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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Radio Iowa) – The family of the correctional officer murdered nearly a year ago by two Anamosa prison inmates is urging legislators to give prison employees more workplace rights and more on the job protection. Robert McFarland’s widow, Sara McFarland, spoke at a news conference in Anamosa. “No other spouse, no other family can get this call,” McFarland said, “the call that I did.”
Cathie McFarland says her son paid the ultimate price for doing his job and the employees still working in the prison system need a lot of help. “I want the people who work in there to be safe,” she said. “I want them to go home to their families.”
One bill introduced in the Iowa House has been named the Robert McFarland Act. Another is named in honor of Lorena Schulte, the prison nurse who was murdered, and staffer Lorrie Matthes, who was taken hostage. The bills require the state to provide health care benefits to the spouse and children of prison staff killed on the job and to provide up to 30 days of paid leave if a staffer witnesses a traumatic event at work.
The bills also call for employees in the Iowa Department of Corrections to have the same collective bargaining rights as public safety workers, like state troopers. Robert McFarland’s brother, Dave, says the family made a promise to do what they can to make change. “How many more officers must die or be assaulted? What will it take for people to realize this is not a Republican thing, this is not a Democratic thing?” he asked. “This is an us thing.”
The bills would increase the penalty for assaulting a prison employee to a class D felony and would increase funding for contraband screening inside prison walls. Due to last week’s deadline for action on policy bills, these proposals would have to be tacked onto other legislation in order to be voted upon this year.
(Atlantic, Iowa) (Updated 2/24) – Iowa Third-District Democrat Congresswoman Cindy Axne (D) held a Town Hall meeting in Atlantic, Wednesday evening at the Atlantic Public Library. She discussed issues she’s worked on, and continues to try and hash out with her fellow Congressmen and Senators. Like Republican Senator Charles Grassley, who spoke earlier in the day Wednesday, in Atlantic, Axne focused on the Infrastructure Bill and the money that’s coming to Iowa for: Highway Aid; Bridge Repairs; Public Transportation; Broadband service; Cybersecurity and more.
Rep. Cindy Axne (2/23/22) Ric Hanson photo
That breaks down into: $3.4-billion to address Iowa’s 403 miles of highway that are in poor condition; $432-million for repairs and revitalization of more than 4,500 bridges; $305-million to address the 40% of transit vehicles that are beyond their expected lifespan.
Axne said “It’s been a heck of a whirlwind” of activity in Congress over the past year to keep towns alive while COVID was still making its presence known. She said “I spent most of last year working on bills that would literally just ensure that Atlantic, southwest Iowa, Iowa and this great country of ours can stay afloat, and prosper.” She added, “We made it through…with more money in people’s pockets, more health care opportunities for people to get vaccinated…”
Axne spoke about the benefits to Iowans of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). During the Q&A from those who attended the Town Hall. One of the questions from a person whose brother is a severe diabetic and has trouble getting his medical equipment. Axne said every year since she’s been in office, she and others have tried to find ways to lower the cost of prescription drugs, but “We are stopped at every turn,” according to the Congresswoman. “The Senate isn’t moving anything that we need to move.”
The best she and her colleagues can do right now, though, she says is to start with the most expensive and most used drugs, and getting those costs reduced. She spoke also about the Surprise Medical Billing Act, which was written into law and protects people covered under group and individual health plans from receiving surprise medical bills when they receive most emergency services, non-emergency services from out-of-network providers at in-network facilities, and services from out-of-network air ambulance service providers.
She’s also currently working on a bill that helps provide greater access to funding from the U-S Department of Justice for small police departments (with less than 200 employees).
There are also items in the bill to provide “De-escalation training” for officers, to give communities a chance to overcome issues police have to address, like mental health and domestic issues. The bill includes support for body cameras and more.
(Dedham, Iowa) – A collision Tuesday morning between a pickup and a van in Carroll County, left one person dead and another injured. The Iowa State Patrol, on Wednesday, said a 2010 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 58-year-old Rae Jean Lepird, of Carroll, was traveling east on Highway 141 south of Dedham and west of Olympic Avenue, when the vehicle went out of control on the icy roadway.
The pickup crossed the center line of the highway and struck the driver’s side door of a westbound 2018 Dodge Caravan driven by 32-year-old Ashley Dawn Kesselring, of Coon Rapids. The crash happened at around 8:50-a.m.
Kesselring, who was wearing a seat belt, died at the scene from her injuries. Lepird, who was also wearing her seat belt, suffered non-life threatening injuries and was transported by Carroll County Ambulance to St. Anthony Regional Hospital, in Carroll.
The accident remains under investigation.
(Radio Iowa) – A new book from researchers at Iowa State University asserts that hotter weather brought on by climate change can make people more aggressive. Lead author Andreas Miles-Novelo, an I-S-U psychology graduate student, says decades of studies demonstrate how hotter temperatures alter the way people around the globe think and interact with each other. “We have lots of data that shows the hotter parts of the year, hotter years, hotter days of the year, hotter times, you find more reports of violent crime,” Miles-Novelo says, “so I suspect that will hold true. Whether or not it will be noticeable on any sort of level yet here in the United States, I’m not sure.”
In the book “Climate Change and Human Behavior,” the authors show how hotter weather and more frequent and severe weather events can influence individuals and groups, escalating political unrest, civil war and other forms of violence. The research finds people who are uncomfortably hot perceive others as behaving aggressively, which raises the odds of a hostile confrontation. Police officers are sworn to uphold the law but they’re still human and may be swayed by steamy weather. “There’s a really great study that I talk about in the book where they put cops in different training simulators and in one of the training simulators, they bumped up the temperature in the room,” Miles-Novelo says, ” and they found that the cops were more likely to shoot an innocent suspect than in the condition where the room was more of a comfortable temperature.”
It’s asserted that climate change brings more extreme and frequent droughts, wildfires, floods and hurricanes, and people everywhere will be at higher risk to fall victim to crime, hunger and poverty. Still, he says it appears too much hot weather can actually chill heated aggression levels. “For average temperatures, that’s going to be when it’s lowest,” Miles-Novelo says. “When it starts to get uncomfortably hot, then you start to see those aggressions tick up, but then there’s a certain point where it gets too hot, where you have to conserve so much energy and so many resources because of the threat of overheating that you’re not actually likely to go out and do something because you need to stay somewhere.”
The opposite is also true, he says, as aggression levels rise when it gets uncomfortably cold, but once it gets exceptionally frigid, the focus is on finding shelter. With hot weather and a worsening drought in the forecast, all is not lost. Miles-Novelo says proactively addressing challenges now could help to stave off some of the long-term troubles they predict for the future.
(Radio Iowa) – The Woodbury County attorney has cleared the deputy involved in the January 12th shooting that claimed the life of a man in Sergeant Bluff. Attorney Patrick Jennings says Deputy Eric Fay was justified when he fired his gun at Michael Meredith — who came at the deputy and hit him with a tire iron. “Fearing for his life and safety, deputy Eric Fay did discharge his firearm. He discharged his firearm twice — striking Michael Meridith once — and in doing so was able to end the threat,” Jennings says.
Fay along with deputy Devin Groenhagen and Sergeant Bluff officer Jereme Muller had responded to a disturbance at a trailer where a man and woman were shouting. Groenhagen had backed away and fired his taser while Fay fired his gun. (Here is sound from the bodycam video of the shooting)
Jennings says an autopsy showed Meredith died from a single shot to the chest. The taser strike did not contribute to his death. Jennings ruled based on evidence from an investigation by the Iowa D-C-I and body camera footage from the three officers that Fay was justified in using deadly force to defend himself. Woodbury County Sheriff Todd Sheehan says an internal investigation of the shooting found no department policies were violated. “Deputies Eric Fay and Devin Groenhagen were forced into a life and death situation and had approximately four seconds or less once confronted with the attack. No law enforcement officer wants to be forced to take the actions that were taken that evening — but I thank God there are men and women willing to place themselves in harm’s way, willing to keep our citizens safe,” Sheehan says.
Sheehan says Fay has 12 years of law enforcement experience. “Deputy Fay is still on paid administrative leave as he continues to process and deal with the emotional effects this incident has had both on him and his family,” according to toe Sheehan. “We will continue to support him, and we will welcome him back to full duty as soon as he is ready.”
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Republican Iowa Senator Charles Grassley stopped in Atlantic Wednesday afternoon, and spoke with some of the 150 employees at Henningsen Construction. The company is very busy working on buildings and roads around the State and the Midwest. Appropriately enough, one of the things Grassley spoke about was the bipartisan Infrastructure bill he voted for last year, which includes funds for bridges ($432 million in bridge funding over a five-year period), locks and dams ($829 million on the upper Mississippi River) and at least $100-million for broadband.
Henningson Construction President Brad Henningsen (Left) & Sen. Charles Grassley
He says a major reason he did so, even though he received some criticism, is because approximately 23-percent of the bridges (4,500) in Iowa are structurally unsound, and that’s the worst of all 50 states.
One question Grassley was asked was if he thought President Biden should be tested for his cognitive abilities, such as some suggested for former President Trump when he was in office. Grassley said “Susan Rice might be running the country…Obama’s top person.”
He said in the only face-to-face meeting he’s had with Biden since he became President. He suggested Biden has changed from how he acted as Senator, due to outside influences.
But he says he doesn’t think however, that there’s any reason to conclude Biden’s thinking processes make him unfit to hold the office.
The Senator was asked if the U-S is handling the situation in the Ukraine appropriately. He said “From now on, I would have to say ‘Yes’, because the only thing we’re presumably going to do is institute the sanctions.” He said the U-S has to draw a “line in the sand” with the sanctions, but he has some reservations about whether the sanctions will work at this stage in the situation.
He was asked also if a statement made by former President Trump that Russian President Putin made a “Genius move,” by putting Troops along the border as “Peacekeepers.”
Prior to coming to Atlantic, Senator Grassley spoke earlier in the day, Wednesday, at the Audubon County Economic Development Corporation’s meeting, in Audubon.
(Atlantic, Iowa) – Cass County Public Health is now accepting registrations for the next session of A Matter of Balance. This award-winning program helps older adults learn to manage their concerns about falling, make changes to reduce the risk of falling, and increase their physical activity, flexibility, strength, and balance. Participants meet for two hours each week for eight weeks total, and the program is offered for free.
This upcoming session will be held from 1 to 3 pm on Tuesdays beginning on March 15th. Registration is required as class size is limited. To register, or for more information, please contact Victoria Means at Cass County Public Health at 712-243-7443.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Supreme Court is being asked to overturn its 2018 ruling that said the Iowa Constitution guarantees women a right to an abortion. During oral arguments today (Wednesday), Lawyer Chris Schandovel represented the state lawmakers who signed onto the case. He says the Supreme Court overstepped its authority in declaring the right. “When the Constitution is silent and therefore leaving them to the people to regulate through their elected representatives,” Schandovel says.
Schandovel says the 2018 ruling ignored precedent on abortion issues. “In order to be a fundamental right, that right has to be a liberty interest that is deeply rooted in the history of the nation or the state of Iowa. And we know that since 1843 before the Constitution of Iowa was adopted, Iowa criminalized abortion,” he says. Justice Brent Appel asked if the Constitution that was written by men and the laws were created by men left out the voice of women — and if they should still apply in 2022. “The words in our state Constitution have to be defined by their original public meaning. So it’s not a question of what was in the mind of the male legislators — it’s a question of what the public — including men and women — would have understood that word liberty to mean,” according to Schandoval.
“Since abortion was criminalized at the time of its framing — no member of the public male or female — would have thought that they had a constitutional right to commit an abortion,” Schandoval says. He says that belief continued right up until the U-S- Supreme Court abortion ruling. The case came after a law that requires a 24-hour waiting period for abortions was passed after the court held a 72-hour waiting period was not legal. Rita Bettis-Austen represents Planned Parenthood and says the procedure used to pass the 24-hour law is the issue. “And it’s not a case that squarely or properly presents the question of whether abortion is protected under the Iowa Constitution or whether strict scrutiny or undue burden is the appropriate test. That’s for numerous reasons and they are all about process. Process is what this case is really about,” Bettis-Austen says.
She says the state didn’t show the process was properly followed to show the new law brought something new to the table. “Planned Parenthood put forth really undisputed record evidence. It was incumbent on the state to dispute that with any factual evidence. The district court found that it had made these vague and hypothetical arguments about how things could be different — but that is not enough on summary judgment,” she says. Bettis-Austen says the state wants to improperly use this case to overturn the 2018 ruling. “That state’s argument is very simple — it just that it disagrees with this court’s prior precedent, and that is not enough,” she says. The Supreme Court will issue a ruling in the case later.
The high court has changed dramatically since the 2018 ruling, as the chief justice at the time died and Governor Kim Reynolds has appointed four of the seven justices now on the court, including the new chief justice.
(Radio Iowa) – Officials at the Animal Rescue League of Iowa say 42 dogs and puppies have been removed from an unlicensed breeder in southeast Iowa. Joe Stafford, director of animal services at the organization, says the smell of urine was overpowering. “It was just deplorable conditions,” Stafford says, ” really hard to describe, I mean an ammonia level that would burn your eyes and just made it very, very difficult for the rescue team to breathe inside the home.”
According to a news release from the Animal Rescue League, the dogs ranged in size from Great Danes to Corgis and they were crammed into filthy cages stacked on top of each other inside a home in Lee County, near the town of Argyle. “Wire cages that were far, far too small for them,” Stafford says, “Many of them were soaked in urine, covered in feces and you can imagine a large number of dogs inside a small, residential home — what that would look like and smell like.
The dogs are thin, with rotten teeth and were suffering from fleas infestations. Stafford says Lee County authorities are conducting an investigation and will determine if charges are filed. Most of the dogs are now being cared for at the Animal Rescue League’s facility in Des Moines, but female dogs with nursing puppies have been placed in foster homes. “We rely on the support of our constituents and people who are animal lovers to do this work,” Stafford says, “and if somebody has some extra funds or some time to volunteer, whatever they could do to help out.”
More than three dozen hamsters were also rescued from cages in the Lee County home and have been cleaned up, evaluated and fed and are recovering at the Animal Rescue League facility.
(Radio Iowa) – Legislators are planning to spend millions to upgrade facilities and make other changes in response to a federal investigation of the Glenwood and Woodward State Resource Centers. About 300 Iowans with intellectual disabilities and behavioral disorders are residents at the state facilities in Glenwood and Woodward. A December report from the Justice Department found that with the right services, nearly all of them could live in a community setting instead and the cost of that care would be less. This week, House Republicans announced they’re planning to plug an additional 25 million into the budget for Glenwood and Woodward.
A spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Human Services says negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department aren’t final, but the outcome is likely to require a large investment in community integration — in other words, moving residents out of institutional care at Glenwood and Woodward. D-H-S director Kelly Garcia has been telling legislators that will require spending in the neighborhood of 25 million to move those residents into homes or smaller, community-based facilities.
In January, Governor Reynolds recommended a budget increase of more than two-and-a-half million to make building upgrades at the two state-run institutions.