(Radio Iowa) – A 30-year-old man who survived the October 7th attacks in Israel two years ago says the release of Israeli hostages is a starting point, but there’s more work to do. Yoni Diller spoke last (Sunday) night in Des Moines at a gathering hosted by a non-profit called Iowans Supporting Israel.  “After the hostages are home, I think that’s when the real rehabilitation starts,” Diller said. “…Civilians, the soldiers, everyone’s post-traumatic. It’s like a national PTSD.”

Just over two years ago, Diller was part of a group that walked almost five hours through the desert to flee the Hamas attack on a music festival, where over 400 were killed. Diller, who’s in the midst of a speaking tour in the U.S., wishes he were back in Israel at this moment.”Our fight for getting back the hostages eventually was worth it. Every weekend people were there putting political pressure and social pressure just to get back these hostages and the U.S. government has listened to our voices,” Diller said.

“Thanks to them and the collaboration to bring our hostages back, but we’ll believe it when we see it — until every one is home.” In 2024, Diller was among a group of October 7th victims that filed a lawsuit in Delaware, alleging an American-based non-profit had funneled support to Hamas through a United Nations agency. “They gave them places to hide, they gave them food while Hamas were basically using their own people as human shields,” Diller said. “That is sick.” Diller describes his U.S. speaking tour as both therapy and a tribute to those who died and can no longer speak for themselves.

“One of the tools that helped me overcome this trauma is by sharing and speaking and not being afraid to be exposed. I always thought before October 7 that being exposed and sharing your feelings and sharing what you’re going through is a weakness,” Diller said. “…Now I know it’s the opposite, so by speaking and hopefully influencing, basically that’s my healing.”

Diller’s next stop is in South Carolina, to speak to the local Jewish Federation later this week. He’s been to several U.S. college campuses over the past two years as well.

Several players from Northwestern College in Orange City were injured Saturday in a wreck on the way to a game in Sioux City. Five players were hospitalized after one of the Northwestern buses carrying the team’s offensive players to Sioux City for a game against Briar Cliff struck a light pole near the entrance to Briar Cliff’s football field. One of the players taken to the hospital has a broken sternum and another suffered a broken nose.

Several other players suffered facial injuries when their heads hit the seat in front of them. The start of the game was delayed for four hours. Ten players, including several offensive linemen, were unable to play Saturday.

The Northwestern coaches moved other position players to the offensive line — and those players came through as Northwestern beat Briar Cliff 28-to-zero on Briar Cliff’s home field.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A collision in Red Oak Saturday afternoon caused a police-estimated (combined) $3,500 (minor) damage. According to Red Oak Police, the accident happened a little after 3-p.m., at the intersection of Joy and Boundary Streets. Authorities say a car driven by 70-year-old Claudia Louise Pilecki, of Red Oak, was traveling north on Boundary Street, while a car driven by 88-year-old Vineta Ann McArdle, of Red Oak, was traveling east on Joy.

McArdle was attempting to turn north onto Boundary Street, but failed to see the Pilecki vehicle at the intersection. McArdle’s Buick Park Avenue struck Pilecki’s Ford Fusion on the driver’s side. McArdle was cited for Failure to Yield upon left turn. Both vehicles were driven away from the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – The six-hundred people who gathered for Iowa Senator Joni Ernst’s final “Roast and Ride” event Saturday applauded her career as well as recent Trump Administration moves. U-S Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem– the afternoon’s keynote speaker — got a standing ovation when she mentioned the immigration arrest of now-former Des Moines superintendent Ian Roberts.

Congressman Randy Feenstra, expected to announce soon that he’s running for governor, says the Des Moines School Board hired Roberts because he fit a liberal, progressive agenda.

And Senator Chuck Grassley also drew the crowd to its feet by praising Noem.

The federal government shutdown was another theme of the day. First district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks says she grew up in a family that knew what it was like to wait for that monthly paycheck and and worry it wouldn’t cover all the bills.

Second district Congresswoman Ashley Hinson told the crowd President Trump had announced U-S soldiers will be paid on October 15th.

Ernst announced early last month she wouldn’t seek reelection in 2026 and Hinson, who’s now running for the U.S. Senate, thanked Ernst for being a mentor. Others called Saturday’s gathering bittersweet.

U.S. Senator Joni Ernst rides onto the State Fairgrounds on Oct. 11, 2025. (RI photo)

Governor Kim Reynolds told the crowd Ernst became a sister as they both advanced from county-level politics to become Iowa’s first female U.S. Senator and first female governor.

Reynolds said also…

Ernst spent some time reminiscing about her 2014 campaign.

Ernst got emotional near the end of the event as she thanked her mother and then recognized the mother and brother of Sarah Root of Council Bluffs in the crowd. A man from Honduras accused of killing the 21-year-old Root in early 2016 while he was driving drunk in Omaha vanished after posting bail.

Six months after Root’s death, Root’s family attended the senator’s 2016 Roast and Ride and became advocates for a law that Trump signed this past January. It requires authorities to detain any non-citizen who is accused of killing or seriously injuring someone.

(This article written by the Iowa Capital Dispatch. Read the entire version HERE) – Attorneys for Summit Carbon Solutions argued Friday in Polk County District Court that the company’s proposed amendment to its permit for a carbon sequestration pipeline through Iowa should be decided on before a legal case against the permit can move forward. The Iowa Utilities Commission approved a permit in June 2024 for Summit Carbon Solutions to build more than 600 miles of a carbon sequestration pipeline in Iowa, with the condition that the company gain permits in the Dakotas before beginning construction.

The Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, along with several counties and individual landowners, then filed a lawsuit in fall 2024, seeking to overturn the IUC’s permit approval. The lawsuit alleged the proceedings were unfair and that Summit did not meet the definition of a common carrier. Summit filed a petition with the IUC on Sept. 15 to amend its approved permit. The amendment would remove the condition that required approval in the Dakotas and add several route and pipe-size modifications to the permit. This action followed Summit’s second permit denial in South Dakota and the enactment of a law barring the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines in the state.

Summit also requested the court remand the Sierra Club and landowners’ case to the IUC and stay any future actions on the case until the IUC decided on the filed amendment petition. This was the issue before Polk County District Court Judge Scott Beattie Friday morning. Summit’s attorney, Bret Dublinske of Fredrickson & Byron in Des Moines, argued the IUC needed to rule on the amendment petition before the case against the permit could proceed. He argued the facts in the case would be outdated once the IUC ruled on the amendment and the courts would be presented with either duplicative litigation or a scenario in which the ruling did not match the most recent version of the permit.

Wally Taylor, on behalf of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, argued Summit did not supply sufficient information as to how the amendment would change the nature of the lawsuit against the IUC’s decision. Taylor asked the court to deny the motion to remand the case to the IUC.  Michelle Rabe, on behalf of the Iowa Utilities Commission, said while the IUC believes Summit’s request for remand is, “slightly outside” of how a remand is typically used, she believes there are three options forward, “none of which are ideal.”

Rabe said Beattie could deny the remand and allow the case to continue, in which case it would advance through the courts until eventually the Supreme Court issues what she said could be a “moot order” at that point because the permit might have changed via the IUC proceedings. The second option she presented was for the court to grant the remand and allow the IUC to rule on the amendment, in which case she predicted the parties would appeal the IUC’s decision and then the courts would be presented with potentially “parallel” cases.  The third option, she said, would be for the court to stay the decision and allow the IUC proceedings to play out, so that when that decision is appealed, the two cases can be consolidated.

Summit’s amendment petition with the IUC, per Dublinske and the filing, does not seek to do away with the IUC’s protections against a “pipeline to nowhere.” Instead of listing North Dakota as the ending point, Summit asks the permit be changed to instead condition pipeline construction to the company’s securement of “access to one or more sequestration sites and permits or agreements to allow it to reach such storage.”

Opponents suggested the amendment means that Summit plans to change its original route, which would have ended in North Dakota where the CO2 could be pumped into an underground rock formation.  A spokesperson for Summit said Friday the amendment “keeps open the option to transport CO2 west through Nebraska or north through South Dakota.”

Judge Beattie said he will work to issue an order as soon as possible, though he suspected it would be a “couple of weeks” before he able to issue a written order.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – (Updated Oct. 12th w/agenda packet) – The Atlantic City Council will meet in a regularly scheduled session on Wednesday, Oct. 15th, in their Chambers inside the City Hall Building, beginning at 5:30-p.m. (the meeting can be viewed live through the City’s web page at https://cityofatlantic.com/government/meeting-live-stream/).  According to the agenda sent to the media and Council members by City Administrator  John Lund, one of the items on the Council’s agenda is “Discussion and Recommendation on Future Funding to the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce.”City Council Agenda Packet 10-15-2025-min

The matter falls on the heels of last week’s revelation that former Chamber Executive Director Bailey Smith was arrested on numerous charges relating to the alleged misappropriation of Chamber funds. Smith turned herself-in on Oct. 8th and held on a $100,000 bond until being released after posting 10% ($10,000 cash) bond. Smith is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday (Oct. 14th). On Friday, officials with the Chamber announced Programs Director Kelsey Beschorner was named as Executive Director of the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce.

In other business, the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday, will act on:

• An Order to reappoint Mark Smith to the Airport Commission.
• An Order regarding Sponsorship of a Business Plan Competition using funds from the Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) Progress Fund, Commercial Development Services Line Item. (The Order will follow a presentation regarding the proposed Business Plan Competition by CADCO Executive Director Jennifer McEntaffer)
• The Council will act on setting November 5th as the date for a Public Hearing on the transfer and sale of 302 Birch.
• A Resolution “Designating Mental Wellness Checks as a Health & Wellness Benefit for Atlantic Police Department Employees.”
• And, the Council will act on the 3rd and Final Reading of an Ordinance amending the City’s Code of Ordinances, by adding a new chapter regulating the use of electric scooters, motorized scooters, and low-speed vehicles.

Their final order of business will be to act on passing a Resolution authorizing City Administrator John Lund to “Execute a Minimum Assessment Agreement,” pursuant to the Iowa Code.

(Sioux County, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol Friday evening, reported three people were injured in a three-vehicle crash, Thursday morning about five-miles west of Orange City, in northwest Iowa. The Patrol says a Peterbilt semi was traveling north on Highway 75 in Sioux County near the intersection with Highway 10, at about the same time a 2022 GMC 3500 pickup was traveling south. The GMC turned in-front of the semi, causing the vehicles to collide.

A 2017 Chevy 2500 pickup that was stopped on westbound Highway 10 was struck by the semi, along with a 2021 RAM 2500 pickup, which was stopped at the stop sign on Highway 10 in the right-turn lane to Highway 75. The crash happened at around 8:15-a.m., Thursday.

The drivers of semi, GMC and Chevy pickup truck – 22-year-old Dylan DeWit, of Hull, 24-year-old Brayden Utesch-Nemmers, of Orange City, and 43-year-old Kevin Weldon, of Alton – respectively, were injured in the crash. DeWit and Utesch-Nemmers were transported by Sioux Center EMS to Sioux Center Health. Kevin Weldon was transported to Orange City Health by Orange City EMS. All three drivers were wearing their seat belts.