(Radio Iowa) — The Storm Lake Post Office is temporarily closed to the public — due to a Sunday evening car wreck. Police observed that a motor vehicle was crashed into the front of the post office, damaging the lobby, doors and windows. The post office building sustained approximately $10,000.00 in damage and the vehicle approximately $6000.00 in damage.

There were no injuries. An investigation determined that the driver accidentally stepped on the vehicle’s accelerator instead of the brake.

(Radio Iowa) — After a recent survey found thousands of sexual assault evidence kits were left untested in Iowa, the state is launching a plan to keep close track of such rape kits in the future. Lynn Hicks, communications director for the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, says a sample-tracking software company is being hired to roll out its Track-Kit system to all regions of the state by mid-2020.

Hicks says, “Basically, it will follow the rape kits from the time a kit is at the medical facility or hospital and used in an exam, and then all the way through the final disposition of the case.” According to Hicks, the system will connect more than 12-hundred users at Iowa medical facilities, law enforcement agencies, crime laboratories, and county attorney’s offices.

“Most important, it will allow that sexual assault survivor to be able to get information on the status and location of the kit,” Hicks says, “so they would be able to follow it throughout the process.” A survey in 2017 by the Iowa Attorney General’s Crime Victim Assistance Division found more than 42-hundred untested rape kits in police departments and sheriff’s offices across Iowa. Efforts are being made, Hicks says, to tackle that backlog, but the new tracking system is also crucial.

“We think this is going to be a big step forward,” Hicks says. “This software will increase the accountability and transparency throughout the process and ultimately will empower survivors of sexual assault.” Of the 42-hundred untested rape kits found statewide, more than 16-hundred have been sent to private labs for testing.

From those, Hicks says 235 D-N-A profiles have been entered into CODIS, the FBI’s Combined D-N-A Index System. Of those, 127 were hits, or matches to D-N-A in the database, enabling the information to be forwarded on to prosecutors.

Officials with Cass County ISU Extension said Tuesday, Brigham Hoegh has been hired as the Wellness Program Coordinator at Cass County Extension. The Cass County Wellness Coordinator role is a new part-time position that will serve as a connector and bridge builder in the county between local groups focused on community health and wellness initiatives.

Brigham Hoegh

In her new role, Hoegh will be involved in projects across the county including assisting with community events, infrastructure and implementation projects, food systems development, and educational programming. Hoegh will help build capacity for programming, expand partnerships and serve as a resource for Cass County communities and organizations.

Hoegh also serves as the Market Manager of Produce in the Park, organizing events and working on local food systems development for the past year. She grew up on a farm north of Atlantic, where she now grows sweet corn and pumpkins with her dad, Dan Hoegh. Brigham graduated from Atlantic High School in 2004, and then attended Grinnell College.

She spent a decade working for Nationwide Insurance in actuarial and product management roles. After obtaining her MBA from Northwestern University in 2016, Hoegh moved back to Atlantic. She now splits time between Southwest Iowa and Des Moines, where she lives with her husband, two stepsons, three cats, and two dogs.

Brigham is available to answer questions regarding wellness programming as well as providing information on resources available in Cass County.  She can be reached by calling the Cass County Extension Office at 712-243-1132, by email at bhoegh@iastate.edu or by visiting www.extension.iastate.edu/cass.

A deer that was crossing 160th Street in Union County, last week, tried to jump out of the way of an SUV, but instead hit the windshield and driver’s side of the vehicle. The Union County Sheriff’s Office said the accident happened last Thursday, at around 2:20-p.m., as 27-year old Steven Provost, of Decatur, was traveling east on 160th. In an e-mail to KJAN, Provost said Also he went to a hospital emergency room to have glass removed from his face. He said also, damage to his 2018 Jeep Compass was in excess of $5,000.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The adult daughter of an Iowa City man charged with killing his wife is included on a long list of potential prosecution witnesses. A court document released Tuesday formally charges 67-year-old Roy Browning Jr. with first-degree murder in the April 5 stabbing death of his wife, University of Iowa employee JoEllen Browning.

Witnesses listed on the document include one of the couple’s two adult children, Elizabeth Browning Adrianse of Des Moines. She said last month that she and her brother did not wish to comment on the arrest of their father, saying the family “needs time to heal.”

Other witnesses include several employees of the Iowa City Police Department and the Division of Criminal Investigation. Representatives of multiple banks are also listed. Investigators allege that Roy Browning killed his wife as she was in the process of discovering that he had hidden major financial problems. He stood to inherit $2 million in savings and life insurance upon her death.

Browning is being held at the Johnson County jail and is scheduled to be arraigned next week.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The remains of a Marine from Iowa will soon return to his home state 76 years after his death in World War II. The Defense Department used DNA from a niece to identify the remains of 18-year-old Pvt. Channing Whitaker, of Granger, Iowa. Whitaker died on Nov. 22, 1943 during the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific.

This undated photo provided by the Department of Defense shows Marine Corps Pvt. Channing Whitaker. Whitaker’s remains will soon return to his home state of Iowa 76 years after his death in World War II. The Defense Department used DNA from a niece to identify the remains of 18-year-old Pvt. Whitaker, of Granger, Iowa. Whitaker died on Nov. 22, 1943 during the Battle of Tarawa in the Gilbert Islands in the South Pacific. (Department of Defense via AP)

Whitaker’s niece Marla Brubaker tells KCCI it is a miracle that her DNA was able to identify Whitaker’s remains. Archeologists have been working since 2009 to dig up and identify the remains of soldiers who were buried in a previously undiscovered burial trench on the Gilbert Islands.

Whitaker’s family will hold a funeral with full military honors in Des Moines on Nov. 22.

Authorities in Creston report a teenager was injured during a collision this (Tuesday) morning, near the intersection of Cherry and Summit Streets. According to Creston Police, 16-year old Logan Eugene Osterhout, of Creston, was driving a 2006 Buick LeSabre northbound on Cherry Street at around 7:50-a.m., when, according to the teen, a dog ran out in front of his vehicle (registered to Janet Osterhout).

When Logan applied the brakes, he said the car went out of control and ran into the back of a 2006 Chrysler 300 that was parked near 504 Cherry. The teen told Creston Police he didn’t know what happened after the initial impact. An ambulance was dispatched to assist in treating his injuries. Osterhout was transported by his mother to the Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston, for further treatment.

Damage to the vehicles amounted to $3,000 altogether. No citations were issued.

Atlantic Fire and Rescue, Medivac Ambulance and Atlantic Police responded to a two-vehicle accident at around 1:54-p.m. today (Tuesday), just west of 7th and Olive Street on eastbound 7th. A woman complained of neck pain and is believed to have been transported to CCMH. Both vehicles had been moved into an alley south of 7th, when emergency crews arrived.

Ric Hanson/photo

No other details were immediately available.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A judge has overturned the firing of a Cedar Rapids teacher who’d been criticized for how a black baby doll was left hanging in her classroom. The Cedar Rapids Community School District board had terminated Tammy Ryan’s teaching contract at Metro Alternative High School. A social media outcry arose in spring 2018 when a photo of the doll tied around the waist by a ribbon and hanging horizontally from the ceiling was posted.

Ryan says students placed the doll around the room as part of a game. The Gazette reports that Ryan says she perceived the doll as flying. Others saw it as a racist allusion to lynching. The board fired her, and she took the district to court, seeking a reversal.

In a ruling issued Oct. 30, the judge said: “This single instance of unintentional insensitivity does not amount to just cause to terminate Ms. Ryan’s teaching contract.” A district representative says board members are evaluating the district’s next steps.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is urging farmers, biofuels industry workers and everyday Iowans to get on the E-P-A website and express support for upholding the renewable fuel standard, or R-F-S. As the deadline for public comments approaches, Grassley says he and several other Midwestern senators are sending a letter to the president this week, outlining the importance of the R-F-S to the region’s economy. “He’s long been a supporter of biofuels and made a commitment to Iowa and the surrounding biofuel-producing states,” Grassley says. “The EPA shouldn’t undercut President Trump’s support of the RFS.”

The head of the E-P-A recently announced plans to change the R-F-S, reversing the terms of the deal President Trump made to ensure the oil industry blends 15-billion gallons of ethanol and biodiesel into gasoline. The E-P-A claims the move would make up for waivers granted to small refineries over the past two years. Grassley says, “I urge the EPA and its administrator, Mr. Wheeler, to adjust the proposed supplemental rule to account for actual waived gallons using hard data from past practice to send an unambiguous signal to the marketplace.”

Some 30 ethanol and biodiesel plants nationwide — including four in Iowa — have temporarily or permanently closed in recent weeks because of the uncertainty caused by the waivers. Grassley says many farmers and those in the biofuels industry simply don’t trust the E-P-A to follow through on the president’s promise because of the agency’s ties to big oil. “They really don’t believe that’s going to happen, 15-billion gallons,” Grassley says, “and that the EPA’s found a way of getting around it, and still at the same time saying they’re doing exactly what was agreed to between the president and those of us that were in the Oval Office.”

The deadline for public comments on the issue is November 29th at the EPA website: https://www.epa.gov/renewable-fuel-standard-program.