(Radio Iowa) – Polk County Auditor Jamie Fitzgerald has ruled on the Iowa Senate Majority Leader’s residency following a challenge. Grimes resident Ann Gale filed the challenge to Republican Jack Whitver’s use of a Grimes address for a newly-drawn Senate district in the November election. He won the race and she argued that Whitver still lists his Ankeny address for his businesses and utility bills for his Grimes condo showed little water was used there this fall.

Fitzgerald says the evidence submitted before Whitver’s September 2022 move to Grimes is insufficient to overcome the presumption that Whitver’s declared residency is valid. Whitver’s spokesman issued a statement saying, “Senator Whitver appreciates his decision to set partisanship aside and follow the law. Now, two different Democrat-controlled hearings have determined Senator Whitver’s residency and voter registration are legal.”

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says three people were arrested last week, on separate charges. At around 3:42-a.m., Friday, 28-year-old Jonathan Joseph Fleener, of Bacliff-Galveston, TX, was arrested at a location on Hanna Avenue, and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault. Fleener was being held without bond in the Mills County Jail.

34-year-old Aaron Wade Opdyke, of Malvern, was arrested at around 11:39-a.m. Nov. 30th on charges that include Driving Under Suspension, Fraudulent Use of Registration, and Failure to Provide Proof of Liability. His bond was set at $300.

And, at around 1:55-a.m. on Nov. 29th, Mills County Deputies arrested 41-year-old Eurvin Ray Morgan, Jr., of Omaha, for Theft in the 2nd Degree. He was taken into custody at the I-29 Rest Area.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – A collision north of Malvern, Friday night, resulted in three people being transported to the UNMC in Omaha. According to the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, a 2005 Nissan driven by 45-year-old Joseph Bredberg, of Council Bluffs, was traveling north on 315th Street and approaching the intersection with Highway 34, to turn west onto the Highway. A 2004 Dodge driven by 52-year-old Melissa Pedersen, of Council Bluffs, was traveling east on Highway 34, and approaching the intersection with 315th Street.

A witness in a vehicle stopped facing west on Highway 34 in the turning lane, was waiting to turn south onto 315th Street, and the intersection with Highway 34. The individual said the Bredberg’s vehicle failed to yield upon making a left turn, and was struck broadside by Pedersen’s Dodge. Due to incapacitating injuries, both drivers and a passenger in the front seat of the Dodge, were not able to be interviewed by authorities for this report.

(Washington, D.C.) – The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) today announced the resolution of a racial harassment complaint filed against Ottumwa Community School District in Iowa.   

OCR determined that during the course of school years 2020-21 and 2021-22 district students subjected a Black middle school student to racial harassment so pervasive that it constituted a racially hostile environment and that the district failed to take necessary steps to protect the student, in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations. 

The harassment included repeated use of racial slurs including calling the student the N-word and a “slave” to white students as well as calling the student “blackie” and “cotton-picker,” targeting the student with monkey noises in class and students raising their fists to mock Black Power during class, a white student using the term KKK and then referring to it as the “Kool Kids Klub,”  and telling racially derogatory jokes about, for example, killing a Black man and not being able to see Black people at midnight.  

In one instance, a white classmate knelt on a Gatorade bottle in the student’s presence and said, “It can’t breathe,” to mimic George Floyd’s death. The harassment the student experienced and the district’s failure to provide the student with a safe school environment caused him to suffer significant and enduring emotional harm.    

OCR also found that even though the district had notice of possible ongoing harassment, the district disregarded its obligations to investigate whether its response to the reported harassment was effective in eliminating the hostile environment, whether it addressed the cumulative effect of the incidents on the harassed student, and addressed the impact the verified wide-spread conduct may have had on other students. 

In so doing, the district did not take effective school-wide measures to address and remedy the racially hostile environment, which continued to exist at the school.  

The resolution agreement commits the district to take steps to ensure nondiscrimination based on race, color, or national origin (including based on shared ancestry and ethnic characteristics) in all of its education programs and activities.  

“Federal civil rights law has for decades promised that no student should experience the racially hostile environment that the young person in this investigation endured,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Catherine E. Lhamon. “I thank Ottumwa Community School District for committing today to take the steps necessary to ensure that in future it will respond appropriately to reports of racial harassment so every student in the district’s schools will experience the nondiscriminatory learning environment that federal law guarantees.”  

The district’s commitments in the voluntary resolution agreement include:  

• Reimbursing the student’s parent for documented expenses incurred related to past and future therapeutic services resulting from the racially hostile environment. 
• Publishing an anti-harassment statement stating that the district does not tolerate acts of harassment, including acts of harassment based on a student’s race, color, or national origin.  
• Reviewing and revising its policies and procedures to address Title VI’s prohibition of harassment based on race, color, or national origin. 
• Providing training to district staff regarding the district’s obligation to respond to complaints of harassment based on race, color, or national origin. 
• Providing age-appropriate information programs for students to address harassment based on race, color, or national origin. And, 
• Conducting a climate survey to assess the prevalence of harassment in the student’s former school and provide suggestions for effective ways to address harassment. 

The letter to Ottumwa Community School District is available here and the resolution agreement is available here.

(Malvern, Iowa) – One person died Monday (Today), as the result of a single-vehicle accident southeast of Malvern, in Mills County. According to the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, Deputies were dispatched at around 12:01-p.m. to the crash near the intersection of Mulloney Ave and 330^th st.

Upon arrival, Deputies found a silver Toyota Rav4 had left the roadway and struck a tree in the north ditch. An investigation of the scene concluded the vehicle had partially gone off the roadway while traversing the curve. The driver tried to correct the vehicle back onto the roadway, in doing so, lost control of the vehicle, causing the collision with a tree.

The driver and sole occupant, Brooke Samms, of Malvern, died at the scene. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office was assisted on scene by Malvern Fire and Rescue, Hastings Fire, Silver City Fire and Rescue, Oak Township fire and Rescue and Glenwood Rescue.