(Creston, Iowa) – A man from Dallas County complained of pain and possible injury, but was not transported to the hospital, following a collision Friday evening, in Creston. According to Creston Police, a Dodge pickup driven by 62-year-old Richard Mordock, of Creston, and a Chrysler van driven by 39-year-old Preston Hopkins, of Dexter, were both traveling north on Sumner Avenue in Creston, at around 5:20-p.m., Friday, when Mordock attempted to change lanes.

The right front of his pickup struck the left side of the van, causing a total of $4,000 damage. Hopkins complained of shoulder pain as a result of the collision. Both men were wearing their seat belts.

No citations were issued, but the Police report indicated Mordock made an improper or erratic lane change.

Friday afternoon, Red Oak mayoral candidate John Haidsaik issued a statement to the media, whereby he withdrew his name from consideration for the Nov. 4th election. Haidsaik said that while it’s too late to take his name off of the ballot, he is “No longer running for the office of Mayor in Red Oak,” and added his apology for what he “Said recently at the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council Conversation with The Candidates.” He said he “truly did not intend to offend anyone.”

You can listen to and view a transcript of Haidsailk’s comments he made Wednesday that drew much criticism, in a separate story on the kjan.com News page.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says the layoffs President Trump has ordered during the federal government shutdown are long overdue. Ernst suggests the president’s “Reduction in Force” or RIF program should target Internal Revenue Service employees who owe back taxes.

Ernst says there are far more who should be fired.

The U-S Department of Energy operates 17 National Laboratories. Ernst cites a 2023 report in The Nation magazine in which employees at a nuclear weapons complex in New Mexico admitted they had napped and played games during the workday.

That came from an electrician assigned to work in a restricted area of the facility where the first atomic bomb was created. Energy Department officials told the magazine they did not find evidence a manager was falsifying time sheets for electricians who are part of a massive workforce upgrading the country’s nuclear stockpile.

On October 1st, Ernst released a Congressional Budget Office analysis that estimates 750-thousand government employees have been furloughed during the shutdown. Ernst says the shutdown exposes that many of those employees are truly non-essential and should be put on the chopping block.

(Oakwood, IL) – A retired part-time police officer and small business entrepreneur from Illinois who is on limited income, has someone to thank in Atlantic for his honesty and compassion. Tim Stewart lives in Oakwood, IL, and he had stopped at a gas station in Covington, Indiana to get something for his granddaughter around the 9th or 10th of October. They didn’t have what he needed so he went somewhere else. When he got out to pay for it, he realized his wallet with $150 inside, was missing.

When his “Angel” -as Tim calls him – found the wallet, they searched the internet for nearly two-hours and found his number, and gave Stewart a call.

Stewart said he was beside himself, dumbfounded that someone would take the time to track him down and give him the good news.

The man didn’t want to take the chance on leaving the wallet at the gas station where he found it, so he offered to mail it to Stewart. He told Stewart he was from Atlantic, Iowa, and he worked at a “cycle shop.” The return address turned out to be Nishna Valley Cycle. Stewart said his first reaction to getting his wallet back, was shock.

Tim said while he didn’t get the man’s name, it “restored his faith in humanity.”

Stewart said he wanted to let people know, that the world isn’t full of all bad news and bad people.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with Iowa Health and Human Services (HHS) are alerting Iowans who use SNAP that due to the federal shutdown continuing, there is a possibility that November benefits will not be issued onto cards. In a statement today (Friday), officials say Iowa received notification from the Food and Nutrition Service late last week directing the state, and all states nationwide, not to issue November benefits.

Iowa HHS continues to monitor the situation very closely and will provide updates. Iowa SNAP currently serves approximately 131,000 households per month and allocates around 45 million dollars in benefits, which are federally paid.

Iowa HHS has engaged our food bank and pantry partners and community-based organizations to prepare to provide additional support to impacted Iowans.

Once the government shutdown ends, Iowa HHS will work diligently to process SNAP benefits and make them available for use with the SNAP card. Individuals that currently receive SNAP should retain their cards even throughout the shutdown.

As the situation evolves, Iowa HHS will continue to provide updates as they become available. Please visit hhs.iowa.gov/snap to sign up for updates.

(Radio Iowa) – A Democrat from Boone in central Iowa has filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for Iowa’s open U.S. House seat in northeast Iowa. Guy Morgan says while he doesn’t live in the second district, he has family ties in the area and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa. The U-S Constitution does not require U.S. House candidates to live in the district they’d representing, but they must be a resident of the state they’d represent. Morgan says he’s running an environmentally focused campaign.

In 2023, 3-M agreed to pay over 10-BILLION dollars to settle lawsuits filed by public drinking water systems contaminated with so-called “forever chemicals” used in products like the foams used to fight fires. Morgan is the fifth Democrat to announce they’d seek the seat currently held by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2026.

(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa man has been arrested and charged with vote fraud. Thirty-five-year-old Cody Swain of Marion is accused of voting in last year’s General Election after listing an address in Cedar Rapids on his voter registration form. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports Swaim has lived in Marion for the past three years, but listed a Cedar Rapids apartment he moved out of in 2018 as his home address.

Swaim faces a charge of first-degree election misconduct. It’s a felony that carries a sentence of up to five years in prison.

(Radio Iowa) – Congressman Randy Feenstra — a Republican who’s planning to launch a campaign for governor soon — supports the federal tax credits that could go to the developer of a proposed carbon pipeline, but Feenstra opposes the Iowa Utilities Commission’s decision to give Summit Carbon Solutions authority to seize land from unwilling property owners along the pipeline route.

Republicans have been divided on the issue since Summit announced in early 2021 that it planned to build a pipeline to capture carbon from ethanol plants in Iowa and other Midwestern states. This spring, a dozen Republicans joined Democrats in the state senate and passed a pipeline-related bill. Governor Reynolds wound up vetoing that bill, which would have limited the use of eminent domain for construction of carbon pipelines. Feenstra hasn’t indicated whether he would have done the same.

That’s the same eminent domain position taken by the three Republicans who’ve already launched campaigns for governor this year. Feenstra has long argued that homegrown Iowa ethanol will help make the U.S. energy independent and that carbon capture would enhance Iowa’s ethanol industry and support Iowa’s corn growers.

The proposed pipeline was an issue in Feenstra’s 2024 re-election campaign when a G-O-P challenger got the votes of nearly a third of the Republicans who voted in the fourth congressional district primary.