Authorities in Creston report the arrest Tuesday afternoon of 56-year old Mary Acker, of Creston. Acker was charged with Theft in the 5th degree and then released on a promise to appear later in court.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A religious discrimination lawsuit filed against Sioux City’s Bishop Heelan Catholic school system has been dismissed. The Sioux City Journal reports that in a ruling filed last week, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jon Scoles said David Newbrough couldn’t proceed on his claim that the system fired him because he wasn’t Roman Catholic. Newbrough was the system’s chief financial officer.

The lawsuit also said he was relieved of his duties as a volunteer basketball scorekeeper at Heelan High School in retaliation for filing a claim with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission. The judge says the system’s actions were protected under a federal law exemption that lets religious organizations discriminate on religious grounds in their employment practices.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Transportation say they’re still unsure why the agency’s first drug-sniffing dog jumped out of a truck window on Interstate 80 in October, and fled into traffic. Earlier this week, the Iowa Appeal Board approved a $1,323 payout for damages to the owners of the vehicle that struck and killed the 2-year-old Belgian Malinois named Sara. The Oct. 8 incident was ruled an accident.

David Lorenzen, chief of the department’s motor vehicle enforcement division, says Sara had been added to the department about a year before her death following a rigorous selection process. He says she was trained not to jump and may have done so out of fear. The department has since replaced Sara with another Belgian Malinois named Storm.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Residents across Iowa and the nation are being asked to take time today to stop and think about how their words may disparage others – whether that is the intent or not. This is “Spread the Word to End the Word” day, when people are asked to remove the word “retarded” from their vocabulary.

“When we use the word, we disparage those who do have an intellectual disability,” said Rik Shannon, public policy manager for the Iowa Developmental Disabilities Council. “What we really would like to see people do is select language that’s more respectful and inclusive.”

While today is focused on getting everyday people to stop using the “R-word,” Shannon said, on a
higher level, the state of Iowa has stopped using the term in health, eduction and labor policy, following the lead of the federal government.

“In 2010, President Obama signed what’s called Rosa’s Law, which removed the terms ‘mental retardation’ and ‘mentally retarded’ from federal code language,” he said, “and replaced it with terms such as an ‘individual with an intellectual disability,’ or simply ‘intellectual disability.’ ” In Iowa, Shannon said, there are nearly 50,000 individuals with intellectual disabilities and their family, friends, neighbors and coworkers, all of whom deserve the same respect as everyone else.

Details about the observance are online at r-word.org. The text of Rosa’s Law is at govtrack.us and Iowa resources are at idaction.org.

(Iowa News Service)