Red Oak Police report one person was severely injured during an altercation Tuesday night.  Police received a report at around 8:25-p.m. of a male…56-year old Randall James Elarton… was assaulted in the 900 block of east Reed Street. Upon arrival and investigation, authorities determined Elarton had been extensively injured from an altercation that occurred at an earlier time. Red Oak Fire and Rescue began treatment of Elarton, who was later transported by helicopter to Creighton-Bergan Mercy Medical Center in Omaha, for treatment of serious injuries.

Authorities say evidence and an investigation lead them to believe this was a targeted and isolated incident, and there is no threat to the community or the public in general. The investigation continues, and authorities say only the information released is being provided at this time. Additional details will be released when it becomes available.

Several agencies assisted Red Oak Police with the incident investigation, including: The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office and K-9 Unit; Red Oak Fire and Rescue; Montgomery County Emergency Management; Iowa DCI and the DCI Crime Scene Unit, and the Iowa State Patrol.

(12-p.m. News)

Atlantic, IA – The Parents as Teachers (PAT) program through Cass County Public Health is celebrating National Parents as Teachers Day on November 8^th. PAT is a free program for Cass County families with children ages 0-5, which provides home visits to help young children grow up healthy, safe, and ready to learn. The PAT educators help connect community partners with parents to prepare children for Kindergarten and beyond. Nancy Gibson, Parents as Teachers Coordinator said “We’ve been in Cass County since 1998, and we are a credentialed, evidence-based program. “During our 20 years of service to Cass County we have had the opportunity to serve 450 families and around 700 children.”

PAT educators (left to right) Nancy Gibson and Victoria Means

PAT currently has two different educators who provide monthly home visits to families with young children. During these visits, they work on getting a complete health history, doing developmental screenings to catch any delays as early as possible, check on immunizations, and much more. Children in the program also have access to free vision, hearing, and dental checks. The PAT program is partially funded by a grant from Boost 4 Families.

PAT currently has limited openings, parents who are interested in the program can contact Nancy at 712-243-7475. Referrals are also welcome—anyone who knows of a family that could benefit from participating is encouraged to call.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa employee responsible for issuing private security guard licenses was fired Tuesday for ethical and other rule violations, and a related criminal investigation is under way. A termination letter obtained by The Associated Press shows the Iowa Department of Public Safety fired clerk Joseph Sheehan Jr. after a nearly three-month paid leave. The department tells AP it opened a criminal investigation in August “after a routine review raised concerns related to the issuance of security guard identification cards.” That investigation is still ongoing.

Sheehan’s termination letter says an internal investigation found he violated five department policies, including those governing employee ethics, requiring timely and accurate official reports, barring incompetent performance and requiring employees to follow orders. The letter didn’t elaborate on Sheehan’s wrongdoing but said that his actions were unacceptable and his employment “has been counterproductive to the best interests of the Department.”

(Radio Iowa) — University of Northern Iowa political science professor Christopher Larimer says the 2018 election results show Iowa is still very much a swing state.  “This is one of the more interesting set of results on Election Night in recent memory,” Larimer says. “You have a lot going on here.” Republican Governor Kim Reynolds will stay in office. Republicans retained firm control of a majority of seats in the Iowa legislature. Democrats, meanwhile, flipped two U.S. House seats in Iowa that had been held by Republicans and came within three points of knocking off long-time Republican Congressman Steve King.

“During the voting process, there were Iowans who were splitting their ticket,” Larimer says. “They were going through and making a deliberate choice to vote for a Republican in one race and a Democrat for another, and so that’s going to take some time to unpack, for political scientists to understand exactly what was going on and exactly what the motivations were for Iowa voters.” Kim Reynolds beat Fred Hubbell by about 40-thousand votes. If you add all the votes in Iowa’s four congressional races together for a statewide tally, the Democratic candidates in the four districts got about 50-thousand more votes than the Republican candidates.

A man serving time in the Pottawattamie County Jail for Violation of a No Contact Order, was served Tuesday afternoon with a separate warrant for a similar violation. 54-year old Ronald Wayne Smith, of Council Bluffs, was presented with the warrant and returned to his jail cell. Smith was being on $2,000 bond on one warrant, and held without bond on the other warrant.

A man and a woman were arrested for Domestic Assault with Injury, early Tuesday morning, in Pott. County. Authorities say a deputy was dispatched to 26551 Magnolia Road at around 6:30-a.m., for an assault report. While en route, dispatched advised that a male and female had been in disturbance inside a vehicle. The female – 45-year old Dara Tarisai Owens, of Detroit, MI, had pepper sprayed 55-year old Jimmie Blackwell, of Southfield, MI, and the pair was outside the vehicle at the time of the report. An investigation resulted in their arrests. Both subjects suffered minor injuries during the incident.  They were being held without bond in the Pott. County Jail.

A Council Bluffs man serving time in the Pott. County Jail for Probation Violation, was served Tuesday with a warrant for the same offense. 24-year old Tyler James Woodruff was returned to his cell after being read the warrant. He was being held without bond on one of the felony offense, and on $5,000 bond for the other offense. Another inmate at the jail, 39-year old Brian Alan Reed, of Council Bluffs, was served with a felony warrant Tuesday, for Assault causing serious injury, the bond for which is $5,000. Reed was being held on an original charge of Probation Violation at the time he was served with the warrant.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa native is being named one of CNN’s Top Ten Heroes for 2018 for her work running a non-profit group that eliminates food waste while feeding the hungry. Maria Rose Belding of Pella is a senior at American University, studying public health. The 22-year-old is also co-founder and executive director of MEANS, which stands for Matching Excess And Need for Stability. Belding says, “We built a website that makes it easy and free for grocery stores or restaurants or other folks who make food for a living to tell us, ‘Hey, I’ve got extra food,’ and we’re able to put them in touch with soup kitchens and homeless shelters and other folks feeding the hungry — all for free.” After just three years, the database is now being used in 49 states and has moved more than two-million pounds of food. Each of the ten CNN Heroes gets $10,000 and a vote is underway now at CNNHeroes.com to name one standout hero who will get another $100,000.

Belding says her winnings are all going to MEANS, which she and a friend first conceptualized as teens while working in her church’s pantry in Pella. The news release from CNN says all of the heroes “have dedicated their lives to changing the world,” which Belding says is humbling. “It’s a very generous way to describe what we do. It’s wonderful and I appreciate it from them,” Belding says. “I simply see our work as, we had an idea that could help a lot of people, we happened to have the tools and the resources and the knowledge to pull it off. We didn’t have any excuse not to.”

CNN called Belding to tell her she’d made the Top Ten Heroes list at 10 o’clock one recent night. She said she was a “human stress ball” as she was studying for an organic chemistry exam and let out a scream upon getting the news. While the award and the $10,000 is a huge boost for the organization, she say the real bonus is the exposure across the country. “Every time we get a national media piece, we have all of these folks who run food pantries who hear about us for the first time and sign on, so we always see a huge increase in the number of partners we have,” Belding says. “And we start seeing more food move, because we also get all of these food retailers who had never heard of us or what we do who then start using us because they saw us on something like CNN.”

Supporters can vote daily at CNNHeroes.com by logging in via email or Facebook. Viewers can vote up to 10 times a day, per method, every day through December 4th.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a Dubuque woman stole more than $35,000 from the estate account of her late father. Dubuque County court records say 54-year-old Molly Behnke, of Dubuque, is charged with theft. The Telegraph Herald reports that an estate attorney told police that Behnke, as one of the executors for her father’s estate, was authorized to withdraw money to pay his final bills. But court documents say Behnke made withdrawals from May to July that were not used to pay off the debts.