(Tama County, Iowa) –  A near head-on collision in eastern Iowa Wednesday evening claimed the life of a young adult and resulted in injuries to two older individuals. The Iowa State Patrol reports a VW GTI driven by 19-year-old Jason Thomas Payne, of Dysart, and a Ford F-150 pickup driven by 62-year-old Mark Anthony Bagenstos, of Evansdale, collided in an offset manner just south of 170th Street, as the VW was traveling southbound on Highway 21 and the pickup was traveling north. The crash happened northeast of Victor at around 5:34-p.m.

Thomas was pronounced deceased at the scene. Bagenstos and a passenger in his vehicle, 59-year-old Jeanne Kay Bagenstos, of Clutier, were injured in the crash and transported by ambulance to Allen Hospital in Waterloo. Each of the accident victims were wearing their seat belt.

The crash remained under investigation. The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Tama County Sheriff’s Department and Dysart Police, Fire & EMS along with the Iowa DOT.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2025 Iowa legislature convenes Monday and Republicans have kept their House and Senate leadership teams in place. House Democrats will have the same leader, but there’s a new Senate Minority Leader. Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner is entering her third year as a state senator, representing her hometown of Iowa City.

“(I’m) a graduate of Iowa City West High School, went to college, went to law school. I decided, pretty much like my parents, that public service was a better option for me,” Weiner says. “I took the test and joined the U.S. Foreign Service.” Weiner was a U-S diplomat for 26 years, with assignments in places like Turkey, Poland, Canada and Mexico. In 1989, Weiner was in East Berlin when the Berlin Wall fell.

“It was a great career that I think gave me a lot of tools that I can bring to bear and have brought to bear in the statehouse so far,” Weiner says. “I spent my career talking to people across the political spectrum and working really hard to understand how all the pieces fit together.” Weiner moved back to Iowa City in 2015 and served three years on the city council in Iowa City before winning a seat in the Iowa Senate in 2022. She is one of just 15 Democrats in the Iowa Senate — the fewest number of seats held by Democrats since 1970.

“We recognize that we’re in the minority,” Weiner says, “and we’re not going to be the ones making policy.” And Weiner says Senate Democrats are ready to critique Republican policies that will be proposed this year — and those Republicans have enacted over the past eight years. “And we won’t just do it on the floor of the senate,” she says. “We will do it when we’re home. We will do it when we’re out around the state, at listening posts, talking to other folks.” Weiner is the fourth woman to serve as Senate Minority Leader and three of the top six leaders for the 2025 Iowa Legislative session are women.

“That’s just the way it should be. It shouldn’t matter whether I’m a man or a woman, but can do the job?” Weiner says. “I think I can do the job and so can my colleagues.”

Amy Sinclair will continue as Senate President and Jack Whitver is entering his seventh year as Senate Majority Leader. In the House, Speaker Pat Grassley and Majority Leader Matt Windschitl are entering their fifth year in those roles. Jennifer Konfrst has been the Democratic Leader in the House since mid-2021.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council’s held their first meeting of the year on Wednesday (today). The Council acted on approving some administrative matters at the beginning of their session, including:

• Naming the First Whitney Bank & Trust as the City’s Official Bank for the City Checking Account for 2025, and the Atlantic News Telegraph as the City’s Official newspaper for Legal Publication in 2025.
• And they appointed Shirley Jensen, Ali Pieken and Mary Strong to the Parks & Rec Commission. Councilman Mike McDermott:

The Council without hesitation passed a Resolution Approving additional (one-time) compensation for Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue (in the amount of $10,264.80), for his nearly 228 hours of overtime + holidays, multiplied by his current hourly rate of $45.12.

Atlantic City Council meeting, Jan. 8, 2025

They also passed a Resolution “Approving Campground Phone Compensation” for the Wastewater and Street Departments, with regard to the Schildberg Campground. The City’s Personnel & Finance Committee met Dec. 31, 2024, to review the matter, and endorsed compensating the Schildberg on-call phone the same as it would a Public Works Union member carrying their department’s on-call phone, at $40 per day. Councilperson Elaine Otte provided a bit of background on the compensation.

The phone is only required to be used by staff for six-months out of the year, as the other six-months the phone is held by the campground host, as part of their responsibilities. In other business:

• The Atlantic City Council passed a Resolution “Establishing Signatories to City Checks and Payables,” which is a routine matter when there is a change in individuals occupying the Office of the City Clerk.
• They held the First Reading of an Ordinance “Vacating the street located between 3009 Palm Street and 3101 Palm Street. City Administrator John Lund noted improvements to the Right-Of-Way have been completed following a process that began in Nov., 2022, and it is now time to divide and vacate the ROW, which can only be done by Ordinance.

The Council’s final order of business, Wednesday, was to enter into a Closed (Exempt) Session (per Iowa Code) providing for the Strategy Meetings of Public Employers for Collective Bargaining.

(Menlo, Iowa) –  The Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Agency has released the name of a woman who died Tuesday morning during a house fire in Menlo. According to a Press Release, the victim was identified as 73-year-old Denise K. Miller.

Officials say “At around 9:20-a.m., Tuesday,  Guthrie County Dispatched a simultaneous page for Menlo Fire, Stuart Fire and Stuart Rescue for a report of a possible house fire in the 400 block of 3 rd St. in Menlo, IA. Upon arrival, heavy smoke was coming from the eaves of the home and flames had breached the peak of the west gable end wall of the home above the roof of the attached garage. Within minutes, Fire crews located 73-year-old Denise K. Miller deceased inside the home lying at the end of a hallway. Her beloved dog was later located in the rear of the home deceased as well.

“Denise was alone in the home during the fire. No First Responders or Emergency Personnel were injured during firefighting operations. The State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny will conduct an autopsy to help determine the cause of death. The State Fire Marshal’s Office is currently working on their investigation into the potential cause of the fire.

“Sincere condolences to the family and friends of Denise who was a lifelong beloved member of the Menlo Community. The family, Menlo area and surrounding communities are mourning her loss.”

Atlantic, IA – The January session of Healthy U will be presented by Cass Health’s Registered Dietitian Sarah Andersen. This session will be on Thursday, January 16 at noon in Conference Room 2.  Andersen says “Many people think that understanding glucose is only important for people who have diabetes, but understanding glucose is important for everyone. Managing your glucose levels can have an incredible impact on your overall health, and we’ll talk about a number of easy strategies you can use at every meal to help you keep glucose levels from spiking.”

Andersen earned her Bachelor of Science in Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University and completed her Iowa State Dietetic Internship in the 2018. She is a credentialed Registered Dietitian with the Commission on Dietetic Registration and is a State of Iowa Licensed Dietitian. She is a member of the Iowa Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics and the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics.

Sarah Andersen

Space is limited! A free boxed lunch is provided for all attendees, so reservations are required. Call 712-243-7479 to reserve your seat. For more information about Healthy U, visit casshealth.org/healthyu.

(Radio Iowa) -An Iowan has first-hand knowledge of the problems firefighters in California are facing as wildfires rapidly consume homes and everything else. Ryan Schlater works in the D-N-R’s Wildfire Program and was on an assignment in California in July. “We were on the east side of L-A in San Bernardino County, in the Redlands area, and then kind of Palm Springs area, and we were there for responding to new fire starts,” he says “..A new one would happen, and they’d call us, and we’d respond to it and try to initial attack it and stop it before it got big.”

Schlater says a number of conditions have combined to make the current fires very tough to fight. “The Santa Ana winds right now, and then, of course, they’re right on the coast. And so the land and sea breezes, you know, that plays a lot of factors into this large fire growth,” Schlater says. “And when that high and that low get just right then it just funnels that high wind right towards L-A.” He says all the mountains and hills create a lot of issues for firefighters as well, along with drought conditions as lot of vegetation.

” It’s Chaparral and it’s Manzanita, so it’s very tall, very thick stuff that they can’t get to. And they do some hazard mitigation to try to reduce the wildfire threat around the city. But there’s a lot of people who moved out into the suburbs. There’s a lot of people who moved up into the hills and hills and so they, you know, each property owner is kind of responsible for that. So, you know, if they don’t do it, they don’t do it,” he says. Schlater says the high winds push the fires to all the various fuel sources.

Ryan Schlater. (photo from Ryan Schlater)

“That fire pushed all the way through town, all the way through Palisades Park, down into Malibu,” he says, “and it even burned the like what you see on Bay Watch those big wooden lifeguard towers, which are surrounded by sand, you know, there’s no vegetation, so the embers washed into those and got into the, you know, the little cracks of that, and then caused that to cause, you know, start on fire.” Schlater says the fires have moved rapidly despite all the resources L-A County has on the land and in the air to fight them.

“At that one fire there was three L-A County helicopters, and there was three or four air tankers, big ones, because they had what we call bird dogs or lead planes. And so they come in first, and they let out a little smoke, and that tells the air tanker where to drop their water or they’re retardant,” he explains.

Schlater says a fire moving this fast makes it tough to fight even from the air, because by the time they get up and ready to too drop on a spot, the fire has moved several 100 yards from where they were called in. Firefighter trained in Iowa frequently go to other states to help out. Schlater says they usually are getting the paperwork complete around this time of year to get people ready to go, so they don’t have anyone in California right now.

” It’s not saying that we couldn’t send people. We do have one person who went through the financial process already, and she is available, but she is like a logistics support person, so she necessarily, probably wouldn’t go. They’re looking for more operations folks for on the ground right now,” he says. Schlater has fighting wildfires for 20 years and says Southern California has been a place he never wanted to go to because of all the danger with the tough conditions there.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley — the only current member of congress who was serving when Jimmy Carter was president — says Carter was a man of many talents. “Now he and I were bit by different political bugs, but we have a similar foundation,” Grassley said, “two small town boys, anchored in our faith.” Grassley, who turned 91 in September, was born in New Hartford, Iowa and his childhood home did not have electricity or indoor plumbing. Carter’s family home in Plains, Georgia, did not have electricity and running water until Carter was a teenager.

Grassley delivered a speech in the U-S Senate today (Wednesday) in tribute to Carter.  “This week our nation mourns the loss of our 39th president, Jimmy Carter. With grief comes reflection on his life — a life well lived,” Grassley said. “There’s no doubt Jimmy Carter made an impact on scores of Americans.” Grassley praised Carter’s post-presidency work in building homes for the needy.

“1 Peter 4:10 says: ‘Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.’ The light of the Lord shown through President Carter’s life of service,” Grassley said. “He used these gifts to serve others, even beyond the borders of the United States.” About 20 years ago, Carter invited Grassley to speak to a Baptist group in Georgia, then Grassley had a private conversation with Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.

“I remember him fondly,” Grassley said today. “…We say, ‘Goodbye,’ during this time, to this man of many talents.” Grassley, at the age of 43, was seeking reelection to a second term in the U-S House when the 52-year-old Carter was seeking the presidency. “In 1976 I was on the ballot as a congressman for Iowa’s third congressional district,” Grassley said. “And, of course, Jimmy Carter was on that same ballot.”

Carter died December 29th at the age of 100. Carter’s remains are lying in state in the U-S Capitol today (Wednesday). His funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington is scheduled to begin Thursday at 10 a.m. Iowa time.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is taking applications now for a tree planting program that’s designed to benefit disadvantaged schools across the state. Chip Murrow, an urban forestry program specialist at the D-N-R, says more than 100-thousand dollars is available through the program, with grants of five-thousand dollars per public or private school. “The way a school applies for them is they’re either in what’s considered a disadvantaged community in Iowa, which there’s 621 of those,” Murrow says, “or they have 25% or more free and reduced lunch programs.”

The grant money can be used to purchase trees, mulch and supplemental watering when school is not in session. “We work with the schools to plant the trees using container-grown trees, so anything from a number five to a number 10, they’re the sizes that we look at,” Murrow says. “Those are good, sturdy trees. They’re big enough that they take up a little bit of landscape to start with, but not so big that kids can’t plant them.” Murrow says schools do not need to put up matching funds for these grants, so it’s a win-win.

“Between the economic benefits of shading for cooling, and also wind protection in the winter to help with heating costs, there’s a lot of other benefits,” Murrow says. “We find that schools that have trees, children are more at ease and they test better.” He says students are encouraged to get out in the schoolyard and help with the process of planting the trees. “The foresters love coming out because that’s part of the program. We try and get a forester out there to help with the planting, do a planning demonstration and work with the kids. It’s a lot of fun,” Murrow says. “It also gives kids a chance to see what those of us at the DNR do in the forestry division, so they can ask us questions and talk to us about that.”

The program is being made possible through the DNR, the USDA Forest Service, and the National Association of State Foresters 2023 Inflation Reduction Act. The application and requirements are available online at www.iowadnr.gov/urbanforestry.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is investigating a lactic acid spill near Adair in Adair County. On January 7, the DNR Field Office in Atlantic was notified of a semi-trailer on fire at the I-80 eastbound rest area, approximately three miles east of the city of Adair. The semi, owned by World Way Freight Transport, was hauling poly totes of lactic acid when the driver noticed the trailer tires were smoking and pulled over at the rest area. The driver attempted to extinguish the fire, but was unsuccessful. The Adair Fire Department responded to the incident and upon arrival observed the majority of the trailer and its contents were on-fire. It is estimated that approximately 550 gallons of lactic acid were lost due to the fire and firefighting activities.

Crews from the Iowa Department of Transportation placed sand in multiple locations in an attempt to capture the product. However, the acid and water mixture flowed through two storm drains, off the concrete, and onto adjacent farm ground. The mixture flowed approximately 200 feet in the field before entering a tile intake which outlets into an unnamed tributary of the South Fork Middle River, located approximately half a mile directly west of the rest area.

A semi-trailer hauling lactic acid caught fire near the I-80 eastbound rest area near Adair.

An environmental clean-up company arrived at approximately 8.00 p.m to begin cleanup efforts. Samples have been collected. The area is being sanitized with a neutralizing agent, and the contaminated soil will be excavated or treated on-site. The rest area will remain closed until clean up is complete. Downstream users should avoid the area and remove cattle if needed. No dead fish have been observed in the river at this time, and the investigation is ongoing.

To report a release after hours, please call the DNR’s emergency spill line at (515) 725-8694. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of an incident. The DNR website has more information about spill reporting requirements.