DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man accused of killing his cousin has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial. The Des Moines Register reports that 30-year-old Sean Foster pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of first-degree murder. Foster is accused of killing 50-year-old Albert Barron III in December. The two were roommates.

A court document says a judge previously ruled that Foster suffered from a mental disorder that prevented him from understanding the charges against him. The trial is scheduled to begin July 15.

The Glenwood Police Department reports 53-year old Leslie Hamilton, of Glenwood, was arrested Thursday, for Driving While Revoked. She has since posted bond and was released. And, 36-year old Jeremiah KIng, of Glenwood, was arrested Thursday for OWI/1st offense. He has also posted bond.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A teen searching for arrowheads in southern Iowa found something much bigger: the prehistoric jawbone of a mastodon. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the 30-inch bone belonged to a juvenile mastodon, an elephant-like animal believed to have roamed Iowa some 34,000 years ago. Officials with the University of Iowa Paleontology Repository, which now has possession of the bone found last week, say the mastodon might have stood around 7-feet tall.

The farmers who donated the jaw and related bones to the repository did so anonymously, saying they didn’t want to encourage people to trespass on their property looking for fossils.
There likely are more fossils on the land, as the owners found other mastodon remains there decades ago.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a state law passed in 2017 by a Republican-run legislature that removed bargaining rights for many state employees.
In cases filed by the Iowa State Education Association and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the court ruled 4-3 on Friday that the law withstands constitutional challenges. Both decisions were written by Justice Thomas Waterman, an appointee of former Republican Gov. Terry Branstad who supported the new law. Waterman found the law rational and that it should remain in effect.

Waterman was joined by another Branstad appointee and two justices recently named to the court by Gov. Kim Reynolds. They concluded the Legislature was rational in giving certain public safety employees the right to bargain over many more issues than those in unions in which fewer than one-third of members are public safety workers. The unions challenged the law, saying it violated the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. The three dissenters say portions of the law are not rationally explainable.

Memorial Day and the traditional beginning of summer are quickly approaching.  Unfortunately, with the increase in summer traffic there will also be a rise in traffic crashes and fatalities. The Iowa Dept. of Public Safety reports last year, there were four traffic fatalities on Iowa roadways over the Memorial Day weekend; four deaths that may have been prevented.  According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in 2017 there were 10,076 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes nationwide.  A majority of those lives could have been saved if they had been wearing seat belts.  The national Click It or Ticket campaign will take place May 20 – June 2, 2019.  State and local law agencies across the state will be stepping up seat belt enforcement with the goal of protecting you and your family.

Seat Belt Myth Busters

Vehicle Type:  There seems to be a misconception among those who drive and ride in pickup trucks that their large vehicles will protect them better than other vehicles would in a crash.  Fifty-nine percent of pickup truck occupants who were killed in 2017 were not buckled compared to 42 percent of car occupants.*

Seating Position:  Too many people believe they are safe in the back seat unrestrained.  Forty-six percent of all front-seat passenger killed in 2017 crashes were unbelted but 56 percent of those killed in the back seat were unbelted.*

Rural versus Urban:  People who live in rural areas might believe that their chance of being in a crash is lower but in 2017 there were 12,786 passenger vehicle fatalities in rural locations compared to 10,316 fatalities in urban locations.  Of those fatalities, 49 percent of those killed in rural locations were not wearing their seat belts compared to 44 percent in urban locations.*
(*National data supplied by NHTSA)

The Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau want to remind all drivers of the importance of seat belt use.  Buckle up every trip, every time!

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a West Des Moines associate high school principal was injured while intervening in a student fight. A letter sent to Valley High School students’ families says the fight broke out around 8:10 a.m. Thursday and was a continuation of a conflict earlier in the week. Administrators had met earlier with one of the students in an attempt to defuse the situation.

District spokeswoman Laine Mendenhall-Buck says no students were injured Thursday, but associate principal David Perrigo was taken to a hospital for examination. Mendenhall-Buck says it’s her understanding Perrigo was accidentally injured and not targeted by any of the four students involved.

The letter says three students involved in the fight were taken to the school office and their parents were contacted. The fourth student left school. West Des Moines Police are investigating.