(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Mills County was arrested Monday evening, in Montgomery County. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 38-year-old Garret Horgdal, of Henderson, was arrested at around 6:15-p.m., on an active Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original charge of Stalking/Harassment in the 1st Degree, and Harassment in the 2nd Degree. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill introduced in the Iowa House would give developers planning to expand a large sports complex in eastern Iowa five million dollars in state tax breaks. Representative Gary Mohr, a Republican from Bettendorf, says the T-B-K Bank Sports complex is located right beside Interstate 80 at a Bettendorf exit. “It’s got indoor soccer fields, volleyball, outdoor baseball and softball. It’s been hugely successful. It attracts over a million people a year from seven states in the Midwest for competitive youth sports games,” Mohr says. “There’s a two-story bowling alley. It’s a wonderful addition to the Quad Cities.”

Developers have announced plans to spend 75 million dollars to build more baseball and softball fields to accommodate more tournaments, as well as a three-story indoor golf complex and an Olympic-sized swimming pool  “We’re so looking for the state sales tax rebate program that was so successful the first time we did this to match is on the new development,” Mohr says, “as the private investment is doubling the size of the facility.”

The rebate Mohr’s bill proposes would let the owners keep the sales taxes charged on purchases at the facility. Legislators approved a similar rebate for the existing sports complex and Mohr says hotels, restaurants and other businesses were built nearby to accommodate the crowds. “They leave a lot of dollars in the state of Iowa. (For)some of them, it’s the first time they get to Iowa, so it’s a huge attraction for our state,” Mohr says. “Iowa needs a sports (complex) like this and we’re thrilled they’re going to double the size of it.”

Legislators previously allowed the Bettendorf facility to keep two-and-a-half million dollars in sales tax rebate. Prospect Meadows in Marion — with nine outdoor baseball fields — got a two-and-a-half million dollar tax break, too.

(Radio Iowa) A state panel will meet later this (Tuesday) morning to review challenges to the nominating forms for EIGHT candidates for primary elections in June, including an incumbent who’s seeking an 11th term in office.

Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller and five other candidates face challenges based on the signatures on their nominating petitions. The State Objection Panel is being asked to decide whether some of the people who signed the documents actually live in the areas where candidates had to collect signatures. The attorney general is one of the three members of the review panel, so it’s likely the lieutenant governor will take his place when Miller’s case is reviewed. In 2018, a Republican running for governor was booted from the ballot after several duplicate signatures were found. That left the final tally of nominating signatures short of what was required.

The nominating papers Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Abby Finkenauer and Mike Franken submitted are being challenged, plus an objection has been filed over the forms submitted by a Republican candidate who hopes to run against Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the June Primary. A Democrat from the Ankeny area has filed a challenge of Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver’s paperwork for the primary, saying Whitver hasn’t listed the address of the home he intends to move into.

A spokesman for Whitver says there are no legal grounds for the complaint. He pointed to Iowa law, which requires candidates to establish a residence in the district they intend to represent 60 days before the GENERAL Election, not the June Primary. State Representative Jeff Shipley of Fairfield, a Republican, had the signatures of 53 people on his nominating petitions. Fifty signatures are required and a prominent Republican attorney has filed a challenge to some of those signatures.

hipley is planning to run for reelection in a new district — where he’d face another G-O-P incumbent. Finally, the State Objection Panel has been asked to decide whether a Democrat in northwest Iowa has lived in Iowa long enough to run for office.

(Radio Iowa) – A House committee has approved a plan to hike the pay for providing in-home care for Iowans with disabilities. The move comes as a federal review is expected to call for moving residents with disabilities out of state institutions in Glenwood and Woodward — and into home and community-based settings. Republican Representative Joel Fry of Osceola says the House G-O-P budget plan sets aside more than 14-and-a-half million dollars for that effort.

“I’m hopeful that that shows a genuine intent on the legislature to the federal government that we are serious about getting individuals into the communities well cared for,” Fry says, “and making sure the services exist in the communities for them.”

Representative John Forbes, a Democrat from Urbandale, says under this plan, it appears direct care workers could be paid about three dollars an hour more. “It gets them up in the $16, maybe $17 an hour range in some cases,” Forbes says.

But while Forbes and other Democrats say they support the pay increase for direct care workers, but they voted against the more than two billion dollar budget plan for the state’s public health and human services agencies. Democrats object to a COVID-related proposal added to the budget bill. It would let Iowa doctors prescribe a medication primarily used to treat parasites as an experimental treatment for patients on a ventilator or who are terminally ill.

Some Republican legislators say they’ve heard from family members who tried unsuccessfully to get ivermectin for loved ones hospitalized with COVID. A recent study found early use of the drug by high risk hospital patients with COVID did not stop them from being seriously ill.

(Radio Iowa) – The executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, Monte Shaw, says it appears more people are turning to ethanol-blended fuels to save money. He says just about anyone can use blends like E-15. “Ninety-five, 98 percent of the cars on the road could buy E-15. And if you have access to it — you might as well get the extra point of octane — that’s why they call it unleaded 88 — and you can get it at the lower price,” Shaw says. “And if you are like me flex-fuel vehicle, E-85 is really the way to go.”

He says E-85 vehicles will often have a yellow gas cap or sticker on the window that says they can use the 85 percent ethanol-gas mix. The E-10 mix is the one most used in cars right now. Shaw says retailers have different pricing for the ethanol blends. “At different stations, there are sometimes five and ten cents differences in what the discounts are. So, it probably pays to check out some price signs when you are diving between, work, school, home, wherever it is you go,” Shaw says.

He says you will find more options for different mixes of ethanol-blended gas in the larger cities. “We only have about 300 stations out of about 22-hundred that offer the E-85, and I think there’s about 250 stations out of the 22-hundred that offer E-15,” according to Shaw. “So we are working on that, in fact, there’s a bill in the legislature that would make sure that many, many, many more Iowans get access to that as a choice.”

Shaw says there’s a tool to help you find the stations on their website at: iowarfa.org. “You just go under fueling your vehicle, there’s a tab at the top. It has information on what blend does work in your car, and then it has the E-15 sites and the E-85sites, you can search it and everything,” he says.

Shaw says you can also check the owner’s manual of your car and it will tell you what type of fuel works in your car or truck.

(Radio Iowa) – The number of female officers in the U.S. military has quadrupled since the turn of the century. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst retired from the Iowa National Guard in 2015 at the rank of lieutenant colonel, but when she joined the military in the early 1990s, women were not allowed to serve in combat roles. “Through the Army Reserves and then later on in the Iowa Army National Guard there were very few women engaged in the military,” Ernst says.

By 2003, Ernst was the commander of a transportation unit that deployed to Kuwait and she says 12 percent of the unit’s soldiers were women. “That company that I commanded was originally an all-male unit,” Ernst says. “So when I was just coming into the armory where we were located in Red Oak, Iowa, quite literally the women didn’t even have their own locker room. Their bathroom was built into a broom closet underneath the stairs.”

Linda Upmeyer, Joni Ernst during forum.

The latest data shows about 16 percent of Iowa National Guard members are women. The senator’s daughter is enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy and Ernst says 25 percent of the West Point cadets are women. Ernst made her comments today (Monday) during an online forum hosted by the Iowa G-O-P to mark the end of women’s history month.

Officials with Cass Health in Atlantic have announced that Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC of the Cass Health Senior Life Solutions program, has received the 2021 Therapist of the Year award.

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solution program is managed by Psychiatric Medical Care (PMC), which partners with more than 100 facilities nationwide to provide behavioral healthcare management services. Top performing employees and Senior Life Solutions programs from around the country are recognized annually based on their excellence in demonstrating the program’s values of care, compliance, and community. Award recipients demonstrate outstanding patient care, excellent comprehension and execution of compliance regulations, and strong community engagement.

Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions program recipient, Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC, said “It is such an honor to be recognized by PMC in this way, and the fact this award comes on the heels of being named the 2020 One Track Program of the Year makes it all the more incredible. Senior citizens remain one of the most vulnerable and underserved populations in our country today, and I am so grateful for the support of Cass Health and the amazing team I work with for the opportunity to serve in this capacity.”

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions is a program designed to meet the unique needs of individuals typically 65 and older experiencing depression and/or anxiety related to life changes that are often associated with aging. Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions program staff includes a board-certified psychiatrist, a licensed therapist, a registered nurse, and other trained professionals to ensure each patient receives the best possible care.

Families, friends, community members, physicians, self-referrals, or other health professionals can refer people to the program. For more information, education, or if you would like to discuss support, please call 712-250-8100.

(Radio Iowa) – A father and son from Iowa are back in the state after a medical mission to war-torn Ukraine. Charlie Becker, of Monticello, says he and his son Dr. Chad Becker, of Ankeny, took off a week ago with 200 pounds of medical supplies. “We came on Monday and we left on Thursday so it was a very short time because a couple of our objectives didn’t work out,” Becker says. “Our main thing is we got in with medical supplies and with food and other things — mission accomplished.”

Chad Becker works as an Emergency Room doctor in hospitals in Des Moines and Grinnell and he was in contact with a hospital official in Ukraine as to what items were most needed. Their first stop was in Poland and Charlie Becker offered praises for the Polish people for the way they’ve taken in Ukrainians fleeing the war. “They were able to absorb more than two-million people and you saw no signs of it whatsoever,” he says. “There were no people in the streets or people begging or people doing anything. They just absorbed these people and took them in like they were family.”

There is more information on how you can help those in Ukraine on Chad Becker’s Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/chad.becker.9022

(Guthrie Center, Iowa.) – Election officials in Guthrie County have released the names of candidates who have filed for the June 7th Primary Election….

Supervisor District 1

Clifford Carney – Republican

Jerome J.D. Kuster – Republican

Jack Lloyd – Republican

Jacki Sloss – Democrat

Supervisor District 2

Clinton Deardorff – Republican

Brian Johnson – Republican

Supervisor District 3

Maggie Armstrong – Republican

William Halling – Republican

Tom Flanery – Democrat

Supervisor District 4

JT Herron – Republican

Steve Smith – Republican

Michael Herbert – Democrat

Treasurer

Brenda Campbell – Republican

Recorder

Tristen Richard – Republican

Attorney

John A. Maschman – Democrat

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to forbid some of the secrecy surrounding agreements between school district officials and educators who are dismissed for inappropriate conduct with students. Representative Dustin Hite, a Republican from New Sharon, says he’s disappointed in the number of confidentiality agreements in Iowa that let a teacher or coach accused of grooming or abusing students resign — and the allegations aren’t disclosed to prospective employers.  “We don’t need people that are doing this to our kids going from school to school to school,” Hite says.

If the bill becomes law, administrators who fail to report suspicions of abuse could be fined five-thousand dollars. “All too often I think we’ve seen in the paper or we’ve heard stories from our own communities of administrators failing their students, not reporting what they need to report,” Hite says, “not holding their fellow educators accountable when that’s necessary.”

The bill also requires the state Board of Educational Examiners to keep records of all complaints about licensed educators, even allegations that don’t lead to sanctions. Hite says the board told him last fall it does not keep such records, but earlier this year board officials said they do.  “Quite frankly, I can’t trust whatever they tell me, so we’re going to make sure that they’re going to keep track of those complaints,” Hite says. “(The allegations) are not public, but if they have a bunch of complaints with the same allegations, we’re telling them that they have to go back and look because sometimes when there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Hite and other lawmakers say the vast majority of Iowa teachers are good people and the few who are not give the profession a bad name. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, is a retired teacher. “We need to get the bad actors out of the profession, whether they are an administrator or a teacher,” Mascher says, “and this is a step in the right direction.”

Republican Representative Garrett Gobble, a teacher in Ankeny, says this is probably one of the most consequential education-related bills of the year. “This makes sure that no amount of back alley dealing will allow those who would abuse children and betray trust to continue doing so,” Gobble said. “I stand with the good teachers and I won’t waste a single breath defending the bad.”

The bill, which passed the House unanimously, would also make every adult in a school a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse.