Funeral services will be held Saturday morning in Carroll, for a man who died at a hospital in Des Moines following a cement truck rollover accident Monday afternoon in Guthrie County. According to reports, 56-year old Randy Dean Barker, of Carroll, was driving a 2016 Mack cement truck southbound on Chestnut Road, south of Coon Rapids, when he came upon a disabled vehicle on the shoulder of the road.

When Barker applied the brakes and swerved left, the truck, which was fully loaded with cement, entered the shoulder/ditch area and came back onto the roadway. The vehicle went out of control and overturned onto the driver’s side. It skidded down the road before coming to rest. The accident happened at around 1:23-p.m., Monday.The cement truck, owned by Moorhouse Ready Mix, of Breda, sustained about $160,000 damage.

Barker was flown to Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines, where he succumbed to his injuries. His funeral will be held 10:30-a.m. Saturday, at the Dahn and Woodhouse Funeral Home, in Carroll.

GEORGE, Iowa (AP) — The start of the school year at one northwestern Iowa school district has been delayed after a colony of bats was discovered in a second-floor high school office. George-Little Rock superintendent John Eyerly tells the Sioux City Journal that an electrician installing a new phone system during the first week of August found evidence of bats while in the school’s liaison officer’s office.

The school has contracted with a pest control company to remove the bats. To allow enough time to complete the removal and sterilization, classes will now begin Aug. 28 for all district schools. School was previously scheduled to start Wednesday.

The bats’ removal, which will also include installation of some new insulation, will run around $50,000.

After holding its 6th Annual School Supply Drive, the Cass County Democratic Party delivered those donations to the schools in Cass County on 8-17-17. The schools were very excited at the large amount of donations given by the public and assured Sherry Toelle, Chair, that the supplies would be distributed to the neediest Cass County students.

“I am very thankful and happy that Cass County residents were so generous in giving our students needed school supplies. We had an outpouring of support from the community. I want to express my gratitude to those donors for opening their hearts and wallets to ensure that the children of the county have new, needed school supplies,” Toelle stated. “I want to express my gratitude to the media in Cass County who so willingly reported on the school supply drive, making people aware of the drive. I also want to express my thanks to my volunteers who distributed the drive’s flyers and who placed boxes out in the community. They know who they are and they are the best!” (Photo’s submitted)

Terri Smith & Sherry Toelle, Vice-Chair & Chair respectively, Cass County Democratic Party; Dee South and Larry Hunt, CAM School District

Katie Elwood, Griswold Schools; Terri Smith & Sherry Toelle, Cass County Democratic Party Vice-Chair & Chair respectively.

Gun rights activists are renewing their call to allow firearms at the Iowa State Fair after a violent incident on the fairgrounds Tuesday night. A man was stabbed and critically injured in a fight involving four young men on the southwest corner of the fairgrounds. Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says the comprehensive gun rights bill that passed this year originally included allowing guns at the fair.

” We had originally wanted to keep that provision in the bill but as we moved through the process there were a few items we had to remove from the bill in order to make sure we were building consensus and to get the necessary votes to pass the legislation,” Windschitl says. He says some lawmakers argued it’s a long-standing Fair Board policy to keep guns out.

“Why would we change that policy now,” Windschitl asks ” Now I personally believe it’s not the best policy. You shouldn’t disarm the law-abiding citizen. It’s their fundamental right to self-defense. But there was uncertainty with it.” Windschitl says he will try to talk to interested parties next year to see if minds have changed.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials at Iowa State University have issued a statement in response to a student’s racially-charged social media post. The original post to Snapchat involved three students standing by the “Black Engineering Building” sign on the Ames campus. A screenshot of the post, which included use of the “N” word, quickly spread through other social media. Martino Harmon, the Senior Vice President for Student Affairs at ISU, called the post “racist, thoughtless and hurtful” and added it’s “particularly troubling in light of the recent occurrences in Charlottesville.”

The student who Snapchatted the photo told the Iowa State Daily newspaper that he deleted the post shortly after it was sent, saying he “realized how stupid it was,” but then noticed someone on his Snapchat had already screenshot the picture. A university spokesperson said due to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, ISU can not release any information about disciplinary action.

(Radio Iowa)

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Department of Public Safety is confirming that recruits at its basic training academy were treated last month for heat-related illness. Department spokesman Alex Dinkla said Thursday that two of 20 recruits needed medical treatment following academy activities. He said he believed they are trooper candidates and remain part of the academy, which started May 30 at Camp Dodge in Johnston and remains ongoing.

Dinkla said he still hasn’t “been told” other basic information about the incident despite receiving an Aug. 1 inquiry about it from The Associated Press. That includes whether they were hospitalized and whether the academy is changing any procedures in light of the cases. He says he doesn’t know the gender of those involved.

Dinkla says medical information is “confidential and protected from disclosure.” He says injuries are common in the academy.

A special meeting of the Atlantic School District’s Board of Education will be held 11:30-a.m. Friday, in the Media Center at the Schuler Elementary Building. On the agenda is the resignation of Nichole Waterman, High School Level 3 Para-educator.

The Board will also act on Contracts and/or Letters of Assignment for the following:

• Jessica Mendez, FS to 5 hours/day
• Loretta Barringer, Special Ed Bus Driver
• Lory Erickson, School Bus Driver & Clerical Transportation Para
• Ann Hinton, Bus Aide, 5.2 hour day
• Jeff Kerrick, Route Driver & Noon PS Route Driver
• Heather Burg, FS 6-hour day.