(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a man from Polk County was arrested following a pursuit that began just before 9-p.m., Monday, with an attempted traffic stop. Authorities say when Deputies initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed in the 2200 block of Highway 34, the vehicle continued west into Red Oak before heading back east on Highway 34 at speeds of up to 140 mph.

The vehicle continued into Adams County before it stopped in the 1900 block of Highway 34. The suspect driver, 28-year-old Seth Hankins, of Des Moines, was arrested on charges that include: OWI/2nd offense; Driving while license is barred; and Eluding – Speed of 25 mph over/2nd offense. Hankins was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 bond.

Agencies assisting the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office during the incident, included:

• The Montgomery County Communications Center
• Red Oak Police
• Adams County Sheriff’s Office/Comm. Center
• Taylor County Sheriff’s Office
• Iowa State Patrol.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The owners of a company that operates nursing homes in Iowa says a wrongful death lawsuit against an Iowa nursing home should be tossed out of court due to an arbitration agreement signed by the man’s family, according to a report in the Iowa Capital Dispatch. In February 2023, Marvin “Pete” Jacobs died at the Fonda Specialty Care nursing home where he had lived for six months with a tracheostomy tube that provided an airway for him to breathe. According to state records, Jacobs’ airway needed to be suctioned every eight hours, at minimum, to keep it clear of any fluids.

State inspection reports indicate that in the minutes leading up to Jacobs’ death, a nurse at Fonda Specialty Care, Becky Sue Manning, refused several staff requests to clear Jacobs’ airway so he could breathe, and that Jacobs suffocated as a result. Last March, Manning was criminally charged with felony wanton neglect of a health care facility resident. Recently, Manning and Pocahontas County prosecutors agreed to a deal that resulted in Manning entering an Alford plea to a reduced charge of misdemeanor wanton neglect that did not result in a serious injury. Manning is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 13.

In October, the Jacobs family sued Manning, Fonda Specialty Care, the home’s corporate owner, Care Initiatives of West Des Moines, and GrapeTree Medical Staffing for a variety of claims related to Jacobs’ death. The defendants in the case recently filed motions with the court to have any further proceedings in the case stayed, arguing that when Jacobs was admitted his son signed several documents, including one in which he waived the family’s right to sue for negligent care so that any such disputes could be settled through arbitration. The arbitration agreement, the defendants say, was not a prerequisite for admission. The family’s attorney has yet to file a response to those motions.

Care Initiatives operates 43 Iowa nursing homes as well as several assisted living centers and hospice locations that provide 2,800 elderly or disabled Iowans with care. When admitted, many of the residents sign arbitration agreements in which they forfeit their right to present any civil claims against the company to a judge or jury.

In 2016, the Obama administration approved a new rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that would have prohibited taxpayer-funded homes from having residents sign arbitration agreements. The American Health Care Association immediately sued CMS and a court blocked the agency’s enforcement of the new rule. The Obama administration appealed that ruling but shortly after President Donald Trump took office, that appeal was dropped and CMS proposed a new rule that expressly allows such agreements. In 2019, that rule was finalized, and it remains in place today.

Care Initiatives is currently facing at least 10 wrongful death lawsuits, including four against Northcrest Specialty Care in Waterloo. In each of the lawsuits, Care Initiatives has denied any wrongdoing and in several of the cases it has attempted to have the cases thrown out of court due to arbitration agreements.

The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing fined Fonda Specialty Care $10,000 for Jacobs’ death, then reduced that penalty 35%, to $6,500, due to the lack of an appeal in the case. Manning entered into a settlement agreement with the Iowa Board of Nursing in which she agreed to indefinitely suspend her practice of nursing.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has called for a statewide cell phone policy for Iowa schools and will unveil the details of her proposal next Tuesday. House Speaker Pat Grassley says lawmakers are most likely to establish a uniform, minimum standard focused on instructional time — when students are in class.  “To not overstep into the local control of it,” Grassley says, “but also make sure schools know we have an expectation of them having some level of policy.”

Incoming Senate Education Committee chairman Lynn Evans, a Republican from Aurelia, says there are concerns about the impact cell phone use is having on academic achievement. “There was a Rutgers-New Brunswick study that was published in the Journal of Education Psychology that found similar results,” Evans says, “that cell phones and other electronic devices have a negative effect on the individual’s test scores as well as the learning environment in the classroom itself.” But Evans, who is a retired superintendent, says he doesn’t want to interfere with Iowa schools that have taken the initiative to establish policies for the use of cell phones, tablets and other electronic devices during school hours.

“Even school districts that are adjacent to each other and share a border, their cultures are different. The needs of their students are different,” Evans says, “so that’s why I’d like to allow some flexibility for each board to address it in a manner that works best for their school.” House Education Committee chairman Skyler Wheeler of Hull says he’s open to reviewing what the governor may propose, but his local superintendents are telling him they want to retain the ability to adopt policies that best fit their own school districts.

“My kind of inkling is schools are starting to create policies and we just kind of let the schools operate that way. Like I said, I’ll be open to whatever the governor has that she wants put forward, but I think you have a lot of different factors going on here,” Wheeler says. “Different schools obviously serve different communities and different people and parents are probably going to think one way over here and maybe differently over there and they may have different input, as well as the teachers and the students.”

House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst also suggests there is a limit to how far the legislature should go in setting a statewide policy on cell phone use in schools. “We want to make sure that we’re not putting more work on teachers, that this just doesn’t become one more thing we’re asking educators to do,” Konfrst says. “Let’s let school districts decide what’s best for implementing the policies in their own districts.” Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner says there is wide agreement something should be done to curb cell phone use in schools, but it’s too early to say the governor’s proposal will become law.

“Will it be sort of a basic floor that says: ‘You have to do at least this much and anything else you want to do is fine.’ I would imagine that we would probably be fine with that,” Weiner said. “Or would it be more prescriptive?” Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver says Senate Republicans are happy to work with the governor on the issue, but haven’t come to consensus yet on what cell phone restrictions the legislature should adopt for Iowa schools.

The 2025 legislative session begins Monday. On Tuesday, Governor Reynolds will deliver the annual Condition of the State address and will reveal her 2025 legislative agenda.

(Adair, Iowa) – (This is an update to our previous social media posts) – Emergency crews were called at around 6:30-p.m. Monday, westbound Interstate 80 near mile marker 76, just south of Adair on a report of a semi on fire.

When firefighters arrived on scene they found a semi engulfed in large flames. According to the Adair Police Department said the driver was able to safely escape the semi. The fire is believed to have started in the engine or cab area before spreading to the trailer, according to police. (Still frame images are from an Iowa DOT traffic cam video of the accident scene)

The fire and emergency response led to the Interstate being closed for several hours. The westbound lanes were finally re-opened at around 10-p.m.

(Radio Iowa) – Three people died and three were injured in an early morning fire today (Monday) in Davenport. The Davenport Fire Department report says they were called at 3:15 a-m to a two-story single family home. Two people were reportedly trapped in the basement and the report says firefighters had to battle heavy fire and smoke to get them out. One of those rescued said there were more people on the second floor.

Firefighters rescued one man from the second floor who was unconscious and three people were found dead from burns. The rescued man was flown to the University of Iowa Hospitals burn unit in critical condition. Another person was taken to the hospital, no condition was available.

No names have been released and the Davenport Fire Marshal is trying to determine the cause of the fire.

(Radio Iowa/CORRECTION BY THE UIHC) – A statewide network of over 20 clinics that had operated under the name “Mission Cancer plus Blood” is now part of University of Iowa Health Care. Nineteen doctors and over 200 clinicians worked at Mission’s network of clinics around the state when the deal was announced in October and the acquisition was completed December 31st.

The dean of the University of Iowa’s College of Medicine says adding Mission’s clinics to the U-I Health Care system is a turning point in the fight against cancer in Iowa. For the past two years, Iowa has been one of just two states with rising rates of cancer.

(Photo provided by UIHC)

Here’s the list of cities/community hospitals that operate clinics that are now part of U-I Health Care: Albia, Atlantic, Carroll, Centerville, Chariton, Corning, Corydon, Fort Dodge, Grinnell, Knoxville, Leon, Newton, Oskaloosa, Osceola, Pella, Webster City and Winterset.

(Guthrie Center)  – Sheriff’s officials in Guthrie County say no injuries were reported following an accident January 1st that involved a deer. Authorities say 24-year-old Ashlyn Bush, of Stuart, was driving a 2016 Jeep Renegade Sport on Wagon Road, north of 230th Street, when a deer ran into the driver’s side of her SUV. The accident, which happened at around 5:50-p.m., caused an estimated $2,500 damage to the vehicle.

And, the Creston Police Department says no citations were issued, following a non-injury accident Sunday afternoon, at the intersection of Devoe and N. Division Streets. Authorities say a 2017 Mercedes Benz C300 driven by 56-year-old Delfina Aguirre-Hicks, of Creston, was traveling north on Division Street at around 4:30-p.m., when her vehicle struck a 2019 Chrysler Pacifica van, driven by 57-year-old Janie Warner, of Creston.

The accident happened when Warner admitted she rolled through a stop sign as she was traveling east on Devoe Street. She told Creston Police she didn’t realize the intersection was not a 4-way stop. The collision caused a police-estimated $2,000 damage altogether. Both vehicles were able to be driven from the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – Almost a year after a University of Iowa report linked alcohol consumption to a greater risk of cancer, the U-S Surgeon General is now recommending new warning labels on all cans and bottles of booze. Professor Paul Gilbert, in the U-I Department of Community and Behavioral Health, says an update of those warning labels is long overdue. “The alcohol warning labels really haven’t been updated for — gosh, I don’t know the exact number — four decades since they were first introduced,” Gilbert says, “and the information, the scientific research that’s gone on since then has really changed, notably about that alcohol and cancer connection.”

The current warning labels on alcohol cover two topics: don’t drink while pregnant, and don’t operate a motor vehicle or heavy machinery after drinking — things Gilbert says most of us have heard for years. “The connection between alcohol and cancer is something that people don’t realize. It’s not widespread, like those other two things,” he says. “That’s really the added value of updating the warning labels here, is that we’ve got good, high-quality evidence that at least some cancers are associated with alcohol or caused by alcohol, and that’s just information that we want to make sure that consumers have.”

Research finds that alcohol is a carcinogen, contributing to at least seven types of cancer, including cancers of the mouth, throat, liver, and all the way through the body, but Gilbert says there’s an unexpected link — to breast cancer.  “That’s a bit surprising, probably because we wouldn’t expect alcohol to have a direct sort of connection,” Gilbert says. “It doesn’t pass through breast tissue on its way through the body, but alcohol does have an effect in the way that it disrupts hormones and metabolism when you ingest alcohol that has an effect on breast tissue.”

The annual Cancer in Iowa report, last released in February of 2024, estimated 21,000 Iowans would be diagnosed with cancer during the year, and it found that only about 40% of people know that alcohol is a carcinogen and a risk factor for cancer. It ranked Iowa fourth in the U-S for the rate of alcohol-related cancers, and Iowa also ranked fourth in binge drinking. Not every cancer can be attributed to alcohol, Gilbert says, and not everyone who drinks alcohol will get cancer.

“But the thinking now, the emerging consensus, is that less is better. So if you are a current drinker, cutting back a bit, you don’t necessarily have to quit, although no consumption is probably the safest course,” Gilbert says. “If everybody who was a current drinker just dialed it back a little bit, we would see a tremendous effect across the whole state.” A statement from the surgeon general says: “Alcohol is a well-established, preventable cause of cancer responsible for about 100,000 cases of cancer and 20,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States — greater than the 13,500 alcohol-associated traffic crash fatalities per year in the U.S. — yet the majority of Americans are unaware of this risk.”

For help, Gilbert recommends two websites: Your Life Iowa and Rethinking Drinking.
https://yourlifeiowa.org/
https://rethinkingdrinking.niaaa.nih.gov/
Cancer in Iowa report: https://shri.public-health.uiowa.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cancer-in-iowa-2024.pdf

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Officials with the Glenwood Police Department say three incidents of Criminal Mischief in the 5th Degree occurred over the weekend. The Glenwood Resource Center reported an incident took place Saturday.

On Sunday, Waldstein HVAC, LLC and a Glenwood resident both reported incidents of Criminal Mischief.

Additional details on those incidents were not provided by the Glenwood PD.