Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — The central Iowa city of Marshalltown skipped its usual summer practice of spraying for mosquitoes last year, as drought substantially curbed the pest’s population. Not this year. Heavy rains this spring and summer have the town scrambling to control an onslaught of the bloodsucking insects. The Marshalltown Times-Republic reports that crews sprayed along the town’s streets Wednesday and into Independence Day.

WELLMAN, Iowa (AP) — Residents of a small town just south of Iowa City have been advised to drink bottled water until repairs can be made on a broken water line. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says a line burst yesterday in Wellman. The water is now bypassing the reverse osmosis system used to reduce nitrates. The department says repairs are being made and that the water has to be tested to make sure it’s safe.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Davenport police have identified a man shot to death earlier this week. The Quad-City Times reports that the death of 30-year-old Zachary Thompson of Rock Island has been classified as a homicide. Thompson died Tuesday morning at Genesis Medical Center in Davenport.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A former Dubuque cafe owner who was granted the nation’s first riverboat gambling license has died. The Dubuque Telegraph-Herald reports that 78-year-old Bob Kehl died at home on Wednesday morning shortly after being released from a local hospital.

A man suspected of stealing a vehicle and striking a Council Bluffs Police officer last month was apprehended Thursday afternoon, in Omaha. According to the Council Bluffs NonPareil, 24-year old Andrew M. Brown was taken into custody following a pursuit that reached speeds of up to 80-miles per hour. He was arrested after being found under a porch and a short scuffle with police, following the chase. An unidentified 22-year old female passenger in the vehicle was also apprehended.

The incident involving the injured Council Bluffs officer began on June 25th. Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s deputies were pursuing a vehicle Brown allegedly stole out of Omaha. As he entered the Council Bluffs city limits, Council Bluffs police officers were in the area and attempted to disable the vehicle with stop sticks. Officials say Brown directed the vehicle toward several officers before striking one. The officer was flipped in the air and against a utility pole before landing in a ditch. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment of minor injuries and released.  Brown then abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot.

Council Bluffs Police Department had obtained and issued warrants for Brown. He faces attempted murder, assault on a peace officer and first-degree theft charges.

State officials have created a new on-line contest to encourage Iowans to spend more time outdoors. Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Chuck Gipp says it’s called the “Healthy and Happy Outdoors” program.  “Getting people more involved with outdoor recreational activities has always been an essential goal of the Department of Natural Resources,” Gipp says. “…Outdoor activity has proven advantages in improving physical and mental health.”

Gipp says there are more than 30 different types of outdoor activities available in more than 16-hundred state parks and public areas around the state, ranging from hiking and biking to bird watching and horse riding. Gipp and others in his agency are calling their “Healthy and Happy Outdoors” program H-two-O (H2O), the chemical compound known as water. “H2O allows people to sign up and keep track of the activities they do and the places they visit,” Gipp says. “Those who register and log activities will also be eligible for some prize drawings that will be donated from private sources.” 

People who log their activities on the state’s “Healthy and Happy Outdoors” website between now and the Iowa State Fair will be entered in a drawing. One of the prizes is a six-hour “how to kayak” course, valued at 575 dollars. There’s also a “photo quilt” competition on the website through July 22nd. One photographer from each of Iowa’s 99 counties will win a free subscription to the Iowa Outdoors magazine. For more information: http://www.iowadnr.gov/Recreation/HealthyHappyOutdoors.aspx

(Radio Iowa)

The vanishing Midwestern tradition of supper clubs is the subject of a new book that features stories and photos of the remaining relics across the region.

The Supper Club Book

Author Dave Hoekstra says supper clubs were much more than just restaurants. Giving a clear definition of one is a bit challenging, but he says it starts with a great view in a typically rural location. “It would always have linen napkins, relish trays — that’s a good sign of a supper club, Friday night fish fry and prime rib on Saturdays,” Hoekstra says. “Clumsy furniture, like old orange naugahyde chairs and things like that.” 

Hoekstra, who’s a writer for the Chicago Sun-Times, spent three summers visiting the aging establishments from Iowa to Ohio to create “The Supper Club Book.” Some remaining supper clubs have been given new life with new owners, up-scale menus and more “farm to table-style” cooking, but most still have the look and feel of T-V’s “Mad Men,” somewhat lost in a by-gone decade. “Back in the day, people would go to a supper club at suppertime, around 4 or 5 o’clock,” Hoekstra says. “You’d have a couple of Old Fashioneds, a couple of drinks, sometimes there’d be live music, you’d go sit down have a nice, leisurely dinner, take their time, look out at that beautiful view, then come back and adjourn to the bar, have a couple more drinks and listen to the music. It would be a six- or seven-hour evening.”

 Today’s fast-paced lifestyle helped to doom many of the region’s supper clubs, he says, as well as stricter laws about drinking and driving. Some of the clubs have their roots in the 1930s and began as speak-easies and Prohibition-era roadhouses, complete with gambling. Hoekstra says many were, and still are, dimly lit. “The dim lighting and just the escape, that you’re going somewhere different, exotic, you’re taking a little trip in a short while,” Hoekstra says. “The definition of a supper club, it just seems like you’re going out for this really enchanting evening and the dim light plays into that.” 

The book contains more than a hundred pictures and interviews with club owners and patrons. Hoekstra calls it a combination travel guide and social history.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Red Oak report one person was arrested this (Thursday) afternoon, for trespassing on railroad property. 20-year old Kyle Robert Danick, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 3:05-p.m. in the vicinity of Marsden Avenue and Coolbaugh Street. He was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center in $300 bond.

There are thousands of rare diseases and it can be a frustrating, expensive challenge for people to get the proper diagnosis and treatment, especially in rural states like Iowa. Nicole Boice is the founder of Global Genes, an advocacy group for people with rare illnesses. Boice says their new survey finds many patients are usually sent from one doctor to the next. “It takes, on average, seven years for a patient to actually receive a proper diagnosis,” Boice says. “While they’re on that seven-year journey, they typically see up to eight different physicians and they are misdiagnosed two to three times.” 

She says some Iowans who live in remote areas have to travel long distances to see a specialist to get the tests or the treatment they need. “You’re tested, you’re re-tested, it’s very trying financially for these families,” Boice says. “From this survey, we’ve seen that about 40% of the patients have had to borrow money from family or friends to pay for their health care and over half have had to dip into their savings. There’s a tremendous amount of medical bankruptcy within the rare disease community.” 

Rare diseases affect about one in ten Americans so Boice says it’s likely everyone knows someone suffering from such an illness. Some of the diseases are more well-known, like cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy. The report also shows 92-percent of physicians report they find it difficult to address the needs of rare disease patients in a typical office visit. 

More than seven-thousand distinct rare diseases exist and about 80-percent are caused by faulty genes. The National Institutes of Health estimates 50-percent of people affected by rare diseases are children, making rare diseases one of the most deadly and debilitating for children worldwide.

(Radio Iowa)

You’re guilty of drunk driving if your blood alcohol level is point-oh-eight or above today in all 50 states, but there’s a push to get even tougher — and Iowa’s governor isn’t ruling out the idea. Governor Terry Branstad says he’ll carefully review the recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board. “We were at 0.13 (blood alcohol level) and then we went to 0.10 and now we’ve gone to 0.08,” Branstad says. “We have made significant progress in reducing drunk driving in the state of Iowa.” 

In 1996, more than 26-thousand motorists in Iowa were charged with “operating while intoxicated.” State officials lowered the standard for judging drunken driving ten years ago. After that tougher, point-oh-eight standard went into effect July 1st of 2003, there was a slight increase in drunk driving arrests, but there’s been a decline in drunk driving arrests in each of the past four years. “And there has been a continued reduction in the amount of fatalities related to operating motor vehicles under the influence of alcohol,” Branstad says. 

Twenty years ago, 170 people died in traffic accidents in Iowa that involved an intoxicated driver. Last year there were half that many. In 2012, there were 80 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in Iowa, however that was 25 more drunk driving deaths than in 2011. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, drunk driving is a “national epidemic” and about one-third of traffic deaths are caused by drunken drivers. That’s why the agency is calling for the dramatically low blood alcohol standard of point-oh-five. “Whether this is an appropriate additional step of not, I think we’ll want to get more information and carefully review and study what kind of impact this would have,” Branstad says. 

A blood alcohol test determines the volume of alcohol that is in a person’s blood. According to the American Beverage Institute, a point-oh-five blood alcohol standard would “criminalize perfectly responsible behavior” like having a glass of wine with dinner. Most countries in European and South America have the point-oh-five blood alcohol standard for drunk driving. Last year over 17-thousand people were charged with driving in Iowa when their blood alcohol content was point-oh-eight or above. 

(Radio Iowa)

A temporary offer of free nicotine patches and gum for Iowans who are trying to quit smoking is being extended. The Iowa Department of Public Health had planned to offer the free nicotine replacement therapy only during the month of June. But, Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Division Director Meghan O’Brien says the response was so strong that the free patches and gum will be made available for at least the next year — through June 2014. She credits an increase in the budget for the Quitline Iowa service. The Quitline budget approved by lawmakers and the governor amounts to roughly $1.2 million. 

The free patches and gum offer had previously been part of the Quitline Iowa service from 2008 to 2010. The offer was discontinued in July 2010 as part of a budget cutting move. Iowans can request a four-week supply of the nicotine patches or gum by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or by visiting www.quitlineiowa.org. O’Brien notes that this month marks the five-year anniversary of Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act. The legislation banned smoking in almost all public places.

(Radio Iowa)

More area news (podcast), with KJAN News Director Ric Hanson…

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