(Radio Iowa) – Parts of northern Iowa got heavy rain in multiple downpours over the holiday weekend. Meteorologist Rod Donavon, at the National Weather Service, says some communities, like Webster City, saw flooded streets and basements. “We certainly had several areas with some heavy rainfall across the state, which included central Iowa and into southeast Iowa,” Donavon says. “Really, our heaviest rain amounts were generally in that three-to-five inch range.”

Donavon says forecast calls for the likelihood of more rain. “We do have thunderstorm chances across parts of central and southwest Iowa, especially during the daytime today,” he says. “As we get up towards Highway 20 and northward, it’s likely to stay dry until we get into the overnight hours tonight as a stronger system moves through, so we do expect widespread showers and storms overnight tonight.”

With tonight’s storms, Donavon says there’s the possibility of severe weather, including hail and damaging winds. Looking ahead, he says there’s a chance for more storms toward the end of the week.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — One person died and a suspect was taken into custody for questioning, following a shooting Sunday, in Des Moines. Authorities says the incident happened at around 8:30-a.m. Sunday, that occurred in the River Bend neighborhood of the capital city.

Authorities say officers were told just before 9 p.m. on Saturday that gunshots were fired in the area of Ohio Street and University Avenue. Just moments later, police were able to detain a potential suspect. They also recovered a handgun. Victim of the shooting died at a local hospital.

According to DMPD, the incident is potentially related to a hit-and-run crash investigation at 2nd Avenue and Hull Avenue. They say evidence shows the person who died raised a baseball bat and caused the 21-year-old shooter to be in fear.

No charges have been filed, as of the latest report. Des Moines police are continuing to investigate.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa men are being reminded to drop the “tough guy” act and be preventative about their health. Dr. Will Klein, at Emplify Health by Gundersen, says studies find men between 19 and 65 are much less likely than women to seek preventive health care, and they’re also more likely to report not having a primary care provider. “It’s important for guys to know that it is a lot better to be preventative and trying to get on top of things early,” Klein says. “We’re socialized and grow up with this idea that you should tough it out, or walk it off, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it — all these adages, but you also have to listen to your body.” Aches, pains, skin blotches and anything out of the ordinary shouldn’t be ignored, as Klein says it’s often the case that the sooner it’s found, the better the outcome of treatment.

“You also just need to come in when you’re feeling fine, because that’s how we find out, ‘Hey, you have mildly high blood pressure, and if it’s like this for decades, it’s going to shave years off your life for sure,'” Klein says, “but if we can treat it a lot sooner, it can make a big difference.” It’s vital to see a primary care provider every year, he says, even if you seem a-okay, as those annual physicals may uncover a potential problem that needs immediate attention. “There are some things that you might not really even think about that we’re thinking about when you come in for one of those, from checking your weight, checking your blood pressure,” Klein says “We’re also talking through your family history because depending on, if your dad had colon cancer at 45, that’s going to impact when you need to start getting screened.” Self-diagnosing is another potential landmine, he says, as reading about an ailment on the internet is no substitute for an expert taking a close-up look.

“Catching something early, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s a mole.’ It’s a little different, but it could be skin cancer,” Klein says. “Sometimes you don’t know. If you’re going to just look at it in Google pictures, it can either make you really scared or it can make you blow off something that shouldn’t be blown off.” Money’s always a concern, but Klein notes most insurance companies cover the cost of preventative care, including annual physicals.

Emplify Health by Gundersen has clinics in Calmar, Decorah, Fayette, Lansing, Postville and Waukon, and a hospital in West Union.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines University’s state-of-the-art health simulation center recently became one of only eight centers worldwide to be accredited for its human simulation. Center director Kimberly Patterson says there are real people pretending to have an illness — which Seinfeld fans may remember was included in an episode with Kramer acting out illnesses. “In reality, our cases aren’t quite so dramatized as that,” she says. Patterson says they have many other types of simulators.”A piece of an arm, which we call task trainer, where they might practice starting an I-V. And then we have full body robot mannequins that we call high fidelity simulators or high fidelity mannequins and they can breathe and have heart and lungs sounds and talk,” she says. Patterson says the goal of the simulation program is simple.

“This is intended to be a safe space for students to practice and get feedback, either from our patients or from their faculty, and then to, you know, use that feedback to improve and practice some more,” she says. Patterson says simulation training has advanced along with other medical practices. “Simulation started a long time ago. This was more like dolls that were used for training, and they were often just a torso and a head, maybe like in C-P-R training, if you think about some of those first trainers,” Patterson says. She says the non-human simulators are now more varied and represent the different things doctors may see. “Now they are full body, they have arms and legs, they have different skin tones, they have different facial facial features,” she says.”We have female presenting mannequins. And then just depends on the learning need. We have ones that can deliver babies, we have ones that can help simulate traumatic accidents.”

Patterson says they start students out by having them ask simple questions and then continue adding more in the simulations. “We sort of build on their skills, so they might ask question history questions and then another time we might start to learn about the physical exam and add that,” she says, “and then later we might start to work as a team. So we’re practicing teamwork and critical thinking while we’re doing this and we just sort of build on those skills while they’re here with us.” Patterson says the simulation training helps students across several medical specialties.

PERRY, Iowa [KCCI] — A Perry man is facing several charges, accused of driving through a home while drunk. It happened on Sunflower Street just before 1 a.m. Saturday. The criminal complaint shows Heladio Hernandez Cortez crashed into the home, then tried to run away. Records show he did not have a valid driver’s license.

Investigators say he smelled of alcohol and showed signs of being impaired. Hernandez Cortez was charged with OWI and reckless driving.

(Radio Iowa) – Researchers at Iowa State University have classified 18 of Iowa’s 99 counties as “legal deserts” because there are not enough attorneys in the area to represent private clients. I-S-U rural sociologist David Peters led the research, which found Lee County in southeast Iowa has a critical lack of attorneys.

“What we found is that a lot of the state’s micropolitan areas — and these are counties that have a city of around 10,000 to maybe 30,000 people — also came up as legal deserts,” Peters says. “We found that Clinton, Iowa, is a legal desert, Fort Dodge is a legal desert as well as Oskaloosa.” Fourteen other counties, many with small populations, were rated as urgent or emerging legal deserts.

The study evaluated data from most every state — Hawaii and Alaska were not included. It found 11 percent of rural counties in the 48 contiguous states are legal deserts. “Our country produces a lot of lawyers, but the majority of them want to live in urban areas,” Peters says. “To get a law degree is very expensive. You incur a very large amount of student debt to accomplish that and a lot of people go into private practice in larger cities where the money is, so that’s one issue.” Peters says while there are a lot of lawyers in the U-S, many aren’t taking private clients.

Map of legal deserts in the U.S. (Map courtesy of Iowa State University)

“They’re really working the government or they’re working for a corporation,” Peters says, “so that also kind of peels off a number of lawyers into non-private practice.” Two Iowa State University students who intend to become lawyers worked with Peters on the study.”Even though at the undergraduate level I have a lot of young college students here at Iowa State that want to go practice law back home, they’re understanding the barriers,” Peters says, “and so that’s part of the reason why we started this project.”

Peters coordinates Iowa’s State’s “Small Town Project” and his research has focused on population decline in rural areas and discovered a surprising lack of access to attorneys in private practice. “I heard in a number of communities, for example, that not having enough criminal defense attorneys or not having enough public defenders put a lot of rural people at risk for longer sentences and even wrongful convictions,” Peters said. “We also heard that not having enough family law attorneys in these small towns really complicated divorce proceedings or child custody or support.”

The study was published in the spring edition of the South Dakota Law Review. Half of the paper reviewed policies to address legal deserts and it found a few states issued licenses for legal paraprofessionals who can handle most legal matters without being supervised by an attorney.  “Just like a physician assistant or P.A. can do a lot of your medical work that doesn’t really need an M.D.,” Peters says.

Peters says the cost of studying to become a licensed legal paraprofessional is far less than law school and he suggests rural communities could recruit local people who’d be more likely to stay once they get the certification.

(Winnebago County, Iowa [UPDATE]  – One person died and three others were injured Saturday afternoon, during a crash in northern Iowa. According to the Iowa State Patrol, a man from Spirit Lake died when the motorcycle he was riding was struck head-on by an SUV. The accident happened at around 4-p.m.

The Patrol says two Harley Davidson motorcycles were traveling west on Iowa Highway 9 from 150th Avenue, as a 2015 Buick Encore SUV was traveling eastbound. For reasons unknown, the SUV – driven by 95-year-old Leroy Weaver, of Buffalo Center, IA – crossed the center-line of the road, and sideswiped a 2010 HD operated by 64-year-old Daniel Raak, of Spirit Lake, before hitting a 2004 HD motorcycle operated by 21-year-old David Raak, also of Spirit Lake.

Daniel Raak’s cycle continued on the road prior to going out of control and stopping on the north shoulder of the highway. David Raak’s cycle was pushed backwards from the point of impact before it came to rest on the north shoulder of the highway. A passenger on David Raak’s motorcycle, 21-year-old Kayla Huddelson, of Belle Fourche, SD, was ejected from David Raak’s cycle and came to rest on the north shoulder of the road.

The SUV entered the north ditch and came to rest in a field. David Raak died at the scene. Daniel Raak, Kayla Huddelson, and Leroy Weaver were transported by ambulance to MercyOne North Hospital in Mason City. The crash remains under investigation.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Firefighters in Atlantic and Cass EMS were dispatched early this (Sunday) morning to a report of a structure fire. The blaze was initially reported at around 2:28-a.m., to be in the area of 4th and Locust Street, but was soon clarified to be behind 311 Locust. When crews arrived, they found a shed and a nearby junction box on fire. AMU was notified to turn-off power to the junction box. Cass EMS was advised to disregard. The shed appeared Sunday morning to be a total loss.

No injuries were reported. Atlantic Police assisted at the scene. Additional details are currently not available.

photo by Ric Hanson

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Saturday evening, arrested a man on a felony assault charge. Authorities say 60-year-old Gregory Owen Kierstead, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 2400 block of N. 8th Street, at around 7-p.m.  He was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault/choking-causing bodily injury, Obstruction of Emergency Communications, and Interference with Official Acts. Kierstead was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail, pending an appearance before a Magistrate.

(Iowa State Patrol crash reports) – One person died, and a total of nine others were injured in crashes on opposite sides of the State, Saturday.

(Winnebago County, Iowa [UPDATE 2-p.m. 7/6/25]  – One person died and two others were injured Saturday afternoon, during a crash in northern Iowa. According to the Iowa State Patrol, a man from Spirit Lake died when the motorcycle he was riding was struck head-on by an SUV. The accident happened at around 4-p.m.

The Patrol says two Harley Davidson motorcycles were traveling west on Iowa Highway 9 from 150th Avenue, as a 2015 Buick Encore SUV was traveling eastbound. For reasons unknown, the SUV – driven by 95-year-old Leroy Weaver, of Buffalo Center, IA – crossed the center-line of the road, and sideswiped a 2010 HD operated by 64-year-old Daniel Raak, of Spirit Lake, before hitting a 2004 HD motorcycle operated by 21-year-old David Raak, also of Spirit Lake.

Daniel Raak’s cycle continued on the road prior to going out of control and stopping on the north shoulder of the highway. David Raak’s cycle was pushed backwards from the point of impact before it came to rest on the north shoulder of the highway. A passenger on David Raak’s motorcycle, 21-year-old Kayla Huddelson, of Belle Fourche, SD, was ejected from David Raak’s cycle and came to rest on the north shoulder of the road.

The SUV entered the north ditch and came to rest in a field. David Raak died at the scene. Daniel Raak, Kayla Huddelson, and Leroy Weaver were transported by ambulance to MercyOne North Hospital in Mason City. The crash remains under investigation.

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The other accident – which also involved three vehicles – happened 12:10-a.m., Saturday, in central Iowa’s Warren County. The State Patrol reports a 2005 Jeep SUV driven by  57-year-old Angela Rae Chapman, of Indianola, was traveling south on County Road R-63, south of G014, when the vehicle crossed the center-line and side-swiped a 2001 Chevy S-10 pickup, driven by 36-year-old Jermey Lee Lawton, of Des Moines. The impact caused the pickup to rollover and come to rest on its passenger side. The Jeep continued south and immediately struck a 2014 Chevy pickup (being driven by 36-year-old Miguel Antonio Espinoza Galindo, of Des Moines), head-on.

Chapman and Miguel Espinoza, and a total of four passengers in the vehicles – all of whom were from Des Moines – were injured transported to Methodist Hospital, in Des Moines. The injured included 36-year-old Leticia Espinoza, 12-year-old Luis Antonia Espinoza (who was flown to the hospital by helicopter), 7-year old Josiah Lawton, and Jazmin Espinoza (age not listed).

Both accidents remained under investigation.