SPENCER, Iowa (Sioux City Journal) — Authorities in northwestern Iowa have identified a man whose body was found inside a burning home. Spencer Fire Department Deputy Chief Mark Stover said Tuesday in a news release that 70-year-old Larry Classon died on Feb. 13 in a fire at his Spencer home.

The Sioux City Journal reports that the cause of the fire remains under investigation. Stover says Classon died of smoke inhalation. Classon’s body was found the morning of Feb. 13 after firefighters were called to his house and arrived to find the home in flames.

The Villisca Fire Department reports a barn in rural Villisca was destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning, and a number of livestock were lost. Officials say crews were dispatched to Gale Fisher’s property at 2778 265th Street around 6:32-a.m., following a report of a barn on fire. When crews arrived, they found a large barn was fully engulfed in flames. Additional help was called for from the Stanton and Grant Fire Departments for the use of their tankers.

Photo via the Montgomery County Emergency Mgmt. Agy.

Authorities say the owners were unable to get a small number of livestock out of the barn and the animals perished in the fire. While the barn was a total loss, firefighters were able to keep the flames from spreading to a nearby second barn and a house.

No injuries were reported. Official said it’s believed that an alternative heat source for the livestock may have started the fire. Crews were on the scene for about 3 1/2 hours.

Villisca Fire was assisted at the scene by Villisca Rescue, the Grant…Stanton and Red Oak Fire Departments, Montgomery County Sheriff’s office, and Montgomery County EMA. The Villisca Fire Department also thanked the Fisher family for their assistance at the scene.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A Pottawattamie County man was sentenced Monday tot two-years in prison for being a Prohibited Person in Possession of Firearms and Ammunition. A District Court Judge also sentenced 29-year old Jacob Allen Washburn, of Council Bluffs, to a three-year term of supervised following the completion of his sentence.

On July 3, 2019, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office received a complaint that Washburn was sitting in a vehicle parked in a homeowner’s driveway. When law enforcement responded, Washburn produced a valid Iowa Driver’s License and identified himself, however, he did not have any registration or ownership paperwork for the vehicle. Authorities say Washburn appeared to be disoriented, and did not know where he was when questioned. While investigating, deputies saw a digital scale in the vehicle and Washburn was detained.

A pistol was found in Washburn’s left front pocket. The vehicle also contained a Remington Model 870 Express 12-gauge shotgun, and a Marlin Model 60 .22 LR semiautomatic rifle. Additionally, a bag containing 5.3 grams of methamphetamine was found in Washburn’s pocket, and a bag containing 17.4 grams of methamphetamine was located in the vehicle. Washburn admitted that he had a prior felony conviction.

The case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotic Enforcement and the Cass County Sheriff’s Department. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Atlantic, IA — As part of an effort to make Cass County Health System’s building more secure for patients, families, and employees, officials with CCHS announced today (Tuesday) that two exterior doors will be closed for public use beginning March 1, 2020.

“We have an obligation to our patients and staff to do everything we can to protect their safety and privacy,” said Lee Wyman, Plant Operations Director. “We are locking two doors on the southeast and southwest sides of our building, which are generally used only by staff. We recognize that several long-term patients occasionally use these doors so we do want to let people know about this change.”

All patients and visitors should use one of three public entrances:
· The Main Entrance located next to parking lot A.
· The Emergency Department entrance located next to parking lot C.
· The Rehabilitation Services entrance located next to parking lot C.

“We also feel that it is safer for the public to use only these three entrances. In case of emergencies, these entrances are more likely to have staff close at hand or monitoring them via cameras,” said Wyman.

With the addition of AMC Rapid Care, the previous Evening Clinic entrance is now closed. All Atlantic Medical Center and AMC Rapid Care patients should use the Main Entrance.

(Radio Iowa) — Governor Kim Reynolds says she fired the director of the state’s largest agency this summer, in part, because of the deaths of disabled patients at the Glenwood Resource Center. Reynolds has previously declined to discuss exactly why Jerry Foxhoven was dismissed, but today (Tuesday) the governor indicated she grew frustrated with the data Foxhoven was giving her staff about the rate of patient deaths at Glenwood.

“I can’t keep continuing to get these kind of reports. I don’t care if it’s a national average. I know it’s a frail population, but I believe we can do better,” Reynolds says. “…That was one of the many factors.” The U.S. Department of Justice notified the state in a November 21st letter that a federal investigation was being launched into patient care as well as allegations Glenwood patients were being used as human subjects in sex experiments.

Some Glenwood staff had reported concerns to their superiors, but the governor says those reports never reached her office. “I first became aware of that when we received the letter from the DOJ and that is when we first learned that there were issues or that that was being done at Glenwood,” the governor says. Reynolds says HER administration’s initial investigation soon found “nothing was being done” to address the allegations. Glenwood’s superintendent was placed on administrative leave December 9th and fired 21 days later. However, the agency manager who approved the sex experiments on Glenwood patients was allowed to retire recently.

“Part of that is doing the due diligence and going through the research,” Reynolds says, “and so we also have to make sure that we have adequate information when we make the decisions that we made.” The governor says it’s “absolutely fine” for legislators to investigate what has happened and ask new D-H-S director Kelly Garcia what steps are being taken to improve the Glenwood Resource Center.

“If they have additional questions, she’s more than happy to sit down and walk them through that,” Reynolds says. “No problems whatsoever.” Reynolds says doctors from the University of Iowa are continuing to make trips to Glenwood to evaluate the health of the disabled patients, many of whom are being treated for serious illnesses. Reynolds says the director of the Department of Human Services is in the process of hiring one person who’ll be in charge of all the state-run institutions under D-H-S management.

That would include the Glenwood Resource Center as well as the Woodward Resource Center, which is also under federal investigation for its care of disabled patients. Reynolds says she’s continuing to assemble a team of top managers, with the expectation they will communicate and collaborate with her staff.

“When you don’t know what you don’t know, you’re kind of handcuffed on some of the changes that you can make,” Reynolds says. Reynolds says she knows for certain no one notified her office of their concerns about Glenwood patients.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (Telegraph Herald) — A man has pleaded guilty to a series of sexual assaults reported years ago in Dubuque. The Telegraph Herald reports that Martel Fountain Sr. entered the pleas Monday to four counts of sexual assault. His plea deal calls for 10-year sentences for each count, to be served consecutively. Court documents say Fountain assaulted three women in 2011 after forcing his way into their homes. The documents say another was raped in 2014 after Fountain forced her into her garage. Prosecutors say a DNA sample taken from Fountain after his 2018 arrest in a federal drug case linked him to the four assaults.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The amount of water being released into the Missouri River from Gavins Point Dam will be increased again to free up more space in the reservoirs upstream before spring. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that the amount of water flowing out of Gavins Point on the Nebraska-South Dakota border will be increased later this week to 41,000 cubic feet per second. That is up from the current 35,000 cubic feet per second. The Corps is working to clear out as much space as possible in the reservoirs ahead of what is expected to be another wet year.