ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Department of Transportation will be closing the Onawa rest areas along Interstate 29 in western Iowa so they can be used as staging areas for crews battling Missouri River flooding. The department says the northbound rest area will be closed Wednesday morning, the southbound rest area sometime Thursday.

On Tuesday, crews will begin stockpiling rock in the truck parking area of the northbound rest area. The stockpiling will take place in the southbound rest area on Wednesday. The department says the rest areas will remain closed up to 10 days.

Onawa is 33 miles south of Sioux City.

MODALE, Iowa (AP) – The western Iowa town of Modale has pulled out air conditioners, hauled out refrigerators and made plans to relocate for weeks or months in anticipation of Missouri River flooding. Now, residents are wondering, where’s the water? Many of the town’s 300 residents have cleared out of their homes, prompted by warnings that parts of Modale could receive 2 to 4 feet of water. But so far, nothing has happened.

Residents say they’re frustrated by the uncertainty, and question whether officials overstated the danger. Debbie Horan manages the United Western C-Store. She says residents were worked into a panic when they heard the projections and have now scattered to other communities. She says it’s unclear when or if people will return.

The jury was seated and heard opening arguments Monday in Carroll, during the first of two murder trials for Minnesota teenager Michael Swanson. Swanson is charged in the killing of convenience store clerks in Humboldt County and Kossuth County in November.

Humboldt County Attorney, Jennifer Benson described Swanson as a “sane individual who understood what he was doing and planned it out.” Benson says Swanson told officers he shot Sheila Myers in the face so she wouldn’t be able to identify him, and told them that the two shootings he committed made him feel powerful. Swanson’s defense attorney Charles Kenville told jurors that Swanson did not know what he was doing. He says Swanson was diagnosed with a mental disorder at age three and went on to have problems with his behavior, was in and out of treatment, and later got into drugs. Kenville told jurors they need to listen to all the testimony carefully and at the end of the trial he believes they will find Swanson insane.
Swanson is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the deaths of Vicky Bowman Hall of Burt and Myers. The trial involving the death of Hall is scheduled to begin July 26 in Rock Rapids.

Page County, Ia.— July 4^th celebrations often include cook-outs, picnics, boating, time spent with family and friends and, of course, fireworks.  But for too many Americans, the nation’s annual celebration is filled with tragedy, as it is one of the deadliest holidays of the year when it comes to alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities. That’s why the Clarinda, Essex, & Shenandoah Police Departments along with the Page County Sheriff’s Office will be out in force during the Fourth of July holiday weekend, cracking down on impaired drivers with aggressive Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest enforcement.

Statistics gathered from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration over the past 25 years show that, on average, nearly half of all deadly traffic crashes over each year’s July 4^th holiday involved some level of alcohol. In fact, 410 people were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes nationally during the Fourth of July weekend in 2009.  Of that number, 40 percent involved drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 grams per deciliter or higher.

The Fourth of July is a time most Americans spend celebrating with family and friends, but it is also one of the year’s deadliest times on our roadways. So we will be out in force cracking down on drunk driving. If you are caught driving impaired, you will be arrested. All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have made it illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher. We want people to be careful all weekend, but particularly at night. The rate of alcohol impairment among drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2009 was four times higher at night than during the day.

Impaired driving is one of America’s deadliest problems.  In 2009 alone, 10,839 people were killed in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes, accounting for nearly 32 percent of all traffic-related fatalities in the United States.  That’s an average of one impaired-driving fatality every 48 minutes in 2009. Impaired drivers not only take the risk of hurting or killing themselves or someone else, the trauma and financial costs of an alcohol-impaired-driving crash or an arrest can be significant.  Violators often face jail time, the loss of their driver licenses, higher insurance rates and dozens of other unanticipated expenses.

Alcohol impairs many of the skills that safe driving requires. So we will be showing zero tolerance, and anyone caught driving with a BAC of .08 or higher will be arrested. It’s simply not worth the risk to you or to the thousands of innocent victims who are hurt or killed each year by drunk drivers. So if you are over the limit, you will get busted.

A message from…

Sheriff Lyle Palmer                                                    Chief Keith Brothers

Page County Sheriff’s Office                                     Clarinda Police Department

Chief Kris Grebert                                                      Chief Mike Anderson

Shenandoah Police Department                                 Essex Police Department