DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI-TV] — MercyOne (in Des Moines) is calling its transition to a new anesthesia provider successful, but admits some patients will have their surgeries delayed. Last month, MercyOne cut ties with its longtime partner, Medical Center Anesthesiologists. It’s now working with a company called Vituity.

In a statement, MercyOne says it prioritizes surgeries on a case-by-case basis and that some surgery dates and times are being changed. The hospital says, “We regret any stress and inconvenience this may cause, but we can assure patients we will only reschedule to bring the best level of care they have come to expect at MercyOne.”

(Radio Iowa) – While there’s no statewide air quality alert for Iowa today (Friday), one expert says more of those health advisories are likely in the weeks and months ahead, and they could be the “new normal” for years to come. Professor Patrick O’Shaughnessy, in the University of Iowa’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, says the smoke from Canadian wildfires was truly making the air over Iowa unhealthy with particulate matter, or P-M.

“It was high. I mean, the EPA wants the PM 2.5 and it’s 2.5 diameter particles, which are super-tiny little things, below 35 micrograms of those little particles per cubic meter of air,” O’Shaughnessy says, “and it was up over twice that over the past couple days.” People who are most at risk include those with asthma, C-O-P-D, and other heart or lung issues. During an alert, O’Shaughnessy says those folks need to keep their windows closed and use the furnace fan to recirculate the air. There are air purification devices — or ionizers — that may help to cleanse the air of particles, but he says your home or workplace’s H-VAC system may be the best defense.

“There’s different levels of filtration you can buy,” O’Shaughnessy says. “They’re more expensive for the higher filtration types, but they’re now available and people with compromised lungs and heart conditions should certainly try to do their best to purchase those better units because they do work.” The air quality advisory this week also said for otherwise healthy people to avoid going outside if possible, and to take it easy if they have to be outdoors, especially if they’re doing anything strenuous. What can they do to protect themselves? O’Shaughnessy says the choices are limited.

“Put on an N-95 certified mask and that will do it, but we all know maybe from our COVID experiences that it’s no fun trying to breathe through one of those things,” O’Shaughnessy says. “So then you add kind of an extra metabolic load on yourself trying to pull air through a mask.” The Air Quality Index for Des Moines reached 104 on Wednesday, which is considered “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” The “moderate” range is from 51 to 100, while over 151 is deemed “unhealthy” for everyone.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County, Thursday, arrested 25-year-old Cameron Walters, of Villisca, for allegedly violating the State’s Sex Offender Registry (an aggravated misdemeanor). WalterS was taken into custody in the 100 block of Coolbaugh Street in Red Oak, at around 5:40-p.m. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

WATERLOO, Iowa (KWWL) — The former Waterloo Candy Co. building along West Park Avenue in downtown Waterloo partially collapsed on Thursday. Authorities do not know exactly what caused the collapse. The building in question is well over 100 years old, being constructed in the early 1900s. No injuries were reported, and no persons were missing or unaccounted for, according to Waterloo Fire officials, who were asking people to stay away from the structure, which is in danger of further collapse.

Waterloo Fire Marshal Brock Weliver told KWWL-TV that the area of concern is an approximately a 60-foot collapse zone all around the property which still has the potential to come down. He’s not sure of which direction debris might fall if the structure collapses more. The building is deemed unsafe for entrance and the City is recommending it be demolished if it can’t be reinforced and saved.

The surrounding roads will be closed off for the foreseeable future, until there is no longer a threat of further collapse in the area. Building owner Rich Penn said in a statement to the television station that the building was acquired a number of years ago with the intent of saving it from demolition, and that part of the goal is to keep the structure part of the City’s rich past and a new use that will add more life to the growing and exciting downtown Waterloo area.

(Radio Iowa) – Saint Ambrose University in Davenport and Mount Mercy University in Cedar Rapids have finished the first step in their consolidation plan. The Catholic universities decided to merge after years of declining enrollment. Saint Ambrose University president Amy Novak says the merger will strengthen both schools. “We can all bury our heads in the sand and sort of deny what’s maybe happening or the challenges we’re facing, or we can creatively think our way through what could a different model of how we do this work look like,” she said.

“And I think that’s what you’re seeing in the work that’s happening here between St. Ambrose and Mt. Mercy.” All Mount Mercy assets were transferred to Saint Ambrose this week. Saint Ambrose had about 25-hundred students last fall compared to the 14-hundred enrolled at Mount Mercy. By next summer, course catalogs for the schools will be combined and students will be able to take classes at both campuses. Todd Olson will continue as president of Mount Mercy University for another year.

“We believe in, we’re committed to, and we want to improve the outcomes of higher education for our students,” Olson said. “We believe we’re in the strongest position to do that if we can do it together.” Olson says smaller colleges are facing challenges as the rate of high school seniors enrolling in college declines nationwide. Iowa Wesleyan University in Mount Pleasant had an enrollment of about 850 students when it was closed in May of 2023.

According to the Iowa College Foundation, nearly half of the students in Iowa who earned an undergraduate degree this year got that degree from one of the 32 private colleges and universities in the state.

(Radio Iowa) – A history journal that’s been produced by the State of Iowa for 163 years must find a new editorial home. An Iowa Department of Administrative Services spokesman says due to an increasingly lean staff, the State Historical Society will not produce the Annals of Iowa after July 1st of next year. Iowa State University history professor Pamela Riney-Kehrberg has been an editorial consultant for the journal and she’s worried.

“My students read articles out of ‘Annals of Iowa’ every single semester and they love them,” she said. “I want my students to understand that the history that we’re talking about on the national level happened here and nobody else is going to publish that if this journal ceases to be.” The very first edition of the Annals of Iowa — from 1863 — had 10 articles, including a letter describing how Iowa soldiers in Kentucky removed a five pound chain from the neck of a slave who had escaped.

Riney-Kehrberg, whose research focuses on rural and agricultural history, wrote an article about what it was like to be a farm kid in Iowa between 1880 and 1920 for a more recent Annals of Iowa. “Every single article in it has something to do with the state and local history of this place,” Riney-Kehrberg said, “and it has been doing this since the Civil War.” The Annals of Iowa is published quarterly. State officials say printing costs are largely covered by about 300 subscribers and part of the annual fees from about 100 Historical Society of Iowa members.

According to Riney-Kehrberg, nearly every single state published a historical journal at some point, but few remain. “Which is all the more reason for us to keep it because this is an award-winning, highly respected journal,” she says, “which has had a series of exceptionally good editors.” The Department of Administration Services is willing to have the State Historical Society as the copyright holder, but is hoping to strike arrangement similar to what’s happened with the Kansas History journal, which is edited and published by the history department at Kansas State University.

Riney-Kehrberg says moving the Annals of Iowa to a college or university in Iowa could change how it’s perceived. “By having it with the state, down in Des Moines it meant that it was really for the whole state, but if you move it to a university there’s always the chance that people are going to say: ‘Oh, you’re favoring authors from X location or Y location,'” Riney-Kehrberg said, “even if you really aren’t.”

Digital copies of the Annals of Iowa from 1863 through 2022 are currently found on a state website and it has been published at a printing company in Monticello.

(Updated; Radio Iowa) – A federal appeals court has ruled carbon pipeline restrictions in Shelby and Story Counties are preempted by federal regulations and state law. Shelby and Story County officials adopted ordinances to establish safety standards as well as prohibited zones around places like homes and schools where the pipeline would be barred. The federal appeals court ruled the ordinances would prohibit Summit Carbon Solutions from running its pipeline through areas where it has a state permit to build. A spokesperson for Summit says the ruling confirms federal regulation of pipeline safety and the Iowa Utilities Commission’s authority over route and permit decisions in Iowa. A group that represents property owners opposed to the pipeline said the ruling strips away common sense protections.

Shelby and Story County officials could appeal the decision to the U-S Supreme Court. Summit sued four other counties with similar ordinances and those were placed on hold as the company’s lawsuit against Shelby and Story Counties has moved through the courts.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Democratic Party has lost its seat on the powerful rule-making panel that will decide which states go first in 2028 when Democrats select their next nominee for president. The Des Moines Register was first to report the slot on the Democratic Party’s national rules committee has gone to someone from New Hampshire. That’s the state that ignored party rules and hosted the first presidential primary of 2024.

The Democratic National Committee had followed President Biden’s call for South Carolina’s Primary to go first — and for the Iowa Democratic Party Caucuses to no longer be first-in-the-nation. However, National Republicans kept the Iowa G-O-P’s Caucuses are their lead-off event and Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says there should be serious concerns about Biden’s calendar because excluding Iowa gave Donald Trump a head start in 2024.

Hart says Iowa Democrats simply can’t afford to be ignored again by their national party leaders.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Glenwood Police Department reports two arrests occurred today (Thursday). 35-year-old Kara Vezeau-Crouch, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving While Barred. She posted a $2,000 bond and was released from custody. And, 26-year-old Trevor Kerr, of Rapid City, SD, was arrested for Failure to appear in court. He was being held in the Mills County Jail on a $20,000 bond.