CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two Iowa men who unwittingly sold elephant tranquilizers that looked like prescription painkillers have been imprisoned. Federal prosecutors say 20-year-old Cameron Lensmeyer and 20-year-old Evan Sage were sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids. Both live in Waverly. Lensmeyer had pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute carfentanil and marijuana. He was sentenced to four years and four months. Sage pleaded guilty to possession for sale of carfentanil, cocaine and marijuana and to a weapons charge. He was sentenced to seven years and one month.

Prosecutors say the pair sold hundreds of pills they obtained from a darknet connection. The pills looked like those containing the painkiller oxycodone but were really made of the opioid carfentanil — an elephant tranquilizer.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate, who won re-election this month over Democratic challenger Deidre DeJear, says he’ll be taking a closer look at Iowa’s nominating petition process for people who are seeking to have their name placed on the ballot. “In regards to being able to track who is processing those or being the promoter of these signatures, so we can take care of the questions that come up,” Pate said. “You know, who are these people? Are they real names? After we went through last cycle, I want to make sure we’ve done a little more work on that front.”

The issue gained attention in the spring when former Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett fell eight signatures short of what he needed on his nominating petitions to have his name on the Republican Primary ballot for governor. While NO requests for recounts were submitted in statewide races in the November 6 election, Pate suggests a review of Iowa’s recount process is needed. “Just because it comes up and it’s not clear,” Pate said. “We do not have an automatic recount process in Iowa. Frankly, it’s one of those things that we don’t want to have to do if you can help it. We want to avoid it if we can, but if we’re going to do it, we want to make sure we have procedures in place. So, I’m sure we’re be talking about it more.”

Aside from those matters, Pate doesn’t plan to pursue many other election-related changes. “We’ve got a pretty full plate with moving to the 17-year-olds being able to register to vote next year if they’re 18 by November and we have the merging of the city and school elections, so those are pretty big lists,” Pate said. “Then, of course, finishing the implementation of voter ID. So, I don’t really think I want to add much more.”

A bill signed into law by former Governor Terry Branstad requires Iowans to show an ID before they vote. Beginning in 2019, voters without the necessary ID will be offered a provisional ballot and can provide identification up until the Monday after election day for Primary and General Elections.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — The Scott County attorney says a deputy sheriff was justified in using deadly force while struggling with a man after a traffic stop. Authorities say 27-year-old Davenport resident Robert Mitchell died after the Oct. 23 incident on the north side of Davenport. Deputy Greg Hill had pulled over Mitchell’s vehicle because of a vehicle light problem.

Hill and Mitchell struggled when Mitchell suddenly got back in the car and backed up, with Hill’s upper torso inside and his legs outside. Hill then pulled his handgun and fired three times, striking Mitchell twice.
Scott County Attorney Mike Walton said Wednesday that Hill was justified in using deadly force to ensure his own life and safety, the safety of another deputy who’d stopped at the scene and that of other people.

(Radio Iowa) — One in five adults — or roughly 600-thousand Iowans — live with some form of mental illness, yet a study finds tens of thousands have had no treatment. Paul Gionfriddo, president of Mental Health America, says it’s important that mental health services and treatments be made readily available and more accessible, especially in rural states like Iowa. “On average, it typically takes almost a decade, about 10 years from the time of onset of symptoms to the time people get appropriate treatment for any mental illness,” Gionfriddo says. “A lot of adults report they just don’t have access to care. Often, that’s because there is no access in those states or there isn’t the right kind of coverage that people have.”

According to the report, 50% of teenagers often think about suicide or self-harm throughout the week, while 76% of youth with severe depression don’t get the treatment they need. It’s vital to think of mental illness in terms of the “Before Stage 4” philosophy, he says, that mental health conditions should be treated long before they reach the most critical points. “It’s a real problem when we wait so long because we lose opportunities to intervene effectively,” Gionfriddo says. “By applying a danger-to-self or other standard, we make mental illnesses the only chronic diseases in America that we wait until stage four to treat, and then, often inappropriately only through incarceration.”

Mental health screenings should be as common for adults as getting one’s blood pressure tested, or for kids, as often as they get eyesight or hearing tests. Screenings are particularly important for youth, he says. “Half of mental illnesses emerge by the age of 14, three-quarters by the age of 25,” Gionfriddo says. “The last symptoms that emerge are behavioral symptoms. Way before then, children are reporting feeling depressed, having trouble sleeping, having trouble eating, and all other kinds of conditions we need to be aware of, we need to think about and we need to intervene about.”

Overall, the State of Mental Health in America 2018 Report finds 43-million Americans have a mental health condition, yet 57% of American adults have not received treatment. Free mental health screenings are available at MentalHealthAmerica.net.

(Radio Iowa) — A Dubuque man will be honored as a hero during the Iowa-Nebraska football game today (Friday). A University of Dubuque assistant women’s basketball coach Justin Smith was named to represent our state at the Heroes Game. He is credited with quick action to pull over the team bus after the bus driver had a medical issue and passed out while driving. Smith pulled the driver out of the seat and was able to stop the bus after hitting the guardrail. Smith will be honored during halftime of the game at Kinnick Stadium. Smith will be joined on the field by Brian Thurston of Omaha, who will be recognized as Nebraska’s 2018 “citizen hero.”

Listen for the pre-game show at 9-a.m. on KJAN, with the kick-off at 11.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a woman headed to a Des Moines hospital had to stop Thanksgiving Day so her baby could be delivered. Michael Beller was driving his girlfriend, Heather Reed, of Lacona, to the hospital when she felt like something was wrong. He pulled over. She got out for a moment and then had trouble trying to get back in their van. He says he laid her on some grass and called 911. A dispatcher was giving him delivery directions when paramedics showed up, took over and helped complete the arrival of a nearly 8-pound boy, Kaden James Beller.

His dad cut the umbilical cord, and their journey to the hospital resumed. Beller told The Des Moines Register that this Thanksgiving was “the “best I could have asked for.”

(Radio Iowa) — A new national report card on premature births gives Iowa a letter grade of “B” as nine-point-two percent of births in the state are early, just below the national average of nine-point-nine percent. Stacey Stewart, president of the March of Dimes, says while Iowa’s numbers are improving, they’re still unacceptably high. “When babies are born prematurely, that means their health is really threatened at the time of birth and often these are babies that grow into children and young adults who experience health challenges down the road,” Stewart says. “In fact, prematurity and the consequences of prematurity are the leading causes of death for children between the ages of zero and five and it’s the leading cause of infant mortality.”

There’s an “alarming trend” in the U-S of babies being born too soon, according to Stewart. The preterm birth rate rose for the third year in a row, a trend signaling an urgent health crisis for moms and babies. More than 700 American women die in childbirth each year and some 50-thousand suffer life-threatening complications, making the U-S the most dangerous developed country in which to give birth.  Stewart says, “If we look at all of these outcomes around moms and babies, what we’re finding in the U.S. is that we have unacceptably high outcomes, especially for the wealthiest country in the world, and especially given the sophistication of our health care system.”

This is the 11th year the March of Dimes is releasing the annual Premature Birth Report Card, which grades all 50 states on their rates of preterm birth and reveals racial, ethnic and geographic disparities within each state. In Iowa, the preterm birth rate among black women is 29-percent higher than the rate among all other women.  “We need to make sure we do even more to make sure there’s expanded health care coverage for women, that there’s accessability of that coverage for those women wherever they live,” Stewart says. “Even if they live in rural areas, that shouldn’t mean that they have to be denied the health care coverage they need, especially the prenatal care that they may need.”

To encourage supporters to raise awareness and advocate for policies that protect moms and babies, the March of Dimes launched a nationwide campaign called #BlanketChange. It aims to bring attention to the urgent health crises moms and babies face, including increased rates of maternal mortality and preterm birth. Iowa’s “B” on the report card was shared by 14 other states, and only one state, Vermont, rated an “A.” There were 16 “C” grades, 14 “Ds” and four “Fs” for Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and West Virginia.
https://www.marchofdimes.org/mission/prematurity-reportcard.aspx

(Radio Iowa) — Thanksgiving celebrates the harvest season and this year the harvest includes a new crop that’ll be legally sold in Iowa for the first time. Medical marijuana products made from the plants grown in Iowa will be available for the first time starting December 1st. MedPharm Iowa’s Joe Kerner is the head cultivator of the crop and says it starts a lot like most gardens in the state. He says one difference is they grow their plants from cuttings and not seeds. “We just grow them up and we allow them to flower out. And with the process that allows us to select certain genetic lines that allows us to target either that T-H-C or the C-D-B (canabis oil) molecule,” Kerner explains.

Kerner has a degree in horticulture from Iowa State University and picked up more specific knowledge about marijuana from those who have been growing the plants in other states. He says a key job is keeping the plants fed. “We have a fertigation process that we use. That means we fertilize and water at the exact same time,” Kerner says. “And that’s going to vary throughout the plant’s life cycle, especially as it gets bigger.” Kerner says the marijuana grows in a highly controlled environment where they don’t have to worry about things like too much rain, or hail and windstorms like the average garden. But there are some things that they have to guard against. “We have to control for pests, whether that’s an insect or a mold or fungus — but due to the very strict environmental controls we have in place — we can really keep a good finger on that,” Kerner says.

The plants reach the flowering stage in 20 to 22 weeks and are then harvested to make the medical marijuana products. “We remove all the flower structures from the stem and then we grind them up and extract them. So, that way we can receive the oil and we can formulate with it,” he says.  Kerner says watching the vivid green plants grow is more interesting than you might think. “You can see changes, this is a really fast-growing plant it being a true annual,” Kerner says, “so it really helps with that visual reward I guess. We get to see our plans really change and develop.”

The processing plant is on the southwest edge of the downtown area of DesMoines and has several security features surrounding it.