(Radio Iowa) – The Board which oversees Iowa’s medical marijuana program today (Monday) denied a petition to allow the use of the dried marijuana plant known as “vaporizable flower.” The petition request was submitted by medical marijuana provider Bud & Mary’s, which was formerly known as MedPharm. Doctor Jacqueline Stoken was one of the board member’s who reviewed the petition and says they had a couple of concerns. “It didn’t bring out that there is damage that occurs to the body when you smoke or vape the T-H-C, this includes lung and also brain damage,”she says. Stoken says this is a particular concern for people who were still in their teenage years or younger, as their brains are still developing.

Doctor Bob Shreck says Bud & Mary’s own petition contained two citations documenting the high incidence of smoking when flour is available and also hybrid use both vaporized and smokeable.  “The optics of a medical board approving a smokeable form are not good. There is concern about the normalization of marijuana use amongst our youth,” Shreck says. He says the board’s action wouldn’t change anything. “Our recommendation would need to go to the Board of Medicine would need to go to the Department of Health and would be in violation of current law,” Shreck says. “The best we could do would be to recommend that the legislature changed the law.” He says there are efforts in the legislature to make such a change.

Schreck says he is also concerned that the change in name from MedPharm to Bud & Mary’s has also led to a change in the company’s marketing. “I felt their website is no longer a medical website. It’s a lifestyle website. And this is very alarming statements that are made on that are alarming as well,”Shreck says. Stoken and other board members agreed with Shreck. Schreck says there is already a legal inhaleable form of medical marijuana. “Convenient to use, dose limited, easy to measure in titrate, which is important with the use of medical marijuana because medical marijuana doesn’t cure any disease,” he says. “It relieves the effects and side effects of several chronic illnesses and chronic adverse conditions, but only for a few hours.” He says the cost of products are one argument the company uses.

“We would concede that flower would be of lower cost — there’s no doubt of that,” Shreck says, “but the other costs, the social costs, the medical costs, the adverse costs, we think far outweigh the lower costs to the individual patient.” The Board voted unanimously to deny the petition to allow the use of “vaporizable flower.” It is the second time such a petition has been turned down.

(Iowa DNR News) – A bypass at the City of Creston collection system was observed Monday morning. The bypass occurred near Taylor Park, which flows into a marshy area and eventually drains into McKinley Lake.

Creston wastewater treatment facility superintendent, Jim Bristow, said he expects the bypass to stop midweek.

Creston city officials are collecting water samples for analysis. Samples will be taken upstream from where sewage is discharging into marshland and at the outlet end of the marsh on the north side of Adams Street. The samples will be tested for bacterial contamination including ammonia and E. coli.

Residents should keep children and pets away from the area.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The issue of parking in the downtown Atlantic business district will be discussed Wednesday afternoon, during a meeting of the Atlantic City Council. According to the agenda, Brown Shoe Fit owner/manager Brian Ruge will address his concerns with regard to customer parking, long-term parking and snow removal. He is also expected to address building and sidewalk issues. The Council’s meeting begins at 3-p.m., in the Council’s Chambers at City Hall, instead of the normal 5:30-p.m.   A Budget work session will follow, at 4-p.m., Wednesday.

In his letter to the Council, Ruge says “Despite the fact that we have made strides in our downtown appearance…buildings not being maintained [there are] dangerous intersections, trees overgrowing into buildings, bricks on sidewalk lifting and becoming a tripping hazard.” The biggest issue he and other business owners have, is parking. Specifically with regard to the snow route.  “When the city attempts to clear the downtown streets,” he says, “they are not able to do this successfully which leaves the front 5 parking spots uncleared and unusable per vehicle parked on Chestnut Street. Parking is a constant issue and concern. This is not only costing the city more time and money having to attempt to clear the streets multiple times, but also money lost. Lack of parking=loss of business=loss of tax dollars spent.”

Photos submitted to the Atlantic City Council

Brian Ruge says “The biggest concern with parking is when cars are parked for days. I understand there are tenants who reside downtown; however, their vehicles being parked for lengthy periods of time means that parking becomes limited and can be problematic for those intending to shop. As a business owner, my priority is the customer, and allowing them the priority for parking. Downtown parking should not be viewed as a public lot to park. Furthermore, I find myself running products out to customers who are not able to park on our block due to the lack of space available and sometimes even moving vehicles for customers. I have spoken to Grace about installing a Handicap parking spot on our block to help this situation, but this was not possible due to the slope and drain. Overall, thinking about the big picture, the business owners in downtown Atlantic are missing out on sales, and our customers are not being prioritized.”

In other business, the Council will recognize Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator Travis Hanson, for achieving his Grade III certification. Travis joined the Atlantic Wastewater Department a little more than four-years ago. The City does not provide any financial incentives to obtain the certification, nor does it cover the costs to test for the certification.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest on Saturday at 11:45 p.m. of 25-year-old Christopher Floyd Birdtail of Red Oak on a charge of Harassment 1st Degree. Birdtail was arrested at 1310 Broadway Street in Red Oak and booked into the Montgomery County Jail on $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University researchers are studying an emerging field called agrivoltaics, the practice of farming on land where solar power is being generated. Matt O’Neal, an I-S-U professor of plant pathology, entomology and microbiology, says the team will be planting a variety of fruits and vegetables literally in the shadow of an array of solar panels at a planned site south of Ames. I-S-U has won a four-year, one-point-eight million dollar grant from the U-S Department of Energy to conduct the research in the non-traditional farm setting. Agrivoltaics holds much promise, O’Neal says, as there’s an increasing amount of prime farmland that’s -not- being used for farming because it has solar panels planted instead.

(Radio Iowa) – The Marengo company that was the site of an explosion and fire in December has complied with a judge’s order to give the Iowa Department of Natural Resources a list of chemicals present at the time. The Attorney General’s Office says C-6-Zero attempted to submit the list by the deadline but the company was delayed by technical issues. The A-G’s Office says it has obtained the list Friday and had passed it to the D-N-R.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports five recent arrests. A little after 2-a.m. Sunday, 23-year-old Maria P. Hawthorne, of Nebraska, was arrested in Creston for OWI/1st offense. And, at around 10:25-p.m. Saturday, 50-year-old Matthew David Walden, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st Offense. Both subjects were being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

At around 6:40-a.m., Saturday, 43-year-old Stacy Marie Jones, of Creston, was arrested at her home on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault causing injury/1st offense. Jones was transported to the Adams County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

Just before 2-a.m. Saturday, 45-year-old Kerry Lee Starlin, of Creston, was arrested for OWI/1st offense. She was later released on a $1,000 bond.

And, at around 5:14-p.m. on Feb. 23rd, 53-year-old Danny Ray Bird, Jr., of Creston, was arrested at the Creston/Union County Law Enforcement Center. Bird was charged with Assault w/intent to cause pain/injury. He was later released on bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University is moving ahead with plans to renovate the Scheman Building after getting approval from the Board of Regents. The I-S-U athletic department oversees its operation as part of the Iowa State Center complex I-S-U’s Shawn Norman says Scheman has gotten a lot of use through the years. “This is a 48 year old building has thousands of people come through for events. And one thing that we want to do in this project is the renovation of the first and the second floor,” Norman says. He says they will upgrade the lobby, restrooms, entrances, lighting and food and beverage amenities.

“But the one big thing is the Benton Auditorium space, we want to make that a flexible event space that we can have these people that come in these visitors that visit our museums in our athletic events,” he says. Norman says they also want to improve the link to other facilities. “We want to elevate the walkway between the Seaman Building and the Hilton Coliseum. But we want that to be evaluated during the process to see if there’s any repairs that are needed. So this would not have anybody having to move out…so everybody, everything would be good in that instance,” Norman says. “…our estimated budget is about ten to 12 million dollars at this point. So funded by athletic operating revenues.”

Norman says they won’t know how long the renovations will take until they get estimates back from the designers.

(Radio Iowa) – The Woodbury County Sheriff released more information Sunday on a shooting in Sergeant Bluff Friday evening. Sheriff Chad Sheehan says it appears 43-year-old Raymond Rogers shot his estranged wife and the man she was living with, and then shot himself. Deputies who responded to a shots fired call looked through a window and saw Rogers on the floor. “Deputies immediately entered the residence. And inside the residence were able to rescue a 12 year old boy who was seeking refuge inside the residence during the time of the attack while removing the boy. Deputies discovered a both a male and a female victim both suffering from what appeared to be serious life threatening gunshot wounds,” he says.

The 50-year-old man, Gerele Jones died, and the woman, 40-year-old Ashley Rogers was taken to the hospital. Raymond Rogers is hospitalized in critical condition. Sheriff Sheehan credited the boy with calling deputies in the midst of the shooting. “I can’t imagine what that young man went through while this was going on he had the courage to make a phone call and give us information that was that was vital to us getting there quickly,” Sheehan says. He says the boy is the son of Jones, who was killed.

“Any chance that anyone would have had to survive this incident is due to the due to the courage that this young this young boy this young man exhibited that evening,” he says. Sheehan says it is fair to term the case as a murder and attempted suicide — though the investigation has not been completed.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill eligible for debate in the Iowa Senate would prohibit judges from requiring a divorcing parent to cover some of the costs of their child’s college education. Senator Scott Webster, a Republican from Bettendorf, says the bill is sponsored by another senator, in response to a specific case.

“A father was weaponizing this particular system against a mother who couldn’t afford the college. She then had the opportunity to go to court and it got dropped, but she still had to pay all the legal fees,” Webster says. An Iowa judge currently has the option of ordering a parent getting a divorce to pay up to one-third of the total cost of their child’s undergraduate education. Webster says it’s an equal protection issue.

“The subsidy does not currently apply to any other parents: married, single or never married,” Webster says. Senator Nate Boulton, a Democrat from Des Moines, says his parents were divorced when he went to college and their divorce decree helped navigate the financial aspect of getting that degree. “There are ways to make this system better,” Boulton says. “There are ways to make it more fair and I think we are all open to that discussion, but simply to pull the rug out from underneath kids from divorced families who want to go to college is the wrong way to do this.”

The bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee last week. Senator Herman Quirmbach, a Democrat from Ames who voted against the bill, says parents have an obligation to provide for their children and college is a big step forward in life. “It’s certainly possible for people to get good jobs without a college degree and have a perfectly happy life,” Quirmbach says, “but on average college graduates earn significantly higher over a lifetime. They have a greater degree of marriage stability. They have a longer life span, on average.”

Webster says that kind of criticism is a little bit disrespectful. “It’s been said, maybe discussed that college is the way to go,” Webster says. “I didn’t go to college. My wife didn’t go to college. We turned out good.” Iowa is one of 17 states that allow judges to order a divorcing parent to pay at least part of a child’s college tuition and fees.