Johnston, IA – The Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs, in partnership with the Iowa National Guard, has announced the Veterans Parade at the Iowa State Fair will be held on Monday, August 11, at 11:00 AM, along East Grand Avenue in front of the Administration Building.

This year’s parade holds special significance as the Department and Guard commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration, honoring Iowa’s Vietnam War Veterans as Grand Marshals. The recognition serves as a meaningful tribute to the courage, sacrifice, and enduring camaraderie of these Veterans who served during one of our nation’s most turbulent eras.

Major General Stephen Osborn, Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard, says “We are proud to honor our Vietnam Veterans with the recognition they so greatly deserve. Their service and resilience helped shape the future of our military, our state, and our nation.”

Distinguished guests expected to attend the ceremony and parade include:
• Governor Kim Reynolds
• Lieutenant Governor Chris Cournoyer
• Major General Stephen Osborn, Adjutant General of the Iowa National Guard
• Major General Edward J. Chrystal, Director, The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration
• Commander Greg Coy, Commanding Officer of the USS IOWA (SSN 797)
• Todd Jacobus, Commandant, Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs

Todd Jacobus, Commandant of the Iowa Dept. of Veterans Affair, says “We’re grateful to the Iowa State Fair Board for providing a platform to celebrate Iowa Veterans from every corner of our great state. This parade is more than a moment of recognition—it’s a salute to the generations of service members who have defended our freedoms.”

Veterans from all branches and eras will be represented in the parade, and members of the public are encouraged to line the route in appreciation of their service.

(Creston, Iowa) – A distracted driver lost control of her vehicle Thursday afternoon in Union County, causing a property damage accident. According to the Union County Sheriff’s Office, 30-year-old Rochelle J. Means, of Afton, was driving a 2023 Chevy pickup southbound on 190th Street at around 12:50-p.m.  She negotiated the first part of an S curve in the road, but when she reached into the back seat to do something for her kids, her pickup went off of the road to the right and into a ditch, where it struck an Alliant Energy utility pole.

The pole snapped-off above the pickup truck and landed on the roof of the vehicle and truck bed. The occupants of the vehicle remained inside until First Responders arrived and advised them it was safe to exit the pickup truck.

Sheriff’s Deputies estimated the vehicle sustained an estimated at $10,000 damage. Damage to the power pole was estimated at $2,500. No citations were issued.

DES MOINES, Iowa (By Clark Kaufmann, IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – After being accused in a lawsuit of wrongful death and cited for violations that led to two residents having their legs amputated, a West Des Moines nursing home has been added to the federal list of the worst care facilities in the nation. Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center is one of the two Iowa nursing homes that are now considered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to be Special-Focus Facilities that are experiencing a serious recurrence of major regulatory violations related to quality of care. Late last year, state inspectors cited Pine Acres for failing to ensure a male resident of the home received special shoes for diabetic patients, as ordered by a physician, and then failed to treat the resident’s worsening foot ulcers.

In October 2024, the man was seen at a hospital and diagnosed with an inflammation of the bone and pseudomonas, a bacterial infection. Days later, the resident’s left leg was amputated between the ankle and the knee. Six weeks later, inspectors spoke to the man, who, according to the inspectors’ written report, “stated he had to have his leg amputated and he was upset about it. He stated he did not know how this happened.” The federal government subsequently fined Pine Acres $177,240. That was in addition to a federal fine of $71,169 that was imposed eight weeks earlier for other quality-of-care violations. In late 2023, Pine Acres was cited for 62 violations, one of which was tied to a resident who contracted gangrene in the home and had to have a leg amputated.

After two residents had their legs amputated due to quality-of-care issues, an Iowa nursing home (Pine Acres) has been added to a federal watch list. (Photo courtesy Polk County Assessor’s Office)

The home’s most recent inspection was in June 2025, when state inspectors cited the home for 10 additional regulatory violations related to patient assessments, accident hazards, the competency of the nursing staff, and infection controls. No fines were imposed as a result of those violations. The Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Pine Acres’ administrator, Michael Ewalt, for comment.

Earlier this year, CMS gave Pine Acres one-star ratings for quality measures and inspection results on the government’s five-star quality scale. The ratings for Pine Acres are currently suspended due to what CMS calls “serious quality issues” at the home. Pine Acres is being sued by the family of the late Richard M. Cox, which alleges that on Oct. 21, 2024, Cox was able to exit the Pine Acres building unattended and without detection. He then sustained severe injuries in a fall about two blocks from Pine Acres and he died on Nov. 4, 2024, allegedly as a result of those injuries. Pine Acres has denied any wrongdoing, and a trial is scheduled for May 17, 2027. According to federal records, Pine Acres is owned and managed by a New York-based group of investors that includes Akiko Ike, who has a 60% ownership stake in the facility. Other investors include Yisroel Kaplan, who has operational control of Pine Acres and a stake in another Iowa care facility, the Prestige Care Center in Fairfield.

One of Kaplan’s partners is Ephram Lahasky, who is the husband of Ike, Pine Acres’ primary owner. In Vermont last year, regulators raised concerns about who was behind the proposed purchase of care facilities in that state — Lahasky or his wife. Ike was the officially designated buyer, but it was Lahasky’s name that appeared on the loan documents. Lahasky has been sued by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused Lahasky  and others of defrauding the government of more than $18 million while understaffing and neglecting residents at The Villages, a 120-bed facility in northwestern New York.

At any given time, no more than two nursing homes per state appear on the list of federally designated Special-Focus Facilities, although the list also includes hundreds of other nursing homes — typically, 10 per state — where ongoing quality-of-care violations have made them eligible for that status. Once a home is designated a Special-Focus Facility, it receives additional oversight and assistance from the government that’s intended to improve resident care. The other homes that are merely deemed eligible do not receive that assistance. They appear on the list, some for as long as 10 years, and then drop off without ever receiving the federal help.

(Creston, Iowa) – Creston Police, late Thursday morning, arrested a man wanted on two Union County warrants. 39-year-old James Alan Davis, of Creston, was also arrested at the Creston Police Department, on a charge of Harassment in the 1st Degree. The warrants charge Davis with: six-counts of Stalking; five-counts of Harassment in the 1st Degree; three-counts of Harassment by Communication, and one-count of Extortion. James Davis was being held in the Union County Jail without bond,

(Radio Iowa) – An inclusive playground that any child can use was unveiled as the Iowa State Fair opened Thursday. State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation executive director Jim Cownie says they worked with Variety the Children’s Charity of Iowa to build it. “We have a wonderful partnership with variety of Iowa. We raised the money together to create this new playground on these historic fairgrounds. We spent over 700-thousand dollars to bring this new playground to you today,” he says. Cownie says eight-year-old Kinsey Hagerman is the reason for the playground, after she called them out.

“They wrote us an e-mail last year of how our playground was not accessible to all. We want everything to be accessible to all here at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, and we would not be here today, we would not have this wonderful project were it not for you Kinsey,” Cownie says.

Variety the Children’s Charity inclusive playground at the 2025 Iowa State Fair

Cownie says it is an agriculture-themed playground that celebrates Iowa’s farming heritage. “It was a labor of love for the Iowa State Fair, the Blue Ribbon Foundation, our fair board. We are honored to be able to do it, and it was so much fun to be able to put this together, to watch it come together and to see kids being able to play on it in the last week or so since it’s been finished have been absolutely fabulous,” Cownie says.

The playground is located near the Fun Forest east of the Agriculture building, and will be open year-round.

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – Officers at the Sioux City Police Department said goodbye to one of their dedicated co-workers this past week. Retired Sioux City K-9 officer Cash passed away on Monday, Aug. 4. Officers say he was born in Slovakia in 2013, and the department welcomed him into the family in Spring 2015.

Cash began his training with the department as a law enforcement dog. He was certified as a dual-purpose dog and immediately went to work for Sioux City’s K-9 Unit with his handler, Officer Paul Yaneff. They were both assigned to Uniform Patrol Watch II and SWAT. Cash was certified annually for narcotics detection, article and building searches, tracking and apprehension.

City of Sioux City Police Department Facebook page photo

During his time on the police force, Cash was responsible for dozens of criminal apprehensions and narcotics arrests. He performed K-9 demonstrations at community events and for students at many Sioux City schools. The department says Cash had an exceptional career as a K-9 officer, but he had to retire early in 2020 due to a rare spine disease and arthritis in his hind legs.

After leaving the department, Cash continued to live with Officer Yaneff, enjoying his retirement life, which was filled with eating, swimming, and being loved by everyone until he passed away, according to the Sioux City Police.

The department released a video as a tribute to Cash on social media.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – 100 people will be losing their job as a packaging company gets ready to close its location in Cedar Rapids. According to a listing on Iowa WARN, employees at Smurfit Westrock Company on Blairsferry Road NE were notified about the closing earlier this week.

Layoffs take effect on October 4. A this time, it’s not clear why Smurfit Westrock Company is closing the location. KCRG-TV9 reached out to the company early Friday morning.According to its website, Smurfit Westrock is a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging that operates in 40 countries and has more than 500 packaging converting operations and 59 paper mills.

Some of the products produced by the company include pizza boxes for Papa Johns.

(Radio Iowa) – A top executive in the ethanol industry says there have been key policy victories this year for ethanol producers — including the E-P-A’s proposed eight percent jump in biofuels production obligations for 2026. Emily Skor is C-E-O of Growth Energy, a trade association that represents nearly 100 ethanol plants — including 28 in Iowa.

“I would go back to day one of the Trump Administration and that is the first time that we had an executive order specific to ethanol and biofuel,” Skor said. “The president really enshrined biofuels as part of his domestic agenda.” In April, the Trump Administration waived the E-P-A’s ban on summertime sales of E-15 in about half the country. Then, in mid-June, the agency proposed 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol be blended into gasoline next year, along with increased production of soybean-based biodiesel.

“That’s the strongest proposed volumes that we have seen out of the agency,” Skor says. “We saw in that proposal a commitment to really prioritize domestic feedstocks, which is a big part of our conversation with the administration right now. That’s important to our growers and to our plants as well.” Under the proposed rule, the credits used to enforce compliance with the Renewable Fuels Standard would be heavily tilted to favor domestically produced biofuels.

Imported ethanol as well as imported corn, soybeans or other feedstocks used to produce biofuels here would have half the value. The E-P-A’s proposed Renewable Fuels Standard rules for 2026 and 2027 may become final by the end of October. Skor, a Minnesota native, has been C-E-O of Growth Energy since 2016.

(Pocahontas, Iowa) – A head-on collision early Thursday afternoon in northwest Iowa resulted in the death of a man from Colorado, and injuries to a man from Pocahontas. According to the Iowa State Patrol, the crash happened at around 12:02-p.m. on State Highway 4, just south of 600th Street, north of Pomeroy.

Authorities say a Subaru Impreza was traveling northbound on Highway 4, when for reasons unknown it crossed the center line of the road and hit a southbound Ford Explorer. The driver of the car, 31-year-old Darwin Benjamin Rosales-Castillo, of Westminster, CO., died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The driver of the SUV, 65-year-old Ronald Meyer, of Pocahontas, was injured in the crash, but the report stated he was not transported to a hospital. Meyer was wearing his seat belt. The crash remained under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – A northern Iowa girls’ track coach has been arrested and faces felony charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and grooming.

Skyler Ahrens has been placed on administrative leave from his job at Lake Mills Community Schools. He was a gym teacher in the elementary and middle schools and the high school girls’ track coach. Ahrens was arrested last (Wednesday) night. In addition to the sexual exploitation charge, he’s also accused of disseminating obscene material by phone to a minor.

Court documents indicate Ahrens is accused of asking someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl to send him explicit photos, but he was communicating with a Winnebago County deputy who was online, posing as a teenage girl.

Lake Mills’ school officials say the alleged conduct is a violation of professional ethics and district policy and they are fully cooperating with law enforcement’s investigation.