OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Transportation has announced it will award $6.6 million in airport infrastructure grants to the Ainsworth Regional Airport in western Nebraska and another $5.5 million to two airports in Iowa. The grants are part of a $485 million federal grant program for airports across the country.

The Ainsworth grant will go to rehabilitate an apron, a runway and a taxiway at the airport. In Iowa, the Mason City Municipal Airport will receive $3 million to reconstruct a taxiway, and Newton Municipal-Earl Johnson Field will receive $2.5 million to reconstruct a taxiway.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is endorsing Joe Biden, saying his personal losses give him the “the capacity to comfort” and “the need to heal” a divided nation. During a rally in Des Moines on Saturday, Vilsack says the former vice president is best able to win the upper Midwest, key to Democrats in 2020.

Vilsack says the deaths of Biden’s first wife and infant daughter decades ago and his older son’s death from cancer in 2015 make him “a man with empathy, and a man who has the heart of a president.” Vilsack, a former U.S. secretary of agriculture, served with Biden in the Obama administration.

Biden, the early favorite for Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, has gradually slipped behind Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa grandmother convicted of the 1992 killing of her former boyfriend has been sentenced to 50 years in prison, which was the maximum allowed. The Muscatine Journal reports that 56-year-old Annette Cahill showed no emotion when she was sentenced Friday. Following a mistrial earlier this year, Cahill was convicted in September of second-degree murder in the baseball bat beating death of 22-year-old bartender Corey Wieneke. Her attorney says she plans to appeal.

Police have said Cahill had been in an intimate relationship with Wieneke and that had a heated argument about his involvement with another woman. Wieneke was found dead on the floor of his bedroom in rural West Liberty in October 1992. The case against Cahill relied on testimony from a woman who said she was 9 years old when she overheard Cahill confess to killing Wieneke.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports the Clarinda Police Department will begin “Operation Blessing 2019,” on November 25th. Brothers said the community project embodies the spirit of Christmas, by helping to make sure every child in Clarinda receives a gift on Christmas day. Retired Police Chief Joe Newton and retired 911 Communications Supervisor Diane Newton will be managing the program again this year.

Children, ages infant-through seventeen (17) may be signed up for involvement in the program by calling the police department records office during regular business hours at 712-542-2194, extension 203 (records office). The caller will be asked to provide the child’s name, age, sex, address and two gift requests per child. Names of children can be submitted beginning Monday, November 25th and will be accepted through Thursday, December 19th.

Cash donations in c/o of Operation Blessing 2019 can be delivered to Chief Brothers at the police department or mailed to the Clarinda Police Department, Attn: Operation Blessing, 200 South 15th Street, Clarinda, Iowa 51632. Cash donations will be used by the Clarinda Police Department to purchase gifts for the children. If you wish to purchase a specific gift for a child, please contact the Clarinda Police Department and ask to speak with Joe and Diane Newton regarding purchasing a specific requested gift item(s).

Families will be contacted by the Clarinda Police Department when the gift items are ready to be picked up. If a family is unable to pick up the gifts, uniformed officers of the Clarinda Police Department will deliver the gifts.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports at at around 1:12-a.m. today (Saturday), Deputies responded to an altercation in the 400 block of Main Street in Bedford. Six individuals were arrested and charged with Disorderly Conduct. Those arrested include: 22-year old Logan Stark, of Mount Ayr; 21-year old Lincoln Martin, of Diagonal; 22-year old Jacob Taylor, of Diagonal, 22-year old Hunter Russell, of Bedford, 22-year old Benjamin Hill, of Bedford, and 36-year old Casey Bann, also of Bedford. Bond was set at $300 for each person.

The Stuart Police Department reports that at around 9:30-a.m. Wednesday, Stuart Officers were dispatched to the West Central Redemption Center at 121 S. Division Street in Stuart, on the report of a theft suspect attempting to cash in pop cans.

w/ Chris Parks

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office has released additional information on a two-vehicle accident that resutled in two fatalities.

The crash happened at approximately 1:23pm Friday in the area of Pioneer Trail and Humbolt Lane. Upon arrival Deputies located a 2017 Ford F-350 and a 1998 Honda CRV involved in the crash. The F-350 was being driven by 46-year-old Rollin Hansen of Council Bluffs eastbound on Pioneer Trail near the intersection with Humbolt Lane. The driver of the CRV has not been determined but the vehicle was westbound on Pioneer Trail near that same intersection. The vehicles collided near the intersection sending both vehicles into the south ditch and the CRV overturned.

One occupant of the CRV was identified at 17-year old Floyd Quick of Council Bluffs who along with another occupant who has not been identified were pronounced dead at the scene. The State Medical Examiner’s Office is working to identify the other occupant that was killed.

The investigation indicates that speed was a factor and that another vehicle was involved and failed to stop. If you have any information on this vehicle, please contact the Sheriff’s Office Traffic Investigations Division at 712-890-2288.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds has appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court a jury verdict that concluded former Gov. Terry Branstad discriminated against a former state commissioner because the official is gay.

A jury in July awarded former Iowa Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey $1.5 million, finding he was the victim of discrimination and retaliation when Branstad tried to force him to quit in 2011 and then cut his pay. Jurors found against Branstad, one of his staff members and the state.

Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett said Friday that Reynolds made the decision after consulting with attorneys. Branstad attorneys have argued the verdicts weren’t supported by substantial evidence and conflict with state law. Reynolds says she believes the additional legal costs will be minimal and winning the appeal would save taxpayers millions of dollars.

Godfrey’s attorney Roxanne Conlin says appealing is “deeply dumb” because the best outcome for the state is the Supreme Court orders a new trial.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two people have been killed in a two-vehicle crash just southeast of Council Bluffs. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says in a news release that the crash happened just before 1:30 p.m. Friday. Deputies sent the scene say a pickup truck and car had collided, and two people inside the car were pronounced dead at the scene.

Their names have not yet been released pending notification of family members. The occupants of the pickup were treated for minor injuries at the scene. The crash remains under investigation.