(Radio Iowa) – Lake View police are investigating the Sunday drowning of a Texas man at Black Hawk Lake. According to Chief Brandon Rinnan, first responders were called to the scene at the beach at Camp Crescent at approximately 6:17 p.m. Witnesses told authorities the victim, 18-year-old Brian Valencia of Willis, Texas, had been swimming in the roped-off beach area when he started to struggle. He went underwater, but did not resurface. Lake View Fire and Rescue personnel conducted a water search and were able to locate Valencia’s body. He was transported to Loring Hospital in Sac City where he was pronounced dead.

A traffic stop this (Monday) morning in Montgomery County, resulted in an arrest. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 20-year-old Joseph Alexia Rodriguez-Lopez, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at around 6:40-a.m. after he was pulled over in the 2800 block of Highway 34, for speeding (20 mph over the speed limit; 75 in a 55).

Rodriguez-Lopez was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Health is asking Iowans to fill out a survey to improve the state’s maternal health strategic plan. The outreach effort is funded in part by a federal grant the state received to address disparities in maternal health. The survey will help figure out what the gaps are in the health system, according to Dr. Nalo Johnson, division director for health promotion and disease prevention at I-D-P-H. “Also, looking at what programs or experiences may be working well for them regarding their maternal health experience,” Johnson says, “and where there may be areas for innovation or ideas that we can be considering from a programmatic or a policy standpoint.”

Studies find black, Asian and Hispanic women in the state are considered at higher risk for maternal death compared to white women. The survey is meant for all Iowans, or those who work in Iowa, who have an interest in improving the state’s maternal health strategic plan. Johnson says it allows people to tell the state what it’s doing well, but also where there are still gaps in the public health system. “We obviously see differences between various racial and ethnic populations within the state,” Johnson says. “So our goal really is to be able to take that health disparities reducing approach to our maternal health efforts to ensure that every Iowan has access to a safe birth.”

Iowa’s maternal mortality rates have increased in the past several years, although the state still considers maternal death a rarity.

(reporting by Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – A judge has ordered a Webster County murder suspect to undergo a mental evaluation before his murder trial can continue. Twenty-nine-year-old Fort Dodge resident Mark David Russell is accused of killing 45-year-old Angela McLeod at a residence in January in 2020. Russell faces a charge of first-degree murder. The police report accuses Russell of beating McLeod to death with a golf club. The trial will be suspended until a judge orders that Russell is able to stand trial, then the trial will resume.