With the pandemic, the civil unrest, the drought, and then the derecho, some Iowans have been stressed for months. The Iowa State University Extension is offering a program starting next week that’s designed to help us to help each other cope. David Brown, a behavioral health specialist with the I-S-U Extension, explains the goals of the Mental Health First Aid program. “The whole purpose of the program is to teach individuals a little bit more about mental health and signs and symptoms of when someone may be developing a mental health issue,” Brown says. “It teaches you a five-step action plan to help individuals intervene and make sure the person is safe, and actually gets them to the appropriate professional support.”

It’s a comprehensive, four-hour training session which aims to help participants identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance use disorders. “What we’re trying to do is build a community of people that can take care of each other and make sure we get the right help when the need is needed,” Brown says. “There’s a lot of stress out there right now and we’re certainly hoping that more individuals are willing to step up and learn more about mental health and how to help someone else.”

The Mental Health First Aid training will be offered over the next several weeks via Zoom. The first edition will be held next Thursday (September 24th) and again on October 1st and 15th, November 5th and 19th, and finally on December 10th. “We’ve been offering this program face-to-face since 2018, so we’ve been offering it for a while,” he says, “but the National Council on Behavioral Health has decided to turn this into a virtual program due to the COVID situation.”

The cost is $35. There is a two-hour self-study course which needs to be completed prior to taking the Zoom course. Register at: https://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/MHFA

(Radio Iowa) – This is “National Truck Driver Appreciation Week” as those who sit behind the wheel of big rigs and small are recognized. The director of the Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) Transportation Institute, Dave Pfiffner, says the industry got a lot of attention early on in the pandemic when stores shelves emptied out of toilet paper. “There were shortages of a lot of different things, meats, if you look at foodstuffs and consumable supplies — those seemed to be the areas where there were issues,” Pfiffner says. He says there’s been a shortage of drivers and things are going to get worse. “If you look at the average age of a truck driver out there now — it’s in the mid-50s — so it’s a very grey fleet. A lot of folks looking to retire over the next five to ten years,” according to Pfiffner. “And there’s not as many people coming in on the other end to make up for those loses.”

Pfiffner says those looking to get into the industry can pretty much determine what they want to do. And trucking isn’t all about driving a big rig across the country. “There are jobs available in really every segment of the industry right now,” he says. “Some people think of truck just as you’re over the road, you’re away from home all the time. That’s not actually the case There’s a huge number of jobs out there that are considered local jobs. Everything from delivery to cement mixers to garbage pick up.”

He says you can be trained and ready to go in a couple of months. “In normal times it’s a six-week program, 240 contact hours, so pretty much full-time,” Pfiffner says. “Since the pandemic has hit, we’ve move the classroom portion of our training, which used to be conducted on site, to kind of an instructor-led online format. So, in other words the class meets with the instructor on a daily basis in something similar to a zoom meeting.”

Pfiffner says the average starting salary for DMACC Transportation Institute graduates is 40 to 50-thousand dollars — with the ability to make 60-thousand annually within two years.

CEDAR RAPIDS – The Iowa Department of Corrections reports 53-year old James William George Jr., who was convicted of Robbery 2nd Degree and other crimes in Linn County, failed to report back to the Larry A Nelson Residential Center as required Thursday night.

James W. George, Jr.
(IA DOC photo)

George is a 5-foot 9-inches tall black male, who weighs 207 pounds. He was admitted to the work release facility on March 26, 2020.

Persons with information on George’s whereabouts should contact local police.

(Radio Iowa) – The state unemployment rate dropped again in August. The rate went from six-point-eight percent in July down to six percent in August and the number of unemployed is now estimated is 91-thousand-500 lower than the Covid-19 peak in April. The state unemployment rate one year ago was more than half of what it is now at two-point-eight percent. A statement from Iowa Workforce Development says August saw the fourth consecutive monthly increase in jobs since April — but the increase is substantially lower than the average number of jobs added over the previous three months.

The statement says slower hiring could be a symptom of colder weather setting in and businesses believing that demand will not return to pre-pandemic levels as quickly as hoped.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A high school teacher in Iowa has been placed on leave for assigning students to “pretend you are a black slave.” The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the assignment for an online freshman class at Liberty High School in Iowa City asked students to write four sentences about what they would do if they were a slave who was freed.

The district says the teacher, whose name was not released, was placed on administrative leave and the assignment was removed. The district called the assignment “inappropriate.”

The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports two recent arrests. On Sept. 13th, 46-year old Joe Edward Harris, of Essex, was arrested for Disorderly Conduct. Harris’s arrest stems from an incident where Harris showed up at a residence about two-miles east of Shenandoah at around 11:20-p.m.

Joe Edward Harris

He allegedly began yelling and banging on the door, creating a loud disturbance, and waking the residents with no other purpose than to annoy them. Harris was transported to the Page County Jail where he was held without bond until seen by a magistrate.

And 48-year old Timothy Clayton McCollum, of Coin, was arrested at the Page County Sheriff’s Office on a Page County Warrant for Possession of a controlled substance/3rd or subsequent offense, and Failure to appear for motion to suppress hearing. McCollum posted a $25,000 bond prior to being booked into jail.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports a woman from Missouri was arrested Thursday following an investigation into a stolen vehicle. Brothers says 23-year old Alexandria Gabrielle Miller, of St. Joseph Missouri, was arrested at around 3:15-p.m., for possession of a stolen vehicle, possession of a controlled substance (believed to be methamphetamine), possession of burglary tools and resisting arrest.

Miller was taken into custody after she was observed driving a 1998 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup in the 1100 block of South 16^th St. The truck had been reported as stolen earlier in the week. At the time of her arrest, Miller was in possession of a small amount of methamphetamine and briefly struggled with officers during the arrest. Miller was also in possession of tools that are believed to have been used in a recent burglary.

The woman was being held in the Page County Jail on $9,300 bail pending initial appearance before the court. The Clarinda Police Department was assisted by the Page County Sheriff’s Department with the arrest of Miller. All reports will be forwarded to the office of Page County Attorney Carl Sonksen for review and the filing of formal charges in Page County District Court.

Atlantic Rising and the Atlantic Rotary Club today (Friday) presented Washington Elementary School Principal Stacey Hornung and staff, with 300 hand sanitizer wristbands. The wristbands will be distributed to all educators and faculty to aid in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in the school system.

Washington Elem. Principal Stacey Hornung and others receive a tub of 300 sanitizer wristbands,

Kelsey Beschorner, Atlantic Rising Social Chair explained how the idea came to be. She said “I was scrolling on my phone one evening and an ad popped up for hand sanitizer wristbands. I thought they were brilliant. Atlantic Rising was working on the Educator Appreciation night at the time and I thought, man, this would be great if every faculty member could have one of these as they head back to school.” Beschorner brought the idea up to Bailey Smith, Chamber Director and Rotary member, and both thought it would be the perfect partnership to accomplish the project.

Kelsey Beschorner shows the sanitizer wrist band

The bands were purchased locally, from J-and-J Design. The teachers and staff will wear them like a watch, with a bulb of sanitizer on the underside of their wrist, to simply pump into their palm when sanitizer is needed.

Bailey Smith said “As a service organization, one of Atlantic Rotary’s focus areas is education and ways the club can support and benefit students, faculty and the community. After sharing the idea with Rotary board members, we all agreed this would be a great partnership to aid and appreciate educators in the Atlantic community.”

Atlantic Rotary generously donated $1,000 to help cover the cost of the hand sanitizer wristbands. The wristbands are made of silicone and have a refillable reservoir for hand sanitizer. The user has a bottle with a plastic needle that fits into the reservoir and allows the user to refill the wristband easily. Brian Harris, Atlantic Rotary Club President, said “We recognized that this year has been particularly hard for all of the school’s staff and we understand that they are under a lot of stress. The Rotary Board voted and unanimously approved to move forward with this project because we thought it would be one way that we could alleviate some stress. Even though we will not be able to have our annual Rotary auction, we are still out in the community and willing to help wherever we can.”

To learn more about the organizations, visit their respective websites www.atlanticiowa.com and www.atlanticrotary.com.