Police in Council Bluffs are investigating an assault that took place late Friday night. Authorities say Police and Medical Units responded at around 11:26-p.m. to the victim of an assault in the alley behind 162 W. Broadway. A male subject had been assaulted by another male. The unidentified victim was transported by rescue squad to an area hospital with serious injuries. The Council Bluffs Police Department is requesting anyone with information in reference to the assault contact the Council Bluffs Police Criminal Investigation Division at (712) 328- 4728 or Crime Stoppers at (712) 328 – STOP (7867).

One person died and two people were injured during separate accidents Friday night in northern Iowa’s Worth County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 65-year old Johnnie Lee Waslick, of Mason City, died in a crash that took place at around 9:30-p.m. on southbound Interstate 35, just north of Highway 9. Authorities say Waslick was driving a 2011 Ford Focus in the southbound inside lane. A 2017 Chevy Tahoe Police SUV was stopped on the inside shoulder-lane providing advance warning of a traffic accident ahead, when the car struck the SUV from behind. The Ford came to rest on the shoulder of the road, while the Tahoe was pushed into the median, facing east. Waslick, who was wearing a seat belt, was transported by Forest City Ambulance to Mercy Hospital, where he died from his injuries. Injured in the crash was 30-year old Deputy Zachary Schrupp, who was treated and released. Mercy Air Med, Hanlontown and Fertile Fire Department assisted the Patrol at the accident scene. The crash remains under investigation.

And, at around 7:50-p.m., a semi traveling southbound on I-35 near mile marker 207 in Worth County, entered the median and continued in the median until it became stuck on the bridge supports at the 203 Interchange, in the median. The driver, 70-year old Thomas WIlliam Torkelson, of New Hampton, was injured, and transported by Life Flight to Mercy Hospital in Mason City. The Patrol says he was wearing his seat belt.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies, with assistance from Red Oak Police, responded at around 8:04-p.m. Friday to a Domestic assault that took place in the 400 block of 4th Avenue, in Red Oak. Taken into custody was 47-year old Richard “Ricky” Bryan Jenkins, of Red Oak. Jenkins was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense, a serious misdemeanor. He was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:00-a.m. CST

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The Pottawattamie County attorney says an investigation has found a Council Bluffs police officer was justified in shooting a suspect. The Daily Nonpareil reports County Attorney Matt Wilber joined with other law enforcement officials Friday to announce officer Trevor Benson’s actions in the Feb. 1 shooting were justified. Benson shot 21-year-old Daton Petrey, of Omaha, during an early morning altercation. Petrey will be released from a hospital soon and will face charges.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Jurors have convicted one person and acquitted another in a 2016 Waterloo shooting that left one man dead and others wounded. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports jurors Friday found 17-year-old Doncorrion Spates guilty of murder, attempted murder and intimidation with a weapon. Jurors acquitted 22-year-old Shavondes Martin of murder and other counts against him. The jury was still deliberating in the case of 18-year-old Armand Rollins Jr., who also is charged with murder.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Magazine and broadcasting company Meredith says it’s closing a customer service center in Tampa, Florida, as it integrates the operations of Time Inc., which it acquired last week. Meredith spokeswoman Jenny McCoy says 600 Time workers will lose their jobs as the company switches customer service and renewal processes for Time’s magazines to CDS Global, a company providing similar services to Meredith’s existing publications. CDS is based in Meredith’s hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.

CHICAGO (AP) — Police counted up 16 semitrailers among 38 vehicles involved in a chain-reaction crash amid heavy snowfall that blocked Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan for several hours. Michigan State Police say no one was seriously hurt in the Friday afternoon pileup in the highway’s eastbound lanes just east of Kalamazoo. The crashes started to happen as emergency crews were working to remove a jack-knifed semi from the highway.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A recent study by Wisconsin researchers suggests that the failure of any of the 25 aging locks on the upper Mississippi River could result in nearly half a million truckloads of freight on highways between Minnesota and Missouri.

The study by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison estimates that a shutdown of the river at Hannibal, Missouri, would require trucks to move over 12 million tons of grain during a nine-month shipping season, costing millions of dollars and damaging roads.

The La Crosse Tribune reports that most of the shipments would travel through southern Minnesota and Iowa, while a smaller amount would move through Wisconsin and Illinois, causing nearly $29 million in pavement damage.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates the backlogged maintenance costs for locks and dams of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers totals to over $1 billion.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports: “The City of Clarinda will prohibit all on Street parking as soon as two inches of snow accumulates Friday night/Saturday morning.”

Iowa Congressman David Young spoke on the House floor this week about the need to improve phone service in rural communities. “Families and businesses in rural America should have the same communication access as those living in urban areas,” Young said. The Republican is a cosponsor of the Improving Rural Call Quality and Reliability Act.

“Telephone companies often rely on intermediate providers to connect calls from larger networks to local service providers and all too often, especially in rural areas, those calls are poor quality, looped, dropped, not even connected, or disconnected,” Young said. The legislation was approved in the U.S. Thursday and now goes to the President for his signature. Other co-sponsors of the bill referred to the issue of dropped calls in rural America as an epidemic.

“Our bill will help address this problem by requiring providers to register with the Federal Communications Commission in order to meet quality standards and ensure reliable phone service in rural areas,” Young said. “It also prohibits providers from using intermediary routing services not registered with the FCC.”

(Radio Iowa)

The Le Mars Fire Department is trying to bring a fire at the Plymouth County Landfill northeast of Le Mars under control. Firefighters were called to the landfill at around midnight and Fire Chief Dave Schipper says they’ve been trying to bring the burning area under control.

“We attempted with an excavator that they have on site her to get to that fire and used our fire equipment to protect the excavator to try and pull the burning pieces out to get them spread out on the ground,” Schipper explains. Schipper says they determined it was too hard to try and get at the fire on the side where it was burning and need to come in from the other side with some more equipment. Schipper says it is important to keep the fire from spreading.

“This landfill is a quarter mile wide and it could burn all the way underneath across the whole landfill,” Schipper explains. He says the main focus was to protect the Plymouth County Landfill equipment as landfill staff assisted with the efforts to combat the fire. Schipper says firefighters were not only battling the fire, but the snow and cold weather as well. Schipper has an idea of how the fire may have started.

He thinks the fire started spontaneously as the fire is in an area of the landfill that has been untouched for at least two years. Schipper says they are awaiting word from the Plymouth County Landfill Board of Directors to determine their next move. He says there are also some environmental concerns that need to be considered.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic, IA – The next session of Healthy U is scheduled for noon on Thursday, February 15, at Cass County Health System. Paul Kerschinske, ARNP, will talk about both the role of a hospitalist and heart health since February is American Heart Month.

Paul Kerschinske, ARN

Paul received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Creighton and then worked in Intensive Care while pursuing his Master of Science in Nursing and becoming an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner. Being a Nurse Practitioner has allowed Paul to combine his passion for fitness, science and service to patients into a challenging and rewarding career.

Healthy U is a free educational lunch series at Cass County Health System held monthly in Conference Room 2. The public is invited and welcome to attend, but reservations are required as lunch is provided for all attendees. Call 712-243-7479 to reserve your seat.