The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported after a car struck the Griswold American building (517 Main Street) in Griswold, Thursday afternoon. The accident happened at around 1:40-p.m.  Authorities say a 1999 Buick Lesabre owned and driven by 90-year old Lila Yvonne Kunze, of Lewis, was westbound on Main Street.  When Kunze tried to turn into an angle parking stall, her car went over the curb, and struck the building, causing $2,000 damage to the structure, and $5,000 damage to the car.

Kunze was cited for Failure to Maintain Control.

Iowa State University plans to launch a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program in the fall of 2018. Professor Ginny Wangerin, director of nursing education at I-S-U, says the program should appeal to registered nurses who are already working in the field as well as recent graduates of approved nursing programs. Wangerin says, “The Iowa State program is designed for nurses who’ve already received, typically, their associate’s degree and their nursing license, so they will be RNs already.”

The campus-based program aims to meet a need as more hospitals and health care providers in the state are requiring — or are at least encouraging — nurses to get a B-S-N degree. “Looking at the numbers in our community and the graduates from our local community colleges, we’re anticipating about 50 students with each admission,” Wangerin says. “Given they will be in the program about two years, three to four semesters, we expect to reach a capacity of about 200 students over time.”

Nationwide, about 65-percent of R-Ns have a bachelor’s degree or higher, but the rate in Iowa is only around 46-percent, dropping to nearly 30-percent in rural areas. The program at I-S-U won’t likely help to reverse the state’s nurse shortage, but Wangerin says there will still be valuable benefits. “Programs such as this, the RN to BSN, do not necessarily put more nurses in the field, but what it does is advance the education of the nurses that we have,” Wangerin says. “All of the research tells us that leads to safer care and better care.”

Studies find when hospitals or health care providers have more B-S-N-prepared nurses on staff, there are fewer medical errors, deaths, infections or injuries for patients, and patients spend fewer days in the hospital. Wangerin says about 88 to 90-percent of all nurses in Iowa are female.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Willie Stevenson Glanton, Iowa’s first black female legislator, has died. Henderson’s Highland Park Funeral Home confirmed Friday that Glanton died Thursday in Des Moines. She was 95.

Glanton served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1965 to 1967 as a Democrat. The Des Moines Register reports she was the first woman to become an assistant Polk County attorney. She also was the first black person to be elected president of the Iowa chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

The newspaper reports Glanton, who was inducted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1986, served on numerous boards, commissions and councils during her life.
Details about Glanton’s funeral services are pending.

A Guthrie County Sheriff’s Deputy was injured during a fireworks accident last week. According to a social media post pinned to the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Facebook page, Deputy Jesse Swenson and other family members were leaving an Independence Day party June 30^th, when a spark from a firework that was shot too low, went into his eye.

Swenson was taken to Iowa City and told that he would regain his vision in a couple days, but during another doctor’s visit last Sunday, he was told the eye was worse than they had hoped because no oxygen is going to that eye due to the blood vessels in the eye, getting burned. Whether he’ll be able to see out of that eye again is still unknown.

Family members who have set up a GoFundMe page, say any sort of donations are welcome, as the family has to travel back and forth from Iowa City to Guthrie Center. The funds will be used for extra expenses for the long, healing road ahead.

https://www.gofundme.com/5zeuk-officer-down

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A trial date has been set for a man accused of killing a sheriff’s deputy in Iowa. The Daily Nonpareil reports Wesley Correa-Carmenaty is scheduled to go to trial in Council Bluffs on Aug. 15th.

Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber says that the 24-year-old Correa-Carmenaty has not waived his right to a speedy trial and has not requested the trial be moved to Sioux City. Attorney Greg Jones, who represents Correa-Carmenaty, says details could change.

Correa-Carmenaty is charged with murder, attempted murder and other counts. Police say he was being transported to the Council Bluffs jail in May when he attacked Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Burbridge and Deputy Pat Morgan, grabbed one of their guns and shot them before fleeing. He was recaptured in Omaha. Burbridge was killed during the escape.