COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – A Council Bluffs man was sentenced on March 22, 2023, to a total of 144 months in prison, following his guilty pleas to possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, and escape.

According to court documents, Keven Leroy Spanel, 59, distributed methamphetamine in the Council Bluffs and Omaha metro areas. In early 2022, Spanel was arrested carrying a firearm, which he used to protect himself and his drug trafficking activities. In July 2022, while on temporary release to attend a doctor’s appointment, Spanel escaped on foot by threatening the transportation driver with a screwdriver. Spanel was apprehended five days later by the Council Bluffs Police Department. After his prison term, Spanel will be on supervised release for five years.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, Council Bluffs Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and United States Marshal Service investigated the case.

(Radio Iowa) Iowa is being downgraded in a non-profit group’s report which ranks the states for public health emergency preparedness. Dr. Nadine Gracia, president and CEO of Trust for America’s Health, says the past year brought many challenges, including the ongoing pandemic, extreme weather events, rises in chronic disease rates, and startling jumps in the number of lives lost to substance misuse and suicide.

“We had 19 states and the District of Columbia in the high performance tier, 16 states in the middle, and 15 states in a low performance tier,” Gracia says. “This year, Iowa did move down a tier. It was in the high performance tier in last year’s report in 2022, and this year, it is now in the middle performance tier.”

Of the ten key categories the report measures in each state, Gracia says Iowa slid back in two of them, though she says those are opportunities for growth over the coming year. “The state no longer has emergency management accreditation, so working to restore that accreditation is an opportunity,” Gracia says. “Also, looking at a factor or an indicator around patient safety and the percentage of hospitals that score at the highest tier with regards to patient safety, that we also saw a decline between 2022 and 2023.”

The report found Iowa excelled in some areas, like in the percentage of Iowans who got their seasonal flu vaccine. Also, the number of Iowans who can take paid time off is higher than the national average. Among the other positives for Iowa. “It has plans in place, for example, to expand its healthcare capacity during times of emergency,” Gracia says. “It also has plans in place to be able to expand its public health laboratory capacity, to increase testing during times of emergency. The state also has public health accreditation, which advances the quality of services that public health departments are providing.”

Iowa also saw improvements in its water safety, according to the report. Gracia says putting a sufficient investment into public health in Iowa and nationwide is vital. “An important recommendation is for Congress as well as state and local governments to ensure that their funding is there and necessary to strengthen our public health infrastructure,” Gracia says, “to be able to modernize our systems, our data systems, our ability to do the communications that are necessary and also to bolster and increase and strengthen a diverse public health workforce.”

The mission statement of Trust for America’s Health is to promote optimal health for every person and community, and make the prevention of illness and injury a national priority. See the full report at: https://www.tfah.org/

(Radio Iowa) – More Iowa high school and middle school students are enrolling in educational programs offering courses directly related to employment in current or emerging occupations.

Dennis Harden oversees the career and technical education area for the Department of Education. “The number of CTE courses continues to increase with 9,643 courses offered in 2022, which was a 7.6% increase from the previous year,” he says. School districts are required to offer at least 12 units of coursework within four of the six CTE service areas.

Harden says all school districts experienced growth in courses with a statewide average of two courses being offered. “The participation rate continues to climb as well, with the participation rate in 2022 being 73.1%,” he says.

(Department of Ed photo)

Harden detailed some of the key areas of student interest. “Our largest CTE service area with 90 programs is applied science, technology, engineering and manufacturing, followed by health science and information solutions, human services, business, and finally agriculture,” Harden says.

CTE programs are delivered through middle schools, high schools, and community colleges, which include state our regional centers.

SHELDON, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety report an arrest has been made in connection with the death of a woman in Sheldon.The suspect, 41-year-old Nathaniel Byron Kessel, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, was taken into custody at around Noon today (Friday), in Flandreau South Dakota. Hessler was arrested on two Iowa: 1 count of felon in possession of a firearm (Class D Felony) and 1 count of murder in the 1st degree (Class A Felony).

Authorities say that at or about 4:00-p.m. Thursday, March 23, 2023, the O’Brien County Communication Center received a 911 call about a deceased female located at 604 4th Ave., in Sheldon. When authorities arrived, they found the female deceased inside her home. Her name was not immediately released. Her death was being treated as a homicide. An autopsy has been scheduled for Saturday March 25, 2023 at the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner, in Ankeny, Iowa.

If you have any information regarding this investigation, please call the Sheldon Police Department at 712-324-2525, or you can call the DCI at 712- 224-7680.

This is an ongoing criminal investigation; no further details or names are being released at this time.