. During the City Council meeting on Sept. 16th, Dan and Shelli Brown, and Corey Larsen asked the Council to reconsider revising an Ordinance (#988) to change the no parking from the north side of 12thStreet to the south side.
• The issue of 4-way Stop signs at the intersection of 22nd & Olive Streets.
• and, limits for street and alley closure requests, after some members of the Council expressed concern about three recent requests from a local bar to close an alley adjacent to their business, for additional parking and/or special events.

The CPC will forward its recommendation on each of those matters to the City Council, for consideration at their next meeting on Oct. 7th.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s two Republican U.S. Senators are praising the president’s choice of Amy Coney Barrett for the vacancy on the Supreme Court. Senator Chuck Grassley says Barrett is eminently qualified and Grassley says she doesn’t deserve to the kind of “shenanigans” that happened after President Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh to the court in 2018. Senator Joni Ernst says Barrett is an experienced jurist and a working mom of seven who joins a growing, but still to small list of women nominated to be judges in the federal court system.

Both Grassley and Ernst are members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The panel’s scheduled to start hearings on Barrett’s nomination on October 12th. Doug Emhoff, the husband of vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, suggested during a weekend appearance in Iowa that Senator Harris would have much to say about Barrett during Senate debate. “She’ll be squarely in the fight to stop McConnell from jamming through a justice who will overturn the Affordable Care Act, just when we need it most,” he said.

Emhoff spoke at “drive in” campaign rally in Cedar Rapids on Saturday. Jill Biden, the wife of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke at the rally, too, pledging that her husband would preserve the Affordable Care Act if elected. “He has spent his entire career listening, standing up to bullies and bringing people together,” Biden said.

Polls suggest Iowa’s six electoral college votes are up for grabs. Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, campaigned in Iowa last week and Vice President Mike Pence will campaign here this Thursday, October 1st.

(Radio Iowa) – The race in Iowa’s second congressional district to replace retiring Democratic Congressman Dave Loebsack is considered one of the country’s most competitive. Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa, an eye doctor, is making her fourth try for a seat in the U.S. House. On a recent Saturday morning, Miller-Meeks was at a Jasper County G-O-P fundraiser that featured a trap shooting competition. Miller-Meeks is not quite five foot tall and used a youth shotgun. “It’s shorter. It has less of a kick,” Miller-Meeks said. “…This one’s easier for me to handle.” Miller-Meeks told the crowd at the fundraiser that as one of eight kids, her parents scoffed at her dream of becoming a doctor. “My rebellion was to leave home at 16, get a job, enroll in San Antonio Community College, enlist in the Army at age 18, work and go to school until I got a degree in nursing so I could work at night,” Miller-Meeks said.

” Kept going to school, got a masters in education. Ultimately was able to…graduate from medical school, then I came in Iowa to do my residency…and now I’m a state senator.” Like other Republicans, Miller-Meeks has been actively campaigning since this spring, once businesses reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. “I really missed being able to interact with people and just listening, being there, being attentive,” Miller-Meeks. “…You can do that and be at a respectful distance.”

Democratic candidate Rita Hart of Wheatland has mainly held online events. “I certainly don’t want to be in a situation where I’m regretting that we had a public event of any kind,” Hart said. In mid-September, Hart began holding “backyard talks” in the district. Her first was in Ottumwa, Hart stood in the middle of a dozen people spread out in a circle. Hart, a former teacher and one-term state senator, was the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2018 nominee for lieutenant governor. She told the group in Ottumwa about growing up as one of nine kids on a dairy farm.

“I tell people I had the great advantage growing up of being raised by a strong Democratic father and strong Republican mother and that was such an advantage in my life because I learned how to stand up for what I believe in,” Hart said, “but I also learned to listen to the other side.”

The second district covers the southeast quadrant of the state and current voter registration data shows there are 26-thousand more Democrats than Republicans in the district. Barack Obama won the district twice. Donald Trump won it in 2016.