(Red Oak, Iowa) – A collision in Red Oak Saturday afternoon caused a police-estimated (combined) $3,500 (minor) damage. According to Red Oak Police, the accident happened a little after 3-p.m., at the intersection of Joy and Boundary Streets. Authorities say a car driven by 70-year-old Claudia Louise Pilecki, of Red Oak, was traveling north on Boundary Street, while a car driven by 88-year-old Vineta Ann McArdle, of Red Oak, was traveling east on Joy.

McArdle was attempting to turn north onto Boundary Street, but failed to see the Pilecki vehicle at the intersection. McArdle’s Buick Park Avenue struck Pilecki’s Ford Fusion on the driver’s side. McArdle was cited for Failure to Yield upon left turn. Both vehicles were driven away from the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – The six-hundred people who gathered for Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s final “Roast and Ride” event Saturday applauded her career as well as recent Trump Administration moves. U-S Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem– the afternoon’s keynote speaker — got a standing ovation when she mentioned the immigration arrest of now-former Des Moines superintendent Ian Roberts.

Congressman Randy Feenstra, expected to announce soon that he’s running for governor, says the Des Moines School Board hired Roberts because he fit a liberal, progressive agenda.

And Senator Chuck Grassley also drew the crowd to its feet by praising Noem.

The federal government shutdown was another theme of the day. First district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks says she grew up in a family that knew what it was like to wait for that monthly paycheck and and worry it wouldn’t cover all the bills.

Second district Congresswoman Ashley Hinson told the crowd President Trump had announced U-S soldiers will be paid on October 15th.

Ernst announced early last month she wouldn’t seek reelection in 2026 and Hinson, who’s now running for the U.S. Senate, thanked Ernst for being a mentor. Others called Saturday’s gathering bittersweet.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst rides onto the State Fairgrounds on Oct. 11, 2025. (RI photo)

Governor Kim Reynolds told the crowd Ernst became a sister as they both advanced from county-level politics to become Iowa’s first female U.S. Senator and first female governor.

Reynolds said also…

Ernst spent some time reminiscing about her 2014 campaign.

Ernst got emotional near the end of the event as she thanked her mother and then recognized the mother and brother of Sarah Root of Council Bluffs in the crowd. A man from Honduras accused of killing the 21-year-old Root in early 2016 while he was driving drunk in Omaha vanished after posting bail.

Six months after Root’s death, Root’s family attended the senator’s 2016 Roast and Ride and became advocates for a law that Trump signed this past January. It requires authorities to detain any non-citizen who is accused of killing or seriously injuring someone.

(This article written by the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Read the entire version HERE) – Attorneys for Summit Carbon Solutions argued Friday in Polk County District Court that the company’s proposed amendment to its permit for a carbon sequestration pipeline through Iowa should be decided on before a legal case against the permit can move forward. The Iowa Utilities Commission approved a permit in June 2024 for Summit Carbon Solutions to build more than 600 miles of a carbon sequestration pipeline in Iowa, with the condition that the company gain permits in the Dakotas before beginning construction.

The Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, along with several counties and individual landowners, then filed a lawsuit in fall 2024, seeking to overturn the IUC’s permit approval. The lawsuit alleged the proceedings were unfair and that Summit did not meet the definition of a common carrier. Summit filed a petition with the IUC on Sept. 15 to amend its approved permit. The amendment would remove the condition that required approval in the Dakotas and add several route and pipe-size modifications to the permit. This action followed Summit’s second permit denial in South Dakota and the enactment of a law barring the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines in the state.

Summit also requested the court remand the Sierra Club and landowners’ case to the IUC and stay any future actions on the case until the IUC decided on the filed amendment petition. This was the issue before Polk County District Court Judge Scott Beattie Friday morning. Summit’s attorney, Bret Dublinske of Fredrickson & Byron in Des Moines, argued the IUC needed to rule on the amendment petition before the case against the permit could proceed. He argued the facts in the case would be outdated once the IUC ruled on the amendment and the courts would be presented with either duplicative litigation or a scenario in which the ruling did not match the most recent version of the permit.

Wally Taylor, on behalf of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, argued Summit did not supply sufficient information as to how the amendment would change the nature of the lawsuit against the IUC’s decision. Taylor asked the court to deny the motion to remand the case to the IUC.  Michelle Rabe, on behalf of the Iowa Utilities Commission, said while the IUC believes Summit’s request for remand is, “slightly outside” of how a remand is typically used, she believes there are three options forward, “none of which are ideal.”

Rabe said Beattie could deny the remand and allow the case to continue, in which case it would advance through the courts until eventually the Supreme Court issues what she said could be a “moot order” at that point because the permit might have changed via the IUC proceedings. The second option she presented was for the court to grant the remand and allow the IUC to rule on the amendment, in which case she predicted the parties would appeal the IUC’s decision and then the courts would be presented with potentially “parallel” cases.  The third option, she said, would be for the court to stay the decision and allow the IUC proceedings to play out, so that when that decision is appealed, the two cases can be consolidated.

Summit’s amendment petition with the IUC, per Dublinske and the filing, does not seek to do away with the IUC’s protections against a “pipeline to nowhere.” Instead of listing North Dakota as the ending point, Summit asks the permit be changed to instead condition pipeline construction to the company’s securement of “access to one or more sequestration sites and permits or agreements to allow it to reach such storage.”

Opponents suggested the amendment means that Summit plans to change its original route, which would have ended in North Dakota where the CO2 could be pumped into an underground rock formation.  A spokesperson for Summit said Friday the amendment “keeps open the option to transport CO2 west through Nebraska or north through South Dakota.”

Judge Beattie said he will work to issue an order as soon as possible, though he suspected it would be a “couple of weeks” before he able to issue a written order.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – (Updated Oct. 12th w/agenda packet) – The Atlantic City Council will meet in a regularly scheduled session on Wednesday, Oct. 15th, in their Chambers inside the City Hall Building, beginning at 5:30-p.m. (the meeting can be viewed live through the City’s web page at https://cityofatlantic.com/government/meeting-live-stream/).  According to the agenda sent to the media and Council members by City Administrator  John Lund, one of the items on the Council’s agenda is “Discussion and Recommendation on Future Funding to the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce.”City Council Agenda Packet 10-15-2025-min

The matter falls on the heels of last week’s revelation that former Chamber Executive Director Bailey Smith was arrested on numerous charges relating to the alleged misappropriation of Chamber funds. Smith turned herself-in on Oct. 8th and held on a $100,000 bond until being released after posting 10% ($10,000 cash) bond. Smith is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday (Oct. 14th). On Friday, officials with the Chamber announced Programs Director Kelsey Beschorner was named as Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, will act on:

• An Order to reappoint Mark Smith to the Airport Commission.
• An Order regarding Sponsorship of a Business Plan Competition using funds from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Progress Fund, Commercial Development Services Line Item. (The Order will follow a presentation regarding the proposed Business Plan Competition by CADCO Executive Director Jennifer McEntaffer)
• The Council will act on setting November 5th as the date for a Public Hearing on the transfer and sale of 302 Birch.
• A Resolution “Designating Mental Wellness Checks as a Health & Wellness Benefit for Atlantic Police Department Employees.”
• And, the Council will act on the 3rd and Final Reading of an Ordinance amending the City’s Code of Ordinances, by adding a new chapter regulating the use of electric scooters, motorized scooters, and low-speed vehicles.

Their final order of business will be to act on passing a Resolution authorizing City Administrator John Lund to “Execute a Minimum Assessment Agreement,” pursuant to the Iowa Code.

(Sioux County, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol Friday evening, reported three people were injured in a three-vehicle crash, Thursday morning about five-miles west of Orange City, in northwest Iowa. The Patrol says a Peterbilt semi was traveling north on Highway 75 in Sioux County near the intersection with Highway 10, at about the same time a 2022 GMC 3500 pickup was traveling south. The GMC turned in-front of the semi, causing the vehicles to collide.

A 2017 Chevy 2500 pickup that was stopped on westbound Highway 10 was struck by the semi, along with a 2021 RAM 2500 pickup, which was stopped at the stop sign on Highway 10 in the right-turn lane to Highway 75. The crash happened at around 8:15-a.m., Thursday.

The drivers of semi, GMC and Chevy pickup truck – 22-year-old Dylan DeWit, of Hull, 24-year-old Brayden Utesch-Nemmers, of Orange City, and 43-year-old Kevin Weldon, of Alton – respectively, were injured in the crash. DeWit and Utesch-Nemmers were transported by Sioux Center EMS to Sioux Center Health. Kevin Weldon was transported to Orange City Health by Orange City EMS. All three drivers were wearing their seat belts.

CLARINDA, Iowa – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Atlantic Field Office was notified Friday morning of a traffic accident involving two semi-trucks at the intersection of N Avenue and 140th Street, near Clarinda in Page County, which caused diesel fuel and engine fluids to reach the East Tarkio River.

One semi was turning left when it was struck from behind by another semi, owned by Preston McNees. Both drivers were unharmed. The collision caused Mr. McNees’ semi to enter East Tarkio Creek, resulting in the release of an estimated 300 gallons of diesel fuel, oil, and transmission fluid into the waterway. The semi was transporting wet distillers’ grain, which did not reach the creek. No dead fish have been reported.

The semi that ended up in the creek has since been retrieved. Cleanup crews are currently on-site, deploying booms and peat moss to contain and collect the contaminants. Efforts to remediate the spill will continue through the weekend. The public should avoid the area until cleanup is completed. Enforcement action is pending, contingent on the outcome of the investigation.

Atlantic Bottling Company and Variety Iowa-the Children’s Charities on Friday presented a special bike to a very special young man.  Allison Hanner, Director of Development & Communications for Variety Iowa-the Children’s Charities, was on hand to present an adaptive bicycle to seven year old Leland Bailey, the son of Jodi and Eric Bailey of Wiota.

Morgan Elgersma, Commercial Marketing Manager for Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company, says they have been involved with Variety Iowa for more than 20 years.

Jodi Bailey said this was a special day for Leland as he gets wheels.

Jodi says this gift is more than just a bike.

Atlantic Bottling and Variety have teamed up to provide seven of these special bikes, which can cost up to $15,000.