A spokesperson for the Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund reports the Fund answered the call of the Nishna Valley Family YMCA again this year, by donating $1,000 to their annual “Partnership with Youth” campaign.  Trevor’s mom Melanie Petty says the Foundation continues to “Feel strongly about the importance of the YMCA in our community.  The YMCA offers a safe environment for our youth along with offering several programs to keep our youth active throughout the year.  The YMCA also offers scholarships to help community members young and old so they can enjoy the facilities!  No amount of donation is too small.  If you are able to help call the YMCA at 243-3934 to donate.”

All of the funds donated by the Trevor Frederickson Memorial fund are raised at the annual TFred Memorial Golf Tournament.  The 11th annual golf tournament will be held on Saturday, August 10th at Nishna Hills Golf Club.  Contact Melanie Petty at 712-249-3696 if you would like to golf, sponsor a team or just sponsor a hole.  All funds raised are donated to things that were important to Trevor.  We look forward to another successful year helping out our community with your help.  The Trevor Frederickson Memorial Fund is a 501(c) 3 Non Profit Organization.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A lawsuit targeting Iowa’s use of seclusion and restraints at a state home for male juvenile offenders has been granted class-action status. The lawsuit filed in November 2017 by two advocacy groups says the school is failing to provide adequate mental health care to the boys and instead is administering powerful drugs without proper oversight or consent. The lawsuit alleges that the boys at Boys State Training School in Eldora are given medications “as a behavioral management tool” the groups likened to a chemical straitjacket.

The Des Moines Register reports that class-action certification means that, if the lawsuit is successful, required fixes would likely be more holistic in their approach.
State attorneys argued unsuccessfully that allowing the lawsuit to proceed as class-action litigation is overly broad and vague.

(Radio Iowa) — Missouri Valley Mayor Shawn Kelly says around one-thousand of the city’s three-thousand or so residents had to be evacuated Thursday when it looked like a nearby creek and a river might overflow. Several local levees then breached and allowed more water to flood the city. Red Cross representative Gerry Sue Rinella says some people spent the night in the city’s community center, while other have been in and out for food. “They can just sit and share their stories, or debrief with each other and kind of relax a little bit,” Rinella says.

Mayor Kelly says a lot of the residents who weren’t hit by the flooding have been helpful to those who have. “They’ve volunteered to open their doors for displaced people to come stay at their houses and whatever they need,” according to Kelly. “The small community we have is a wonderful community that is helping everyone as best they can.”

It’s unknown how long the evacuation could be in place. About 60 miles north, the City of Hornick told its 200 or so residents to evacuate after a levee broke along the West Fork of the Little Sioux River. A nearby city has set up a shelter for them.

A traffic stop Thursday night in Adams County resulted in two arrests. The Adams County Sheriff’s Department reports Deputies conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for failing to display license plates. Upon further investigation, a passenger in the vehicle provided a false name to deputies. The individual was later identified as Alex Jordan Pfeil, of Rock Port, Missouri. Deputies determined that Pfeil had a warrant for Parole Violation in Missouri.

Alex Pfeil

During the investigation, K9 “Baxo” was deployed and gave a positive alert to the odor of narcotics. Pfeil was placed under arrest for Providing False Identification Information. Another passenger in the vehicle, Courtney Bartles, of Hamburg, Iowa was placed under arrest for Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, and Providing False Identification Information. Deputies located numerous marijuana pipes, a marijuana grinder, and used hypodermic needles concealed on Bartles’ person.

Courtney Bartles

Police in Red Oak report four arrests occurred Thursday. At around 9:20-p.m., 31-year old Bradley Brent Perdue, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 2400 block of Highway 48, for Driving While Revoked and failure to have SR-22 Insurance. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 bond. At around 7:50-p.m., 25-year old Joshua Michael Parker, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 1000 block of E. Reed Street, for Violation of a No Contact Order. His bond was set at $300.

38-year old Christopher Michael Lowrance, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 4:05-p.m. Thursday in the 400 block of E. Market Street, for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order. His bond was also set at $300. And, 65-year old Neil Edward Barnhart, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 4-p.m. Thursday, for unauthorized use of a credit card (under $1,000). Police say Barnhart used the victims’ credit card at several places to obtain money for himself. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

According to 511ia.org, the following roads remain closed or are partially open, in the listening area, due to flooding:

• IA Highway 48 between U-S 59 and County Road J-32 (At Shenandoah) is closed in both directions (detour)
• U-S Hwy 59 between IA 48 and J-14 (near Shenandoah) is closed in both directions. (Detour)
• Highway 6 in Pott. County, west of Highway 59, is closed in both directions to the Treynor turn-off. A detour is in-place
• Highway 59 N. of I-80 is down to one-lane
• Highway 2 between Shenandoah and Farragut is closed in both directions. (Detour)
• Highway 333 at Hamburg, is closed between I-29 and Hwy 275 (detour)
• Highway 30 from Missouri Valley to I-29 is closed in both directions, a detour was established
• Highway 30 between Dunlap and Logan is closed in both directions.
• Interstate 29 from Council Bluffs to Missouri Valley is closed in both directions.
• I-680 from I-29 west into Omaha (The Mormon Bridge) is closed in both directions.
• Highway 44 westbound between Panora and Dallas Center is closed.
• U-S Highway 169 between Highway 6 and Hwy 44 near Adel is closed in both directions.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A late-winter storm system continues its trek across the Midwest. It will send rain and snow into Minnesota and Illinois on Friday. The storm left quickly rising floods in its wake in parts of eastern Nebraska and Iowa that saw people evacuated from their homes, roads washed out in communities, and farmers worried the water would drown livestock.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo man has pleaded not guilty to charges that he killed his wife and set her body on fire in cemetery last year. The Courier reports that 28-year-old Fredrick Williams filed a written plea of not guilty to the Black Hawk County District Court. Williams is charged with first-degree murder and abuse of a corpse in the death of 40-year-old Lakisha Williams. An autopsy determined she was asphyxiated.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke says it is important for the U.S. to confront the truth about how black people have been treated in the country. At a house party Thursday in Iowa, O’Rourke said the U.S. needs to recognize that systematic racism is real. Other Democratic presidential candidates have spoken of the need for the U.S. government to make up for centuries of stolen labor and oppression by offering reparations, but not in the traditional sense of financial renumeration.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed an emergency disaster proclamation that allows state resources to be used to respond to flooding in portions of the state. Reynolds also on Thursday activated Iowa’s State Emergency Operations Center to coordinate the response to flooding and help monitor rapidly-evolving conditions. The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings for some areas and says river flooding will continue through the weekend due to excessive runoff from rain and snow melt.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa motorists, beware! That big puddle on the roadside may be hiding a massive pothole that could cost you dearly. You’re driving along, minding your own business, and suddenly, wham! Jonna Warner, who manages an auto repair shop in central Iowa, says she’s getting a half dozen customers daily who’ve hit potholes. “We’re replacing wheels, so it’s ruining wheels, blowing tires out, misaligning the vehicle,” Warner says. “A lot of damage can occur.”

Those repairs aren’t cheap, either. “Replacing a wheel and tire combination can run $500 to $600 on some of these newer cars,” she says. And if there’s suspension damage, like to shocks, struts or tie rods, the bill can quickly bounce into the thousand-dollar range. Sometimes you can see the pothole coming, but you’re penned into the lane. If you can slow down quickly and safely, you might be able to just roll over it.

“I’ve seen people do that and I’ve had to do that myself, trying to get over a little more so you’re not hitting it directly on,” Warner says. “There’s some that are in lanes where, if you swerve to miss it, you’re going into the other lane. If there’s a car there, it’s definitely a dangerous situation.” You’ll know if you’ve done some damage if, after hitting a hole, the steering wheel feels wobbly or off-center, you might hear a rattle or the whole car may be shaky.

Warner, who runs Freedom Tire in Des Moines, says to watch out for those stealth potholes, too.  “Be careful and if it’s a pool of water on the road, typically there’s a hole underneath it,” Warner says. “A lot of people will hit them, not seeing them because they’re filled with water.” She says some clients have tried forwarding their pothole repair bill on to the city for reimbursement, but none have had any success.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, has unveiled a plan for new parents to use some of their Social Security savings to pay for time off work to be with the new child. The plan does have some critics. “I do receive some push back because there others who would simply just rather throw a tax out there. That’s the easy way to solve all of the worlds’ problems I think for some — to just throw a new tax out there,” Ernst says.

Ernst says it is a starting point in the discussion and gives people another option if their employer doesn’t offer paid family leave. “Parents can choose to take this or not. It is not forced, parents can choose…and what they would be doing is they would be borrowing from Social Security — but repaying that back by deferring when they would start taking their Social Security benefits,” according to Ernst. She is introducing the legislation with Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah, and calls it the “Cradle Act.”

“There are studies that show that babies that are able to bond with mom and dad — they do better later in life. There are better outcomes for those toddlers and then those teenagers,” Ernst says. “And the long-terms gains of those better outcomes is not even considered in this proposal.” Some critics say the it would undermine Social Security and force seniors to work longer. But Ernst says it is one option that would not add a lot of cost to implement.

“Well certainly we’ve talked about other methods of funding, but what we have with Social Security is an existing infrastructure already in the government. Which with very, very, very minimal additional cost the program could be implemented,” Ernst says. “If we are looking at other funding mechanisms, you would have to create the infrastructure to do that, which would be extremely costly.”

Ernst says here plan would apply to biological and adopted children. Democrats have proposed a different plan that would institute a small payroll tax to provide up to twelve weeks to care for any loved one to use.