Medivac Ambulance and Atlantic Fire and Rescue were called to the scene of a two-vehicle accident this morning, just before 7-a.m.  According to dispatch reports, a truck rear-ended a semi near Schildberg Construction on west Highway 6 near 22nd Street. It’s unclear if there were any injuries. Both vehicles were still on the traveled portion of the road at 7-a.m.

(This post will be updated – please check back)

Most Iowa farmers haven’t started the harvest yet but already it’s clear there will be problems with moving the grain. U-S Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx says rail cars will be in short supply and he doesn’t foresee any solution coming down the tracks. “Our surface transportation board, along with our rail companies, and along with us in Washington, we’re going to have to figure out a way to create more capacity so that commodities can move,” Foxx says. Farmers need rail cars to move their crops, but many rail cars are being diverted to haul oil from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota and Montana.

“It’s an issue we have to deal with,” Foxx says. “The Surface Transportation Board has primary responsibility for it but clearly with the proliferation of the movement of crude oil by rail, it increases competition for precious rail space.” Foxx says there’s no easy fix to the looming rail car shortage. “Even if Congress funded us tomorrow, it would still take some time to get track on the ground and things going,” Foxx says. “It’s not going to be a short-term solution but again, the Surface Transportation Board has primary responsibility for trying to work out the issues that have to do with commodities moving.”

Many blame the rail car shortage on the delay on building the Keystone X-L oil pipeline across Nebraska. That pipeline could carry the Bakken oil, freeing up thousands of rail cars to move crops.

(Radio Iowa)

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say two teenagers have been killed and several people hospitalized following a car wreck in Storm Lake. The Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Department says a pickup truck collided head-on with another car Monday morning on a gravel road.

The Sioux City Journal reports a 17-year-old male and a 16-year-old female were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. A 15-year-old female was flown by helicopter to a Sioux City hospital. A 19-year-old woman was sent by ambulance to another hospital.  The pickup driver, 43-year-old Kent Erickson, suffered minor injuries in the collision. His passenger, 49-year-old Trent Jackson, was hospitalized.

Additional names and information has not been released.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A body found in a car trunk has been identified as that of an Iowa State University student from China who has been missing for more than three weeks. The Iowa City Police Department says the death of 20-year-old Ton Shao is suspicious. The cause of death is being withheld pending results of an autopsy completed over the weekend. Shao, a junior chemical engineering student, was last seen in Ames more than three weeks ago.

WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — A pretrial conference has been delayed for a former Iowa mayor accused of sexual abuse. The date for Jason Manus’ pretrial conference was pushed back to Oct. 13 because his defense attorney died earlier this month. His trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 22. The 36-year-old Manus is charged with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse. He is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl in 2010. He has pleaded not guilty. Manus was mayor of Oelwein until his resignation in August.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Davenport man has been charged with vehicular homicide following a car wreck that killed two Illinois men. Twenty-four-year-old Kai Miller is charged with homicide by vehicle, operating while intoxicated and two counts of serious injury by vehicle in connection to the crash early Sunday in Davenport. Court records do not list an attorney. Authorities say Miller’s car collided with a vehicle carrying 21-year-old Andrew Scott Adams and 22-year-old Danny DeBacker,

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa (AP) — Lab results show hundreds of capsules found at a northern Iowa prison tested negative for any controlled substances. The 300 to 400 capsules were found earlier this month at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City. The pills contained an unknown substance, prompting a state drug investigation. State officials have not said how the capsules got inside the prison.

It now costs Iowa grocery stores and other businesses more to accept payments through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Merchants now have to pay for their own equipment and processing services whenever SNAP cards are used. Kevin Concannon, the U-S-D-A’s Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services and a former Iowan, says the change was designed to prevent the illegal use of the program.

Concannon says, “We found that in some locations where a manual machine was used to record the expenditure on the SNAP benefit, there was a higher rate of fraud or trafficking.” About 421-thousand Iowans now receive SNAP benefits, or about 13-percent of the population. Concannon says the goal is to make the use of those benefits more secure.

“There are now 257,000 locations across the United States where one can use or spend your SNAP benefits,” Concannon says. “The requirement will be now that all of those outlets will be required to use electronic benefit capacity.” Iowans who make part of their living at the 230 farmers markets across the state will be glad to hear that there are a few exceptions to the rule.

“Those exceptions are basically farmers markets because it recognizes the nature of a farmers market is often on a vacant lot or in a rural area,” Concannon says. “It’s part of our effort to really reach out and support local agriculture and to encourage people to purchase healthier foods.” Other exceptions include military commissaries, direct marketing farmers and non-profit food cooperatives. Concannon is the former director of the Iowa Department of Human Services.

(Radio Iowa)

A group of Iowa veterans are preparing to fly to the nation’s capital Tuesday from central Iowa on an Honor Flight. The chairman of the Central and Western Iowa Honor Flight organization, Jeff Ballenger, says they will leave early. “Wheels up around 6:30 a-m. And we’ll be taking 395 World War Two and Korean veterans for an opportunity to see their memorial,” Ballenger says. The veterans were checking-in Monday in Des Moines, and then will board buses for a trip through Des Moines to Prairie Meadows in Altoona for a dinner.

“The pre-flight dinner will start at 6 p-m and will last about an hour-and-a-half. And we anticipate having around 950 people at the pre-flight dinner as the veterans are each able to bring somebody with them, and of course, we have our guardians who take care of the veterans,” Ballenger says. Many World War Two veterans have already taken an Honor Flight from the area, and Ballenger says this flight catches up on those who couldn’t make past flights.

“The folks who are going on this trip from World War Two, what they’re telling us is they were scheduled to go on an earlier flight and for health reasons just weren’t able to make that particular date,” Ballenger explains. “One interesting tidbit, we do have a World War Two veteran who is 101-years-old who is going on the flight with us.” Ballenger asks everyone to show their support for the veterans and to pray for a safe trip.

“These flights, while they are a lot of fun and there’s a great interest in them, they are not easy to do,” Ballenger says. “You’ve got men and women in their 80’s, some cases 90’s, and we just want to pray for their safety. We’ve got doctors on board, we’ve got E-M-Ts, and we’ve got firemen.” He says their goal for each flight is simple.

“We really want to make sure each flight gets out there and back as safely as possible. And that the veterans have an enjoyable day in D-C,” Ballenger says. He says with this flight they will have taken nearly three-thousand World War Two and Korean veterans to Washington, and raised just under three million dollars. Ballenger says the sponsorships of Hy-Vee, Caseys, Polk County, Knapp Properties and the Rassmussen group made this trip possible.

(Radio Iowa)

The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, will be hearing from a representative with the U-S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with regard to about a below ground contaminated site in Atlantic.  During their 5:30-p.m. meeting, the Council will hear from Susan Fisher, who also made a presentation to the Atlantic Municipal Utilities (AMU) Board of Trustees  during their meeting on September 22nd.

AMU General Manager Steve Tjepkes says the EPA is conducting a Removal Assessment of a site in Atlantic contaminated with Tetrachloroethylene (PCE). PCE is a manufactured chemical typically used in dry cleaning solvents. The source of the contamination is believed to be the former Norge Dry Cleaners Facility near the area of 1205 E. 7th Street. Based on historical data, the building that housed the former dry cleaners was demolished sometime after 1982.

PCE was originally detected in 1980. EPA is currently reassessing the area to ensure that contamination levels at the site are protective of human health and the environment. Atlantic Municipal Utilities has operated and maintained an interceptor well since 1980 to keep the resulting underground plume migrating from the contamination site from impacting the municipal water supply well field.

Tjepkes says AMU continues to perform regular testing to monitor the public drinking water supply wells to ensure that drinking water does not become contaminated with PCE. He says also AMU is working closely with the EPA and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) as they continue their assessment, to encourage cleanup efforts for the site.

Sheriff’s officials in Union County say a Creston woman reported early Sunday morning that someone had damaged a garage door at her resident in the 1400 block of 170th Street. The damage was estimated at $2,500. There are no suspects at this time and an investigation into the incident continues.

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa (AP) — Lab results show hundreds of capsules found at a northern Iowa prison tested negative for any controlled substances. The state Department of Public Safety made the announcement Monday about the 300 to 400 capsules found earlier this month at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory completed an analysis of the capsules.

The pills contained an unknown substance, prompting a state drug investigation. Initial field testing indicated they contained cocaine and the pain killer Demerol, but later testing came back negative for controlled substances. State officials have not said how the capsules got inside the prison.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Environmental officials say a pipe company must pay $950,000 for air and water violations at its former Council Bluffs facility. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7 says Griffin Pipe Products must pay the civil penalty after multiple violations.

The company is accused of illegally discharging untreated process wastewater to the city’s wastewater collection system between 2007 and 2008. It is also accused of violating its storm water permit in 2011. The EPA says the company also discharged zinc, lead, copper and other pollutants in violation of its permit levels.

Griffin Pipe Products has ceased production at the Council Bluff facility. It says it is now in compliance with the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act.