CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) — A woman has pleaded guilty to stealing from a bank and a bank customer in northern Iowa. Court records say 34-year-old Cassandra Lane, of Charles City, entered the written pleas to two felony counts of theft. Her sentencing is scheduled for May 14. Court documents say she stole $13,300 from the customer and nearly $4,000 from the bank while working from October 2016 to August 2017 at the First Security Bank and Trust branch in Charles City.

The documents say her plea deal includes five years of probation and suspended fines and deferred judgments. Under deferred judgments, Lane’s convictions may be removed from her record if she successfully completes the terms of her probation. The judge is not bound by the plea agreement.

The Creston Police Department reports a resident of the 300 block of North Walnut Street, in Creston, told authorities on Monday, that sometime between 11-p.m. Sunday and 8-a.m. Monday, someone stole her push lawnmower from outside of her residence. The mower was valued at $50.

ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say an inmate head-butted a guard at the Anamosa State Penitentiary in eastern Iowa. The attack occurred around 6:40 p.m. Sunday. The Iowa Corrections Department says the inmate also bit one of the officer’s forearms. Other officers soon restrained the inmate. The guard was assessed and returned to duty, but later he was taken to the Jones Regional Medical Center in Anamosa, where he was diagnosed with a concussion. The names of those involved have not been released.

Complaints about state prisons and county jails continue to be at the top of the list for the State Ombudsman Kristie Hirschman. She says from 2016 to 2017 those complaints increased by 24 percent — and she believes it’s a problem that has more to do with mental illness than laws. Hirschman says Bill Angrick the long-time Ombudsman that first brought her into the office first identified the trouble. “He was touting before he retired seven or eight years ago that the prisons and jails are becoming the warehouse for the mentally ill. And I haven’t seen anything that’s changed,” she says.

Hirschman says recent studies confirm the problem. She says the statistics show more than 60 percent of the women in prison have some type of mental illness, while 40 percent or higher of men also have some type of mental health diagnoses. Her conversations with state and local corrections officials confirm this, as she says they attributed many of the problems that arise to mentally ill inmates who are unwilling or unable to abide by rules and accept decisions. Hirschman says the law the governor recently signed to try and get more help for those with mental health issues is a good thing. “I do think it is a big step in the right direction,” Hirschman says. “As with any program, I do think it has to have adequate funding in order for it to be successful.”

Hirschman says another observation she’s made is that prisons and jails are simply understaffed — and says her office has substantiated complaints about inadequate staffing levels at several jails and at least one of the state’s prisons. Hirschman says in her annual report that “inadequate funding and resources may foretell a horror story in the making” when it comes to problems in jails and prisons. She also says funding problems are not unique to prisons and jails as they received complaints last year about delays in autopsies, egregious hold times on the telephone, prolonged decisions on applications, lack of road repairs, a discontinuation of nursing-home visits, and antiquated computer systems, because of a lack of resources. Hirschman encourages Iowans to continue reporting issues with state government and agencies. “If they are unhappy with their city, if they are unhappy with their county, if they are unhappy any aspect of state government. We can look at whether things are not only illegal — but whether the action of the agency was unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious or unfair,” according to Hirschman.

She says they do not look at actions of the governor, legislature or supreme court. And she says it is important that you are sure to exhaust all avenues of trying to work out an issue before you contact here office as they will not take up a complaint if other remedies are still available to you. “We do make exceptions for issues that appear really egregious — or emergent health and safety issues,” Hirschman says.  Hirschman’s annual report is available online at the Ombudsman’s website. The report highlights some of the key complaints and cases they worked on in 2017.

(Radio Iowa)

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Waterloo firefighters have rescued a man who was in a boat that capsized in the ice-cold Cedar River. Firefighters were called to the river a little before 1:15 p.m. Monday to help two people who’d been in the boat. Battalion Chief Troy Luck says the boat hit some rocks and soon filled with water on the west end of Sans Souci Island.

One of the boaters made it to land, but firefighters in a department boat pulled the other from the river and took him to the ramp near the Waterloo Boat House. One of the two was taken to a Waterloo hospital. The boaters’ names haven’t been released.