BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa man faces two heroin charges connected to the overdose death of another man. Scott County court records say 38-year-old Bettendorf resident Michal Spencer is charged with distribution of heroin and conspiracy. Spencer is scheduled to be arraigned March 7. He remained in Scott County Jail on Wednesday, pending $10,000 bail.

The Quad-City Times reports that Spencer prepared two syringes of heroin on April 7 that he’d bought with money given him by 23-year-old Tyler Ekstrand. A court document says Spencer injected the contents of one of the syringes to one of Ekstrand’s hands. The document says Ekstrand soon overdosed and died on the floor of Spencer’s apartment.

Police in Creston report the arrest Tuesday afternoon of a man on an assault charge. 39-year old Aaron James Riepe, of Afton, was taken into custody for Domestic Abuse Assault. Riepe was later released from the Union County Jail on a $700 bond.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa State University researcher says the successful effort to cut prescription drug abuse could lead to an epidemic with illegal drugs. Professor David Peters says the measures taken to cut back on prescription opiod abuse have led to fewer deaths. “It’s been falling pretty steadily and so that’s kept Iowa’s overall rate of opiod deaths relatively stable,” according to Anderson. “But more worryingly what we find is that deaths from heroin — which is a type of opiod — and synthetic opiods like fentanyl have been steadily rising since 2012.”

Anderson says a new crisis is on the way. “I believe that this temporary stability we have is going to be short live and we are going to find our opiod deaths increasing in the next few years from these elicit opiod substances — not the prescription pills,” Anderson says. He says as the prescription supply of opiods dry up, a switch is underway. “People who are long-term addicts are just simply switching to heroin, which is cheaper and more easy to attain,” Anderson says. “And this heroin is often mixed with these synthetic opiods — which can be a hundred to several hundred more times more potent than morphine. And that’s where you get this spike in overdose deaths as people aren’t use to taking these highly-potent heroin-synthetic mixtures.”

The efforts to cut back on the number of prescription drugs and get people to turn in unneeded prescription drugs has worked to stem the supply. Anderson says new tactics will now be needed. “Really efforts have to turn to drug enforcement. Particularly targeting criminal organizations, gangs, particularly Mexican gangs are the ones that bring those illegal substances into the country and distribute it,” Anderson says.

He says things are going to return to the way drug issues used to be. “The opiod crisis is looking more like a traditional drug problem like cocaine was several years back. And it’s less of an administrative issue like we had with the prescription problems,” Anderson says. He says Federal law enforcement will have to do more to enforce borders and local drug task forces will have to go after those who distribute drugs in local communities. Anderson is an associate professor of rural sociology, and says the new wave will hit the larger cities first. “Because heroin and synthetics are illegal substances, they tend to be easily distributed where there are drug organizations or criminal organizations that distribute drugs. But they will eventually make their way to rural counties,” Anderson says.

He says eastern Iowa will be the first to see an influx as the illegal drugs come from Chicago.

(Radio Iowa) — A report that ranks the states for their preparedness for public health emergencies places Iowa in the middle of the pack. Iowa scored four out of ten for preparedness for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism. John Auerbach, president & C-E-O of Trust for America’s Health, says one category focuses on the immunization level for influenza, and Iowa ranked low. “That’s a marker for how quickly the health care system could administer a vaccine in a major outbreak of a deadly epidemic,” Auerbach says. “Less than half of the population that are recommended to get flu shots get them in Iowa.”

The report, called “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health,” also shows Iowa has room for improvement in terms of how well hospitals are prepared for halting the spread of harmful diseases or illnesses. “We looked at hospital quality safety measures particularly with regard to controlling hospital-based infection transference or contagion within a hospital,” Auerbach says. “We found a lower percentage of the hospitals that met the national standards for protecting patients.”

The report grouped the states into three performance categories, 17 states are in the upper tier, 20 in the middle tier and 13 in the lower. Iowa is in the middle tier, in part, due to issues with nitrates and other pollutants in our waterways. “The EPA monitors water quality and Iowa has had some problems at certain places within the state with regard to that,” Auerbach says. “That’s also an area where, as part of emergency preparedness, paying attention to the quality of water is important.”

The report shows deaths in Iowa due to drugs, alcohol or suicide are lower than the national average, but our adult obesity rate is higher than the norm. See the full report here:
https://www.tfah.org/report-details/ready-or-not-protecting-the-publics-health-from-diseases-disasters-and-bioterrorism-2019/

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, Iowa (AP) — A city surrounded by Iowa City has banned racial and other types of profiling by police officers. The University Heights City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to adopt the ordinance. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that the ordinance is the first of its kind in Iowa. It requires anti-bias training for officers, funds the purchase of data collection and creates a complaint review board.

City officials say there are no cases involving profiling being investigated by the city, but they want to be ahead of the curve by passing the ordinance. University Heights has about 1,100 residents and sits on the southwest side of the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

(Radio Iowa) — Proposals being considered in the Iowa House and Senate would clarify who gets to be governor AND lieutenant governor if there’s a vacancy. Senator Roby Smith of Bettendorf says the plan is good insurance for the state. “When you buy insurance, you hope you never have to use it,” Smith said. “This is something that’s insurance that we’re putting in the state constitution. I hope we never have to use it, but it’s there…if we need it or the next generation needs it.”

Questions arose when Terry Branstad resigned nearly 20 months ago and Kim Reynolds took over as governor. Iowa’s attorney general ruled Reynolds did not have authority to name a new lieutenant governor. Pete McRoberts worked for Governor Chet Culver a decade ago and he’s been working with legislators since last year to craft a constitutional response. “This is obviously not something that is limited to any one governor, but the good news is when questions like this gets in the news, constitutional defects and constitutional opportunities become very obvious,” McRoberts says.

A year ago legislators overwhelmingly endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment on the topic, but the secretary of state failed to publish the plan in newspapers last fall, which is required by law. Senator Smith is working to change that. “In general, if a secretary of state does not want a constitutional amendment to go on to the voters, he or she could just pocket it and not publish it in the newspaper,” Smith says. “I don’t think that’s what we wanted when we set this up years ago.”

Smith envisions having a non-partisan legislative agency submit proposed constitutional amendments to newspapers for publication AND have the proposals posted online. 2022 is the earliest THIS constitutional amendment about gubernatorial succession could be voted upon by Iowans.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Attorney Gen. Eric Holder said Tuesday he is in the final stages of deciding whether to seek the 2020 Democratic nomination for president and plans to decide in about a month.
“I’m going to sit down with my family very soon and decide whether this is something we’re going to seek,” Holder told reporters after headlining a voting rights forum at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.
Holder met privately with Democratic legislative leaders to discuss voting rights and legislative redistricting, key areas of Holder’s concern, before the 90-minute back-and-forth with former Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha Ternus.

Asked by reporters whether there is a place for him in a Democratic field that already includes nine declared candidates and many others exploring the race, he said, “I’m going to decide whether I’m going to try to find that space in the next month or so.” Holder said he has met with former President Barack Obama, in whose administration he served from 2009 to 2015, to discuss a presidential candidacy.

Holder, the nation’s third longest-serving attorney general, has been active since leaving the Justice Department four years ago. As chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, Holder has sued states over voting rights issues and legislative redistricting.