(Guthrie Center, IA) – Sheriff’s officials in Guthrie County say no injuries were reported following a collision Sunday evening between a car and a snow plow. The accident happened at around 5:45-p.m. on Iowa Highway 141 from Highway 4. The car, a 2005 Buick Lesabre driven by 43-year-old Troy H. Jorgensen, of Chelsea (IA) and the 2012 International snow plow with its warning lights activated, and driven by 33-year-old Alexander Ray Higgins, of Jefferson, were both traveling westbound on Highway 141, when the car hit the plow from behind.

The car came to rest on the road, while the truck stopped on the shoulder. Damage from the collision amounted to $11,000 altogether. Authorities said Jorgensen was not wearing his seat belt. The vehicle’s airbag deployed upon impact. Jorgensen was cited for Failure to maintain control.

(Creston, IA) – Officials with the Creston Police Department, today (Monday), said two people were arrested on separate OWI-related charges, Friday. At around 9:40-a.m., Creston Police Officers arrested 37-year-old Lisa Joanne Squibbs, of Afton. She was arrested at the Creston Law Enforcement Center on an Outside Agency Warrant for Operating While Under the Influence – 1st Offense, and a warrant for Failure to appear on an original, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, charge. Squibbs was taken to the Union County Jail where she posted bond totaling $1,300 and was released.

And, just before midnight, Friday, Creston Police arrested 47-year-old Genea Collaine Moore, of Des Moines, a the intersection of Highway 34 and Abell Street.  Moore was charged with OWI – 1st Offense. She was transported to the Union County Jail where she posted a $1,000 cash or surety bond before being released.

(Mount Ayr, IA) – The Ringgold County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on March 12th, of 58-year-old Randell Lee Osborn, of Tingley. He was taken into custody on an active Ringgold County warrant for Animal Neglect with Serious Injury or Death (an Aggravated Misdemeanor), and, Animal Neglect without injury/serious injury or death (Simple Misdemeanor). Bond was set at $2,300.

[UPDATED] (Atlantic, IA) – White out conditions and a glaze of ice on the roads caused multiple crashes on Interstate 80 in western Iowa late Sunday afternoon and evening, resulted in injuries and stranded motorists being ferried to shelter in Cass and area Counties. The Iowa State Patrol reports there were 61 crashes covered between 9-a.m. Sunday and 9-p.m. Nine of those accidents involved injuries, and 61 resulted in property damage. There was one fatality accident in Davis County. The Iowa Department of Transportation shut down Interstate 80 between West Des Moines and Council Bluffs, Sunday evening, and would later shut down the Interstate from Altoona eastward to Iowa City. I-35 was also closed between Ames and the Minnesota border.

Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon says emergency services and law enforcement were kept very busy all night long.

Kennon said with the interstate having been closed, a number of vehicles remained in the ditches. He wasn’t sure how many cars and trucks were strewn about the ditches and median, but those motorists needed a place to stay and in some cases, receive medical treatment. The Nishna Valley YMCA in Atlantic was the designated shelter.

Officials in Cass County coordinated rescue services from a number of surrounding towns and counties, to transported multiple persons injured in the I-80 crash.

The YMCA guests were served a hot meal this (Monday) morning. Now, Kennon said, the trick is to get those motorists back to their vehicles once the roads re-open.

The accidents began being reported in Harrison County at around 3:45-p.m., when multiple vehicles piled-up between the 93 and 99 mile markers, Sunday. It wasn’t long after the snow began to fall and the winds began to gust, that the crashes began to occur on I-80 in Pottawattamie County near mile marker 30, and in Cass and Adair Counties, as the storm pushed eastward. An Iowa State Patrol cruiser was struck during one of the accidents. Prior to the statewide shutdown of I-80, the Interstate was blocked westbound near the Marne exit at around 4:45-p.m. due a multi-vehicle injury accident that reportedly included at least one semi. Separate crashes occurred not far from the initial accident site, and on I-80 in Adair County.

Overnight, winds gusted to 55-mph in Atlantic, 58-mph wind gusts were recorded in Spencer, Storm Lake, Algona and Creston yesterday (Sunday). The National Weather Service in Omaha reports a 64-mph gust was recorded near Villisca, Sunday. 61-mph gusts were reported near Council Bluffs and Emerson, and a 56-mph blast of wind occurred at the Harlan Airport.

(Radio Iowa) – Despite the snow, it’ll soon be spring and Iowans will need to take greater care when using a host of products inside their homes and outside in their yards to avoid accidental poisonings. Janna Day, spokeswoman for the Iowa Poison Control Center and a licensed practical nurse, says they handled nearly 24-thousand poisoning cases last year, with calls from all 99 counties. The most common call involved pain relievers, medications found in nearly every household. “That could be things like acetaminophen, ibuprofen, those types of things. It’s important to note that when you’re taking an over-the-counter medication, to just be mindful of how much you’re taking, what the correct dose is,” Day says, “and if you ever have questions, you can always call us.”

Of all the calls to the toll-free number last year from Iowans, she says more than half involved children. Day says the Sioux City-based center is offering a new communications feature on its website: Iowa Poison-dot-org. “We understand that there are some folks who would rather connect with us via a chat feature and so we have launched that and we are excited to be able to offer that to the public,” Day says. “You can go onto our website and chat with us. You will still get connected to one of our nurses or one of our pharmacists.” Without access to the Iowa Poison Control Center, a study found 78-percent of callers report they would have gone directly to a hospital emergency room.

By providing immediate expert assessment and follow-up care, Day says the center saves Iowans nearly 16-million dollars in healthcare costs every year. “If you call the Iowa Poison Control Center, oftentimes we can manage your case with you right at home and save you a trip to the emergency department or save your child a trip to the emergency department,” Day says. “We can help with those cases just right over the phone or right over our chat feature.”

Contacting the hotline is free, confidential, and available around the clock at 1-800-222-1222.

(Radio Iowa) – The state Transportation Commission has approved rules for the new hands free cellphone law that could lead to violators losing their driver’s license. The D-O-T’s Kathleen Meradith-Ayers the new rules make a hands-free violation impact your driving record.”Under the new law, a conviction for violating the new hands-free law will count when we’re tallying up the number of moving violations on a person’s driving record to determine whether their license should be suspended,” she says. Meradith-Ayers says they step in when you get too many violations. “The suspension is triggered once you get three moving violations in a 12-month period,” she says.

Meradith-Ayers says your license can be suspended for 90 days after you reach the three moving violations. “Once a driver’s license suspension happens, Usually they can either serve the suspension or you can appeal it and we will go through and make sure everything was applied correctly. For some of these sort of lower level suspensions, there is a class you can take in lieu of the suspension called the Driver Improvement Program,” says Meradith-Ayers. Iowa has a graduated driver’s license system for young people where they start with a restricted license before earning a regular one.

Meradith-Ayers says a hands-free violation carries more weight for them. “For younger drivers, there’s a much lower tolerance, so that as soon as you cause a crash or you get one traffic conviction, that often triggers a suspension or some sort of warning action against the license,” she says. The change needs one final approval from the Administrative Rules Committee and they will then be active.

(Radio Iowa) – The complete list of candidates who’ve qualified for the Iowa Republican and Democratic Party’s Primary Elections on June 2nd is likely to be released later today (Monday) or tomorrow. Friday at 5 p.m. was the deadline for candidates to walk into the Iowa Secretary of State’s office with their nominating paperwork. Republican Eddie Andrews, who’s been campaigning for governor, entered at 4:55 with a group of campaign volunteers carrying petitions they’d been scrambling for over an hour to organize.

Andrews filled out his affidavit of candidacy form as a couple of volunteers were still clipping batches of petitions together. “We’re having fun, OK?” Andrews said. That’s Andrews. The volunteer doing most of the organizing joked about the situation as reporters looked on: “We had to have some drama for the press.” Andrews replied: “If there’s no drama, I mean seriously, why would we even try?” When it came to the identity verification part, Andrews used the Capitol I-D card he gets as a member of the state legislature because Andrews left his driver’s license in his car.

Before Andrews left the secretary of state’s office, he posed for a photo with the seven people who were part of the deadline sprint. “Thank you guys,” Andrews said and one of his volunteers asked: “Where’s the sparking apple cider?”

State election staff worked over the weekend to count signatures and verify if candidates like Andrews who filed near the deadline had qualified for the ballot. Candidates for the U.S. Senate and governor must have the signatures of at least 35-hundred eligible Iowa voters, with at least 100 signatures on petitions from 19 different counties. This is the ninth Primary Election cycle Secretary of State Paul Pate has been overseeing this process.

“There’s always someone who comes in at the last minute and I can understand some of the things they go through trying to get their campaign paperwork together,” Pate said, “but obviously we encourage them to get in here a little earlier since we have a three-week window to file.” Pate’s staff counts signatures not once but twice to make sure the count is verified, then there’s an objection period where signatures on a candidate’s nominating petitions can be challenged.

Julie Stauch — a Democrat who’d been running for governor — submitted her nominating petitions on Thursday, but Stauch says was notified by the secretary of state’s office on Friday that she did not meet the signature thresh-hold. It means State Auditor Rob Sand will be the only candidate for governor on Democrats’ primary ballots.

Republican and Democratic Party candidates in Iowa’s four congressional districts are required to submit at least 17-hundred-26 signatures, including at least 47 signatures from half of the counties in the district. Candidates for the Iowa Senate have to collect at least 100 signatures on nominating petitions, while Iowa House candidates have to submit at least 50. Republicans and Democrats running for attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer, state ag secretary and secretary of state must submit at least 25-hundred signatures.

Officials with MidAmerican Energy, late Sunday night, said their crews were working to restore service to customers impacted by outages due to a Blizzard Warning and a High Wind Warning issued by the National Weather Service Sunday night into Monday morning.

Dan Winters VP, Corporate Communications said in a press release, “MidAmerican prepared both our company crews and contractor crews, including tree crews, ahead of this winter storm, and our teams are continuing restoration efforts throughout the night. Most customers should expect to have service restored by approximately 6 a.m., with restoration in northwest and north‑central Iowa expected to be completed around midday tomorrow (Monday).

Our greatest challenges right now are:

• Icy and snow-covered road conditions, including many closures
• Strong winds
• Blowing snow leading to reduced visibility

Even so, our crews will continue working safely through the night, and additional resources have been deployed and are ready to travel as soon as road conditions safely allow. We appreciate our customers’ patience and understanding as we work to restore service as quickly and safely as possible.”

Electric safety during storms

If you encounter a fallen line – even if it appears to be a fallen communications line – always assume it is energized and stay far away. Report it immediately. We have personnel in the field monitoring downed wires to help protect the public until line crews arrive.

How to report outages and emergencies

• Report outages: MidAmericanEnergy.com, via the MidAmerican Energy mobile app, through our social media channels, or by calling 888-427-5632.
• Report electric emergencies, including downed power lines: 1-800-799-4443 (Note: this number is for electric emergencies only).
• Customers can also opt in to receive text and email updates by visiting My Account on our website.

(Davis County, IA) – A collision Sunday night between two SUV’s left one person dead and two others injured. According to the Iowa State Patrol, the crash happened at around 9:25-p.m. on Highway 2, west of West Grove, in Davis County. Authorities say a 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee was traveling east on Highway 2 and a 2010 Buick Enclave was traveling westbound in the eastbound lane. The SUV’s collided head-on.

Both driver’s and a passenger in the Buick were transported to the Davis County Hospital in Bloomfield, where the driver of the Buick was pronounced deceased. The person was not wearing a seat belt.

No names have been released (as of the posting of this report), pending notification of family.