(Atlantic, Iowa) – Organizers of Produce in the Park says they have another great lineup at the park in Atlantic, this week, including fire truck water fights, a foam party, face painting, and–scheduled in a hurry by popular demand–another sushi truck! The event is themed “Back to School, Back to COOL.” Please note: Chestnut Street will be closed between 6th and 7th Street during PiP for our Fire Truck Water Fights. The rest of Chestnut is open!

Atlantic Fire & Rescue will have water fights set-up at the Aug. 7th PiP

Produce in the Park takes place from 4:30-until 6:30-p.m., Thursday, August 7th, at the downtown Atlantic City Park. There is no cost to attend. Food Trucks this week include Liza’s Sushi & More, B&D’s Ice Cream, and Amos Fabulous Foods.

More than 25 vendors will have on-hand: Fresh Produce (tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and more); Farm-Fresh Eggs; Local Meats (lamb, chicken, pork, beef); Baked Goods & Desserts; Freeze-Dried Snacks; Local Honey; Arts & Crafts; Garden Decorations, and Compost.

Visiting community organizations and businesses with tables or booths at the event include: Zion, Healthy Cass County, Atlantic Public Library, Civil Air Patrol, Cass Health, T.S. Bank, and more.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) offers more than 200 hunter education courses each year, and now is the time to enroll before hunting seasons arrive.

Hunter education is a mandatory program designed to introduce students to firearms safety and several other life-long skills that are important to the many different types of outdoor recreational activities.

A person who is 11 years old or older may enroll in a course, but those who are 11 and successfully complete the course will be issued a certificate which becomes valid on their 12th birthday.

Students may certify in several ways, such as the traditional classroom course or a hybrid online/field day course. Students 18 years of age and older may certify completely online with no field day requirement. For more information on course options, visit: https://www.iowadnr.gov/things-do/hunting-trapping/hunter-education-safety

“Our courses are taught by volunteer instructors who are also hunters, so very few classes take place after mid-November,” said Jamie Cook, program coordinator with the Iowa DNR. “Many new hunters, and parents of new hunters, tend to delay in finding a hunter education course until classes become unavailable. My advice is to check the website weekly.”

To find a course and begin the registration process visit https://license.gooutdoorsiowa.com/Event/EventsHome.aspx

Hunter education is required for anyone born after Jan. 1, 1972, in order to purchase a hunting license. Iowa recognizes hunter education certificates issued by another state and some foreign nations.

(Guthrie Center & Adair, Iowa) – The Guthrie Center and Adair-Casey School Boards will hold Special, separate meetings Monday (Aug. 4th) to act on approving a Part-Time Business Consulting Agreement with Patricia Townsend – School Business Official (SBO), CPA (Certified Public Accountant).

The A-C Board meeting takes place at 7:30-a.m. in the AC/GC Junior High Superintendent’s Office. The Guthrie Center Board meeting begins at 7-p.m. in the AC/GC High School Superintendent’s Office.

(Warren and Delaware Counties) – Three people, a teenager and two adults, died Saturday in two separate Iowa crashes. According to the Iowa State Patrol a teenage passenger in a Ford Focus died during a crash that occurred at around 3:40-p.m., Saturday, between Carlisle and Hartford. The accident happened when the car went out of control as it was on eastbound Highway 5 near 200th Avenue.

When the car left the road, the driver, 16-year-old Isabella Ashford, of Pleasantville, over-corrected, causing the vehicle to enter a ditch sideways. The car rolled over at least once, officials say, and came to rest on the driver’s side. A front seat passenger, 16-year-old Donald O’Neil McCormick, of Pleasantville, died at the scene. Isabelle Ashford was transported by Hartford Ambulance to Blank Children’s Hospital for treatment of her injuries. Both teens were wearing their seat belts.

Carlisle Police, Hartford Fire/Rescue and the Warren County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.

The second accident happened at around 6:15-p.m. southeast of Hopkinton, in Delaware County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2006 Volkswagen Beetle driven by 44-year-old Bobbi Jo Bauers, of Delhi (IA), was southbound on Iowa Highway 38, when it crossed the center-line of the road and struck a northbound Chevy pickup truck head-on near 310th Avenue. The driver of the pickup was identified as 33-year-old Anthony Nile Mentzer, of Monticello. Both drivers – who were wearing their seat belts – died at the scene.

The Patrol was assisted by the Delaware and Jones County Sheriff’s Offices, along with Hopkinton Fire and EMS.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Fire Department was dispatched at around 12:20-p.m. today (Saturday), to a reported fire underneath a trailer home. The incident took place at 1205 E. 4th Street. All residents and household pets evacuated prior to the fire department’s arrival. When KJAN News Director Ric Hanson arrived on the scene moments later, no smoke or flames were visible.

Ric Hanson (photo)

It appears a neighbor used their garden hose to help prevent the spread of any flames. Additional information was not immediately available. Atlantic Police, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies were on the scene, in addition to Atlantic Fire.

MADISON COUNTY, Iowa [KCCI-TV]  — A former Madison County official will not face charges for entering a contract with a consulting firm. Teri Kaczinski was under investigation by the Warren County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The investigation was part of a case regarding a contract into which Kaczinski, in her role as Madison County auditor, entered with consulting firm RMG.

The investigation found “insufficient evidence to find that Ms. Kaczinski had the requisite intent to violate the Code of Iowa,” according to a news release.

No charges will be filed.

IOWA CITY, Iowa — A second University of Iowa employee is on paid administrative leave following an online video that appears to show the employee discussing recent diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) laws and ways faculty members can get around the laws. KCCI-TV reports a video posted to conservative news site Townhall appears to show a University of Iowa employee — identified in the story as Cory Lockwood, the senior associate director of the Iowa Memorial Union — talking about how the university has complied with recent DEI laws enacted by the state legislature.

The University of Iowa confirmed Lockwood was on paid administrative leave as of Thursday. Lockwood is at least the second University of Iowa employee to be placed on paid administrative leave after a video surfaced in which they discussed enforcement of Iowa’s DEI laws. Another employee, Drea Tinoco, was placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday.

The video of Tinoco also drew an official complaint from Gov. Kim Reynolds to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, which subsequently launched an investigation.

(This report was researched and written by the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which is solely responsible for its content) –

A Cass County assisted living center is one of several care facilities recently fined by the state in the wake of medication errors, injuries and a death. State records indicate that on July 8, a male resident of Allen Place, an assisted living center in Atlantic, was left unattended in the shower where he slipped and fell, suffering a head injury. He was taken to by ambulance to a hospital, where he died a short time later. According to the state inspectors, a non-skid bathmat was not in place in the shower at the time of the incident, and the worker tasked with showering the man was not properly trained and wasn’t assisting the man in the shower.

The worker in question had been on the staff for roughly one month. In a written statement referenced by inspectors in their report, the worker indicated he didn’t understand that the resident needed physical assistance standing and showering and so he sat a few feet away from the bathroom while the resident showered. Within a minute of the resident entering the shower, the worker reportedly wrote, the man fell.

“I lacked the proper training on the proper stand-by procedure,” the worker allegedly wrote in his statement. “Due to this lack of training, I thought the shower mat that’s normally down — but was up that day — should remain up.” … and “once [Tenant C1’s] in the bathroom, I leave the bathroom as to what I was taught before and leave the door half open while I sit in a nearby chair … Around a minute into the shower he falls.”

The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing fined Allen Place $10,000.

Other Iowa care facilities recently fined by the DIAL include:

— Hallmar Village, a Cedar Rapids nursing home where a resident sustained two broken legs while being transferred to bed in a mechanical lift, was fined $20,500 by the state. The resident was facing amputation of one leg before being assigned to hospice care a few days later, according to state records.

Inspectors reported that one employee of the home, a certified nursing assistant, indicated the staff at the home had been using a modified method of using the mechanical lift with the resident that involved the use of a pillow and avoided the use of leg straps intended for safe transfers. The CNA reportedly told inspectors she felt the modifications by the staff posed a risk to the resident and said she relayed her concerns to a nurse.

The CNA also told inspectors that because the transfer process looked unsafe, she asked to work a different floor at the home. A state review of training records indicated the nurse and two CNAs at the home “did not have training on the use of a mechanical lift,” according to inspectors.

— Bickford Cottage I, a Sioux City assisted living center, was fined $7,000 after a resident wandered from the facility on July 5 and wasn’t found for several hours. The resident was admitted to a local hospital due to acute kidney injury, dehydration and elevated creatine levels.

— Windsor Manor, a Grinnell assisted living center, was fined $5,000 after a male resident of the home was given seven separate medications intended for someone else. The resident who was mistakenly given the drugs became unresponsive and was admitted for a short time to a local hospital.

— Azria Health-Longview, a Missouri Valley nursing home, was fined $7,000 after a resident fell on June 30 and sustained a serious head injury. Inspectors noted the facility was to have placed non-skid strips near the resident’s bed, but the work order calling for that to be done included the wrong bed number. The resident suffered multiple facial fractures and had to be hospitalized. As of July 16, the resident was still hospitalized.

— Bickford Cottage, an Iowa City assisted living center, was fined $5,000 after a female resident wandered from the facility about 8 p.m. on June 1. About one hour later, an off-duty paramedic found the woman 1.3 miles from the facility.

(Radio Iowa) – A book festival this weekend in central Iowa is featuring all Iowa authors. Jan Danielson Kaiser, events coordinator for Beaverdale Books in Des Moines, says the Local Author Fair will focus on five fantastic writers of books for both adults and children. “We just look at it as a great way to introduce customers to new writers and new stories, but also the authors end up loving it because they get to network,” Danielson Kaiser says. “They spend some time visiting, and I think they really do enjoy it as much as the customers.”

Novelist Winter Austin lives in the Van Buren County town of Birmingham. Austin’s bio says she grew up listening to captivating stories told by relatives around a table or campfire. Her newest book is called “Ride a Dark Trail” and she serves as Board President of the Sisters in Crime Iowa Chapter. Author and world traveler Elizabeth Donne, who now lives in Pleasant Hill, is described as a student of literature and a teacher of linguistics.

“She has a series which I can’t wait to hear more about,” Danielson Kaiser says. “She’s an amazing lady and she spent most of her life in Cape Town, South Africa and she’s been to all five continents.” Writer John Donovan, of Adel, says in college, he majored in English and got a minor in “not taking things seriously enough.” “He’s written seven novels. This new one is called, “Confessions of the Tenth Smartest Person in the World (and Other Delusions),” she says, “and his bio says he lives with his wife, four dogs, some chickens, and what seems to be an infinite number of cats.”

Two children’s authors are also being featured this weekend: Emma Fust of Runnells, whose book “1,000 Balloons” she wrote and illustrated, and Jackie Reinig, from the Shelby County town of Portsmouth. “She is a grandma and she has a magical forest on her farm that she shares with her grandkids,” Danielson Kaiser says. “She was a nurse, she retired and then started writing magic stories.”

The free event is being held at the book store from 1 to 3 PM on today (Saturday).