A program designed to help people cope with loved ones’ destructive behavior is opening a chapter in Omaha/Council Bluffs, the first chapter in either Nebraska or Iowa. Under the 12-step Families Anonymous program, only first names are used. The local organizer, Sally, says F-A helps people deal with the impact brought on by the problems of others.  She says, “Anyone who is concerned about relatives or friends who abuse drugs or alcohol or any substances.” Sally says anyone who has a friend or family member struggling with an addiction knows how this has a ripple effect and impacts many lives.

F-A was founded in 1971 by a group of parents in California. Sally learned about Families Anonymous when searching for a group to help her. She’s been associated with a person with an addiction for about three years and says she started attending meetings on-line.  “In my particular situation, once I began working the 12 steps and began working on me, I began to be able to handle situations very differently by reacting to them differently,” she says. “It changed my life. I feel like I’m getting back to who I was before.” While the group is called Families Anonymous, she says it isn’t exactly set up for smaller children. Sally says, “It’s not something you would probably want to bring a child to but anybody in their teenage years or older would be someone who would able to work the steps appropriately and benefit from the program.”

The local chapter will meet every Wednesday night at 6:30 at Methodist Hospital in Omaha. There are about 225 regular F-A meetings in the U-S and in more than 20 countries.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says 58-year old David Andrew Stump, of Glenwood, was sentenced today (Tuesday) in United States District Court in Council Bluffs, to 36-months in prison for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Stump will serve 2-years of supervised release once his term in prison is completed. He’s also required to pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victim Fund.

His conviction was the result of a June 1st, 2011, a State of Iowa search warrant executed at Stump’s residence in Glenwood, by local law enforcement officers. Seventeen grams of actual methamphetamine was found, along with small amounts of other drugs and indications drugs were being distributed.

On August 3rd, 2011, while Stump was on release pending trial on the first charge, local
officers executed a second search warrant at Stump’s residence. As a result of the search, local officers seized 6 grams of actual methamphetamine and other indicators of drug distribution.

A federal indictment was returned against him on August 24th, 2011. On December 6th of that year, Stump entered a guilty plea in federal court to one of the two counts of possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute. The case against him was investigated by the SouthWest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, the Mills County Sheriff’s Department, and the Glenwood Police Department. It was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. This year, the theme is Stand Up for Children!  The Cass County Child Abuse Prevention Council is asking the community for its assistance.  Council Facilitator Kristen Templeton says they are collecting new and unused items for the  Family Crisis Support Network, a nonprofit domestic abuse prevention assistance center and West Central Community Action, a nonprofit agency assisting families with clothing, food, heat assistance and other resources.

The council has set up displays and drop off points at four businesses in Atlantic: the Cass County Memorial Hospital; the HyVee & Fareway grocery stores; and, Mahle Engine Components.  Beginning Monday, April 2nd, CCCAP Council members will begin gathering donations for each agency.  The wish lists will be available at each drop off location.

A copy of the list can be found by clicking on this image:

Cass Co. Child Abuse Council's "Wish List"

Cash donations are not being requested at the drop off points. Donations will be accepted through Thursday, April 12th.

After the donations have been collected, the business who collects the most items will finish out the month displaying the 100 “Pinwheels for Prevention”and a banner spreading the word about protecting children.

The Atlantic Police Department reports 51-year old Jimmy Joe Misner, of Atlantic, was arrested Monday. Misner was taken into custody on two Cass County warrants for Failure to Appear for a Child Support Contempt Hearing. Misner was being held in the Cass County Jail.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says two California men were arrested Monday on drug charges, after deputies stopped their vehicle for speeding, and found 15-pounds of marijuana. Sheriff Jeff Danker told the Omaha World-Herald the van the men were in was pulled over on Interstate 80 eastbound just south of the exit to Highway 6, at around 2-p.m., Monday.

Deputies detected the odor of marijuana and following a search of the vehicle, located the pot in a duffle bag stored in a floorboard compartment. 34-year old Justin Quayle and 21-year old Andrew Walton, both of Santa Rosa, CA, were taken into custody on charges of Possession with the Intent to Deliver, Prohibited Acts, and Violation of the Drug Tax Stamp.

The men were being held  in the Pottawattamie County Jail on $5,000 bond each. Danker said two pit bulls in the van were turned over to Pottawattamie County Animal Control.

Statehouse negotiators have reached a tentative deal to keep the Iowa Workforce Development agency operating ’til June 30th. In mid-March the Iowa Supreme Court ruled Governor Branstad overstepped his item veto authority by taking money legislators set aside to keep regional Workforce Development offices open. The governor instead let agency managers shut the offices down and use the money elsewhere. Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo was one of the legislators who successfully sued Branstad over this decision. He has been involved in discussions to fix the agency’s budget, because the court decision also nullified key parts of agency’s budget. “Even though the department says they saved $6.5 million with closing the offices, they spent it elsewhere and you can’t back a train down the tracks very far,” Dotzler says.

 Legislators and the governor have agreed on a “status quo” budget plan that will carry the agency through to the end of the state fiscal year, according to Dotzler.
“The real discussion needs to continue to move forward on the FY13 budget and that’s probably where we’re going to bang some heads,” Dotzler says. The next 12-month budget plan runs from July 1st of this year to June 30th of 2013. Dotzler says Democrats will press to reopen some of the offices that were closed, in cities like Ames, Newton, Pella and Denison.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

A raft of embezzlement cases in small town Iowa has prompted legislators to draft a bill that would require an audit of small town accounts at least once every eight years. Representative Chip Baltimore, a Republican from Boone, says in the past five years state auditors have reviewed the books in 32 different cities that had fewer than 700 residents. “The amount of fraud that was uncovered in those 32 smaller cities totaled $1.4 million,” Baltimore says. “…For some of these small cities, the amount of the fraud exceeded their annual revenues.”

 The city accounts in Iowa towns with fewer than two-thousand residents are not currently required to be audited and Baltimore says it’s time to change that. “If a city and the city employees know there’s going to , they will be less inclined to try to embezzle funds,” Baltimore says. 

The bill to require audits in small Iowa cities at least once every eight years has cleared the Government Oversight Committee and now goes before the full House for consideration. The latest case of small-town theft uncovered by a state audit involved the city clerk in the small, central Iowa town of Dexter. The theft occurred over a six-year period, but it wasn’t discovered until after the clerk died and others began sifting through the town’s accounts.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)