Crews will be on scene cleaning up a mercury spill in Northwest Iowa Wednesday and likely the rest of the week. The Environmental Protection Agency was called in after a glass jar containing mercury was found in the basement of a home on 2nd Avenue in Armstrong. Police say a painter found the mercury and brought the jar to a local bar, where he dropped it and spilled the mercury. They tried to clean it up. Then the painter took the bottle back to the home where three children poured it into a sandbox. The children and 10 adults are being watched for signs of mercury poisoning.
Authorities say they've received very little new information in the last few days about the whereabouts of two missing eastern Iowa cousins, but officials say that doesn't mean they're scaling back the search. It's been nearly two weeks since 8 year-old Elizabeth Collins and 10 year-old Lyric Cook-Morrisey went for a bike ride and vanished. At this point, authorities are still treating the case as an abduction.
After years of overtime budget issues, the Woodbury County Sheriff's Department says it's under budget by almost half. They had $261,000 in their overtime budget this past year and only spent $157,000. This is the lowest the sheriff's overtime costs have been in six years.
With the Olympics just two days away, one northwest Iowa town will be rooting for one of their own to win an Olympic gold. Former Sheldon, Iowa athlete, A.G. Kruger, will compete in the men's hammer throw at the London Olympics. This will be Kruger's third Olympic games. Kruger finished 32nd at the Athens games in 2004, and 27th in Beijing in 2008.
