The cops say he came from Wasilla.

Clay County (Iowa) authorities say an Alaskan man was injured this weekend while trying to help out at the scene of a crash involving a 91-year-old woman.

According to a sheriff’s press release, Joseph Beck, of Wasilla, Alaska, was driving in the area when he noticed an accident at the corner of M-50 and B-24 just east of Spencer, Iowa.

As many of you know, Wasilla is famous for being the home of former Republican vice presidential nominee, hockey mom and new author Sarah Palin. (Or, as Vanity Fair likes to say about Palin: “It Came From Wasilla.”)

Police say the accident happened about 4:45 p.m. Saturday when Lois Michelson, 91, of Spencer was turning left from M-50 onto B-24 when her Buick Century hit the side of a Chevrolet Cavalier driven by Jesse Clark, 23, of Spencer.

The impact sent Clark’s vehicle into the ditch.

Police say Beck, who was not involved in the accident, stopped to help.

Things really got interesting, police say, when Clark found out somebody called the cops — and promptly took off.

Beck allegedly saw him leaving, tried to get him to stop and was dragged across the intersection for his efforts.

According to police, Beck suffered a laceration to the back of his head when he fell.

The press release doesn’t say why Clark, likely not the cause of the accident, allegedly decided to flee but the fact one of the charges he faces is driving while license revoked speaks volumes.

The other charge is reckless driving.

Could this be some sneaky sort of media campaign for Palin’s new book, Going Rogue? You know, send out native Wasillans to do good deeds the week your book launches….

Maybe not, but Beck is the first Alaskan I’ve ever seen in a Northwest Iowa accident report.

Then again, if you’re brave you can try asking Palin yourself when she signs copies of her book Dec. 6 at Barnes & Noble in the Southern Hills Mall. As of now, it’s her only stop in Iowa.

Defense attorneys threw an interesting twist into what was supposed to be a routine pretrial hearing Tuesday for Andrew Orellana, a Sioux City man accused of shooting and killing a rival gang member back in 1997.

Prior to the hearing, Orellana’s attorneys filed a motion asking prosecutors to produce a variety of evidence.

Tops on the list was details of a phone call someone made to Sioux City police, reporting that a gun used in the murder was in a police officer’s mailbox.

Say what?

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Officials say Sioux City’s most famous yellow Labrador is still on the loose tonight, despite rampant rumors of his capture.

Jake, Councilman Aaron Rochester’s dog, has been missing since he was stolen Sunday from Sioux City Animal Control.

Jake was being held there on doggie death row after being ruled vicious for biting a neighbor in front of his house.

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The saga of Jake, Sioux City Councilman Aaron Rochester’s dog, gets more twisted by the day.

The yellow Labrador ran into trouble with the law in June after biting somebody in front of his house, then became the poster pup for a vicious animal ordinance that supporters of other breeds (pit bulls) have complained about since its inception.

Rochester and his family went through the city’s various processes with the dog, whose vicious designation was upheld, and Jake was sent to the dog version of death row at Sioux City Animal Control.

As many of you may already know, on Sunday somebody busted him out of jail. Today, the Journal is reporting Rochester says he sold Jake for $1  just before he was stolen.

You can’t make this stuff up.
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He also chatted with them on the police radio, too.

That’s what the Austin Post-Bulletin of southeast Minnesota says happened after police responded to a report of a man threatening his relative with a knife Friday night in Lyle, Minn.

It sounds like police realized suspect Jerry Winkel allegedly stole one of their squad cars when they heard the following over their police radios:

 ”What do you intend to do with Jeremy Winkel — take him to the hospital or jail?”

I guess it’s always good to know what your options are.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have another family on the run.

Authorities say a southwestern Minnesota woman and her 13-year-old son have fled the state, possibly the country, to avoid court-ordered chemotherapy treatment for the boy.

Danny Hauser has cancer.

His parents, Anthony and Colleen Hauser, fought a losing legal battle to continue to treat their son’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma  according to their Internet-based Native American religion. They did not want to use chemotherapy.

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This weekend, Sioux City police investigating a hit-and-run traffic accident discovered they had more than just a bad driver on their hands.

They had Andrew Carlos Orellana, a man accused first-degree murder for allegedly gunning down a South Sioux City teen in a gang-related shooting in 1997.

After 12 years evading police, it was truly a minor accident that got Orellana caught.

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A Sioux City teen suspected of dealing methamphetamine took off from police, court documents state, leading officers on a chase that ended in the bathroom.

According to court documents, Christopher Ristau, 18, attracted the attention of police on March 25 when his vehicle drifted across the center line — in front of a police car — on the 3100 block of Correctionville Road.

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A Sioux City man charged with drunk driving had an unsual — and painful — excuse for not completing field sobriety tests.

According to court documents, Alfred James Nelson, 24, was intoxicated when he tried to flee police in his 2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee at 1:13 a.m. on April 6.

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On Friday, some local officers got to try their hand at herding cats.

Literally.

Sioux City police, a Union County sheriff deputy and an animal control officer responded to a report of a woman driving a car carrying 30 cats.

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