Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds announced today (Wednesday), that she has received Charles (Chuck) Palmer’s retirement as director of the Iowa Department of Human Services effective June 16, 2017.  Former Governor Terry Branstad named Palmer the director of DHS twice, once in 1989 where he served as director of DHS until 1999, and again in 2011. Before serving as director of DHS, Chuck was the Department’s administrator of the Division of Mental Health.

Gov. Reynolds said “Chuck has been a dedicated public servant who has spent his life trying to improve the lives of Iowans. He has been instrumental in modernizing our Medicaid program, implementing our Iowa Health and Wellness Plan, and launching our Mental Health and Disability redesign, while helping individuals and families achieve safe, stable, self-sufficient and healthy lives.”

Interested candidates wishing to apply to be the next director of DHS can find the job posting here: https:///www.governmentjobs.com/careers/iowa/jobs/1755326/director-of-human-services?keywords=director of the department of human services&pagetype=jobOpportunitiesJobs&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery

Atlantic Coca-Cola Bottling Company is selling its central Iowa distribution center in Waukee and expanding into a vacant building on the south side of Des Moines. Kirk Tyler is chairman and C-E-O of the company. “We would fit about five of the Waukee facilities inside the building on the south side,” Tyler says.

This expansion comes after the family-owned firm acquired the rights to distribute Coca-Cola products in northern and eastern Iowa last October. Tyler expects to hire about 20 new employees to work in the larger space. “We’ll have about 290,000 square feet of warehousing space and about 80,000 square feet of office space,” Tyler says, “of which we have a tenant for part of that.”

Tyler’s family distributes Coca-Cola products to 90 percent of Iowa as well as parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Missouri. The central Iowa warehouse along Highway 6 in Waukee has become a congested area, with a suburban HyVee store at the same intersection. The company’s new location on the south side of Des Moines has ready access to the Highway 5 bypass which connects to both Interstates 35 and 80.

“Because we go down into the Ottumwa territory and over to the Quad Cities, if we were going to build a new facility or move into a different facility, businesswise it just made sense,” Tyler says.

July 31st is the target date for making the move from company’s Waukee facility to the four-times-as-large building on the south side of Des Moines. The company operates from eight Iowa locations. Company headquarters is in Atlantic.

(Radio Iowa)

(In an update to our report earlier today) The Iowa State Patrol has identified the victim of a fatal head-on crash in Carroll County. Authorities say the driver of a 1996 Toyota Camry, 57-year old Linda Lee Smith, of Coon Rapids, died in the crash that happened at around 1:50-p.m. Tuesday on Highway 71, south of 250th Street.

The Patrol says Smith was traveling south on Highway 71 when, for reasons unknown, her car crossed the centerline of the road and struck a 2004 Toyota RAV4, head-on. Both vehicles came to rest on the east shoulder of the road. Smith died at the scene. The driver of the RAV4, 26-year old Corie Jean Walsh, of Glidden, suffered non-life threatening injuries and transported to St. Anthony Hospital in Carroll, by Carroll County EMS.

The accident remains under investigation.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Sioux City man has been accused of punching and choking his 12-year-old son and assaulting other members of his family. Court records say 35-year-old JT Ring is charged with child endangerment causing serious injury, two counts of assault, one count of domestic abuse assault and with violation of parole. His attorney didn’t immediately return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.

Ring was arrested Monday evening after getting into an argument with his son and others at a Sioux City home. Police say Ring was angered when his son took away his alcohol, so he punched him and started to choke him. Police say Ring also pushed his mother and punched his 11-year-old niece.  Ring is due in court Tuesday.