CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has admitted stealing trade secrets and transferring some to his new employer. Court records say 55-year-old Josh Isler, of St. Ansgar, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to theft of trade secrets and making false statements to the FBI. His sentencing date hasn’t been set.

The records say that while Isler was working as a technical service account manager for DuPont’s ethanol fuel enzyme division in August 2013, he downloaded hundreds of electronic DuPont files after accepting a job with an unnamed DuPont competitor. The documents say he transferred some of the DuPont information to his new employer.

The documents also say he lied to FBI agents when he told them he had not downloaded the files.

WASHINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man in southeast Iowa whose death has prompted an investigation. He was identified as 70-year-old Ed Jones, who lived in Washington.
The Washington Police Department sent officers just before 8 a.m. Wednesday to check a call about a suspicious death at an apartment complex. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was soon called in to help. No arrests have been reported. An autopsy has been ordered.

A recent report by U-S News and World Report places the Atlantic High School tops in the Hawkeye 10 Conference and it placed high among the best in Iowa. Superintendent Steve Barber spoke of the honor during Wednesday’s School Board meeting, in Atlantic.  Barber said the magazine uses criteria that focuses on how our students perform on State-level tests, how well the school prepares students for college, and other factors. Barber said he was happy and excited to report the Atlantic High School was ranked 26th Best in the State of Iowa, and is nationally recognized. He congratulated the staff and students for their efforts.

The High School earned a bronze medal as part of the recognition.  (For more information: https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/iowa/districts/atlantic-comm-school-district/atlantic-high-school-7506)

A hospital in Eastern Iowa is the first in the state to add a staff member to address human trafficking. Teresa Davidson, already a nurse practitioner at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, is now working part-time as Mercy’s anti-human trafficking coordinator. She says only a handful of hospitals in the COUNTRY have such a position, but Davidson expects it will soon become a more common practice. “I do know that the federal government has recently accepted applications for grants to do this in more hospitals, because they recognize the extreme need,” Davidson says.

Calling it a “modern-day form of slavery,” Davidson says human trafficking is a growing problem and hospitals need to do more to identify and help victims. “The initial goal will be to create a specific human trafficking protocol for our hospital which addresses and screens people for this crime happening to them,” Davidson says. “Then, we will create a response team to then be able to assist people.” Davidson has worked closely with officials at a Wichita, Kansas hospital which was the first in the nation to develop a human trafficking program. “Prior to hiring an anti-human trafficking coordinator and creating the protocol and response team, the emergency room in the hospital had identified zero victims of human trafficking. Within the first month of this protocol going into place, they identified a victim immediately and in the first year had 82 identified,” Davidson said.

While her initial goal is to create specific protocols for Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, Davidson plans to eventually offer human trafficking education to other hospitals and clinics across the state.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County arrested a man from Clarinda early this (Thursday) morning. 58-year old Larry Michael Smith was taken into custody at around 2:10-a.m. in the 2700 block of O Avenue. He was arrested on a valid Adams County warrant for Contempt of Court. Smith was turned over to Adams County authorities and booked into the Adams County Jail, where his cash-only bond was set at $750.