Officials with the Cass County Health System (CCHS) in Atlantic, report several scholarships are available to area students through CCHS and its affiliate organizations:

• Cass County Health System offers a $1,000 scholarship to southwest Iowa students pursuing a four-year degree in a health-related career. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2018.
• Cass County Memorial Hospital Auxiliary provides Grant-in-Aid scholarships for students pursuing a health-related career. The deadline is March 31, 2018.
• Cass County Health System Foundation is offering $10,000 in scholarships to students who are enrolled and have been accepted into a nursing or medical doctor educational program. The scholarships were established by a bequest from Louie and Elsie Hansen. The application deadline is April 2, 2018.

Applications are available on the Cass County Health System website, www.casshealth.org, and can be turned in to the Human Resources Office at the Cass County Hospital, or Cass County High School guidance offices by the respective deadlines mentioned. For more information, contact Sara Nelson, Director of Public Relations, 712-243-7408.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police say officers called to an early morning disturbance found a dead man and have taken another man into custody. Police says a resident called police just before 6 a.m. Wednesday to report hearing a disturbance, adding that someone may have been killed.

Officers rushed to the home just northwest of the city’s downtown and found the dead man in a second-floor apartment. Officers took a man into custody but haven’t filed charges.
Police say the death is considered suspicious and have begun a homicide investigation. The death is Des Moines’ second homicide of 2018.

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

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SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have charged a driver whose sport utility vehicle collided with a car in northwest Iowa, fatally injuring the car driver and his 5-year-old son. Court records say 49-year-old Ann Vanderpool, of Milford, faces two counts of vehicular homicide while driving intoxicated. Vanderpool’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for March 15.

The accident occurred June 10 on Iowa Highway 9 near Sibley. The car driver, 48-year-old Travis Mier, of Spirit Lake, was pronounced dead at Osceola Community Hospital. His son Elliot was pronounced dead later at a Sioux Falls, South Dakota, hospital. Vanderpool also was hospitalized.

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission renewed the licenses for the 19 casinos it oversees during its meeting Tuesday in Altoona. The state issues one license to the gambling company to run the games, and one to a non-profit organization to distribute the money they are required by the state to set aside. Several members of the non-profits spoke to the commissioners during the renewal process — including Dakin Schultz, president of Missouri River Historical Development, or MRHD. “Since August of 2014, Merd has received over 11 million, 500-thousand in funds to distribute as grants,” Schultz says. “We’ve granted over a million dollars in scholarships — with over half of that in the last two years alone.”

He says he’s seen other benefits from moving the casino from a riverboat to the land. “Our relationship with the Hard Rock Casino Hotel has been very positive….some of the things that you see when you are in Sioux City with the Hard Rock now is the astonishing change in the downtown,” according to Schultz. He says there used to be numerous vacant buildings in the area. “Today with what’s going on at the Hard Rock, all those storefronts are filling up quick. It’s been a remarkable transition for what’s happening,” Schultz says.

The president of the Lyon County Riverboat Foundation, Jerry Keizer of Doon, talked about the funding they receive from the Grand Falls Casino.”Last October of 2017 we held our grant review banquet in the events center, where we distributed one million,235-thousand dollars to new projects in the surrounding communities,” Keizer says. He says they also distribute funds from the casino golf course, with half going to scholarships. “These awards are based on applications. The remaining 50 percent of the funds are given to the Lyon County schools,” Keizer says. “There’s three schools in Lyon County that we fund. Since 2011, each school has received one-million-200-thousand dollars.” Steve Staebell is the president of the Southeast Iowa Regional Riverboat Commission which partners with the Catfish Bend Casino. “I’m happy to report that the relationship between the Catfish Bend Casino and the Southeast Iowa Regional Riverboat Commission or SIRRC — continues to thrive to the benefit of the Des Moines and Lee County communities,” Staebell says.

He says the benefits are spread across the area. He says the revenues are equally divided between Keokuk Area Convention and Tourism Bureau, the Fort Madison SIRRC and Grow Greater Burlington. “This year southeast Iowa is sharing the benefits of nearly one-point-three million dollars made possible by these revenues,” according to Staebell. The Racing and Gaming Commission took the action to approve the new licenses at their meeting at the Prairie Meadows Casino in Altoona.

(Radio Iowa)

Eleven of the 12 Republicans on a House committee have advanced an anti-sanctuary cities bill, making it eligible for House debate. The legislation would deny state money to any city in the state that declares itself a sanctuary to people at risk of deportation because of their immigration status. Representative Clel Baudler, a Republican from Greenfield, says the city council in Iowa City “is causing this” action from legislators because it has barred Iowa City Police from acting on their own to “detect the presence of undocumented people.” “The rule of law and the voluntary compliance to the rule of law is one of the most important parts of our society,” Baudler told reporters yesterday. “If we don’t adhere to that, we’re going to have chaos and I don’t want to live in a place with chaos.”

The bill cleared the House Public Safety Committee last (Tuesday) night, but not after some extraordinary measures. Baudler chose to restrict public access to an early afternoon committee meeting on the bill, because there were protesters last year when a similar bill was considered in his committee. “I threw 11 people out of here, one at a time,” Baudler said. “We don’t want a repeat of that and that was an attempt to stop it.” Later in the afternoon, an immigrant engaged Baudler in conversation and referred to the bill as racist. Baudler replied. “That just really bugs me when you refer to me as that,” Baudler said. He then recited part of his extended family tree: “My greatgrandkids: Carlita, Emilio, Bella — Isabella, Salina, Megan, Wyatt — they’re out in California.”

Baudler — who is chairman of the House Public Safety Committee — was encouraged by House leadership to move the panel’s evening meeting to a larger room. That allowed about two dozen members of the public who oppose the bill to watch committee’s deliberations. There were no disruptions.

(Radio Iowa)

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

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Vice President Mike Pence headlined a rally in Council Bluffs on Tuesday to tout the tax cuts President Trump signed into law late last year. “President Trump promised over the course of the campaign that we’d cut taxes across the board for working families and job creators large and small,” Pence said. “And just over two months ago President Donald Trump signed the largest tax cuts and tax reform in American history and our economy has taken off every day since.”

Pence took the stage by saying, “Hello Iowa!” quickly followed by a “Hello Nebraska!” Pence told the crowd businesses now have “unprecedented opportunities” to pass tax savings onto their employees. “We believe workers in Iowa and Nebraska can expect to see pay raises,” Pence said. “…We’re already on the way.” About 500 people attended the event organized by America First Policies. The group was formed to tout the president’s accomplishments and has scheduled a series of rallies around the country focused on tax policy. Pence, however, addressed other pressing issues of the day, including news that North Korea is willing to talk about ending its tests of nuclear weapons. “We’ll continue to apply maximum pressure to the Kim regime until we see North Korea take credible and concrete steps towards denuclearization,” Pence said. “We will remain firm in our resolve and we will continue to stand strong until North Korea abandons their nuclear program once and for all.”

Pence also addressed the president’s proposed trade tariffs on steel and aluminum exports. The vice president described it as a “crackdown” on unfair trade practices. “Now, the president said earlier today the United States has been taken advantage of for too long by too many countries when it comes to trade,” Pence said. “…Whether it be in renegotiating NAFTA or protecting our steel and aluminum industries, President Trump is always going to put American workers, American companies and American farmers first.”

About a dozen Democrats staged a protest outside the venue. They accused the vice president of “spreading a misleading message” about what the Democrats called the “G-O-P tax scam.”

(Radio Iowa)

A day after resigning as Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture, Bill Northey took the oath of office for a federal job. Northey is now an Undersecretary in the U.S. Department of Agriculture. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue flew to Iowa to conduct the ceremony last (Tuesday) night at a previously-scheduled ag leadership banquet on the state fairgrounds. After the event, Perdue told reporters Northey will be in charge of organizing and consolidating some agencies within the U-S-D-A — that includes the Farm Service Agency, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Risk Management Agency. “So we can have a one-stop shop for farmers where they can come in and get answers. Their databases need to coincide and work together, get our IT working and there are a lot of challenges out there and we’re going to do it,” Perdue said. “We’re both sooner-rather-than-later kind of people.”  Northey delivered a “I couldn’t be more excited to be able to work for all of you at USDA,” Northey said, “…and to serve in a way that certainly magnifies or is an example of the support that you all have shown me through the years and certainly in the last four months.”

In early September, President Trump nominated Northey to be Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services. A committee in the U.S. Senate endorsed his nomination in October, but Texas Senator Ted Cruz held up a senate vote on Northey as leverage for changes in the federal ethanol production mandate. Perdue told the crowd Northey had “finally been “liberated from the U.S. Senate” last week. “In case you have any questions about it, Bill Northey, Sonny Perdue and Donald J. Trump stand for the RFS, unequivocally,” Perdue said.

The crowd gave that statement a standing ovation. Perdue calls Northey an “evangelist” about what’s working in Iowa agriculture and someone who has the “moxie to get things done” in the U.S.D.A. “I frankly have been congratulated so much tonight over Bill Northey, I feel like I’m getting married,” Perdue quipped and the crowd laughed. This was Perdue’s fourth visit to Iowa since HE was sworn in as U.S. ag secretary last April. It’s his first since President Trump announced tariffs on steel imports and tweeted about winning a trade war. Perdue was asked how Iowa farmers who may be spooked by those developments should react.
“Pray,” Perdue said, laughing. “…President Trump is a unique negotiator and sometimes he keeps people off balance, even his own staff sometimes…He certainly did that this last week…He believes solely in his heart ‘America first’ and the American people first and that includes American agriculture.”

Perdue says he and others are working “feverishly” with the president on trade issues. Perdue suggested Trump’s unconventional comments may have positioned the U.S. for a breakthrough in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

(Radio Iowa)

An incident in Stuart late Tuesday night ended with no injuries being reported. Stuart Police said on their social media page, that “Officers with the Stuart Police Dept., Adair, Dallas and Guthrie Co. Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol responded to a report of a suicidal person barricaded in a hotel room in the 1200 block of S. Division St. The subject, who had claimed he was armed with a handgun had made threats that he was going to harm himself and Officers. After approximately 2 hours of negotiating, the subject came out of the room peacefully without incident. The adult male was transported to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines for psychiatric treatment.”

Stuart Police thank those agencies who assisted in handling the situation successfully, saying “In small rural communities it often takes several agencies to handle incidents like this and it’s nice to know that when necessary we all work so well together.”