DONNELLSON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa day care worker has been arrested and charged with child endangerment in the December death of a child in her care.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety says in a news release that Laura McDowell was charged Thursday with the felony. Investigators say McDowell was the site supervisor and lead teacher at Raisin Em Up Daycare in Donnellson. Medics were called to the child care center on Dec. 3 for an unresponsive child. Police say the child was taken a nearby hospital, and later to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

On Dec. 11, the child was taken of life support and pronounced dead.

No details about what caused the child’s death or what led to McDowell’s arrest were released.

COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) — A southeastern Iowa high school teacher has been arrested and charged with sexually exploiting a student at his school.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety says in a news release that 33-year-old Eusebio Jimenez Jr. was charged Thursday with sexual exploitation by a school employee. Jimenez is a Spanish language teacher in the Columbus Community High School. Superintendent Gary Benda says Jimenez has been suspended pending the outcome of his criminal case.

Jimenez was booked into the Louisa County Jail; a person who answered the phone at the jail Thursday afternoon said Jimenez was in the process of being released on $5,000 cash bond. It was not clear whether Jimenez had an attorney.

Investigators say an underage student reported in November that he had been sexually exploited by Jimenez.

DES MOINES – Gov. Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation today for Lucas and Monroe counties in response to severe storms and tornadoes Aug. 20 and continuing.

The governor’s proclamation allows state resources to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of this severe weather and activates the Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program for qualifying residents, along with the Disaster Case Management Program, for Lucas and Monroe counties.

The Iowa Individual Assistance Grant Program provides grants of up to $5,000 for households with incomes up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level or a maximum annual income of $41,560 for a family of three. Grants are available for home or car repairs, replacement of clothing or food, and temporary housing expenses. Original receipts are required for those seeking reimbursement for actual expenses related to storm recovery. The grant application and instructions are available on the Iowa Department of Human Services website. Potential applicants have 45 days from the date of the proclamation to submit a claim.

Disaster Case Management is a program to address serious needs to overcome a disaster-related hardship, injury or adverse condition. Disaster case managers work with clients to create a disaster recovery plan and provide guidance, advice and referral to obtain a service or resource. There are no income eligibility requirements for this program; it closes 180 days from the date of the governor’s proclamation. For information on the Disaster Case Management Program, contact your local community action association or visit www.iowacommunityaction.org.

Iowa residents of counties impacted by the recent severe weather are asked to report damage to help local and state officials better understand the damage sustained. Damage to property, roads, utilities and other storm-related information may be reported. This information will be collected by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and shared with local emergency management agencies.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest Thursday of a Tarkio, MO man. Deputies arrested 25-year-old Brandon Nelson Yost of Tarkio, MO on a Page County Warrant for Burglary 3rd Degree, a class D Felony. Yost was found to be hiding in an apartment at 707 8th Avenue in Shenandoah. He was taken to the Page County Jail and held on $5,000 bond pending further court appearances.

Page County Sheriff’s Officials also report an arrest from Monday. Deputies arrested 26-year-old Taylor Kae Dukes of Clarinda on a Warrant for Animal Running at Large / Failure to appear for Magistrate court. Dukes was arrested at the Sheriff’s Office and posted $300 bond and was released pending further court proceedings.

CDC is providing consultation to state health departments about a cluster of pulmonary illnesses possibly related to e-cigarette product use, or “vaping,” primarily among adolescents and young adults. Many states have alerted CDC to possible (not confirmed) cases and investigations into these cases are ongoing. In addition, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is working with CDC and state health officials to gather information on any products or substances used and providing technical and laboratory assistance. FDA encourages the public to submit detailed reports of any unexpected tobacco- or e-cigarette-related health or product issues to the FDA via the online Safety Reporting Portal.‎ While some cases in each of the states are similar and appear to be linked to e-cigarette product use, more information is needed to determine what is causing the illnesses.

Latest Information

• 153 possible cases of severe lung illness associated with e-cigarette product use were reported by 16 states (CA, CT, FL, IL, IN, IA, MN, MI, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, TX, UT, and WI) from June 28, 2019, to August 20, 2019.
• No deaths have been reported.
• CDC and states have not identified a cause, but all reported cases have e-cigarette product use or “vaping.”
• Available evidence does not suggest that an infectious disease is the principal cause of the illness.
• Investigators have not identified any specific product or compound that is linked to all cases.
• In many cases, patients reported a gradual start of symptoms including breathing difficulty, shortness of breath, and/or chest pain before hospitalization. Some cases reported mild to moderate gastrointestinal illness including vomiting and diarrhea and fatigue as well.
• In many cases, patients have acknowledged recent use of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)-containing products while speaking to healthcare personnel or in follow-up interviews by health department staff; however, no specific product has been identified in all cases, nor has any product been conclusively linked to illnesses.
• Even though cases appear similar, it is not clear if these cases have a common cause or if they are different diseases with similar presentations. The State Departments of Health are investigating the possible cause of the illness by testing patient specimens and e-cigarette products. State-specific epidemiologic investigations are ongoing.
• The Wisconsin and Illinois departments of health have asked CDC for assistance investigating the illnesses in their states. The investigation is ongoing and more information will be shared as it is available.

CDC notified U.S. healthcare systems and clinicians about the illnesses and what to watch for via a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) Clinical Action Message. For information about a specific state, contact that state’s health department.

For information on electronic cigarettes visit: www.cdc.gov/e-cigarettes

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa agency issued more than 5,800 professional licenses to private security employees without conducting background checks to determine whether they were eligible, auditors said Thursday.

The failure means that some applicants with disqualifying criminal records were granted credentials to work as private bail enforcement officers, private investigators and business security guards. Some of them may still be working in those fields, a report from State Auditor Rob Sand suggested.

Since the problems were discovered a year ago, the Iowa Department of Public Safety has revoked about 25 licenses that were granted to people who had felony or aggravated misdemeanor convictions that should have disqualified them, Commissioner Stephan Bayens said. Nearly 600 other current license holders still have not undergone required FBI background checks, and the department is working to get those completed in coming months, he said at a news conference.

The investigation found lax oversight among security workers who hold positions of trust and work with law enforcement to ensure public safety, Sand said.

“Those individuals were able to be employed despite no background check having been conducted,” he said.

Iowa law requires anyone who operates a private security business to obtain a license from the department, and their employees must apply for ID cards and carry them while on duty. To be eligible, applicants are required to be at least 18 years old, have no prior felony or aggravated misdemeanor convictions, and have no history of alcohol or drug abuse, mental illness or violence.

Applicants first face an Iowa-specific background investigation. If they pass, their fingerprints are sent to the FBI for a nationwide check.

Bayens said a department clerk responsible for issuing licenses, Joseph Sheehan Jr., conducted the Iowa background checks and rejected those who failed. But he then often failed to submit their fingerprints for the FBI check even though he indicated in some internal records that he had. Bayens said he didn’t want to speculate as to Sheehan’s motivation, but investigators have not found evidence that Sheehan received any improper financial benefit.

The audit found that 5,817 private security licenses were granted from July 2016 through August 2018 without the required national background check. It’s likely even more licenses were improperly granted in previous years but that investigators didn’t look farther back, according to the report.

Sheehan, who had worked full-time for the department since 2005, was fired last November for several policy violations. Two listed phone numbers for Sheehan, 60, had been disconnected.

The problems were exposed after a security guard with an extensive criminal history from other states applied for a gun permit in Linn County. A sheriff’s deputy told a state agent that the man should not have qualified for his security guard license, given his past.

The agent reported the concerns to the department’s Program Services Bureau, which oversees the security licenses and found discrepancies in how Sheehan handled the application. The department launched an investigation and Sheehan was placed on leave in August 2018. The department began completing national background checks on thousands of licensees and asked the auditor’s office to investigate.

The audit found that the department had failed to ensure that companies were promptly returning revoked licenses as required by Iowa code, which means that some ineligible workers may still be using them. The licenses also do not have an expiration date, which the department should consider changing, auditors said.

Bayens said the findings of the criminal investigation have been turned over to the Polk County attorney’s office, which didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.

NEMAHA, Iowa (AP) — A volunteer firefighter and another man have been accused of setting fire to a corncrib in western Iowa’s Sac County so the firefighter could respond with his department and help put it out.

Sac County court records say 25-year-old Brent Mack and 18-year-old Alexander Lilly have been charged with arson. A 17-year-old girl has been charged with conspiracy to commit a felony. The records don’t list the names of any attorneys for them. All three live in Newell.

The Nemaha and other departments responded early Monday morning to battle the blaze a little more than a mile (1.7 kilometers) north of Nemaha. Suspicions grew after another firefighter found Mack had arrived first at the station even though Mack lived at least 15 minutes away in Newell.

The court records say Mack later told investigators that he, Lilly and the girl had driven around the area, looking for a place to set a fire, and settled on the corncrib. It was a total loss.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports that a sign in Creston was stolen sometime in early August. A resident reported that the sign was taken from North Cherry Street Road and it had Rotary, Kiwanis, and Lions Organization signage on it. The approximate value of the sign is $500.  It is believed the sign was taken between August 1st and 15th.

DES MOINES – City and school elections will be conducted simultaneously this year, on Tuesday November 5. A law passed by the Iowa Legislature in 2017 ended the longstanding tradition of holding school board elections in September.

Secretary of State Paul Pate hopes the combined elections will increase voter participation.

“Turnout for city and school elections is usually not very high and I hope that changes this year,” Secretary Pate said. “A lot of voters might not realize that these local elections tend to have a much greater impact on their daily lives than the races for president and the U.S. Senate.”

The filing period for candidates in city and school general elections begins Monday, August 26 and runs through Thursday, September 19.

Some cities also conduct primary elections for city council positions. That filing period runs through August 29. Primary elections will take place on October 8.

Candidate’s Guides, which include deadlines and information about collecting petition signatures to qualify for the ballot, are available at the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, sos.iowa.gov, in the Elections section.

(Radio Iowa) — Farmland values across the region fell by one-percent during the second quarter compared to a year ago but they rose one-percent in Iowa, according to a report from the Chicago Federal District. Sam Funk is director of ag analytics and research for the Iowa Farm Bureau.

“If anybody out there thought that land values would maintain and sustain as strong as they have, I think that would’ve been a shock for most people to think anything else than maybe a little weakness,” Funk says, “just because of general economic conditions we’ve seen across the district and across the primary commodities that we have in the Midwest.”

Funk says Iowa’s farmland values are in better shape than in the rest of the region. “The fact that they haven’t fallen any more than they have I think is a very good sign of the strength that we have in the underlying asset value with land,” Funk says. The biggest factor for farmland values was lower commodity prices, which he says was caused partially by weather extremes this year.

“Iowa actually had stronger appearance of good crop conditions relative to some of our neighbors in Illinois or Indiana,” Funk says. “That’s been seen in several USDA reports and other factors where we got more of our crop planted and it does look better generally than in some of our neighboring states.”

The Chicago Fed District Survey covers all of Iowa and parts of Illinois and Indiana as well as southern Wisconsin and the lower peninsula of Michigan.