(Radio Iowa) – There were more “substance misuse” deaths across the country during 2020 than in any other single year, according to a report from a nonprofit, nonpartisan group, though Iowa’s numbers were slightly less grim. Rhea Farberman, policy research director at Trust for America’s Health, says Iowa’s overall figures were slightly below the national average.

“Your deaths in Iowa were unfortunately up for 2020,” Farberman says. “That’s not unexpected. The deaths were up nationally as well. Iowa had 1,457 state residents die due to alcohol, drugs or suicide in 2020. That’s up 18% for the state, close to the national increase which was 20%.” Deaths associated with alcohol, drugs and suicide took the lives of more than 186-thousand Americans in 2020, what the report says is a 20-percent one-year increase in the combined death rate.

Farberman says most of Iowa’s results were under national figures, but there were still tragic increases. She adds, “behind each of these statistics is a grieving family.” “Your alcohol deaths are up by 30%, your drug deaths are up by 22%,” Farberman says. “Suicide deaths were the one bright spot in the data. They were down 8% in the state for the year.” The stresses brought on by the rise of COVID-19 are being blamed for some of the records numbers, but she says that’s not the only reason for the increase in deaths.

“Certainly the pandemic added to these trends and exacerbated these trends, but it’s important to remember that we’ve had large increases in the number of these what we call deaths of despair, deaths due to alcohol, drugs and suicide for over a decade,” Farberman says. “So we had a serious problem before the pandemic and the pandemic certainly made it much worse.” The pandemic brought anxiety, stress, grief and financial hardship to many, and it also led to a disruption in substance misuse recovery programs.

“It’s important to remember that we had a problem before COVID,” Farberman says. “Just the end of the pandemic alone is not going to solve this problem. We do have some preliminary data for 2021 that indicates the drug overdose deaths are continuing to rise.” The first year the report was issued, 2018, there were more than 55-thousand deaths nationwide attributed to drugs, alcohol and suicide. For 2020, that figure more than tripled to nearly 187-thousand.

See the full report at: https://www.tfah.org/report-details/pain-in-the-nation-2022/

(Radio Iowa) – G-O-P backers say a new plan unveiled on the final day of the 2022 legislative session gives parents who’re unhappy with their local public school the option of immediately transferring their child to any other public school in the state. “I think it shows that the legislature stands with parents and students.” That’s House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny says this plan was drafted after the governor’s proposal for state scholarships for private school expenses faltered in the House.

“Obviously with the other school choice pieces not passing this year, we thought that was a logical step to continue to allow parents to have as much choice as possible while staying within the public school system,” Whitver says. Grassley says the open enrollment proposal isn’t targeted at any specific district, but was inspired by frustrated parents. Governor Reynolds met earlier this month with parents of Linn-Mar students who’re upset about the district’s policy for transgender students. The Linn-Mar policy was approved after the March 1st open enrollment application deadline for transfers to another public school district.

“We think that parents need to have that opportunity that if they want to send their child to another educational institution, that they should have that,” Grassley says. Under current law, open enrollment requests must involve transferring a student from the public school district where they live to a school in an adjacent district and applications are due March 1st. However, Emily Piper of the Iowa Association of School Boards says parents have been able to get their child immediately transferred to a school in a neighboring district under certain circumstances.

“For instance, bullying and harassment, a divorce or custody changes…failure to help the student achieve,” Piper says. “Those things are fairly black and white as far as what the exemptions are from the current March 1.” That March 1st deadline for most student transfer requests gave schools time to adjust staffing levels, since the yearly allotment of state spending for a student shifts to their new district under open enrollment rules. Piper says schools are prepared to make mid-year calculations on budgeting for students who are transferring immediately, though, since mid-year transfers have been happening under special circumstances.

The plan that cleared the legislature in its closing hours does not change some parts of the open enrollment process, so districts will be able to decline a transfer request if they don’t have classroom space or staff to serve a student who requires special education services. “The home district still has to approve the request. They did not change that,” Piper says. “The receiving district still has to accept the student and they did not change that.” The proposal is included in a wide-ranging bill Republicans in the House and Senate approved late Tuesday night.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Police in Glenwood report 45-year-old Michael Butcher, of Council Bluffs, was arrested today (Wednesday). Butcher was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense. Bond wa set at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) – Blood donated by Iowans is being rushed to Texas today (Wednesday) following Tuesday’s mass shooting at an elementary school that left at least 19 children and two adults dead. Another 15 children and four adults were wounded. Danielle West, spokeswoman for the Des Moines-based LifeServe Blood Center, says Iowa is answering Texas’ call for help, even though blood is very scarce here. “We don’t have a ton of inventory on hand,” West says. “We’re not where we want to be but we do have units set aside right now. We’re sending 10 O-negative and 10 O-positive but we also have more set aside throughout the week, so every day, we’re checking in with Texas to see if they need more.”

LifeServe is part of the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps, a coalition of more than 35 blood centers across the U-S that have committed to collecting extra blood units on a rotating, on-call schedule. The 20 units of Iowa blood being sent to South Texas Blood & Tissue won’t mean any Iowans are denied an important surgery, but it does ratchet up the urgency. “We absolutely need donors. O-negative and O-positive are always lower than we want them to be, especially when we’re sending more outside of this area,” West says. “This is a way that our community can step up and help our community blood supply but also the Texas area that probably will need more blood products throughout the week.” An appeal is going out to all Iowans who are left wondering, “What can I do,” following the Texas shootings, as they -can- make a difference.

“I would just encourage people to go to our website, LifeServeBloodCenter.org,” West says, “or give us a call at 800-287-4903 to find a blood drive or donor center near them and get scheduled as soon as they can.” LifeServe is the sole supplier of blood products to 129 hospitals across Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

(Greenfield,Iowa) – The Adair County Board of Supervisors today (Wednesday) approved the use of $16,000 from the County’s share of the ARPA allotment (American Rescue Plan Act for Covid recovery), for the Adair County Neighborhood Center, in Greenfield. The Center is owned by MATURA. They will provide the necessary matching funds, the sum of which would serve to make the building’s restroom ADA compliant, and feature new flooring, and heating and cooling system. The agreement stipulates if MATURA sells the building, money from the County would be paid-back within five-years. It also says bids for their improvement projects must not exceed $32,000, with proof of receipts. The Neighborhood Center provides assistance to families who are facing a crisis situation with food and/or shelter.

The Board also approved a wage increase for Timber Woosley in the Adair County Auditor’s Office. The Board and Auditor Mandy Berg all agreed Timber is a great asset, and as such approved an increase in her salary from 73-percent, to 74-percent, of Berg’ salary. The increase is accounted for in Berg’s office budget.

They heard from Adair/Guthrie County Environmental Health Coordinator Jotham Arber. He provided the Board with an Environmental Health report update.

Anyone who wants to install a septic system on their property in Adair County, he said, should get the required perc test done now.

He said the cost of the perc test is reimbursed if you apply for the grant. Arber said there are currently 19 perc tests scheduled for Adair County. Septic systems, he said, generally have a 30-to-35 year lifespan, so if yours is that old or older, you should consider getting it replaced, before it causes sewage issues. Jotham Arber said also, the Environmental Health Department is recommending Adair County residents perform a Radon test in their home. Radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. Arber left five free tests off at the Adair County Courthouse and will continue to provide five free each month. They can also be purchased at most hardware stores for as little as $10-dollars.

For more information, call Jotham Arber at 641-747-3972. In other business, Adair County County Engineer Nick Kauffman recommended and the Board approved, a 5-cent longevity raise for Secondary Roads employee Alex Bauer. The Supervisors then acted on awarding a Resolution for the N5 Richland Bridge Project to the low bidder, Murphy Heavy Contracting out of Anita, in the amount of $847,841. There were two other bidders for the project. All were in the ballpark of the Engineer’s estimate of $820,000.

Kauffman then updated the Board on his department’s activities.

Audubon, Iowa (May 25, 2022) – Trees Forever, Audubon County Conservation Board, Audubon County Roadsides, Audubon County Economic Development and partners are offering the Stewards of the Beautiful Land Series to individuals in Audubon and surrounding counties. Stewards of the Beautiful Land is a four-session course, meeting monthly, geared for the outdoor enthusiast who wants to learn more about prairie plants, trees and forests, and the environments they thrive in, and how to advocate for native landscapes.

“We have been offering this innovative series to other counties throughout Iowa the last three years and now it is being offered in Audubon. We have identified several great locations for field days which will be the perfect outdoor classroom to learn about prairie plant identification, establishment, and management as well as tree care and more,” says Trees Forever Program Manager Brad Riphagen. 

The course is structured with monthly webinars featuring guest presenters which lay the groundwork and knowledge base for where to find native plants on the landscape, the various landforms of Iowa, invasive species identification and management, pollinator habitat enhancement and protection and more. Each month will also feature an in-person meeting to learn from one another, walk through the woods or prairie identifying native plants and trees, and hands-on skills like how to properly plant and care for natives. In-person meetings are from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at various locations throughout the county.

According to Sara Slater with Audubon County Economic Development, “we are excited to host this series of field days around Audubon and learning about the natural landscape with Brad and other participants. We even have a pollinator planting planned for this fall near Albert the Bull so the course has something for everyone.”

For more information contact Brad Riphagen at briphagen@treesforever.org or via phone at 515-370-1291. Registration is live on the Trees Forever events calendar found at this link https://treesforever.org/event/stewards-of-the-beautiful-land-session-1/

(Radio Iowa) – Court records show a woman killed in a weekend shooting in Waterloo was arrested on robbery charges connected to another homicide nearly two years ago. The woman who died early Sunday morning has been identified as 26-year-old Ana Berinobis-McLemore. Police say someone opened fire on a vehicle at a residential intersection, killing her. She was a passenger in the vehicle.

Court documents show Berinobis-McLemore was awaiting trial on first-degree robbery charges connected to a 2020 shooting that left one man dead. Her murder is the third in the city this year. So far, no arrests have been made.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Due to the abnormally low temperatures over the last week, Sunnyside Pool in Atlantic will not be opening for the Memorial Day Weekend. Parks and Rec Director Bryant Rasmussen said “We have been painting benches, sealing the pool, putting up umbrellas, etc. in anticipation for this upcoming season.  But due to mother nature we will have to push back the opening.  Please follow our Sunnyside Pool Facebook page as we will monitor the pool and be working hard to get it open as soon as possible.”

Rasmussen says “Thank you for your understanding and we hope to have a great summer!”

Sunnyside Pool in Atlantic, Iowa.

The Creston Police Department reports 31-year-old Ashton James Olson, of Creston, was arrested at around 11:30-p.m. Tuesday, for OWI/1st offense. Olson was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, where he was being held on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with the Trevor Frederickson Memorial fund report the Fund’s Grant Petty recently donated $300 to Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue. The funds will go toward the Atlantic Police Department’s upcoming summer program for kids in the community. Fund spokesperson (Trevor’s mom) Melanie Petty, said “We are proud to help sponsor this years events and hope all involved have a great summer experience.”

Atlantic Police Chief Devin Hogue & Grant Petty w/the Frederickson Foundation (Photo courtesy Melanie Petty).

The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund was started after Trevor lost his life in a house fire in 2009.  An annual golf tournament is held each year to raise funds in his name and then those funds are given back to the community that he loved.  This years tournament will be held on June 18th at the Atlantic Golf and Country Club.  Silent auction items and hole sponsorships are still being accepted.  Contact Melanie Petty at 249-3696 with any questions.