The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports three people were arrested over the weekend on unrelated charges. Saturday night, 64-year old Ada Jo Carter, of Coon Rapids, was arrested on an outstanding Audubon County warrant for Theft in the 5th degree. The warrant was issued following an investigation into bad checks written to an Audubon County business on May 16th. Carter was booked into the jail, and appeared before the magistrate this (Monday) morning. The woman plead guilty to the charge and was fined.

Sunday afternoon, 47-year old Julie Ann Tigges, of Newton, turned herself-in to Audubon County authorities. Tigges was wanted on an outstanding Audubon County warrant for Revocation of her probation. She had been placed on probation in March 2011, after pleading guilty to a Possession of Methamphetamine/2nd offense, charge. Tigges posted bond and was released, with orders to appear in court on September 17th.

Earlier that same day, 33-year old Gregory Alan Carter, of Audubon, was arrested on charges of OWI/2nd offense, Failure to have a valid license, and speeding. The charges were the result of a traffic stop on Highway 71, near Hamlin. Carter was brought to the Audubon County Jail, appeared before the magistrate, and released. His preliminary hearing was set for September 27th.

(12-p.m. News)

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says a woman injured during a motorcycle accident Saturday afternoon on Highway 83 near Walnut, will be cited for Failure to Maintain Control, along with other moving violations. Danker says 39-year-old Renae Hansen was transported to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic and later transferred by helicopter to Creighton Medical Center, after the motorcycle she was driving southbound on Highway 83, ran off the roadway on a curve and entered the south ditch. The accident happened at around 4-p.m., Saturday. It was not clear from the Sheriff’s report where Hansen was from.

Information from the U-S Census shows the dramatic impact Latinos have had on Iowa’s population in the last 10 years. Gary Krob is the coordinator of the state data center.  “Since 2000, the Latino population has increased by 91-point-six percent, which is quite dramatic if you look at the population change in the state of Iowa being right around four-percent,” Krob says. “So, while Iowa’s population is growing fairly slowly, but growing, the Latino population in Iowa is booming if you will.” The data show the Latino population increased by over 75-thousand in the 10 years and there were 158-thousand in the state on July first of 2011.

“It’s a much younger population than the state. The state is generally a little older than the Latino population — actually probably not a little older, considerably older. I believe the median age for the state of Iowa is 38-point-one and the Latino population is 22-point-two, so that’s a pretty significant difference,” Krob says. The data show a majority of the Latinos work in the construction and service industries.  “I wasn’t really that surprised on the occupation groupings for the Latino population,” he says, “you hear where the Latinos are moving to, what communities they are moving into. Generally a lot of meatpacking plants a lot of production areas, and so when you see the occupation numbers, that kind of verifies what you’re hearing.”

There appears to be some correlation with the occupations and income of Latinos. He says the median income rate for Latinos is 10-thousand dollars different from the median income rate of Iowa as wholes, a difference of 37-thousand dollars compared to 47-thousand dollars. The poverty rate is a little higher too at 27-point-two-percent compare to 12-point six percent as a whole for the state. Krob says the Latino population is projected to continue to grow. “If you look at the Latino population, it’s going to drive the population growth in the state of Iowa, at least for the foreseeable future, unless something changes that’s where the population growth is going to occur,” Krob says.

The majority of the Latinos in Iowa have come from Mexico. You can see more about the Latino report on the State Data Center website at: www.iowadatacenter.org.

Iowa communities can now apply for grants to help them start putting fluoride in their water supplies or to upgrade their current fluoridation systems. Dr. Bob Russell, the state dental director for the Iowa Department of Public Health, says ten communities a year are chosen for grants of six-thousand dollars each. “Usually, especially in rural, small communities that don’t have large populations, that’s relatively enough,” Dr. Russell says. “It covers all of the basic hardware they’re going to need to add to existing systems. Those dollars were not arbitrarily created. They were actually based on studies we did.”

About 83-percent of all Iowans have access to sufficient fluoridated water now, but he says there’s still work to do. “We’ve been hearing from a lot of our local components in the communities that fluoridation equipment breaks down over time,” Russell says. “We’ve been fluoridating since 1954, roughly, and a lot of equipment is aging and needs to be upgraded and there are new communities that are seeking to get fluoridation into their community for the first time.”

Some people oppose fluoridation in water and Russell says the decision is left up to each Iowa community. He says water fluoridation is vital to a community’s oral health and to its overall health. Russell says federal studies clearly show that the life expectancy of Iowans has risen, remarkably, over the past several decades. “If you go back to the days before fluoride where people were dying of acute infections, people were averaging life spans between the late 40s and the late 60s,” Russell says. “Now, we’re seeing ages in the mid-70s up to the middle 80s. Life expectancy continues to increase even though there’s a fear that somehow quality of life is hampered by fluoride.”

Russell says for most cities, every dollar invested in water fluoridation saves 38-dollars in dental treatment costs. The Iowa Department of Public Health collaborated with the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation to create the Community Fluoridation Award. To learn more, visit: “www.deltadentalia.com” and click on the “Public Benefit Program” tab.

(Radio Iowa)