The occupants of a home in Red Oak escaped without injury early Monday morning, after a fire broke out at around 3:15-a.m. According to reports, several departments responded to the fire in the upstairs bedroom at 410 East Nuckols Avenue, in Red Oak. A functional smoke detector alerted the residents to the danger.

The second floor of the home sustained extensive fire and water damage. Red Oak fire was assisted at the scene by crews from Elliott and Stanton. Red Oak Police, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, MidAmerican Energy and Red Oak’s Water Department also provided assistance. Firefighters were on the scene for about two-and-a-half hours.

The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the homes’ residents. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — State transportation officials are asking lawmakers to give the green light to another state-run driver’s license station in central Iowa. Driver’s licenses and I-D cards are issued in 83 county treasurers’ offices — and the Iowa D-O-T operates facilities in the most heavily populated areas of the state. Iowa D-O-T director Mark Lowe says “We have 17 service centers in 16 counties right now.”

There already are two D-O-T license stations in Polk County — one in Ankeny and the other on the north side of Des Moines. Lowe has presented the governor with a plan to open a new D-O-T service center on the west side of the Des Moines metro, in Dallas County. Lowe says Dallas County officials are overwhelmed. “They’re doing about 26,000 licenses and IDs a year which is over seven times more than the average county treasurer’s office and it’s very comparable to what we do in our Ames, Council Bluffs and Dubuque Service Centers,” Lowe says. “Dallas County officials have come to us and asked us if we would take over the services in Dallas County and we’ve agreed to do that.”

Lowe says Dallas County’s population is two-and-a-half times larger than it was when the Dallas County Treasurer began issuing licenses out of the courthouse in Adel. The D-O-T director told the governor staffing costs for the new D-O-T facility in Dallas County would be half a million dollars.  “You’ll also see in our capital budget $350,000 which would be the build-out of a leased facility to house the new service center,” Lowe says. “And we’re targeting the start of January of 2020 to have that up and running in place and Dallas County has been working closely with us and will be a great partner in that transition.”

This is the D-O-T’s second try at getting a new service center in Dallas County. In 2016, Senate Democrats voted to specifically prohibit the D-O-T from buying, building, renting or leasing any kind of license station in Dallas County. Republicans are now in charge in the state senate — and the senate president is from Dallas County, but he has not commented publicly on the D-O-T’s proposal.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CST

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Food pantries in eastern Iowa and western Illinois are being flooded with milk donations under a federal program to buy and distribute nearly $50 million in dairy products to compensate farmers hurt by trade tariffs. River Bend Foodbank CEO Mike Miller tells the Quad-City Times about 80,000 half-gallons of milk will be distributed to pantries across the Quad-City region until March. Donations are intended to help farmers hurt by President Donald Trump’s disputes with Mexico, China and Canada.

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) — A federal board has approved a request by students at Grinnell College to withdraw their request to expand a union representing student workers. The National Labor Relations Board on Friday notified the college and students that a regional director at the agency had approved the withdrawal of the union petition.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A man charged in the fatal shooting of a man during a Davenport home robbery last year has been given 35 years in prison. Scott County District Court records say Nakita Wiseman was sentenced Friday in Davenport. Wiseman was among those charged with the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Brady Tumlinson in September 2017.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a harassment charge filed against a former Libertarian candidate for an Iowa House seat. Polk County court records say the charge against Chad Brewbaker, of Clive, was dismissed Wednesday. Prosecutors requested the dismissal after their request for a trial delay was rejected. Brewbaker received about 2 percent of the votes Nov. 6 in the race for the 43rd District seat.

(Radio Iowa) — The chief jail inspector for the Iowa Department of Corrections is praising county jail administrators who allow inmates to have limited access to cell phones for texting. Calling it a “positive movement,” Delbert Longley estimates over half of Iowa’s county jails have implemented the practice within the past couple years.

“It gives them an additional communication tool that prisoners have with their families,” Longley said. According to Longley, jail inmates “deserve to be treated with respect” and giving them an easy way to reach family or friends is part of that effort.

“This is a public record. It can be monitored, so we don’t have to worry about improper language or improper communications of any sort going on with it,” Longley said. Many county jail administrators across Iowa have told Longley the text program has helped improve inmate behavior in their facilities.