(Radio Iowa) — The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board today (Tuesday) disussed the fatal 2017 Riverside School District bus fire. N-T-S-B chair Robert Sumwalt says driver impairment was an issue as 74-year-old bus driver Donald Hendricks used a walker and had back surgery scheduled the week of the fire. Hendricks and 16-year-old Megan Klindt died when the bus got stuck and caught fire in Klindt’s driveway near Oakland.

“Robust oversight on the part of the school district should ensure the safety of student transportation. But in Oakland, Iowa, that did not happen,” Sumwalt says. He says school buses are safer than passenger cars for getting kids to school if the drivers are medically fit. “The driver in Oakland had been allowed to continue driving despite the fact that the transportation supervisor, the school principal, and the driver’s coworkers knew of the driver’s physical impairment,” according to Sumwalt. “The Iowa administrative code specifies that drivers must be physically able to help ill or injured passengers.”

Sumwalt says the school district had the information needed to prevent the tragedy. “The Riverside Community School District or the R-C-S-D had the knowledge it needed to act. And it did not. And in fact, in recent years, it had done away with the physical performance tests for drivers,”Sumwalt says. Investigators said the fire likely started in the turbocharger of the bus, which overheated after the rear tires became stuck. Sumwalt says this case shows that installing a fire suppression system may have prevented the deaths.

“Fire suppression systems, fire-resistant interior materials, and improved fire safety performance standards could have provided more time for the driver and the student in this tragedy,” Sumwalt says. He says federal standards for school bus fire safety haven’t significantly improved in the last 48 years despite major changes in fire safety in aviation and railroad transportation.

Sumwalt says the N-T-S-B knows there is a shortage of school bus drivers, but the solution cannot be to augment the ranks of safe drivers with drivers who are unsafe due to a medical condition, even a temporary one. He says keeping an unfit driver on the road isn’t kindness. “Once there is a crash, it is cruelty—to him and an untold number of passengers and other road users.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A spokesman for Gov. Kim Reynolds says she asked Iowa Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven to resign because “she wanted to go in a new direction” at the agency. The Reynolds administration gave the explanation Tuesday, a day after she sought the immediate resignation of Foxhoven . Reynolds hired Foxhoven two years ago.

Reynolds’ spokesman Pat Garrett says in a statement the governor “has spent the first part of this year assembling a new team, from top to bottom, to carry out her vision.” He says more changes will be announced in the coming days and weeks.

On Monday, Reynolds announced she’d selected Department of Public Health Director Gerd Clabaugh to take on interim duties running the DHS until a permanent replacement is hired. Reynolds only briefly noted Foxhoven had resigned and didn’t initially give a reason.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo man found guilty of killing his girlfriend’s daughter has been sentenced to life in prison. The Courier reports that 35-year-old Chad Allen Little was sentenced Tuesday. A jury convicted him in May of first-degree murder and child endangerment causing the death of 4-year-old Gracie Buss.

Prosecutors say Little abused his girlfriend’s two children, and delivered a fatal head injury to Gracie in May 2015. Doctors testified that the girl had a series of old and new bruises all over her body and bleeding within her eye.

Gracie’s older brother told police that Little had struck him and the girl in the year before the girl’s death, when Little moved in to the children’s home. Gracie’s mother, Kristi Amber Buss, is awaiting trial on a child endangerment charge.

The Midwest Partnership Economic Development Corporation is partnering with Iowa Workforce Development and Iowa Economic Development Authority to complete a Laborshed employment study for the Greenfield and Guthrie Center areas.  The separate studies will geographically define which communities contribute to Greenfield and Guthrie Center’s workforce, regardless of political boundaries. This defined area is called a Laborshed area and is based upon commuting patterns.

The purpose of this Laborshed study is to measure the availability and characteristics of Greenfield and Guthrie Center area workers. Laborshed studies are useful tools for economic development teams and existing or prospective employers to understand the local labor market, make informed expansion and site selection decisions, and maintain/recruit a high quality workforce.

For the success of this study, MPEDC & IEDA will be sending letters to employers in Greenfield and Guthrie Center, asking that they provide us with aggregate counts of their employees’ residential ZIP codes. This will allow us to determine what the scope and scale of the respective Laborshed area is and better understand where the workforces resides.

A confidential survey of residents will also be conducted to collect workforce characteristic information specific to the area.  Residents will receive a letter directing them how to take the survey online and/or they will receive a telephone call to take the survey. The survey call originates out of Cedar Rapids, IA, therefore, the incoming number will have the 319 area code. It is possible that you may receive a text message from their 888 number as well, alerting you to expect a call from them. Survey questions will cover topics such as: employment status, current and desired wages, current and desired benefits, education level, and type of occupation among other things. However, Iowa Workforce Development will not be asking survey takers identifiable information such as: name, social security number, or date of birth.

Every year Iowa Workforce Development conducts Laborshed studies across the State. The results of each analysis are publicly available online at www.iowalmi.gov/laborshed.  If you have any questions about the Laborshed project, please contact Katie Lippold at 515-281-3035 or Sarah Gomez, with Midwest Partnership EDC at 515-523-1262.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports a Union County man was arrested at around 8:40-a.m. today (Tuesday), for Violation of Iowa’s Sex Offender Registry. 28-year old Bradley Aeron Haley, of Creston, was arrested at Rapp Park, in Page County. Rapp Park is a county owned park that is approximately one-mile north of Shenandoah. Haley and his wife had been staying at Rapp Park for about eight-days. Bradley Haley is a Registered Sex Offender with the state of Iowa and did not register that he was staying there, in violation of the Registry. He was transported to the Page County Jail and was being held on a $2,000 bond, pending appearance in front of a Magistrate Judge.

Bradley Haley

The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports 30-year old Eric Wayne Shinn, of Orient, was arrested June 10th, for Violation of a No Contact or Protective Order. He was taken into custody after he was in a residence with the female protected party from Corning. Shinn admitted he knew he was prohibited from seeing the woman. He was booked into the Adair County Jail and released the following day on a $300 bond.

Red Oak Police report 36-year old Joseph Aaron Nelson, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 1800 block of E. Summit Street at around 10:30 this (Tuesday) morning, on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. Nelson was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

The Audubon School Board, Monday night, made an official invititation to the Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton District, for their students to join Audubon’s Wresting Program. Superintendent Eric Trager….

They also approved a Sharing Agreement with the Coon Rapids-Bayard School District for a Human Resources Director.

The Audubon School Board approved the District’s State-Mandated Emergency Management Plan.  Eric Trager said they already had one in-place, but brought it up-to-date and made it fit the State template.

Members of the Griswold School District’s Board of Education, Monday evening, tabled approval of a Resolution of Intent to sell the District’s Elliott Elementary property. Superintendent Dave Henrichs said it’s been put on hold for the second month in a row due to an issue with the legal description. He said an Abstract is being updated and it’s hoped the frst step in the sale process can be taken soon.

Henrichs said the Board, Monday, took the final step in the sale of the Lewis Elementary building. He said they approved the Deed and authorized delivery, so they are set to transfer ownership on July 2nd. The Board also approved a required Emergency Operations Plan. All district’s are required to have a plan which covers all possible hazards that a school may have. The deadline is July 1st. For each hazard, he says, there has to be three components to the plan. One is mitigation – or preventing an event from happening, the second is what will the district do during an event, the third part is what will the district do afterward?

Henrichs says the Board also approved an eSports Team as part of the District’s Culture Initiative. He said the eSports Team allows students to compete with other schools in the area of electronic gaming on a trial basis. About 40 students have expressed an interest in the program. The Board approved some new hires for the coming school year, along with other personnel matters.

In other action, the Griswold School Board approved a fuel bid by the Tiger Mart in Griswold, and a Tech Support bid of $40/hour from MITS, which is unchanged from the 2011-12 school years. They approved City Agreements for sharing of goods and services with Griswold, Lewis and Elliott, and a continued School Resource Officer. There were also some minor changes to the Student Handbook that were approved as well.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Authorities say a northwest Iowa man was killed after his motorcycle struck a vehicle that had stopped for congested traffic in northeast Omaha. The crash occurred around 5 p.m. Monday. Police say 49-year-old Vernon Hunter was headed north on U.S. Highway 75 when he ran into the rear of the other vehicle. His motorcycle then spun into another traffic lane, where it was hit by a school bus. Police say Hunter was pronounced dead at the scene. He lived in Sioux City, Iowa. No other injuries have been reported.