(Omaha, Nebraska) – Police in Council Bluffs have identified one of the victims of Friday’s early morning crash that killed an adult male and two juveniles, and resulted in three others, including a juvenile, being critically injured. Authorities say 70-year-old Michael Sales, of Council Bluffs, died in the crash that happened a little before 1:30-a.m., Friday, near the Gene Leahy Mall at around 10th and Douglas streets.

The crash involved a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee driven by 33-year-old Rachel Bickerstaff, and a 2017 Subaru Outback driven by Sales. Investigators said Bickerstaff was driving east on Douglas Street when her vehicle hit the Subaru from behind, pushing both cars to the east. The accident occurred as Sales had just completed a left turn onto Douglas Street from southbound 10th Street. After the impact, the Subaru hit a light pole. Authorities said the Jeep hit a tree and then rolled. The force of the crash caused both SUVs to hit barriers and catch on fire.

Two children were found dead inside the Jeep, Omaha police said. A 38-year-old man who was in the front seat and a child from the Jeep were taken to the University of Nebraska Medical Center for initial treatment, and then were taken out of state to a specialized burn unit at another hospital, according to authorities.

Omaha police said crash investigators are consulting with the Douglas County attorney’s office on pending charges for Bickerstaff. Speed and alcohol are factors being investigated in the crash, according to Omaha Police.

Verizon customers across the United States reported a phone service outage today (Monday). At one point mid-day, Downdetector noted more than 103, 540 Verizon customers had reported an issue with phone service. By 2-p.m., that number was down to 47, 475. Metro areas most affected include Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Omaha and Las Vegas. Users on X, formerly known as Twitter, expressed issues to Verizon Support. Many users reported having the SOS setting on their phones.

“We are aware of an issue impacting service for some customers,” Ilya Hemlin, a representative for the company, said. “Our engineers are engaged and we are working quickly to identify and solve the issue.” The cause is not yet known.

Communities hit by Hurricane Helene have been experiencing cellphone outages due to the aftermath of the storm. Verizon assured it was prepared for the storm, saying on X, “Verizon is ready for Hurricane Helene with 550 portable network assets and 1,000 mobile generators, ensuring communities, businesses and first responders stay connected. Verizon also has resources in place to support affected employees.”

(Radio Iowa) – More than a dozen American Red Cross volunteers from Iowa are now on duty in several southern states that saw destruction from the powerful winds, heavy rain and flooding caused by Hurricane Helene. Josh Murray, spokesman for the agency’s Nebraska-Iowa region, says they’ve dispatched 15 people to a list of sites were they’re needed the most.

Murray says the Iowa volunteers will be performing a series of valuable tasks while they’re deployed, including those driving the big white emergency response vehicle, or ERV.

Once it’s safe, others will be doing damage assessments in neighborhoods to determine the extent of the storm’s fury and what Red Cross resources will be needed.

The storm’s death toll is expected to top one-hundred while hundreds of thousands of people remain without power. Murray says there are several ways in which Iowans can help the Red Cross to help storm survivors.

The Red Cross deployed more than 45 emergency response vehicles across the southeast with another two dozen ERVs enroute. Murray says some 1,400 agency disaster workers are already helping, with more on the way.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is among a bipartisan group of lawmakers airing concerns about the delivery of absentee ballots for this year’s election. Hinson and other members of a House subcommittee quizzed the head of the U-S Postal Service during a hearing late last week.

Hinson mentioned the letter election officials from around the country sent Postmaster General Louis DeJoy earlier this month. The letter cited concerns the Postal Service had not made improvements to address the late delivery of absentee ballots that prevented those votes from being counted in 2022 and 2023 elections.

DeJoy says a year-round task force in the Postal Service has been focused on delivering mail-in ballots and he’s having meetings with Postal Service executives twice a week to review progress. Hinson asked DeJoy how complaints about ballot delivery issues will be handled.

DeJoy told lawmakers the Postal Service is pausing its consolidation of mail processing centers in October and the first half of November, to accommodate absentee ballot deliveries. The Republican who led the committee said those changes have caused broad problems with the delivery of all mail. Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says those are major systematic changes and Iowans want delivery problems fixed.

DeJoy says nearly all mail-in ballots in the last presidential election were delivered within seven days, which he describes as the commonsense and recommended time frame for processing and delivering mail.

[UPDATED] (Radio Iowa) – A Sioux City man was found dead in his pickup after it went off Interstate-29 and into the Missouri River Friday. Sioux City Police Sergeant Tom Gill says it happened around 5:30 p-m Friday.

Gill says a passenger in the truck was able to get out and made it to shore.

The driver has been identified as 55-year-old Delana Jackson of Sioux City. The passenger in the truck has not been identified.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Nebraska was arrested Thursday morning (Sept. 26) in Nebraska. 56-year-old James Mut Nyang, of Bellevue, NE, was picked-up from Nebraska authorities, on an Adair County warrant for Violation of Probation. Nyang was being held in the Adair County Jail on a $2,o00 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Dozens of utility workers from Iowa are now in Ohio, helping restore electricity to thousands of homes and businesses in areas where the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused widespread damage over the weekend. Geoff Greenwood, a spokesman for MidAmerican Energy, says they sent about 70 line workers and support crews to Cincinnati after staging with their big bucket trucks in Des Moines and Davenport on Friday night.

There are areas of the south and southeastern U-S that were much harder hit by the storm’s remnants than Ohio, and Greenwood says the Iowa crews that are now in the Cincinnati metro are expecting to get another assignment very soon.

It’s still unclear where the Iowa crews will be heading next to lend a hand.

At the peak, about 140-thousand Cincinnati area customers were without power, and by 9 A-M on Monday, only three-thousand or so remained offline, so the Iowa crews should be wrapping up there very soon. While Ohio is a long way from the ocean, the former hurricane still caused severe damage.

Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy serves 820,000 electric customers in Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota, and 797,000 natural gas customers in Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and South Dakota.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds spent about a third of the month of September on a trade mission in India. Reynolds says the groundwork for her meetings was laid decades ago by the Iowa native who won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his research that improved wheat and rice yields.

Borlaug took a wheat variety he’d developed to India in the mid-1960s and increased wheat production there by 60 percent.*

Reynolds met with India’s Secretary of Agriculture as well as the country’s Minister for Food Processing and Minister of Commerce. Iowa Corn Growers President Stu Swanson says a memorandum of agreement was signed to promote discussions between Iowa’s and India’s feed sectors.

An Iowa-based start-up company called “Power Pollen” also signed a letter of agreement with an India company called V-R-N Seed that does business in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. Power Pollen, which is based in Ames, has developed a process for collecting pollen, storing it and then applying it to fields to increase production of rice, wheat and corn seeds.

(Radio Iowa) – An analysis from the group Food & Water Watch says Iowa is the top-ranking state for producing manure from livestock feeding operations at 109 billion pounds annually. Amanda Starbuck is the nonprofit organization’s research director.

Starbuck says there is a difference between the two types of waste.

While manure can add nutrients and organic matter to farm fields, Starbuck says the sheer amount of waste is too much for the land to handle.

Food & Water Watch used the latest data from the U-S Census of Ag and the E-P-A’s definition of medium-sized concentrated animal feeding operations to develop state rankings and create interactive maps. The 20-year trends across the U-S show fewer farms but larger livestock operations.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports two people were arrested Sunday (Sept. 29) on drug charges. 47-year-old Christina Roberts, of Omaha, was arrested for possession of a controlled substance and possession of  drug paraphernalia. She posted $1,300 bond, and was released.

And, 48-year-old Timothy Horvath, of Blenco, was arrested Sunday for OWI/2nd offense, possession of Marijuana 3rd offense, possession of Methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $5,300 bond.