A woman who told authorities she looked down to adjust her radio, ended up crashing her car into a guardrail in Union County, this (Friday) afternoon. The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports 22-year old Brenna Lynn Baker, of Creston, suffered possible injuries during the crash, that happened at around 1:15-p.m. on eastbound Highway 25. Baker was driving a 2002 Pontiac Grand Prix when the car went out of control. She over-corrected, sending the vehicle into a wire guard rail near Summit Lake. Baker was transported by ambulance to the Creston hospital for treatment of unknown, possible injuries. Authorities say she was wearing her seat belt.

Damage to the car was estimated at $5,000 (a total loss). No citations were issued.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers is asking the public to be on the lookout for two male, Native American students who absconded from the Clarinda Academy early this (Friday) afternoon. One of the students is 16-years old. He stands about 5-feet five-inches tall and weighs 125 pounds. He has short black hair. The other student is 13-years old. He is about five-feet tall and weighs about 100 pounds. He has medium length black hair. A description of their clothing was not available.

One of the students is from Rapid City, SD. The other from Minneapolis, MN. Authorities were search a cornfield northeast of the Academy as of 3-p.m. If you see two teens matching the description provided, contact law enforcement, and do not approach them.

The Clarinda Academy is a residential foster care facility that provides residential treatment to at-risk and delinquent male and female youth from several states.

(Radio Iowa) — One week after tornado damage forced the evacuation of its patients to other hospitals, Unity Point Health-Marshalltown reopened its main campus this (Friday) morning. Dustin Wright, the hospital’s Vice President of Operations, says it’s been a long week since 43 residents were moved after last Thursday’s powerful twister.

Wright says “It’s taken some adjustments from all of us but we’re here for the community and we did our best with some limited resources but we’re proud of the work we did in the aftermath of the tornado. We’re excited to be back at the main campus again.” It helped that the hospital has a fairly new medical park on the south side of Marshalltown, a building was not affected by the July 19th tornado.

“We had to cancel a few elective procedures on Monday, but for the most part, we’ve been able to sustain a lot of our operations,” Wright says. One of the hospital’s free-standing clinics in the downtown area, a cardiology clinic, was destroyed by the storm. It is being relocated to part of the main downtown campus and is expected to be seeing patients again by the end of next week. U-S Senator Chuck Grassley visited Marshalltown this (Friday) morning and says he anticipates the federal government will move as quickly as it can to provide disaster relief assistance.

“We’re going to do all we can to respond to the mayor’s request,” Grassley says. “When this assessment by FEMA is done, then we want the president to make sure we get a quick designation and get all the help that would normally go to natural disasters.” Grassley said he could tell from what he first saw after the tornado first hit through today that quite a bit of cleanup had already taken place, adding, he knows there is much more work to be done.

(Radio Iowa) — A new agreement reached between Alliant Energy and the operator of Iowa’s only nuclear power plant will see the plant shut down five years earlier than first projected. NextEra Energy Resources spokesman, Peter Robbins, says the change came about as they looked at a new agreement with Alliant to purchase power from the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo.

Robbins said “We took a look at all options that were on the table an both companies agreed to move forward with shortening the term of the power purchase agreement. As of right now were are anticipating Duane Arnold Energy Center will cease electrical production, will cease commercial operations at the end of two-thousand-20.”

Robbins says employees of the plant will have some decisions to make. “We have about 540 people who work here at Duane Arnold right now and they’re part of our corporate family so today’s decision was very difficult for the entire company,” Robbins says. “We have a path forward for them. Our company believes in doing the right thing and treating people with respect — and that’s what we are going to do in this case.” He says employees will have several options as the plant moves toward closing.

“Between now and the end of 2020 we will be able to offer people who are retirement eligible an enhanced retirement package,” he says. “When we do shut down in late 2020 we are still going to need about 300 people here on sight. So we’ll have hundreds of jobs available on sight in 2020 as we start the decommissioning process. And for anybody who is interested, we will offer jobs within our company.” He says Next-Era has operations in 35 states. The shutdown of the Palo operation will begin soon after the energy contract expires.

“A lot of what that work involves is unloading fuel from the reactor and putting it safely in what’s called spent fuel pool to let it cool down. That takes place over a period of years,” according to Robbins. “So, the decommissioning process for a nuclear power plant is very gradual, very lengthy. We anticipate it will start in late 2020, and it will carry on for a significant amount of time.” Robbins says the declining costs of other sources of energy have led to the decision to shut down the plant.

“You are just seeing continued pressure on all sources of energy — from renewables and from natural gas — and we are certainly seeing that in the market place in Iowa,” Robbins says. Next-Era Energy Resources says it plans to invest approximately 650 million dollars in existing and new renewables generation across Iowa before the end of 2020. Alliant Energy says it will save customers nearly 300 million dollars in the next 21 years by switching away from the use of the nuclear power. Alliant Energy has agreed to make a 110 million dollar buyout payment to Next-Era Energy Resources in September 2020 to cover the cost to shorten the term of the power agreement.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A former Davenport official who admitted placing a hidden camera in a restroom has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. The Quad-City Times reports 47-year-old Roy DeWitt was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty in June to eight counts of invasion of privacy.

DeWitt, a former city housing programs manager who now lives in Pella, said he was “extremely remorseful for what I did.” An arrest affidavit stated that DeWitt concealed a digital camera in an employee-only restroom at a city-owned apartment building. The affidavit said eight people were recorded multiple times from January 2017 to March 2018.

DeWitt was fired March 19 after failing to attend an interview and pre-disciplinary meeting. He had worked for the city since 2007.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports charges have been filed and an arrest was made, in connection with the significant vandalism that occurred to the Clarinda High School on July 30, 2017.  19-year old Jayden Anthony Morris, of Clarinda, is charged with felony criminal mischief in the first degree, felony burglary and serious misdemeanor trespass. Morris was being held in the Page County Jail on $16,000 bail. The school sustained somewhere between $40,000-$50,000 damage as a result of the incident.

Reports concerning the incident have been submitted to the office of Page County Attorney Carl M. Sonksen for review regarding the filing of formal charges.

(12:40-p.m. News)

Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety said today (Friday), that in light of the missing person investigation of Mollie Tibbits, concerns have been raised about the number of juveniles reported missing in Iowa in recent weeks. In FY 2017 4,311 juveniles were reported missing to The Missing Person Information Clearinghouse. That’s an average of approximately 12 juveniles a day. The vast majority of which are found or returned home within 24 hours. Authorities says these cases are typically runaway situations. The number of missing juveniles reported in recent weeks is in line with historical numbers.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a small plane slid off a runway as it landed at the Burlington airport in southeast Iowa. The accident occurred around 1 p.m. Thursday, with the single-engine plane ending up on a grassy median. Medics examined the two people who were on the plane, but neither was taken to a hospital. Their names weren’t released.

Airport director Mary Beaird told The Hawk Eye the plane “caught a gust of wind and slid off” the runway.