Police in Red Oak have arrested a man wanted on a warrant charging him with Indecent Exposure. 62-year old John M. Rush, of Red Oak, was taken into custody Monday afternoon in Council Bluffs. Rush was transported to the Pottawattamie County Jail and held until he could be picked up by Montgomery County Deputies. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail Monday evening on $10,000 cash bond.

And, Deputies in Montgomery County arrested 40-year old Troy Alan Myers, of Red Oak, Monday afternoon. Myers was wanted on a warrant for Child Endangerment. His bond was set at $2,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Advocates seeking expanded access to medical marijuana in Iowa held a march at the state Capitol. More than 50 supporters of a proposal to expand the use of medical marijuana participated Tuesday. They support legislation that has won committee-level approval in the state Senate and could soon come up for a floor vote.

The legislation would make medical marijuana available to people with certain chronic diseases, such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Those approved by a doctor could purchase marijuana products produced in Iowa and sold at state-licensed dispensaries.

Last year, the Legislature approved a law allowing some residents with epilepsy to use oil with an ingredient derived from marijuana for treatment. But the law did not establish an in-state program for the production and distribution of the oil.

A bill making its way through the legislature would allow schools to keep “Epi-Pens”  on hand to use if students have an allergic reaction to something. Representative Norlin Mommsen, of DeWitt, is the bill’s floor manager in the House. “I have received multiple conversations and emails concerning the importance of this bill,” Mommsen says. “It can be best summed up by a comment made by a fellow representative: ‘We have the opportunity to pass this bill before there’s a tragedy and we have to attach a name to it.'”

Iowa schools currently have the authority to stock inhalers which can be used if a student has an asthma attack. This bill would allow Iowa schools to have the “pens” that dispense a single dose of epinephrine if a student has an allergic reaction to something like a bee sting or food. The school could get a prescription for “EpiPens” and only trained personnel would be able to administer a dose, if the bill becomes law.

Iowa is one of just four states that do not have this kind of a law and Representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt, of Cedar Rapids is among the group of Iowa legislators and school nurses that has been working on this proposal for eight years. “I can’t explain the increase in severe allergies in our children,” Running-Marquardt says, “the birthday parties where you now have to know which children have a nut, egg or milk allergies and the EpiPen carrying cases that children have now with their name on them, so you can tell whose belong to who.”

She cited a report indicating 25 percent of the episodes that are the first indication a child has a food allergy occur at school. Representative Mary Mascher, a retired teacher from Iowa City, says “EpiPens” are expensive, but some drug companies provide them free of charge to schools. “This really is a bill that could save children’s lives,” Mascher says. The bill cleared the Senate unanimously on March 17th.

It was changed slightly by the House Tuesday, to allow “agents” of a school — like a classroom volunteer or a parent watching a football game on school grounds — as well as school employees to administer an “EpiPen” dosage if they are trained to do so. That change must be approved by the Senate before the bill can go to the governor’s desk for his review.

(Radio Iowa)