The Iowa Supreme Court has thrown out the conviction of a former Davis County Community School District coach who had sex with a student. Patrick Nicoletto was an assistant girls’ basketball coach from 2007 to 2009. He had a sexual relationship with a member of the Davis County varsity team that started when she was 16. A jury convicted him of sexual exploitation by a school employee and he was given a five-year prison sentence. Nicoletto had a coaching authorization, but worked nights at a local manufacturing company and was not a teacher.

He appealed his conviction saying he is not a licensed professional could not be charged under the exploitation law. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled in his favor, saying a coach who holds a teaching or other professional license is clearly subject to the sexual exploitation law — but someone holding only a coaching authorization without a professional license is not. They reversed Nicoletto’s conviction.

Justice Thomas Waterman wrote a dissent to the ruling, saying the “hypertechnical interpretation” opens a gaping loophole in the law that was enacted to protect students from sexual exploitation by adults at their school. Justice Edward Mansfield also signed on to Waterman’s dissent.

(Radio Iowa)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A review has found that nine more Iowans wrongly had their votes thrown out in the 2012 election because of inaccuracies in the state’s list of ineligible felons.    Secretary of State Matt Schultz announced Friday the additional cases were uncovered during a statewide review launched after news broke that three voters in Cerro Gordo County were wrongly rejected as felons.

Schultz says the 12 cases included three who were not felons but were wrongly included on the state’s list and nine others who had their voting rights restored and should have been eligible.     Schultz on Friday also formed a task force of state and local officials to fix inaccuracies in the felon file, which contains 46,000 names.

Iowans convicted of felonies lose their voting rights until restored by the governor.

w/ Ric Hanson

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A woman from Crawford County has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony count of Second-degree Burglary, in connection with a double homicide last month near Deloit, Iowa. The Omaha World-Herald says in her plea agreement, 36-year old Erika M. Dains, of Denison, also plead guilty Thursday in Crawford County District Court, to being an accessory after the fact. Dains had originally been charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson in connection with the March 10th murders of Marvin Huelsing and Alice Huisenga on Huelsing’s property southeast of Deloit. Her two co-defendants, 19-year old Jayden Ray Chapman and 26-year old Michael David Schenk, both of Denison, have pleaded not guilty to murder and arson charges.

According to court records, Chapman told law enforcement officials that he, Schenk and Dains had gone to the farmstead to steal scrap metal. According to a complaint and affidavit filed earlier in Crawford County District Court, Chapman said he and Schenk shot Huelsing and Huisenga and then set fire to a trailer with the victims inside. As part of the plea agreement, Dains agreed to testify for the prosecution at her co-defendants’ trials.

The original charges against Dains were dropped without prejudice, which means the prosecution can refile the charges if Dains violates the terms of the plea agreement. All three have been held in the Crawford County Jail in Denison on $500,000 cash-­only bail since their arrest March 13th. Thursday’s plea agreement stipulated that Dains’ bail continue as previously set.

In pleading guilty, Dains agreed to prison terms of 10 years on the burglary charge and two years on the accessory charge. A determination will be made at sentencing whether Dains must serve the terms one after the other, for a total of 12 years, or at the same time, for a total of 10 years. Sentencing for Dains will not occur until after the cases against Schenk and Chapman are concluded.

With KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Officials with the Iowa West Foundation, headquartered in Council Bluffs, have announced $4.2 million in grants are being awarded for the first quarter of 2014. The grants will be used to assist 22 nonprofit organizations and governmental entities with funding for area projects.

The largest grant awarded in the quarter was to the Green Hills Area Education Agency for preschool programs in school districts located in Pottawattamie County. The $1.1 million grant ensures that 4-year-olds with the most at-risk factors for possible school failure will have the opportunity to participate in quality early childhood education.

Here is a partial list of the grant recipients:

·        The City of Council Bluffs – $850,000 for planning and improvements to the landing area of the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge near Tom Hanafan River’s Edge Park.

·        Bluffs Arts Council, $6,000 for music and movies in Bayliss and River’s Edge parks.

·        Crossroads of Western Iowa, $2,000 for a volunteer program for intellectually disabled.

·        Hospice of Southwest Iowa, $2,500 for medical records documentation upgrade.

·        Make-A-Wish Foundation of Iowa, $20,000 to fulfilling the wishes of southwest Iowa children.

·        Mills County Fair Association Free Fair, $150,000 for a community building at fairgrounds in Mills County.

·        Mills County Prevent Child Abuse Council Inc., “Circles4Support” program, $7,500

·        Planned Parenthood of the Heartland Inc., $50,000 for prevention education in on STIs and teen pregnancy in Douglas, Montgomery and Pottawattamie counties.

Funding for the foundation’s grants comes from investment earnings and the Iowa West Racing Association, which receives contracted license fees from casino operators, Ameristar and Harrah’s. IWRA distributes funds to the Iowa West Foundation, an independent 501(c)(3) organization under the IRS Code. The foundation makes grants throughout southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska.

Requests for Iowa West grant applications for the third quarter of 2014 will begin June 1, 2014, and will be accepted through July 1, 2014. Completed applications will be due July 15, 2014. The deadline to request applications for the second quarter has passed.

For more information including deadlines, interested organizations may visit the foundation’s website at iowawestfoundation.org or contact Deb Debbaut, director of grants administration, at (712) 309-3003. Guidelines and procedures can be viewed on the website, and applicants can apply online.

The weather is starting to get warmer, but and Iowa State University extension crops specialist says farmers should not worry about getting into the fields just yet. Joel DeJong says there’s no hurry to get equipment in the fields. “No I don’t think they need to be overly concerned, it’s still reasonably early. We still have frost a couple feet deep. We need to get that frost out first,” DeJong says.

He says they are starting to see some signs that the frost is starting to go out of the ground. DeJong says trying to get into the fields too early could cause added problems, as the frost traps water in the ground. “Until we get that deeper frost out, I’m a little concerned you might be creating some compaction with some of these tilling tools,” DeJong says. He says the rain in the forecast could help draw some of the frost out of the ground.

DeJong has noticed some farmers applying fertilizer. He says he’s mostly seen farmers putting manure on the fields from feed lots, and he says the ground is “kind of passable” for those applications. The Iowa Agriculture Department reports that farmers in south-central Iowa have been able to get in more time in the fields than other parts of the state.

(Radio Iowa)

Students with the Guthrie Center High School Speech Teams will perform during the Tiger Speech Showcase this evening at 7 o’clock in the Guthrie Center High School Auditorium.  The cost of admission is your free-will donation. School officials say the large group and individual events team members will perform the speeches that have earned them success this year.

The Choral Reading group will perform “Legendary”, written and directed by Mrs. Kelsey Little. There will also be one Group Improvisation team to entertain the audience. Individual Events speakers will include Maria Ahrens in All-State-nominated Poetry, as well as Acting, McKenzie Hawkins in Storytelling, Neta Boyer in Original Oratory, Whitney Bates with Literary Program.

Other Individual performers include Morgan Woolman in Solo Musical Theatre, Matthew Vannatta in Prose, Cassidy Simmons in Expository Address, Samuel Vannatta in Prose, Ross Rumelhart in Improv, and Anita Alvarez in Literary Program.

Several of the district’s Individual Events speakers recently earned a trip to State.

Authorities in Fremont County say a man from Texas was arrested early this (Friday) morning after an investigation into an incident at a truck stop. The Sheriff’s Office says deputies were called to the Cubby’s Truck Stop in Percival at around 1-a.m., following a report of an intoxicated man who would not leave the store. Prior to the deputies’ arrival, the man took off in a 2004 Ford pickup.

Authorities caught up with the suspect’s vehicle on Interstate 29 near the 19-mile marker, and found the driver, 40-year old Francisco Javier Avila, of Buckles, TX.,  to allegedly be intoxicated, with open containers of alcohol in the vehicle.

Avila was arrested on suspicion of OWI 3rd or subsequent offense and Open Container charges, as well as Operating without a valid License. Additional charges are pending. Avila was booked into the Fremont County Jail and held on just over $5,950 bond.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reports overall, dry conditions persist for most of Iowa. In their latest Water Summary Update, the DNR says precipitation average for the past two weeks has been 0.76 inch — a half inch less than normal. The continuing drought is reflected in the change of stream flows across the majority of the state. The lowest conditions are in the Raccoon and Des Moines river basins, which have less than 10 percent of normal stream flow.

Shallow groundwater levels are lower in southwest, west central and south central Iowa. Adequate spring rainfall will be critical to recharge the alluvial and shallow bedrock aquifers. Conditions are close to normal for northeast Iowa, which had near normal rainfall during the past two weeks.

For a more thorough review of Iowa’s water resource trends March 27 through April 9, go to http://www.iowadnr.gov/watersummaryupdate.