DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad says Iowa has some “ancient” mental health institutions that need review. The Gazette reported Wednesday that Branstad says the state should revamp those institutions to deliver services more efficiently. He noted specifically facilities at Cherokee, Clarinda, Independence and Mount Pleasant. Branstad says any review of those facilities would need to be in coordination with affected communities. The governor made the comments during a discussion with state health officials about the 2014 budget.

Lawmakers overhauled the state’s mental health system last session. New legislation creates a regionalized system that coordinates services statewide.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 33-year old Everett David Moles, a resident of Mills County, was sentenced to 86 months imprisonment on Wednesday, for possession of child pornography. United States District Judge John Jarvey  also ordered Moles to serve a twenty year term of supervised release following incarceration.

On August 31st, 2012, Moles pled guilty to a charge of possession of child pornography after an extensive investigation into his receiving images and videos of child pornography on his cellular phone. At the time of his guilty plea, Moles admitted that from September of 2009 and continuing through May of 2011, he had images on his cellular telephone that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

The investigation was conducted by the Mills County, Iowa, Sheriff’s Office, Mills County Attorney’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. It was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

Starting next year, graduates of Iowa’s teacher preparation programs will have to pass exams with a minimum score to get a license to teach. The requirement is part of the education reform package that passed the 2012 Iowa legislature. Prospective teachers will take one exam on the subject they hope to teach and another to see if they have the skills to teach a classroom of kids.

Jason Glass, director of the Iowa Department of Education, says students will only have to score better than at least 25 percent of those who take the test. “Clearly this is a minimum standard and one that all teachers in Iowa can and should be able to pass before they are entrusted with educating our children,” Glass says.

Iowa is one of the last states to require testing of new teachers, but the move has critics, like current college students who say the exams are being sprung on them. Senator Wally Horn, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says he’s received over 200 emails on the topic. “They’re seniors in college and haven’t prepared for that and that’s a problem,” Horn says. Horn says they’re also concerned about the cost of the exams, which is in the range of two-hundred dollars.

Glass says a delay is not the right option. “Every year that we would delay enforcement or enactment of the law would be another year that we potentially put unqualified people into teaching roles in the state,” Glass says. “Our priority has to lie with the students, the children in our schools.”

This new requirement for prospective teachers got the go-ahead yesterday from a legislative committee that reviews state agency rules and procedures. It means this spring’s college graduates in Iowa will have to take the exams to get a teaching license.

(Radio Iowa)