(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – A western Iowa woman died Wednesday, from injuries she suffered in a house fire. Council Bluffs Fire Department officials say 70-year-old Peggy Lee Rayner was one of four people in a home (at 2007 7th Avenue) that caught fire at around 11:20-p.m. Another resident (Fayth Rayner) was treated for smoke inhalation at the hospital, and was said to be in stable condition. Two other occupants were not injured.

The blaze was initially reported to have started in the basement, but when firefighters arrived, they encountered smoke coming from the back of the residence. Crews entered the home and found Peggy Rayner in a basement bedroom. She was transported to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Council Bluffs Fire Marshal’s Office.

(Radio Iowa) – A popular program that’s being used by patrons of 80 Iowa libraries is being suspended, temporarily, starting January 1st. The Iowa Adventure Pass gives library card holders free admission to all sorts of attractions statewide, like museums and zoos. The program was started in 2017 at the Grimes Public Library, where assistant director Karalee Kerr says the program’s software is ending operations for libraries across the country at year’s end. “It’s been very, very popular, so we were a little bit surprised to get the notification that the software company wasn’t going to continue,” Kerr says, “but it’s never been in doubt that we would look for ways to make it continue.”

Kerr says the Massachusetts-based provider that’s been facilitating the service is closing at the end of the month. “I think there will be a short gap where we don’t have passes available,” she says, “but it’s my hope that very soon, after the new year, we would be able to have it open again for people to start making reservations.”

Grimes is seeking a new vendor to facilitate the program and hopes to bring back the Iowa Adventure Pass sometime in 2025.

(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – A group of nonprofit advocacy organizations is seeking to intervene in a lawsuit that challenges new, federally mandated staffing levels in nursing homes. The National Association of Local Long-Term Care Ombudsmen is among seven organizations hoping to ask a federal judge to deny a request made by the nursing home industry and 20 state attorneys general – including Iowa’s Brenna Bird — for an injunction that would block implementation of the new staffing requirements. The organizations have not yet been authorized to file their “friend of the court” brief, but approval in such circumstances is normally granted.

The injunction is being sought in a lawsuit filed eight weeks ago in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa, and seeks to block implementation of the Biden administration’s new staffing requirements. The lawsuit was filed by Bird and the attorneys general of 19 other states along with 19 industry organizations who argue the new requirements are cost prohibitive and will result in nursing homes closing down.

Joining NALTCO in the fight against the attorneys general are the nonprofit organizations known as the Center for Medicare Advocacy, the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care, the Long-Term Care Community Coalition, California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, Justice in Aging, and the Michigan Elder Justice Initiative. NALTCO’s role in the case is particularly noteworthy in that the organization is comprised of members of each state’s Long Term Care Ombudsman’s Office, which were created by Congress in 1978 to serve as independent advocates for nursing home residents. Typically, each office, including that of Iowa’s Long-Term Care Ombudsman, operates within an arm of their respective state government. The result is that the ombudsmen’s national organization is now opposing the legal efforts of Republican attorneys general in states where many of those ombudsmen now work.

Photo from bettercareplaybook.org.

In October, Bird said she was leading the court challenge of the staffing mandates to ward off a “mass shutdown of nursing homes” and to “stop the Biden-Harris attack on senior care that will force nursing homes out of business.” In November 2023, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds publicly announced her opposition to the new staffing rule, joining 14 other Republican governors in signing a letter to President Joe Biden in which they argued the rule was “unrealistic” and would “harm the seniors, elderly and disabled it’s designed to help.”

According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 14% of Iowa’s 422 nursing facilities were cited for insufficient staffing in fiscal year 2023, before the new requirements were enacted. That’s more than double the national average, which was 5.9%. Only five other states – Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon — had a worse record of compliance with the staffing requirements in place at that time.

The Iowa-led lawsuit is one of two currently working their way through the federal court system. The other lawsuit, filed in Texas, was initiated by the American Health Care Association, a lobbying organization that primarily represents for-profit nursing homes. Some observers say the litigation will have little impact on the fate of the staffing mandates since the Trump administration is expected to do away with the requirements once the president-elect take office in January 2025.

(Radio Iowa) – Technically, we’re still in late fall, but frigid wintery weather has moved in and Iowans are now at much greater risk for carbon monoxide poisoning. As we fire up the fireplace to take off the chill, or warm up the car in the garage, the dangers of poisoning from the potentially-deadly gas can mount. Janna Day is a nurse and the education and outreach manager for the Iowa Poison Control Center. “Carbon monoxide could be an issue all year long, but we see more exposures during the winter months,” Day says. “We’re closed into the home. We have our gas furnaces, potentially gas stoves. Carbon monoxide can come from a lot of different things anytime we burn a carbon-containing fuel, there’s the potential for carbon monoxide.”

A battery-operated carbon monoxide detector can cost about 20-dollars, but it can provide invaluable protection. “We really strongly recommend that you have a carbon monoxide detector in your home, whether that be its own carbon monoxide detector or one that is combined with your smoke detector as well,” Day says. “If you only have one carbon monoxide detector in your home, though, we want you to put it by the sleeping area.” Ideally, she says you should have a CO detector for every level of your home, but especially outside bedrooms. This type of poisoning can be deadly and the warning signs may be confused with something else entirely — and they can even ignored.

“Some of the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning can look a lot like flu or other illnesses where we see potentially a headache, nausea, tiredness, maybe you’re dizzy,” Day says, “so it can be hard to identify that it could be coming from carbon monoxide.”

For questions about this or any other poisons, call the Sioux City-based Iowa Poison Control Center anytime, any day, at 800-222-1222.

(Radio Iowa) – The Internal Revenue Service is holding a National Tax Security Awareness Week. I-R-S spokesman, Christopher Miller says holiday scams ramp up in December, especially ones involving taxes. “And these frequently involve unexpected good news, like you have a tax refund waiting. But they may also involve variants which tell people they’ve got a tax bill or maybe tax documents available to download. It’s all a scam,” he says. Miller says that’s not the way the organization operates. “The I-R-S does not contact people via email or text, and we don’t ask people for their personally identifiable information. That’s a big red flag,” he says. Miller says scams involving holiday packages also ramp up in an effort to get your personal information. You can prevent big problems by being aware.

“Remember, don’t click on anything unknown, even if you just ordered gifts and you’re expecting packages, double check before you click,” Miller says. Miller says catching the scammers is not easy. “A lot of times these crooks are operating from places that are abroad or they’re simply not easily tracked down. And once they have your personal information, whether it’s your credit card or a password, they have the time to do bad things quickly, and there’s not time to stop them, even if authorities could,” he says.

This is the ninth annual Tax Security Awareness Week, and Miller says they keep on reminding you about the dangers of scammers because the scammers are not letting up.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The National Weather Service, Wednesday evening, posted a list of peak wind gusts Iowa experienced while the State was under a Wind Advisory. Preliminary data from airport weather data sites show the highest gust of 63 mph was recorded at the Des Moines International Airport, at 5:40-p.m.  17 sites recorded gusts anywhere from 50- to 59 mph. The Atlantic airport recorded a peak wind gust of 44 mph at 3:35-p.m. There were no immediate reports of damage caused by the high winds.

Top wind gusts Dec. 4, 2024 (courtesy the NWS):

(West Des Moines, Iowa via WHO-TV) — A woman was arrested Wednesday in connection to the drowning death of her child on October 31st in West Des Moines. Police and emergency crews responded a reported drowning at around 7-p.m. that day and found a 20-month-old who appeared to have drowned in a bathtub. The child was transported to a hospital, but despite life-saving efforts the child died, the police department said.

According to court records, the child’s mother, 21-year-old Kayla Bevar, told officers at the scene that she put her child in the tub at around 6:30 p.m. that night. Bevar told officers she typically sat in the bathroom while her child was taking a bath, but this time she had fallen asleep about 20 minutes after putting her child in the tub, a search warrant states. The search warrant goes on to say that Bevar also told officers that she fell asleep because she didn’t get any sleep the night before.

West Des Moines police said an investigation into the infant’s death began that same day and on Wednesday resulted in the arrest of Bevar. She has been charged with child endangerment resulting in death and neglect of a dependent person. Bevar is currently being held in the Polk County Jail.

(Des Moines, Iowa via KCCI) – A New Jersey semi tractor-trailer driver who led authorities on a 75-mile chase from Avoca to Van Meter early Tuesday morning on Interstate 80, is charged with eluding.  According to the criminal complaint, Jose Ariel Rosa Rivera was driving a 2021 Volvo semi-truck registered out of Illinois. When the Iowa State Patrol trooper pulled alongside the vehicle after Rosa Rivera refused to stop, the driver made eye contact with the trooper before looking ahead at the road.

Court records show a search warrant was issued for law enforcement to obtain a blood sample from Rosa Rivera to test for alcohol and other drugs. In the search warrant application, law enforcement said Rosa Rivera had bloodshot, watery eyes, “visible body tremors,” an elevated pulse while laying in a hospital bed, constricted pupils and “sporadic abdominal convulsing and heavy breathing.”

The search warrant application also says Rosa Rivera repeatedly stated “Jesus Christ is coming” to law enforcement and medical personnel. Court documents show the search warrant was executed and blood was collected from the suspect and taken to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab for toxicological analysis.

During the incident, various law enforcement agencies deployed stop sticks as the semi approached the Des Moines metro in eastbound lanes of I-80, successfully deflating multiple tires, the Iowa State Patrol says. The vehicle continued driving on its rims until about 8:10 a.m., when pursuing officers forced him to pull off at the weigh station between exits for Van Meter and Waukee.

Authorities used tear gas to the driver out of the cab, and he was taken to a Des Moines hospital for evaluation.

(Radio Iowa) – Wetlands in Iowa help prevent nearly 500-million dollars in flood damage every year, according to a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists. Report author Stacy Woods says wetlands are natural floodwater barriers that absorb and slow down rushing water like a sponge. Federal data shows a decline in the number of wetlands, especially in the Prairie Pothole region, Great Lakes and southeast. Woods fears the trend could accelerate, as a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year stripped away federal protections in the Clean Water Act for many wetlands.

Woods says, “It’s critically important that we really step up to protect the wetlands that remain, because we’re going to need them as our flooding frequency increases with this warming climate.” The report’s findings build on peer-reviewed research, which estimates one acre of wetlands provides 745-dollars of flood mitigation benefits to residential homes. “We know that flooding is a significant issue,” she says. “It’s expensive, and it’s getting worse as the climate warms.”

Radio Iowa file photo

Along with flood mitigation, the report says wetlands provide habitat and food for roughly half of the endangered species in the U.S. They also act as natural pollution filters for drinking water. In the last two decades, Iowa has had six flood disasters with losses exceeding one-billion dollars.  “In our report, we were only looking at how wetlands benefit communities by mitigating flood damage,” Woods says, “but of course, wetlands bring so many benefits to communities.”

The report recommends boosting conservation programs that help restore and protect these habitats.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks says it’s time to crack down on the business practices of Pharmacy Benefit Managers or P-B-M’s. “Currently, 97% of all prescription drugs in the United States flow through just six major PBMs. These entities are destroying independent pharmacies,” Miller-Meeks says. “…This year alone, 25 independent pharmacies have closed in Iowa and this has to stop.” P-B-Ms negotiate the prices of medications on behalf of insurers.

Miller-Meeks and other critics say P-B-M’s drive down the prices paid to the pharmacies that fill prescriptions in order to pocket a bigger cut of the insurance payout.  “Every American who utilizes prescription medications experiences the impact that PBMs and vertical integration have on our health care system. Patients everywhere and our independent pharmacists especially deserve a more transparent health care system where patients always come first,” Miller-Meeks said.

Iowa Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks speaks at D.C. news conference with John Nicholson, owner of Mahaska Drug in Oskaloosa, to her left. (Photo provided by Miller-Meeks congressional staff)

Miller-Meeks is among a large, bipartisan group of lawmakers from the U-S House and Senate who are calling for passage of a bill before congress adjourns for the year.  “The time for PBM reform is now,” Miller-Meeks said.

Miller-Meeks backs legislation that would prohibit P-B-Ms from forcing patients to use a certain pharmacy rather than the one that’s closest to them. It would also ban P-B-Ms from paying lower rates to independent pharmacies than it pays affiliated pharmacies for the same services.