A 73-year-old state legislator from southeast Iowa died at his home this (Friday) morning. State Representative Curt Hanson of Fairfield had served in the Iowa House since 2009, shortly after retiring as a teacher. He taught drivers ed at Fairfield High School for 43 years and was nationally recognized for his work. House Minority Leader Mark Smith called his fellow Democrat “an exceptional public servant” who was a model of “thoughtful” and “diplomatic” representation for his constituents. Hanson was born in 1943 and grew up on a farm near Swea City in northern Iowa’s Kossuth County. He had lived in Fairfield for 52 years and is survived by his wife, Diane, two adult children and five grandchildren.

The governor will set a date for a special election in the southeast Iowa district to select Hanson’s replacement. A special election will be held in southwest Iowa on June 27th to fill a House seat that had been held by Greg Forristall, of Macedonia. Forristall died of cancer in May.

(Radio Iowa)

A southwest Iowa man who was 17-years old when he committed a serious crime 15-years ago and was sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of incarceration without the possibility of parole, had his Taylor County District Court sentence vacated today (Friday) by the Iowa Supreme Court – meaning the previous judgement is legally void. The High Court ordered the case of Jarrod Dale Majors be remanded back to the District Court with specific instructions.

Majors broke into the Bedford home of his neighbors, Jamie and Holly Peckham on May 31st, 2002, while the couple was attending a church meeting. He laid in wait, hidden in a bedroom closet wearing a ski mask and gloves, and armed with a large knife. Majors also had a .22 caliber rifle with a plastic pop bottle attached to the barrel, to act as a silencer.

When the couple came home and Holly entered the bedroom, Majors emerged from the closet and attacked her. While she fought him off, her husband ran into the room and took the rifle away from Majors before tackling him to the floor. Majors attempted to use the machete on Jamie Peckham. Holly Peckham escaped and ran to a neighbor’s home. The neighbor, Gene Ehlers, helped to wrestle the machete away from Majors.

During his court case, Majors pled guilty to attempted murder and burglary in the second-degree. He was sentenced to 25-years in prison with a minimum of 21-years. He was also sentenced to 10-years in prison for the burglary charge. The sentences ran consecutively. Majors sought and received a re-sentencing hearing in Sept., 2015.

Following the hearing, the District Court again sentenced Majors to 25-years in prison for attempted murder, with 70% to be served prior to being eligible for parole. He was also re-sentenced to 10 years on the Burglary charge. After reviewing his appeal and the court records, the Iowa Supreme Court concluded the District Court abused its discretion by imposing a minimum period of incarceration without eligibility for parole, and remanded the case for re-sentencing.

A man wanted on two warrants out of Council Bluffs for Theft in the 2nd Degree and Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree (for Destruction/damage or vandalism of property), was arrested in Shelby  early this (Friday) morning. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports a Pott. County Deputy was dispatched to the Subway Store in Avoca, to meet with Shelby County Deputies and take into custody, 34-year old Michael Richard Carrier, of Carter Lake. The man was transported to the Pott. County Jail at around 2:20-a.m.

Thursday afternoon, 19-year old Kenneth August Block, of Council Bluffs, turned himself-in to the Pott. County Jail, on a warrant out of Pottawattamie County. Block was booked-into the jail for Probation Violation.

(Corrected arrest dates) Audubon Police Chief Matt Starmer reports three people were arrested recently. Thursday, 18-year old Travis Theodore Wolff, and 31-year old Spencer Gordon Heuton, both of Audubon, were arrested for Disorderly Conduct.

And, on Tuesday, 49-year old Jeffrey Robert Albert, of Kimballton, was arrested for Driving While Suspended.

All three individuals were subsequently released on a promise to appear (later) in court.

Waverly, IA (Radio Iowa) — Hackers hit the Waverly Health Center Wednesday night. Hospital computers began showing signs of irregularities about 5:00 p.m. Heather Solheim, the hospital’s director of community relations, says by early evening it was clear a cyberattack was underway. “By seven o’clock we had disconnected all of our systems, recognizing that we had a significant virus within our entire information systems,” Solheim says.

Solheim says the hospital’s “incident reaction team” was activated. “All of our incident command positions started really just taking care of the projects that we needed to do, making sure that patient safety was our number one priority,” Solheim says, “and determining what types of services we were able to continue offering.”

The ransomware hacker demanded money in order to free up the hospital’s computers. Solheim says fortunately, the hospital’s data is encrypted so the hacker did NOT have access to patient information. “This issue was unsual in that Microsoft had not recognized this virus before,” Solheim says, “so there really were no safeguards to prevent it from getting in our system.”

Healthcare has become a particularly attractive target for ransomware hackers. A group of free standing cancer treatment centers in Florida was subject to a ransomware attack in 2016. The computers at the Waverly Health Center are expected to be virus free sometime today (Friday).