CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (The Gazette) — Court records say an Iowa man made a woman watch the miniseries “Roots,” and told her it would make her better understand her racism. Robert Noye is charged in Cedar Rapids with harassment and false imprisonment. The miniseries was based on author Alex Haley’s family history, starting with the capture and enslavement of his ancestor Kunta Kinte in Africa. The woman reported that when she tried to move, Noye told her to remain seated or he would “kill her and spread her body parts” across the interstate on the way to Chicago.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who opened fire on officers serving a warrant in Stuart, has pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug charges. 52-year old Randall Comly is scheduled to be sentenced June 12th in Des Moines. He pleaded guilty this month to possession of methamphetamine for sale and two weapons charges.

Comly is accused of firing a handgun at officers on Oct. 17, 2019, as they tried to arrest him on a warrant for second-degree arson, inside a Stuart apartment complex. The exchange of gunfire injured three law enforcement officers and Comly.

(Radio Iowa) — A report from the State Ombudsman says there could be more deaths unless the agency which investigates child abuse in Iowa gets more resources. The report from Ombudsman Kristie Hirschman focused on the death of 16-year-old Natalie Finn — who was found emaciated in her adoptive family’s West Des Moines home in October 2016 and died a few hours later at a local hospital.  “We found scenarios where there where there were child abuse reports made to the Department of Human Services and those reports were rejected rather than accepted. Which is problematic,” according to Hirschman. “We also found situations where the information wasn’t gathered or documented in those reports, and that may have played into the unfortunate decision to reject some of these.”

Hirschman says that 14 child abuse reports had been made to D-H-S on behalf of the Finn children — but many were not followed up. She says the record-retention policies of D-H-S caused problems. “It was problematic for us in doing a thorough investigation when records had been destroyed according to their redaction policy,” Hirschman says. Changing that policy is one of 14 recommendations her office is making. “They need to consider revising their statute and rules to address that. Because, in a lot of situations identifying historical pattern of similar abuse reports is significant in making determinations,” Hirschman says.

The Ombudsman says the key issue is the D-H-S workers are swamped. “In addition to their lunch break and their two 15 minutes brakes — it was determined that they get 40 minutes a month for personal breaks — so that’s basically two minutes a day. It’s just one call after another after another,” she says. “We identified a problem that they weren’t always able to check the history of previous reports.” Hirschman says a pattern was eventually notice by an after hours field worker who review some of the reports that said Finn was not getting enough nourishment. She says more funding has been put into some areas of the system — but the number of intake workers has not increased since 2011. “We have numbers in the report that the number of intake workers has pretty much remained static and yet the number of calls and reports of child abuse have increased significantly, especially since the death of Natalie Finn,” Hirschman says.

The report shows Finn’s death has resulted in a 36 percent increase to field workers’ average caseloads from 2016 to 2018. Hirschman says D-H-S has reviewed and responded to her report. “They accepted 11 of our 14 recommendations, so we’ll be following through on those and monitoring their implementation,” she explains, “and we will continue to pursue implementation of the other recommendations.”  Hirschman says the public and everyone else should continue to be aware of potential child abuse and report it. “Protecting our children and grandchildren is a group effort. We all need to work together to identify problems in the system so tragedies like this don’t happen again,” Hirschman says.

D-H-S Director Kelly Garcia wrote in their response: “This was a tragic case, the Finn children should never have had to endure the treatment they received. We will learn from this and improve the safety net D-H-S provides to Iowa’s children.” Garcia says some of the work to improve the Department’s response began immediately, “but a large part of the Department’s ongoing efforts will focus on finding better ways to support our team so they can better support the families we serve.” You can see the full report on the Ombudsman’s website.

(Radio Iowa) — Restricting mobile home park rent increases and requiring good cause to evict tenants are just some of the provisions in a bill that’s emerged at the statehouse. Republicans and Democrats crafted the bill after an out-of-state company bought some Iowa mobile home parks and is phasing in steep rent increases. The Iowa Manufactured Housing Association is one opposed to the bill. The association’s Jodie McDougal says park owners need to be able to pay for maintenance. “These guys are in the business to maintain the source of housing and our fear is the restrictions and regulations are going to make that much more difficult,” she told lawmakers.

But Nathan Blake with the Iowa Attorney General’s office says the bill is needed to protect mobile home residents from bad actors. And it would at least put their rights on par with other renters. “Ultimately this bill provides more balance in a space that’s been tilted unnecessarily toward landlords for too long,” Blake says. The bill must clear a full committee in the legislature by the end of this week to remain eligible for debate.

A man from Red Oak was arrested at around 9-p.m., Monday, following a traffic stop. 59-year old Dennis Edward Elliott was taken into custody for Driving While Suspended. He was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on slightly more than $566 bond.