DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says the head of the Iowa Department of Human Services will respond to allegations of limited mental health care options at a school for juvenile offenders. Reynolds was asked Tuesday about the Boys State Training School in Eldora following a report from Disability Rights Iowa that highlights the use of restraints and seclusion at the facility.

Reynolds says Jerry Foxhoven, the new DHS director, will work with the school’s superintendent and others to “make sure that we’re doing the right thing.” She says it’s Foxhoven’s responsibility to assess the situation and she expects to circle back with him.

Disability Rights Iowa threatened to file a federal lawsuit against Reynolds and others if recommended changes aren’t implemented. The school’s superintendent defended the school following the report’s release.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a man who tried to deposit what he presented as a $1 million bill has been charged with drug possession in Iowa. A criminal complaint says Sioux City police officers were called to a Northwest Bank branch Thursday to talk to a man who tried to deposit the bill into his account. The officers asked 33-year-old Dennis Strickland whether he had any more of the bills and that a baggie fell out when he emptied a pocket. The complaint says the baggie contained methamphetamine.

The U.S. Treasury Department says it has never produced a $1 million bill. Iowa court records say Strickland is scheduled to be back in court Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – U.S. health officials say more people have contracted salmonella by eating papayas from a farm in southern Mexico. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 109 people in 16 states have caught the illness from eating papayas traced to the Carica de Campeche farm in Campeche, Mexico.

Nearly half of the cases have been in New York and New Jersey, which had 36 and 26, respectively. Virginia has had 11 cases, Pennsylvania has had seven and Maryland has had six. Connecticut and Minnesota have each reported four cases, and Massachusetts has had three.

Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina and Oklahoma have each reported two cases, while Delaware, Louisiana, Michigan and Wisconsin have had one each. One death, in New York City, has been blamed on the outbreak. Those sickened can experience diarrhea, vomiting, stomach pain and fever. The illness can be more severe when contracted by young children, older adults and people with weakened immune systems.

An investigation into the burglary of an auto parts store in Sac City has resulted in the arrest of two central Iowa men. The Sac City Police Department reports 33-year old Eric Coon and 37-year old Rocco Viola, both of Des Moines, face felony Burglary in the 3rd degree charges.

Authorities say the men were delivering supplies to the Carquest Auto Parts Store Sac City. After they dropped off the supplies they allegedly went to the front of the store and stole several items. The incident, which happened on July 10th at around 3:20-a.m., and was discovered the following morning.

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information on a white Chevy extended cab pickup, with lettering on passenger rear side window. The vehicle’s driver may have information with regard to the July 21st robbery of the Rolling Hills Bank, in Casey. The vehicle was seen in front of the bank around the time of the robbery. Anyone with  information about the incident should call the Guthrie County Sheriffs Office at 641-747-2214.

A picture of a similar make and model of the truck.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Aug. 8, 2017 – The Iowa Department of Transportation will hold a public hearing Tuesday, Aug. 15th, from 5 to 7 p.m. to discuss the proposed improvements of the I-29/I-480/West Broadway interchange area in Council Bluffs, from just north of the Union Pacific Railroad crossing to just south of the 25th Street interchange, as well as to gather feedback from the public regarding the completed environmental documentation, alternative(s), and impacts for the proposed improvements. The area also includes the I-29 and I-480 system interchange. A meeting to discuss specific right of way acquisition will be held later this year.

All interested persons are invited to attend this hearing at the Council Bluffs Interstate Program Office in the Mall of the Bluffs, 1751 Madison Ave., Suite 750, in Council Bluffs. The hearing will be conducted utilizing a combined open forum and formal format. Iowa DOT staff will be available to informally discuss the proposed improvements between 5 and 6 p.m. and following the formal presentation until 7 p.m.

A formal presentation will begin at 6 p.m., followed by a question-and-answer session. There will be a three-minute limit per speaker during the question-and-answer session. Persons wishing to make a formal presentation will need to note that at the time of registration. Oral and written statements will be accepted during the open forum and the formal sessions.

The proposed project will impact two publicly owned recreational properties. Dodge Riverside Golf Course located at 421 Harrah’s Boulevard and Westwood Park, located at 1200 South 35th St. Those facilities are owned and operated by the city of Council Bluffs.

The meeting space is accessible for persons with disabilities. However, if you require special accommodations at the meeting, please notify the Iowa DOT contact listed below by Aug. 8.

For general information regarding the proposed improvements or public hearing, contact Scott Suhr, transportation planner, Iowa DOT District 4 Office, 2210 E. Seventh St., Atlantic, Iowa 50022, phone 712-243-3355 or 800-289-4368, email Scott.Suhr@iowadot.us.

Visit the Iowa DOT’s project-related public involvement event website at www.iowadot.gov/pim for information about scheduled public meetings and hearings, and opportunities to offer input to the Iowa DOT during the development of certain projects. More information regarding this project will be posted as it becomes available at: councilbluffsinterstate.iowadot.gov.

A bill co-sponsored by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley that’s designed to crack down on waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending has cleared the U-S Senate and heads next to the House. Grassley, a Republican, says the bill targets the use of travel and purchase cards by federal workers. Grassley says, “This goes back to investigations I’ve conducted mostly with the Defense Department but it also includes a lot of other agencies as well.”

He says the bill would help prevent charge card misuse and abuse by requiring agencies to take a series of steps to strengthen accountability and oversight. Grassley says, “You can’t believe what government employees use their credit card for, seemingly with no embarrassment to go to houses of prostitution, to buy personal things, just all sorts of illegal use of credit card.”

The legislation is called: The Saving Federal Dollars Through Better Use of Government Purchase and Travel Cards Act. By helping agencies to better track and analyze card charges, Grassley says it will help to curb wasteful spending and ensure taxpayer dollars are spent more wisely across the federal government.

Grassley says, “Another thing is to make sure inspectors general in various departments, starting with the Defense Department, make public what they’ve found out and how they police it so other departments can follow up with more financial controls.”

The new measure builds on an earlier bill Grassley introduced, the Government Charge Card Abuse Prevention Act of 2012.

(Radio Iowa)

Des Moines (Radio Iowa) – The Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator is in Iowa today (Tuesday) for meetings with farmers and state officials. Iowa is the 18th state Scott Pruitt has visited as his agency considers a new “Waters of the U.S.” rule to replace regulations drafted by the Obama Administration, but put on hold by the courts. “When the EPA defines a ‘Waters of the United States’ as being a puddle, a dry creek bed and an ephemeral drainage ditch, then clearly they were misplaced,” Pruitt said this morning, “and they have not provided great certainty to landowners.”

During an interview with Radio Iowa, Pruitt said his goal is to provide “regulatory clarity” with a new rule, so property owners will know where federal jurisdiction begins and ends. “If you want to build a pond on your land,” Pruitt said, “if you have natural springs on your land and you want to want to water your livestock and build (a retention) pond…and you’re not really sure whether if you do that you’re going to be subject to $37,000-plus a day in fines if you don’t get a permit and you find it out five years from now, what does that mean? You don’t build the pond or you don’t build the subdivision or you don’t use your land the way you want.”

Pruitt suggests his agency will align its substitute Waters of the U.S. rule with a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that outlined “traditional notions” about what streams, rivers and wetlands should be subject to federal Clean Water Act regulations. “The goal is to help folks in Iowa know that they’re not under the threat of the EPA coming in and saying: ‘Gotcha!’ five years from now and trying to assess hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for the use your own land,” Pruitt told Radio Iowa.

President Trump issued an executive order in February that set in motion the ultimate withdrawal of the Obama Administration’s “Waters of the U.S.” rule. While Pruitt’s agency drafts a replacement, pre-2015 standards remain in place. Pruitt says the Obama Administration’s approach to water regulation was too “adversarial.”  “As I talk to farmers and ranchers, I first want them to understand that I see them as partners,” Pruitt said. “I see them as co-partners in achieving good outcomes and that they’re going to take care of the water that they have on their land and that they desire to do so.”

A draft of a report about climate change that was written by scientists in the E-P-A and a dozen other federal agencies was leaked to the New York Times and the newspaper published a story on the report late yesterday (Monday). Pruitt told Radio Iowa he hasn’t reviewed the scientific report and could not comment on it.

Officials with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) serving Nebraska, South Dakota, the Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa, are warning that emails claiming to be from BBBs have been received by businesses owners and consumers in our region and throughout the U.S. The BBB name and logo are being fraudulently used by criminals in a phishing scam. The emails look very much like a notice of a complaint from BBB, but they contain links to malware that can infect the recipient’s computer or steal passwords.

Below is an example of one of these emails.

“Dear ________________.
This email has been automatically sent to you because we have got a complaint, claiming that your company XWZ is violating The Safety and Health Act.

You can download the document with the explanation of abuse by following the link.

We also request that you give a reply within 48 hours to us. This message should contain information about what you plan to do with it.

Important note:
When replying to us, please leave the abuse ID “Incident:941665154619:634” unchanged in the subject.

Better Business Bureau
Compliance Department”

If you get an email that looks like it is a BBB complaint:

• Do NOT click on any links or attachments.
• Read the email carefully for signs that it may be fake (for example, misspellings, grammatical errors, generic greetings such as “Dear member” instead of a name, etc.).
• Be wary of urgent instructions to take specified action such as “Click on the link or your account will be closed.”
• Hover your mouse over links without clicking to see if the address is truly from bbb.org. The URL in the text should match the URL that your mouse detects. If the two do not match, it is most likely a scam.
• Send a copy of the email to phishing@council.bbb.org (Note: This address is only for scams that use the BBB name or logo)
• Delete the email from your computer completely (be sure to empty your “trash can” or “recycling bin,” as well).
• Run anti-virus software updates frequently and do a full-system scan.
• Keep a close eye on your bank statements for any unexpected or unexplained transactions.

If you have clicked on any of the links within the email, immediately change your email and network passwords AND notify your local IT provider for next steps and actions.

Audubon Police Chief Matt Starmer reports two recent arrests. Last Saturday, 30 year old Aaron Lee Ihnken, of Audubon, was arrested for Trespassing and Public Intoxication – 3rd or subsequent offense.  Ihnken was transported to the Audubon County Jail to appear before a magistrate.

And, on Friday, 31 year old Troy Donald Marasco, of Missouri Valley, was arrested for Driving While Suspended.  Marasco was released on promise to appear in court.