The Iowa Department of Transportation reports Interstate 29 in Woodbury Coujnty, near Salix, is blocked this morning due to numerous accidents caused by icy roads. The incidents have occurred between Exit 127: IA 141; County Road K42 and Exit 134: County Road K25 (Salix).

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The head of the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau says efforts to reduce fatal crashes in Iowa this year will range for a boost in public awareness campaigns to possible legislation. G-T-S-B chief Patrick Hoye says he was surprised by the 402 traffic deaths recorded in the state in 2016.

“We saw a significant jump from a year ago, about a 26-percent increase,” Hoye says, “2013, ’14, ’15 — we saw some very good progress and we thought Iowa was on the right path. Unfortunately, 2016 turned out to be just a horrific year for traffic safety.”

Two years ago, in 2015, traffic crashes claimed 316 lives, the lowest in 70 years. Hoye says bad weather wasn’t much of a factor in 2016, but the warmer-than-normal year may have had an impact.  “Preliminary numbers are showing there were 60 motorcycle fatalities, so the nice weather may have impacted motorcycle fatalities in our state,” Hoye says.

But, Hoye says the primary factors for the spike in traffic fatalities last year include alcohol, speeding, and drivers paying more attention to their cell phone than the road. “We’re looking at about 30-percent of the fatalities being impaired driving related,” Hoye says. “And although the data is tough to collect, we certainly believe that distracted driving is one of the causes driving the number of fatalities up.”

According to Hoye, over 40-percent of the people killed in Iowa traffic crashes last year were NOT wearing seat belts. The last time Iowa’s yearly highway traffic fatalities surpassed 400 was in 2008 (412 deaths).

(Radio Iowa)

Authorities in northwest Iowa are releasing more information now on the elderly woman who went missing last weekend and was later found dead. Ida County Sheriff Wade Harriman says 84-year-old Beverly Joy Annear went to visit a friend in an Ida Grove nursing home on Friday night and got lost.

“We have a wind farm here in the county and we’ve got these gravel easement roads that go quite a ways out to the fields where the turbines are at,” Sheriff Harriman says. “She got turned into one of those roads, and we believe, unfortunately, it was dark, she got confused and ended up driving into a bean field and got her vehicle hung up on a fence and succumbed to the elements out there.”

The sheriff says the last time Annear was seen alive was around 5:30 that night when she’d stopped to ask for directions.

(Radio Iowa)

Red Oak Police, Monday afternoon, arrested a Cass County woman on a Child Endangerment without injury, charge. 25-year old Morgan Barbara Dvorak, of Atlantic, was taken into custody at around 2:30-p.m. in the 200 block of W. Reed Street. No other details were provided. Dvorak was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $2,000 bond.

One person died in an accident on Highway 30 in Boone County, Monday morning. The Iowa State Patrol reports a westbound 2008 Chevrolet Impala driven by 20-year-old Jacob Vreugdenhil, of Grand Junction, drifted over the center line and struck an eastbound 2016 Nissan van driven by 50-year-old Thomas Lee Hagar, of Jefferson. Hagar was killed in the head-on crash that happened just before 8-a.m.

Vreugdenhil and a passenger in the Hagar van, 57-year-old Lesa Llewellyn Hagar, of Jefferson, were transported to a hospital in Boone for treatment of their injuries.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican leaders on Monday kicked off the new session of the Iowa Legislature with promises to bring major changes to the workings of state government, while university students criticized a push for voter identification at the election polls. The dynamic of complete GOP majority in the Iowa Capitol is expected to sweep in a range of conservative legislation that includes abortion restrictions and changes to collective bargaining.

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Polaris Industries is eliminating its unprofitable Victory Motorcycles brand to focus on its Indian Motorcycle brand and other products. Polaris announced the decision Monday to shut down Victory after 18 years. Polaris CEO Scott Wine says the company decided that its Indian Motorcycle brand had better growth prospects.

NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A judge says deputies in northern Iowa didn’t use excessive force when they repeatedly deployed stun guns against a violent suspect who died after their 2013 confrontation. U.S. Magistrate Judge C.J. Williams has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Larry and Cheryl Zubrod, the parents of 39-year-old Michael Zubrod of Northwood. Williams ruled that Worth County deputies were justified in using Tasers because Zubrod actively resisted arrest after using a hammer to severely injure his girlfriend.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Texas businessman has pleaded guilty to fraud and admitted to helping lottery computer technician Eddie Tipton cash jackpots in a multi-state lottery number-fixing scheme that netted more than $2 million. Robert Rhodes pleaded guilty in a Des Moines courtroom Monday.

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Polaris Industries is eliminating its unprofitable Victory Motorcycles brand to focus on its Indian Motorcycle brand and other products. Polaris announced the decision Monday to shut down Victory after 18 years. The motorcycles were produced at the Minneapolis-based company’s Spirit Lake, Iowa, plant. Polaris CEO Scott Wine says the company decided that its Indian Motorcycle brand had better growth prospects for the future.

Polaris says it lost money on Victory in three of the past five years after sales of the heavyweight motorcycles peaked in 2012. The brand represented only about 3 percent of Polaris’ total sales. Jefferies analyst Trevor Young says the move was a surprise, but it will likely help Indian Motorcycle sales.

In addition to motorcycles, Polaris makes ATVS, snowmobiles, the three-wheeled Slingshot roadster and other vehicles.

Police in Council Bluffs have arrested an off-duty veteran Council Bluffs Police Officer in connection with a hit-and-run incident that took place late Sunday night. 57-year-old Robert G. Miller, of Council Bluffs, faces charges that include OWI, 1st Offense. He was also cited for leaving the scene of a property damage collision, and failure to have control of a vehicle.

Police Chief Tim Carmody reports officers from the Council Bluffs Police Department were dispatched at around 10-p.m. to 757 W. Broadway, to investigate a physical disturbance. Upon arriving officers determined that a hit and run collision had occurred in the area of 8th St. and Ave B. a few minutes earlier. Evidence indicated that the vehicle, a 2001 silver Toyota Sequoia, had struck a tree in the front yard of 115 N. 8th St., backed over a stop sign and street sign, and driven through a wooden fence at 108 N. 8th St.

Residents of 108 N. 8th St. followed the Toyota south on 8th St. until it came to rest at 757 W. Broadway. Officers identified Miller as the driver of the vehicle. The Chief says a disturbance developed between the residents and Miller before officers arrived. Further investigation indicated that Miller appeared to be under the influence of alcohol while operating the Toyota.

An Iowa State Patrol trooper was called to the scene to assist with that portion of the investigation. Miller was subsequently arrested and booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail. He was later cited for leaving the scene of a property damage collision and control of vehicle – both city ordinance violations. Miller, a 33-year veteran of the department, has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the criminal case and the administrative investigation.

Officials with the U-S Environmental Protection Agency have sent out mailings to Atlantic residents, advising the EPA’s Region 7 Office in Lenexa, KS., will host a Public Availability Session Tuesday, Jan. 24th, from 6-until 7:30-p.m. at the Atlantic Municipal Utilities building. The session will provide updates on efforts to mitigate PCE contamination from a former dry cleaning business site near 7th and Plum Streets, and the PCE site on Chestnut Street.

The EPA says it has assessed the ability of the public to access site information through an internet-based repository, and has determined the local community has this ability. Additional site information is available online for anyone with an internet connection, as well as at the Atlantic Public Library, by internet connection.

You may visit the following website to learn more: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/pceformerdrycleaner

Questions or requests for site information may be submitted to:

Pamela Houston, Community Engagement Specialist, U.S. EPA Region 7, 11201 Renner Blvd., Lenexa, KS 66219; Or by calling toll-free, 1-800-223-0425. (You may also e-mail: houston.pamela@epa.gov)

Additional background information:

The former dry cleaning facility and IDOT laboratory facility no longer exist at the location (1205 E. 7th St). The EPA has said municipal drinking water wells have been impacted due to groundwater contamination associated with the former dry cleaner. The groundwater contaminants of concern were identified to be the following volatile organic compounds: tetrachloroethene (PCE) and its degradation products including tricholoroethene (TCE) and 1,2-dichloroethene (DCE). The site was proposed for the National Priorities List (NPL) in September 2015 and was officially listed on the NPL in April 2016.

EPA is planning to conduct in situ thermal remediation to treat PCE contamination at the source area. The thermal remediation is tentatively planned to begin in early 2017. EPA is also planning to install a groundwater extraction and treatment system which will prevent PCE contamination from impacting additional municipal wells. The groundwater extraction and treatment system construction is tentatively planned to begin mid-2017.