(Atlantic) – Crossroads of Western Iowa has taken on the new moniker of Trivium Life Services. Officials with Crossroads said Thursday (Today), “When Crossroads of Western Iowa was founded in 1975, they served just eight individuals with disabilities. Having now expanded into nine counties across two states, with further expansions on the horizon, it became apparent they needed a new, unifying name. As Trivium Life Services, the organization has adopted the mission of “Creating Hope. Empowering Lives. Inspiring Communities.”

CEO Brent Dillinger says “The new name and mission statement more fully encompass our vision for the future while honoring our history.” Trivium, which previously focused only on disability services, expanded into behavioral health and substance use disorder services in 2019. Across all service lines, Trivium serves more than 2,500 clients each year and employs approximately 400 individuals.

With this change, Dillinger says “We would like to stress that there will be no disruption to services and our clients will receive the same quality care from the same devoted staff. The clients are at the heart of everything we do and to offer them the highest quality of services, we must continue to evolve” Dillinger said also, “I see this change as a way to offer a wider variety of services on a national stage. As the organization continues to grow, we will have greater resources and more opportunities for our employees to grow with us. I am looking forward to all we will accomplish as Trivium.”

Iowa House District 21 Representative Tom Moore, Thursday, issued his weekly legislative update, “On the issues.” Moore, a Republican from Griswold, said in his report, “On Wednesday night the House passed SF 342, voting 63-30, to support Iowa Law Enforcement. This is a comprehensive bill, and some of the provisions are detailed below…”

·     Allows peace officers and their families to join the safe at home program, which keeps their name and address private.

·     Clarifies that shining a laser in another person’s eyes is assault.

·     Increases penalties for harassing peace officers, blocking roadways, disorderly conduct, and damaging property.

·     Protects state employees from civil lawsuits when they are acting within the law.

·     Protects drivers from civil lawsuits if they are exercising due care and injure someone blocking the road.

·     Makes changes to disability benefits to ensure better medical care and services to peace officers.

·     Allows peace officers to use accrued sick leave to pay for health insurance after retirement.

·     Requires that local governments allow law enforcement to enforce Iowa laws.

·     Increases penalties for rioting.

·     Clarifies that payments for medical care and vacation cannot be counted against a disability pension.”

Bills of Note

SF 546– Private Instruction Drivers Education: 2011 saw the adoption of private instruction monitored by the DOT for homeschool children. This bill clarifies that private instruction as defined by code, by any parent or guardian, qualifies as “competent private instruction.” It also changes certain provisions of parental drivers education to best utilize time within the course, maintain rigorous standards, make parentally supervised drive time equitable, and allow both parents to teach their child. On Monday, this bill passed the House 59-33. It still needs to pass the Iowa Senate.

HF 857– Butchery Fund: This bill creates a butchery fund within the Iowa Economic Development Authority. This will provide funding for new butchery businesses and meat lockers, existing facilities wishing to expand or upgrade, and a task force will be established to explore adding butchery programs to our community colleges and universities. We hope this will spur economic development in the butchery field, as Iowa needs more available lockers and butchers. Tuesday, this bill passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

HF 855– Adoptee Birth Certificates: This bill allows adoptees to obtain a copy of their birth certificates, and it allows biological parents to decide how much information should be provided to the adoptee. I ran this bill a couple years ago but did not have the support. After the change in the makeup of the House; it passed the House with a vote of 91-0.

Economic Development Budget

Representative Moore said also, “This week the Appropriations Committee passed the Economic Development Budget. This budget is subject to change during further negotiation with the Senate, but it now contains the following…”

·     A total of $78 million for Iowa’s economic development

·     $3 million for the Iowa Child Care Challenge Fund

·     $1.2 million for regional tourism and marketing

·     $750,000 for local meat processing businesses

·     $1.8 million for the Jobs Training Program

Moore on this Week: ” We spent much of this week debating bills and preparing to debate bills. The budget committees have also been meeting, trying to hammer out our yearly budget. It is a long process, since we have to deliberate within our chamber on the ideal budget numbers, and then negotiate with the Senate over the final budget.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health’s Coronavirus dashboard, as of 10-a.m., Thursday, indicated that for the fourth day in a row, there were no additional deaths from COVID-19 to report. The pandemic total stands at 5,857. Long-Term Care facility deaths account for 2,296 of the total number of deaths across the state. That is also unchanged.

There were 603 additional positive test results for COVID-19 returned from the labs, for a total of 387,805. There remain three Long-Term Care facility outbreaks, with 31 positive cases among residents and staff within those facilities.

Health officials say COVID-related hospitalizations are down slightly, to 215, and there are 49 COVID patients in an ICU, eight less than on Wednesday. The IDPH says 37 people were admitted to a hospital across the state, which is a decline of nine from Wednesday, and 19 patients are on a ventilator, compared to 14 in the previous report.

RMCC Region 4 hospitals (those in western/southwest Iowa) show: There are 21 hospitalized with COVID; 10 COVID patients are in an ICU; four people were admitted with symptoms of COVID (2 more than previously reported), and there remain two COVID patients on a ventilator.

The 14-day positivity rate is 4.7%. The seven-day rate is 4.6%.

In the KJAN listening area, here are the current number positive cases by County; The # of new cases since yesterday {+} – if any; and the total number of deaths in each county to date:

• Cass, 1,422 cases; {+1}; 54 deaths
• Adair, 962; {+1}; 32
• Adams, 338 {+3}; 4
• Audubon, 513 {+2}; 9
• Guthrie, 1,257 {+4}; 28
• Harrison County, 1,881; {+1}; 73
• Madison County, 1,669; {+1; 19
• Mills County, 1,745; {+1}; 20
• Montgomery, 1,079 {+0}; 37
• Pottawattamie County, 11,756; {+33}; 160
• Shelby County, 1,328 {+2}; 37
• Union County,  1,322; {+1}; 32

(Radio Iowa) – The Department of Natural Resources is investigating two manure spills in northern Iowa that have killed fish and the spill of a food product that’s described as a pollutant once it reaches a stream. D-N-R staff estimate several hundred thousand gallons of liquid manure from the Rock Bottom Dairy spilled into Mud Creek northwest of Rock Rapids in Lyon County. The manure laden-water is moving slowly downstream, according to the D-N-R, and the agency is warning farmers in the area who use the creek to water their livestock that conditions may not improve for the next few days. The D-N-R also is investigating a manure spill in Kossuth County, near West Bend. It was caused when a hose used by company that applies liquid manure on land came loose, flopped into Lotts Creek, and spilled about 10-thousand gallons of manure. Investigators say it’s impractical to pump the manure back out of the creek. The manure is flowing toward the East Fork of the Des Moines River, but according to the D-N-R it is not expected to impact drinking water supplies.

State officials have ordered a McDonald’s distribution center in Mason City to remove milk-colored water from a stream that’s near a popular biking and hiking trail in Mason City. Employees of the company told investigators a milk shake ingredient had spilled and they used hoses to direct it into a storm water intake on Monday morning. The D-N-R says the milky water isn’t likely to pose a danger to humans or pets who come into contact with it.

The 8:06-a.m. newscast, w/Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – It was a happy homecoming for 90 soldiers from the Iowa National Guard’s 113th Cavalry – Troop C from Le Mars. Hundreds of people lined the route waving flags, displaying posters, and cheering as the soldiers returned home Wednesday from a 10-month deployment to Africa. Barbara Grady of Granville was there to see her son, Specialist David Grady. “I am so delighted and God is so good — and it turned out to be a beautiful day,” Grady says. Grady says she tried to ease any homesickness by corresponding with her son on a regular basis. “We kept him in touch with the family and hopefully made him feel at home even though he was not at home,” she says. She says there were a lot of letters and texts and messages online throughout the deployment.

Specialist David Grady says it is good to be back home — but added his time at Africa for the National Guard mission was time well spent. “It was a lot of fun. Really helped out a lot, we interacted with the locals lot and helped them out when we could and protected our little FOB (forward operating base) there in Somalia,” he says. Grady says he has been looking forward to the trip back home for about three months. He says the soldiers had a general idea as to when their mission would be completed, but it was only recently that they learned the specific date for returning home. After months of military food — he is looking forward to something different. “Probably eat a big nice juicy hamburger I think — and spend time with my family,” Grady says.

Specialist Grady says the guard unit will be off for a couple of months, then it will be back to their regular training schedule once a month.

Officials with the Creston Police Department say a man residing in the 500 block of Livingston Avenue, in Creston, reported Wednesday morning, that his Orange 2013 Harley Davidson Heritage Soft Tail was missing from his front patio. The loss was estimated at $13,000.

2013 HD Heritage Soft Tail (File photo. Not the actual cycle stolen)

Our 7:07-a.m. Newscast, w/Ric Hanson.

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(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has passed a wide ranging bill that would escalate penalties for protests that damage property and provide police with new liability from lawsuits. Fifty-five Republicans and eight Democrats voted for the package. Republican Representative Jarad Klein of Keota says the bill is a response to protests that created unsafe situations in Iowa and other parts of the country over the past year. “We know our law enforcement officers are some of the bravest men and women in our state,” Klein said. “They sign up to risk their lives to keep us safe. It is our job as Iowa legislators to minimize that risk as much as possible.”

Two Republicans and 28 Democrats opposed the bill, which does not include the anti-racial profiling proposal from Republican Governor Kim Reynolds. Representative Ako Abdul-Samad, a Democrat from Des Moines, suggests the bill is tone deaf to what is fueling racial justice protests. “When are we going to start talking instead of just putting bills out there? And I do support police officers,” Abdul-Samad said, “…but I also support the communities that are in pain and have suffered.”

Representative Mary Wolfe, a Democrat from Clinton, says the bill makes damage of any publicly-owned property a felony and jumps up the penalties for protests that blocking sidewalks or yelling rude and annoying things at police. “I can’t vote yes on a bill that targets a specific population of Iowans and in my opinion for no other reason than to teach them a lesson, send them a message,” Wolfe said, “which is basically sit down and shut up.”

Klein says his constituents were pretty unhappy graffiti was painted on the Children’s Hospital in Iowa City during protests last June. “Protests are fine. Protests are great as long as they’re peaceful,” Klein says. “But when they start going down destructive paths and they start assaulting and going after people and spitting on law enforcement and going after them the way I’ve seen, that is now a violent protest.”

Several other proposals were folded into the bill. It would make it a crime to use a lazer to try to blind police. Police, prosecutors and judges could enter a program that makes their home addresses confidential if the bill becomes law. The Senate has approved parts of the bill already, but must review and pass the entire package before it would go to the governor.

(Radio Iowa) – Senate Republicans are proposing a more than six million dollar increase in next year’s budget for the Iowa Department of Corrections, but that is 14 million dollars below the recommendation from Republicans in the House. Danny Homan, president of the union that represents employees in the state prison system, says the prisons are grossly understaffed and the brutal murders of two Anamosa prison employees are a direct result.

“Years of inadequate funding…have left staff in all of our facilities to work in extremely dangerous institutions,” Homan said. “…It’s time to fix this problem…How many more people have to die before we’re going to take this seriously?” During a subcommittee hearing on the prison system’s budget, Homan told senators there was only one serious assault on a prison employee a dozen years ago, but last year there were 13.

“There are not many folks inside these institutions that feel today after what happened on March 23, all right?” Homan said. “You guys may wish to ignore this reality, but you know who isn’t ignoring the reality? Inmates inside our systems…And don’t blame me for bringing this to your attention. The inmates have nothing better to do every day than sit and count how many officers are at work.”

Homan says six million dollars is a start, but it cannot be the end after what happened at the Anamosa prison three weeks ago. He asked senators to provide the funding for an independent investigation of the killings of correctional officer Robert McFarland and nurse Lorena Schulte and to buy a new radio communications system for the prison. “Some of the worst of the worst are at Anamosa,” Homan said. “…Our belief is enough is enough. We would like to see a budget passed to ensure what happened at Anamosa never happens again.”

Senator Julian Garrett, a Republican from Indianola, describes the six-point-three MILLION dollar increase in the prison system’s budget as an opening offer from Senate Republicans.  “I do want to say that we certainly appreciate the work of all the people who are working in our corrections system,” Garrett said. “…Our thoughts and prayers certainly go out to the families of the two individuals that lost their lives in Anamosa.”

In addition to the criminal investigation of the murders, there are two other reviews of the incident. Garrett says there’s it’s too soon to say more staff would have prevented the attacks. “Before we jump to conclusions, we should at least hear the results of those investigations,” Garrett says. Garrett says six-point-three million dollars is a substantial increase, but he understands many would like more than that — and there may be more when the final budget decisions are made.