The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest late Sunday night of a Shenandoah man on drug and weapon charges. 36-year old Joseph Ryan Bredberg was taken into custody at around 11:30-p.m. following  a traffic stop. Bredberg faces Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Carrying a Dangerous Weapon charges. His bond was set at $3,300.

Also arrested Sunday, was 39-year old Derek Michael Dodge, of Corning, on a charge of OWI 1st offense, and 33-year old Jerad Keith Perkins, of Pacific Junction, on a charge of OWI/2nd offense. Dodge was being held in the Mills County Jail on $1,000 bond, while Perkins’ bond was set at $2,000.

Mills County deputies arrested 31-year old Cassandra Sue Wilkins, of Omaha, on Saturday. She was charged with OWI/1st offense, with bond set at $1,000. And Friday night, 37-year old Carl David Galvan, Jr., of Council Bluffs, and 46-year old Cynthia Sharece Devault, also of Council Bluffs, were arrested on respective, separate Interference with Official Acts and Protection Order Violation, charges. Galvan’s bond was set at $300, while Devault was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

And on Thursday, 53-year old Jonathan S. Elliott, of Haysville, KS, was arrested in Mills County on a Possession of Drug Paraphernalia charge. He was taken into custody during a traffic stop on I-29 at around 5:45-p.m. His bond was set at $300.

(9-a.m. News)

Police in Atlantic arrested a local man Friday, on an assault charge. 30-year old Daniel Duranceau, of Atlantic, faces a charge of Domestic Assault. He was transported to Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance in front of the magistrate.

Atlantic Police also investigated a personal injury accident that occurred Saturday evening. Officials say at around 5-p.m., vehicles driven by Alyssa Adams and Donna Rourick, both of Atlantic, collided near the intersection of 9th and Chestnut Streets, as Adams was pulling out of a parking spot on Chestnut.

While doing so, she failed to see Rourick also pulling out of a parking spot. Rourick’s vehicle hit Adams’ on the left side, causing $10,000 damage. Adams was transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital by Medivac Ambulance. Adams was subsequently cited for Failure to Yield upon entering a through Street.

A report from the Iowa Healthcare Collaborative (IHC) claims hospitals across the state that participate in a program designed to reduce medical errors prevented potential harm to more than 43-hundred (4,300) patients last year. Scott McIntyre, spokesman for the Iowa Hospital Association, says the effort is part of the federal Partnership for Patients initiative, with the goals of reducing harm by 40 percent and hospital re-admissions by 20 percent.

“We just feel there’s been very positive and noteworthy progress,” McIntrye says. “In reality, we’re keeping people out of the hospital…and we’re saving lives.” The report estimates at least 32 lives were saved in Iowa in 2013 because of the Hospital Engagement Network (HEN). The Iowa-based HEN, which includes 12 hospitals in Illinois and Nebraska, also reduced health care costs, according to McIntrye.

“Our estimate is about 51-million dollars was saved because of the improvements in these quality measures,” McIntyre says. In addition to reducing costs, McIntyre says the Iowa HEN reduced the time that patients spent in the participating hospitals by 17,758 days. The report also claims participating hospitals reduced early elective baby deliveries (which can increase complications) by 90 percent; catheter associated urinary tract infections by 44 percent; adverse drug events by 28 percent; central line-associated blood stream infections in intensive care by 24 percent; surgical site infections by 24 percent; patient falls by 23 percent; and avoidable re-admissions by 11 percent.

(Radio Iowa)

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Repairs and improvements on Council Bluffs river and creek levees could cost the city $50 million. The Daily Nonpareil says the estimate comes from a study on the work needed to repair river and creek levees to meet federal standards.

City engineer Matt Cox says the improvements are necessary to have the Federal Emergency Management Agency certify that the city’s levee systems are adequate. Without that certification, FEMA would redraw its city maps to show the entire west side of the city could be prone to flooding. And Cox says that would force property owners there to pay high flood insurance rates.

Cox intends to ask the City Council today (Monday) to approve hiring an engineering firm to oversee the work.