DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Two education initiatives created to improve Iowa schools could be at risk of delay or even disposal due to budget shortfalls. The Des Moines Register reports that the state Department of Education has not requested money from Iowa to implement a crucial summer reading program as part of the state’s third-grade retention law. Starting in the spring of next year, third-graders reading below grade level will be required to either repeat the grade or go to an intensive summer reading program to move on to the next year.

The second initiative would switch schools from the current statewide exams to computer-based tests, which adjust the difficulty level of math or reading questions based on the students’ answers. Iowa lawmakers are struggling with a $110 million budget shortfall, and are unsure if enough funding is available for the initiatives.

Following several rounds of severe winter weather in many parts of the country, the American Red Cross urges eligible blood and platelet donors to help restock its shelves to overcome a shortage. Since Dec. 1st, about 300 blood drives across 27 states have been forced to cancel due to inclement winter weather, resulting in more than 10,500 blood and platelet donations going uncollected. This week, icy roads forced blood drives to cancel in southwest Iowa. Despite the weather, hospital patients still rely on transfusions.

To make an appointment to give blood, download the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). Donors are encouraged to make appointments and complete the RapidPass online health history questionnaire at redcrossblood.org/rapidpass to save time when donating.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities (County/City/time & place):

Adair: Greenfield, 2/15/2017: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Nodaway Valley High School, 410 NW 2nd Street.

Cass: Anita, 2/14/2017: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Community Center, 805 Main Street; Lewis, 1/25/2017: 12 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Lewis Community Center, 400 West Main Street.

Montgomery: Red Oak, 1/30/2017: 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1101 East Summit, & 2/7/2017: 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Red Oak High School, 2011 N 8th St.

Pottawattamie: Council Bluffs, 1/23/2017: 12:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….1/24/2017: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….1/27/2017: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., Lewis Central High School, 3504 Harry Langdon Blvd…1/27/2017: 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., ConAgra Foods, 1023 S. 4th Street…1/30/2017: 12:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….1/31/2017: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….2/6/2017: 12:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….2/7/2017: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….2/9/2017: 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Mercy Hospital, 800 Mercy Drive…. 2/13/2017: 12:30 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street….2/14/2017: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Loess Hills Chapter Donation Center, 705 North 16 Street

Shelby: Defiance, 2/10/2017: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., St. Peter’s Hall, 402 5th Street; Harlan, 2/9/2017: 7:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Harlan High School, 2102 Durant Street…2/14/2017: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., CDS, 3107 Shelby Street…2/14/2017: 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., CDS, 3107 Shelby Street; Panama, 2/15/2017: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., St. Mary’s Parish Center, 204 St. Mary Avenue.

How to help

Simply download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) to make an appointment or for more information. All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood donors can now save time at their next donation by using RapidPass to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, prior to arriving at the blood drive. To get started and learn more, visit redcrossblood.org/RapidPass and follow the instructions on the site.

Police in Creston say a woman residing in the 800 block of N. Lincoln Street reported Tuesday, that sometime between 2-p.m. Monday and 6:30-a.m. Tuesday, someone broke out the back window of her vehicle. The damage amounted to $250. The incident remains under investigation.

(7-a.m. News)

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

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Sheriff’s Deputies in Montgomery County early this (Wednesday) morning, arrested 23-year old Zachary Nathan Gogert, of Red Oak. Gogert was taken into custody at around 4:15-a.m. on a valid warrant for Theft in the 4th Degree. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.

Police in Red Oak, Tuesday night, briefly arrested and then released, 25-year old Anthony Michael Harris, of Bedford, following a traffic stop on Highway 34 at Eastern Avenue, in Red Oak. Harris was cited at around 8:30-p.m. for Driving While Suspended, a simple misdemeanor.

West Des Moines is the first city in Iowa to sign on to a national program to train and equip people for a potential emergency situation that includes serious bleeding. West Des Moines E-M-S Assistant Chief David Edgar says the Stop the Bleed program involves bleeding control kits — which could be used in a number of situations, ranging from a mass shooting to someone being injured while trimming a tree with a chainsaw.

“The fact is, in a lot of those cases when it’s severe bleeding, it can mean the difference between death and living by having immediate help before EMS arrives,” Edgar says. “It can take several minutes for EMS to get there and you can lose a lot of blood in that time period.”

The White House launched the Stop the Bleed program in October 2015. Around 75 organizations across the U.S. are officially approved for the program. “The Homeland Security Stop the Bleed program…we’re the first location in the state of Iowa, along with the hospitals here, that have been approved for that,” Edgar says.

Initially, employees at six of West Des Moines’ largest employers will be trained and equipped to become first responders. Edgar says the bleed kits will include a number of items. “A pair of gloves, a set of scissors to be able to cut clothing, some bandages and wraps to provide direct pressure and bleeding control, and then a commercial-type of tourniquet that can be used in severe bleeding,” Edgar says.

Staff at the participating businesses in West Des Moines will take a 20 to 30 minute class on stopping bleeding.

(Radio Iowa)

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow a woman who gets an abortion to sue the doctor who performed the procedure if she experiences emotional distress later. If approved, it would be the first law of its kind in the country. And it could make the state vulnerable to costly court challenges. The proposal would permit the woman to file a lawsuit at any point in her life, something that would go against typical statute of limitation rules.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa senator has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for his part in attempting to hide payments he received to endorse presidential candidate Ron Paul in 2012. Kent Sorenson was Iowa chairman of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign when he shifted support to Paul days before the 2012 Iowa Caucuses. Prosecutors sought probation because Sorenson testified against three Paul campaign staffers. Judge Robert Pratt said Sorenson’s acts of corruption justified prison time.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds says she supports cutting money that helps at-risk youth in Iowa in order to pay for a new program that ends state funding for Planned Parenthood. Reynolds, the incoming Iowa governor, defended the plan Tuesday by saying other services like foster care wouldn’t be affected. The Associated Press reported Sunday that the plan includes passing up millions of federal dollars and redirecting $2.8 million that currently goes to child and family services.

MARION, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa civil rights group is warning an eastern Iowa city to stop enforcing a local ordinance that requires a permit to hold a political sign on a sidewalk. The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa demands in a letter Tuesday to Marion leaders that they end enforcement of the ordinance after receiving a complaint from a local resident. The ACLU says police warned the resident in September that he was breaking local law.

The Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department’s Board of Directors, Tuesday evening, voted to accept from the Lions Club, the donation of a little, one-room school house already located at Sunnyside Park. The Lions Club is currently maintaining the structure, which was built in 1870 and relocated to just off Sunnyside lane, in 1960.

Parks and Rec Director Seth Staashelm said the Lions want to donate the house to the Parks Department (a non-profit organization), because the Lions (also a non-profit group), want to apply for grants that will enable them to maintain the building (including new siding), and improve the surrounding landscape.

The Parks and Rec Board also agreed with the Schildberg Recreation Area Committee, that 20 electrical pods to be installed at the Rec Area Campground site, should be metal and purchased from Kriz-Davis for around $3,450. That would be less expensive than a marina-style, fiberglass pod that had been proposed.
Seth Staashelm told the Board that the Enhance Iowa CAT grant application (pertaining to improvements at the Schildberg Recreation Area) is finished, and has been submitted to the Enhance Iowa Board.

The thick, spiral bound application spells out the amount of support the application and proposed project has, including matching funds from the City and County, and in-kind labor contributions. He said they hope to receive an invitation to appear before the Enhance Iowa Board, in a couple of weeks and make a presentation, as well as to answer any questions. If the grant is approved by this April, it will help to cover phase 1 of the Schildberg Recreation Area project, which involves electrical and water hook-ups to the camping pads, along with a new storm-safe shower and shelter house.

Staashelm reminds the public that shelter house reservations at one of the five City Parks are being accepted for groups and families. Already there are reservations made to this month. If you would like to reserve a shelter for an event or family get together, you can do so online at the Parks and Rec website (http://www.atlanticiowa.com/atlantic/city-departments/parks-recreation/reserve-a-shelter/) or call Seth Staashelm at 712-243-3542.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers are considering a bill that would allow a woman who gets an abortion to sue the doctor who performed the procedure if she experiences emotional distress later. If approved, it would be the first law of its kind in the U.S.

The proposal would permit the woman to file a lawsuit at any point in her life, something that would go against typical statute of limitation rules. It could also make the state vulnerable to costly court challenges.

Sen. Mark Chelgren is the Republican who introduced the bill. He says the measure is about holding doctors and clinics accountable. It’s unclear how much GOP support the idea has in the Iowa Legislature, though the state’s incoming Republican governor did not dismiss it.