(Radio Iowa) – A 37-year veteran of the Iowa Army National has become the first African-American promoted to the rank of Sergeant Major in the organization. Sergeant Major is the highest enlisted rank you can reach without becoming an officer. Sergeant Jeffrey Lewis of Johnston has been in the Iowa Guard for 37 years. “I was excited, very excited, I told everyone I talked to it was the most happiest time of my life besides when I joined the military,” Lewis says. “I’m the type of person I don’t want praise for doing my job. I know what my job is, I will do my job every single time I’m out there.”

Sgt. Major Jeffrey Lewis

Lewis is a 54-year-old medic who has worked for the guard full time for 15 years. As Sergeant Major he will now assumes the duties of chief operations sergeant, 109th Multifunctional Medical Battalion (MMB), located in Iowa City. Lewis says becoming the first African-American to achieve this rank is important. “I think what it does to me, it holds that people of color…either women, minorities, people who have different ethnic backgrounds, different beliefs, can become a sergeant major,” according to Lewis.

While he is proud of making history, he doesn’t think it puts any more pressure on him as a role model for others. “I’ve been a medic for 37 years and my job is to take care of people. So, me becoming a Sergeant Major has no affect on me to put added pressure onto me to do better or do anything different. I am going to do the exact same things I’ve done when I was a private as a sergeant major,” Lewis says. “And that is to take care of everyone below me and make sure I follow the rules and regulations the military puts out for me.”

Lewis has deployed twice, supporting Operation Desert Storm with the 209th Area Support Medical Company and Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 134th Ground Ambulance Company. He says you sometimes see soldiers in the worst of times as a medic — but he finds the job rewarding. “You see the good and the bad. But the reward is you do see the bad and you see someone and if you save their life and they recover, that is the reward out of it,”Lewis says.

Lewis says he has seen the Iowa National Guard improve since the time he first joined in 1981. He has two more sergeant major steps in rank above him and he says he would like to continue up the command chain to one day become the Command Sergeant Major.

(Radio Iowa) — More Iowans may end up available to serve on juries through a project underway at the Iowa Judicial Branch aimed at making jury pools more inclusive. The Jury Reform Commission wants to ensure African-Americans and other minorities are fairly represented. State court administrator Todd Nuccio says they hope to tap lists of Iowans registered with the Department of Revenue, in addition to the current lists from voting rolls and driver’s licenses: “Not so much because the Department of Revenue list is going to increase the number of names that we have access to,” Nuccio says, “but we know that the accuracy of the addresses are better from the Department of Revenue than they might be for the voter or driver lists.”

He explains why addresses from the Department of Revenue might be better.  “People are more likely to update their address with the Department of Revenue to get access to checks and other things than they are to update their addresses when it comes to those other source lists,” Nuccio says, “So, we’re working in that regard.”

Officials say the legislature may have to approve using the tax-collection agency’s information to summon jurors. The Jury Reform Commission also updated jury summons forms and introduced text reminders for jurors to show up in court. Nuccio spoke at the NAACP’s annual summit on disparities in the criminal justice system.

(with Thanks to Joyce Russell, Iowa Public Radio)

Police in Red Oak, early this (Tuesday) morning, arrested a man on an assault charge. 32-year old Dustin Keith Edie, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 2:50-a.m. at a residence off Skyline Drive, for Domestic Abuse Assault by impeding air and/or blood flow, and Child Endangerment, both aggravated misdemeanors. Edie was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held without bond.

(Radio Iowa) — The names of the two men killed in the Monday morning shooting in Fort Dodge have now been released. The victims are identified as 37-year-old Marion T. Rhodes and 34-year-old Eldominic Rhodes, both of Fort Dodge. The victims in this case are both brothers.

The bodies of both men were discovered just after midnight by police in an alleyway at 910 Second Avenue North. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is assisting Fort Dodge Police in the shooting incident.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — For all the anticipation about whether someone will finally snag the $1.6 billion Mega Millions jackpot and the $620 million Powerball prize, the games come down to simple math and very long odds. But there are some quirks and surprises about the math equations that likely will soon vault someone into stratospheric wealth after the jackpots grew for months without a winner.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An investigator who helped uncover the sexual exploitation of 400 boys by an Iowa basketball coach says victims can still come forward to share their information. Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent Ryan Kedley says state and federal investigators have attempted to contact all 400 known victims of former Iowa Barnstormers Coach Greg Stephen, which he called a massive undertaking. But he says some individuals who were victimized haven’t been identified or contacted.

IOWA FALLS, Iowa (AP) — A hospital in north-central Iowa says it’s going to stop delivering babies. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Hansen Family Hospital in Iowa Falls announced last week that the doctor who performs most of the deliveries is leaving the hospital, so the deliveries will stop Nov. 23. Hospital CEO Doug Morse says it’s difficult to find doctors willing to deliver babies in a rural setting with its attendance malpractice risk and call burdens.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — A grateful mother is thanking an emergency services dispatcher in eastern Iowa for calmly guiding her husband as he helped her deliver their baby daughter. Twenty-seven-year-old Kala Walker gave birth to little Kalee last week at home with her 29-year-old husband, Lee Walker, assisting. Kala Walker says Ben Sharpe at Muscatine County Joint Communications knew what to say to her husband and “knew how to walk him through it, which was wonderful.”