A helicopter crashed Monday afternoon in northwest Iowa’s Lyon County, leaving the two people aboard seriously hurt. Lyon County Sheriff Stewart VanderStoep says the privately-owned chopper was being employed as part of a search team — for missing cattle. Sheriff VanderStoep says, “They apparently called in a helicopter to help search for some of these missing 300 cattle and about 1:19 PM, the helicopter hit a power line and went down — and crashed.”

The crash caused temporary power outages, including the entire city of Rock Rapids. The helicopter came down in farmland between West Lyon High School and Lake Pahoja. “Both people in the helicopter had serious injuries and they were transported by ambulances to Sioux Falls hospitals,” VanderStoep says.  The Federal Aviation Administration will help in the investigation. The hundreds of cattle had gotten loose earlier in the day. No names were released.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, IA – Iowa Congressman David Young continues his schedule of hosting open meeting events with his constituents with an additional Open Office Hours events in November. Open Office Hours are a resource for Iowans who reside in the Third Congressional District to meet one-on-one with the Congressman to discuss opinions, concerns, and ideas about the issues being discussed in Congress or to get casework assistance with problems they may be having with a federal agency or program.

Scheduled Open Office Hours in Adair County:

Saturday, November 11, 2017: 12:30pm to 2:30pm – Fontanelle Community Center – 318 Washington Street, Fontanelle, IA

Residents of Iowa’s Third District who are interested in meeting with Congressman Young are encouraged to attend any of the Open Office Hours events. Individual, ten-minute meetings to discuss personal concerns, opinions and possible casework needs will take place with constituents in attendance on a first-come, first-serve basis. Participants must be residents of one of the 16 counties of Iowa’s Third Congressional District. To confirm residency within the District, individuals should visit the U.S. House of Representatives “Find my Representative” page located at: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find/ or contact one of Congressman Young’s Constituent Services Offices to inquire.

Constituents with further questions regarding Congressman Young’s Open Office Hours events should contact Congressman Young’s Des Moines Constituent Services Office by telephone at (515) 282-1909. Residents may also sign up to receive notification about future events online at the “Public Meeting Events” tab at Young.House.Gov.

An Atlantic area farmer and businessman is set to appear before the Senate Agriculture Committee this Thursday morning, in Washington, D.C.  Glen R. Smith is in the nation’s capital for a Senate hearing that precedes a Senate vote on confirmation for a position on the Board of Directors for the Farm Credit Administration. The FCA is headquartered in Washington, D.C.  Smith was notified in mid-September that he was nominated to be a Member of the Farm Credit Administration Board, Farm Credit Administration.

Smith is currently the President of Smith Land Service, Co., and owner/operator of a corn and soybean farm in western Iowa, in partnership with his wife Fauzan and son. If he is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate, Smith will serve on an advisory policy and rates Board for the Farm Credit Administration, an independent Federal agency that regulates and examines the banks, associations, and related entities of the Farm Credit System (FCS). FCS is the largest agricultural lender in the U-S, and is a nationwide network of lending institutions that are owned by their borrowers. It serves all 50 states, and Puerto Rico.

The advisory Board members, Smith says, typically serve a six-year term, but he would be filling the term of a board member who died in March. Therefore his term would expire 2022. Joining Smith when he sits before the committee, Thursday, will be Stephen Vaden, who is being considered for the position of General Counsel for the USDA. Smith’s hearing is set to begin 8:30-a.m. Central Time (9:30-a.m. Eastern).

A link to view the hearing can be found here: www.agriculture.senate.gov/hearings.

Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County, Monday night, arrested a 17-year old male on a felony charge of Burglary in the 2nd Degree. The teen, who was not identified, was taken into custody at around 8:07-p.m., following an incident in the 200 block of E. 6th Street, in Villisca. He was transported to the Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) in Council Bluffs, for placement.

Five of the seven Democrats running for governor appeared at a fundraiser in Mason City last (Monday) night, expressing support for initiatives to address gun violence after Sunday’s mass shooting in Texas. Candidate Fred Hubbell, a retired Des Moines businessman, says refusing to talk about the problem is no longer acceptable.

“Clearly, we’re getting a lot more kind of these incidents and mental health is part of it,” Hubble says. “Access to guns is part of it. Let’s call it the speed with which guns can shoot, you know because they have these AK-47s and these things that you can put on them to make them shoot faster, we need to have a conversation.”

Other candidates say they support rolling back the new state law that has expanded gun rights. Candidate John Norris of Des Moines served as chief of staff to former governor Tom Vilsack.  “No one needs to carry an AK47 into a McDonald’s full of kids and that’s what you can do in Iowa today,” Norris says. “That’s just nonsense. That’s going beyond common sense and reality.”

Norris also opposes the part of the new law that lets people bring a concealed weapon into the statehouse if they have a permit to carry it. “I certainly respect Iowans’ right to own guns and sportsmens’ rights, but we’ve gone too far,” Norris says. “…The promotion of guns in public buildings with children is just outrageous.”

Candidate Nate Boulton, a state senator from Des Moines, says he’s most concerned about the new law’s “Stand Your Ground” provisions that give people legal protection if they use deadly force to protect life and property. “In Iowa we have a very good balance,” Boulton says. “We have high rates of gun ownership and low incidents of gun violence and we’ve seen things that are starting to look like they could lend themselves to disrupting that balance as we expand deadly force to include mistakes and things that could have unintended consequences.”

Candidate Andy McGuire, the former Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman, is also a medical doctor. McGuire says she wishes people would look at mass shootings as a public health issue that must be addressed. “If anything else were killing Americans like this is, we would look into it,” McGuire says. “It’s not that I’m against anybody. I just am against people dying.” Former Des Moines School Board members Jon Neiderbach, the other candidate at last night’s event, says people need to stop shouting at each other after mass shootings and come up with solutions.

The candidates spoke during a fundraiser for State Representative Sharon Steckman of Mason City, who is running for a fifth term in the Iowa House.

(Radio Iowa)