(Des Moines, Iowa) – State regulators have taken action against three men they say share responsibility for illegal fires that torched 10 large chicken confinement buildings last year near Villisca. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports one of the men, Tyson Means of Villisca, has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, according to a recent Iowa Department of Natural Resources order. Two others, Shawn Gohlinghorst and Darrel Schipansky, were issued violation notices, but no orders regarding them have been publicly released.

State law generally prohibits the deliberate burning of buildings and requires their debris be taken to a landfill, but there are exceptions for agricultural buildings. In this case, Villisca had annexed the property, and burning the buildings had additional requirements, such as gaining approval from the local fire chief. That didn’t happen, according to the DNR. The building fires were ignited simultaneously about 3 p.m. on June 29, and they burned for hours. Each building was 50 feet wide and 728 feet long. Iowa DNR Senior environmental Specialist Kristi Burg said “There’s no way you would have had enough fire departments and water nearby if it got out of control.” The Villisca fire chief became aware of the fires about seven hours after they began and decided “it was too big to be put out,” the DNR order said.

Fires burned 10 former chicken confinement buildings near Villisca in June 2023. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

Several rural homes are located nearby, along with a site for storing and distributing liquid fertilizer. The property lies about a mile west of residences and businesses in town. Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman said the smoke and glow from the fire was visible for miles, and residents in four different counties made emergency calls to report it. Hamman said the men burned the buildings after recent rainfall, and that the fires did not stray. “From my point of view, there was nothing dangerous,” he said.

Schipansky owned the property, and Gohlinghorst and Means later bought it on contract. They razed the site with the intention of growing crops on the land. The men had also neglected to inspect the site for asbestos. The DNR tested samples of the debris and found no asbestos, but “a thorough asbestos sampling could not have been conducted since the buildings had been completely burned,” the department’s order said.

Gohlinghorst and Means rid the property of the remaining building debris in September and October 2023 and disposed of it at a landfill, the order said.

Debris from the confinement buildings were later taken to a landfill. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources surveyed the burn site the day after the fires were ignited. (Photo by Brian Hamman/courtesy of Iowa DNR)

(Greenfield, Iowa) – The Board of Supervisors in Adair County, today (Wednesday), held discussion with regard to the County Compensation Board. In the past, Compensation Boards were in charge of reviewing and comparing elected officials’ salaries and recommending a compensation schedule. Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg reported the Compensation Board had dissolved as of July 1^st, due to State Legislation. Berg said that leaves the Supervisors with two options.

She said if the Supervisors reinstate the Compensation Board, ISAC (Iowa State Association of Counties) recommends a drawing of lots with regard to terms of the Supervisors who are represented on the Compensation Board.

Following discussion, the Supervisors unanimously voted to reinstate the Compensation Board. In other business, the Supervisors in Adair County acknowledged receipt of the FY23 MATURA Audit.They also approved the re-appointment of Lee Ashmore to the Veterans Affairs Commission. His term was set to expire. They also discussed a proposed County Tax Abatement for rural homeowners who lost their homes in the tornado that struck Adair County on May 21st. Supervisor Jodi Hoadley…

Fourteen rural homes were lost in the storm. Hoadley said the rural residents just want to be treated fairly, when compared city residents. Supervisor John Twombly said he feels new houses in the rural area should be taxed accordingly.

Twombly motioned not to allow the Abatement. It was approved by a vote of 3-to 2, with Hoadley and Baier opposed, and Twombly, Walker and Wedemeyer in favor.

And, Adair County Engineer Nick Kauffman provided the Board with his weekly Secondary Roads report. Prior to the report, the Adair County Supervisors approved of Board Chair Jerry Walker signing of plans for the G-61 Culvert Repair Project, and they passed a resolution authorizing Kauffman and his assistant, Sawyer Hansen, to be represent the County with regard to Federal/State (disaster recovery) assistance.

In his report on maintenance and activities, Nick Kauffman said Henningsen Construction is expected to be in the County sometime around August 19^th, to conduct work on the Henry Wallace Road.

(Harlan, Iowa)  – The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports two people have died following an incident last month, in Shelby. Authorities today (Wednesday) said “On the early morning hours of June 16, 2024, a juvenile was brought into Myrtue Medical Center with a medical emergency by personal vehicle. Life saving measures were taken by deputies, hospital staff, and Shelby County EMS and the juvenile was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Omaha.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation began investigating the incident that is believed to have taken place at 804 Spring St., in Shelby. Through the investigation Nicholas Segebart was identified as a suspect and was in care of the juvenile at the time of the incident. A search warrant was conducted at 804 Spring St. in relation to the investigation.

On June 18, Nicholas Segebart was located in Illinois by law enforcement, deceased by self-inflicted wound(s). The juvenile later succumbed to injuries believed to be caused by Segebart, and passed away.

(Radio Iowa) – The Mississippi River is slowly returning to its banks, leaving behind a muddy mess. Last week, the river swelled to major flood stage in the Quad Cities, following heavy rains in the Upper Midwest. Davenport city workers put up temporary barriers and used pumps. Assistant City Administrator and Public Works Director Nicole Gleason says the efforts were successful, but the HESCO barriers will remain in place until the river descends below 18 feet. “It’s all just going to be dependent on the rainfall,” Gleason says. “We can’t really guess that far out. Right now, it looks like we’re getting close back to that 18-foot level about a week from now. So I would probably think by midweek next week we should have a plan together for when we start dismantling mitigation measures.”

Gleason says the flooding came at an unusual time of the year for Davenport.  “More traditionally, we see the flooding more in April as it relates to snow melt, and spring rain on top of snow melt,” she says, “but in this case it was 100% rain-driven.”

Davenport’s LeClaire Park bandshell, with the Centennial Bridge in the background. (Photo by Bridget Trainor Jesson)

Gleason says that “rain-driven” flooding is harder to predict than flooding from snow melt. This flood crested at just above 20 feet in the Quad Cities. The record there is 22-point-7 feet, set in 2019.

(contributed by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Harlan, Iowa) – Two employees using a aerial lift to reach the top of a grain elevator in Harlan found themselves in a predicament Tuesday afternoon,  when the machine wouldn’t retract, leaving the employees stranded. Officials with the Shelby County Emergency Services Association posted on social media, Tuesday, a picture of emergency crews on the scene. Crews with the Harlan Fire and Rescue Department, assisted by the Shelby County Sheriff’s office, Shelby County Emergency Management and Shelby County Ambulance service were on the scene, where a high angle rope rescue took place. Both subjects were brought down safely, and without injury.

Additional details are currently not available.

Shelby County EMS Assoc. Facebook photo

(Radio Iowa) – A public health collaboration in central Iowa is trying to close health disparities among Latinos seeking care for cognitive health. Jimmy Reyes, a professor at the University of Northern Iowa Department of Nursing and Public Health, says Latinos statistically have more uncontrolled chronic health conditions. Reyes says they also tend to have less access to health care and they tend to be more skeptical of it. This extends to cognitive conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.  “Many times in our Latino community, we know who the big hospitals are. We know the systems. We know that they exist,” Reyes says. “And many times we are very hesitant to go into those places because we don’t feel safe but having ‘promotoras,’ community health workers, who are lay individuals. They are the ones that are actually opening the doors to the community.”

Reyes is partnering with Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines and the Polk County Public Health Department to lead events in places like churches which are designed to increase access, and to get attendees thinking about their cognitive health. Dr. Yogesh Shah, director of the Broadlawns Memory Clinic, says it’s important to catch early signs of dementia before the symptoms manifest more critically. “It’s very significant. Stage wise, they might have more grade dementia but never been diagnosed,” Shah says. “And because of that, they end up in emergency rooms or end up in hospitals not knowing that some of the symptoms are related to their dementia diagnosis.”

Studies find Latinos in the U-S have a one-and-a-half times greater risk of developing dementia than their white counterparts. Reyes and Shah made their comments on the Iowa Public Radio program “River to River.”

(Contributed by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa D-O-T gave the state Transportation Commission an update on flood recovery efforts during their meeting Tuesday. Director Scott Marler says one of the big jobs was helping haul debris away. He says Spencer for example had five-thousand homes damaged by the flooding and needed to have the material pulled out of those homes hauled away. The D-O-T brought in its large dump trucks and other equipment to help move the Spencer material to a dump site. “In total we hauled over 28-hundred loads of removed material to this location,” he says.

Marler says the floodwater kept people away for some courthouses, so they couldn’t renew driver’s licenses. “We actually mobilized some of our remote issuance kits, and our staff in one example, went up to Clay County and they started issuing replacement licenses in Clay County with our forces temporarily operating in the Sheriff’s Department to issue those licenses,” Marler says.

Marler says they also help out with inspected flooded buildings.”Some of our engineering staff had gotten a brief training with the Department of Inspections and Appeals. We actually were able to assist them in evaluating structures,” Marler says. “We sent five of our staff up to do that over the Fourth of July holiday.”  They also worked on getting flooded roadways back open. D-O-T Chief Engineer Tony Gustafson says at the height of the flooding there were 49 highway closures. Some highways had multiple closings. “Rapid fire rundown here, Iowa 3, Iowa 4, Iowa 9, Iowa 10, Iowa 12, Iowa 15. U-S 18, U-S 20, Iowa 31, U-S 59, Iowa 60, U-S 71, U-S 75, and U-S 169, as well as Interstates 29 and 680 north of Council Bluffs,” he says.

Gustafson says there were three highways still closed as of Tuesday. They include U-S 18 west of Spencer. “Iowa 4 south of Emmetsburg, that is still under water. That bridge there at the Des Moines River. The Des Moines River is not going down as quickly as the the Little Sioux is,” he says. “We still don’t know what the damage is there on Iowa 4 south of Emmetsburg. And then they are working on U-S 75 south of Rock Rapids.”

He says they are still working on a culvert that was blown out on U-S 75.

(Radio Iowa) – The mother of the Algona man accused of shooting a policeman to death last year has testified at her son’s murder trial. Video from Algona Officer Kevin Cram’s police camera was played in the courtroom, showing the shooting happened just minutes after Cram arrived to arrest Kyle Ricke for a misdemeanor. The shooting happened at Irene Ricke’s house and the prosecutor asked her questions about the incident. “Was Officer Cram ever rude to your son?” the prosecutor asked. Irene Ricke replied: “Not at all and they were joking back and forth. Everything was fine. That’s why I know he snapped because that’s not in his character to do something like this.”

Dickinson County jurors also heard the interaction between Cram and Ricke from the officer’s body camera. It was only about 100 seconds before Ricke shot and killed Cram as he tried to serve the warrant.

Ricke left to put away a skid loader he was using to clear a trail. He returned from the garage with a gun, firing eight shots, hitting Cram three times in the head. The prosecution says after firing on Cram, Ricke tried to shoot himself, but there were no bullets left in the gun. Ricke fled to his sister’s home in Minnesota, where he was taken into custody four hours later.

His sister also took the stand, saying her brother admitted he did a “terrible thing” and he wanted to end his life. Algona Assistant Police Chief Mark Bacha testified that he was worried when Officer Cram did not signal dispatch or tell other officers the warrant had been served.

The trial was moved from Kossuth County to Dickinson County due to concerns about finding an impartial jury.

(Contributed by Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)

DES MOINES, Iowa [WHO-TV] — Drake University filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court on Monday against Des Moines Area Community College. WHO-TV in Des Moines reports, in the lawsuit Drake claims DMACC’s recent rebrand contains signature elements that have been a part of Drake’s brand identity for decades. DMACC’s rebrand includes a standalone ‘D’ in block-style lettering as part of their new logo, which Drake claims in the lawsuit looks similar to its standalone vintage-style ‘D’ logo that the university has used since at least 1902.

As part of the rebrand DMACC also changed its color scheme from navy blue and red orange to lighter blues and white. The lawsuit claims the new color scheme closely resembles Drake’s color scheme.

According to the lawsuit, officials at Drake contacted officials with DMACC to address concerns over the similarities and attempted to find a resolution. Drake claims in the lawsuit that in March DMACC assured the university that the college would only use the logo where the acronym ‘DMACC’ was under the standalone ‘D’. The lawsuit claims that when that email exchange occurred DMACC had already been selling merchandise with the standalone ‘D’ logo.

The lawsuit also claims that the similarity in the two logos and color schemes adds unnecessary confusion for future students and others. Drake is asking for the Court to deem DMACC’s rebrand an infringement on Drake’s trademarks and for an order directing DMACC to cease using the logo and other aspects of their rebrand that resembles Drake’s. The university is also asking for monetary relief and a jury trial.

DMACC released the following statement about the suit:

We’re disappointed that Drake University has chosen to protest DMACC’s new logo — the DMACC & D. Drake University has been a great partner throughout the years, including strong transfer options for our students. Both names for our outstanding institutions have always started with the letter D — you can’t say DMACC without it, and we both have always had blue as our primary color. Drake University simply does not own the letter D. In fact, multiple universities use the letter D in their branding and many own federal trademark registrations for the same. Our hope is that we can quickly resolve this issue amicably with a minimum of legal expense and move forward with our joint mission of providing students with a high-quality education.