(Atlantic, Iowa) – Representatives with “Steps of Hope,” Iowa, were in Atlantic over the weekend, to install a Naloxone distribution box outside the Atlantic Public Library, on the southwest side. The event took place Saturday. The box with free Naloxone, was made possible by funds donated by the citizens of Cass County and Steps of Hope. Officials say their goal is to have Naloxone boxes placed in Adair, Guthrie, Pottawattamie and Shelby counties. The ultimate goal is to get a box placed in every Iowa county.

Naloxone is a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, targeting the central and respiratory systems. It works by binding to opioid receptors, blocking effects of opioids like heroin and morphine. Commonly administered via injection or nasal spray, naloxone acts quickly, essential in emergencies.

A Naloxone distribution box similar to this, is now located outside of the Atlantic Public Library.

Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition will be supplying doses to the box on a monthly basis. More information on the Naloxone boxes can be found at stepsofhopeiowa.org.

(Radio Iowa) – A Latino author from Iowa City is publishing a book of short stories about a boy who’s coming of age in a blue-collar, predominately white Midwestern town in the late 1960s. Mario Duarte, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, says the main character’s experiences are largely based on his own life, and the book is an effort to show how we’re all simultaneously different — and the same. “There’s just not enough focus on who people are in this country, for example, Mexican-Americans or other groups,” Duarte says. “One of the reasons I wrote this book is so people have an understanding of my people, the generations of who we are. I think the more they understand us, the less there’s going to be hate and prejudice.”

Duarte says his book, “My Father Called Us Monkeys: Growing Up Mexican-American in the Heartland,” is designed to be read by people of all colors and of all ages. “I think of this as a group of stories that’s written for anyone who’s preadolescent to the elderly, because it covers all of the characters in that range,” Duarte says, “but anybody faces the same circumstances of growing up. In its essence, I think the most important part of the book is about the sorrows and the joys of growing up.” In the book, Marco is an inquisitive boy who grapples to understand the adult world, telling his tales of friendships, living with white neighbors, as well as interactions and conflicts with extended family.

“This happens to be a Mexican-American family but it’s true of any family,” Duarte says. “The things you go through, the town you live in, where you live, who you meet as you go along in life, your interactions with your parents, your friends, the impact that has on who you are as a person, the lessons you learn. That’s true of anybody.” Duarte, an academic advisor at the University of Iowa, grew up in western Illinois and has lived in Iowa City for some 30 years. He says just a few years ago, he would have said Americans’ attitudes about immigrants were good, but there’s been a change.

“I don’t think I can say that with any kind of honesty. I think these are challenging times for people who are immigrants and who are perceived as immigrants,” Duarte says. “Even people like my own family might be perceived as just fresh to this country, whereas we have a very long history. I can trace my family history back to 1911 in Iowa.” He hopes the book will be something of an antidote to those misconceptions.

Duarte will be appearing at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines on Sunday. The book is being published by North Liberty-based Ice Cube Press.

(Iowa News Service) – Environmental scientists in Iowa are starting to analyze data they collected with a research balloon during the recent solar eclipse. The mission was part “cool factor,” part high-tech research project. Matthew Nelson, director of the Make to Innovate program at Iowa State University, and a team of seven eclipse chasers trekked to launch their high-tech balloon in Carbondale, Illinois, the only place in the country in the path of the total solar eclipse both this year and in 2017. At an altitude of 95,000 feet, the craft studied the atmospheric effects of the eclipse, but Nelson said there were also less scientific reasons at play.

“One, there’s the cool factor,” Nelson explained. “It’s really kind of an interesting effect and it looks spectacular. I mean, you can see the whole round shadow as it moves across the ground. It’s very much like seeing the eclipse itself. It’s kind of one of those surreal types of things.” Beyond recording video of the shadows, the balloon collected highly technical atmospheric and solar data, which Nelson is starting to study. Video from the balloon, and its flight path, are online.

Iowa State University students inflate a high-altitude balloon and prepare for launch in the Howe Hall parking lot on March 23. The launch will prepare them for a similar experiment during the upcoming solar eclipse. Photo by Fred Love. (ISU Photo)

Nelson noted the balloon was monitoring atmospheric pressure, humidity levels, temperature and solar radiation during the eclipse, things they do not typically have the chance to study. “We can measure some of the solar flares, and stuff like that, when the bulk of the sun is blocked out like that,” Nelson stressed. “It’s a unique opportunity to see what can we learn from these eclipses.”

Once the balloon had done its job and was beginning to return to Earth, it detached from the high-tech gear, ascended well beyond its “cruising altitude” and popped. Nelson was able to collect the gear, which landed safely, thanks to a parachute.

(Anamosa, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol reports a fiery, single-vehicle accident in eastern Jones County has claimed the life of a man from Delaware County, Iowa. 96-year-old Maurice Vincent Hennessey, of Ryan,  died, when the 2000 Ford Focus wagon he was driving was apparently on the wrong side of the road, prior to leaving the road and entering a ditch.

The vehicle then struck a road sign, re-crossed the road and struck a tree on the opposite side before catching fire. The accident happened at around 3:30-p.m., Saturday, on Newport Road in rural Anamosa. The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – A man who was injured when a tornado struck Minden on Friday has died. Officials say about 50 homes in the western Iowa community of Minden were destroyed by Friday’s tornado and dozens more were damaged. First responders found an unconscious man in the aftermath and Pottawattamie County officials confirm he has died of his injuries. The National Weather Service office in metro Des Moines says at least 12 tornadoes touched down in central Iowa Friday. The Weather Service office in Omaha will released its report on Friday’s tornadoes in western Iowa later today (Monday).

Sixteen-year-old Avery Assmann of Minden says her family and four dogs were in the basement when the tornado struck. She says her home is still standing, but others weren’t as fortunate. “There’s a lot of trees down. A lot of people’s houses are down. A lot of people’s siding is gone, but the house isn’t gone. There are two houses that came off their foundation, so, they’re just like in people’s yards,” she said, “but it’s very scary to see the town like that.”

Assman was at the Neola Area Community Center Sunday, where a distribution center has been set up for tornado victims. JoDee Junkman is the center’s director and she says donations are coming from as far away as Des Moines and from Omaha, which took a hit from a tornado, too. “It’s amazing. It just makes you feel good,” she said. “We’ve had some families come in to go through donations, and they’re almost in tears because of everything that’s here that they can use.” Governor Reynolds toured Minden Saturday and said it appears 40 percent of the homes and businesses in the community have been damaged or destroyed.

As of yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, all roads into Minden were still closed to the public and volunteers while crews worked to restore power to the town.

In Union County, the tornado that caused damage in Creston reached speeds of 125 miles an hour. Two other twisters were reported in Union County, west of Afton. A tornado in Ringgold County stayed on the ground for 27 miles, with damage reported in Tingley and Redding. The tornado in Clarke County that caused damage in and around Osceola reached speeds of 135 miles an hour.

The Shelby County Board of Supervisors has declared a state of emergency in their county, where about 60 homes in rural areas were damaged or destroyed. There was significant damage between Harlan and the small community of Portsmouth. The Shelby County Golf Course north of Harlan was significantly damaged. Late Friday night a tornado hit Pleasant Hill, a suburb on the eastern side of the Des Moines metro.

(By: Clark Kauffman, Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Last year, the federal government imposed 244 fines totaling $5.7 million against Iowa nursing homes, but it won’t say which of those fines remains unpaid.

Federal data show that just five of Iowa’s 422 care facilities accounted for more than $1 million in regulatory fines imposed in fiscal year 2023. Three of those homes – Lantern Park Specialty Care of Coralville, Arbor Court of Mount Pleasant, and Genesis Senior Living of Des Moines – each were fined more than $200,000.

The fines represent penalties imposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and typically stem from quality-of-care violations reported by state inspectors. Although CMS publicly reports the fines imposed against all Medicare-certified nursing facilities, the agency does not disclose whether such fines have actually been paid.

In response to a recent Iowa Capital Dispatch inquiry about the payment status of 28 fines CMS imposed this year against two Iowa nursing homes, an agency spokesperson declined to provide the information and explained that “CMS does not publish the status of any nursing home payments for imposed fines.” No reason was given for the refusal.

“There is so much secrecy surrounding this whole regulatory process,” said Toby Edelman, senior policy attorney for the Center for Medicare Advocacy. “This is public information. Who are they hiding this information from? Who are they protecting by not saying which fines aren’t paid? The public has a right to know what is going on.”

According to the CMS data, the Iowa nursing homes that in fiscal year 2023 compiled the highest level of federal fines were:

• Lantern Park Specialty Care, Coralville
• Arbor Court, Mount Pleasant
• Genesis Senior Living, Des Moines
• Pine Acres Rehabilitation and Care Center, West Moines
• Cedar Falls Health Care Center, Cedar Falls
• Aspire of Gowrie, Gowrie

Other Iowa facilities that were fined more than $100,000 in 2023 were Garden View Care Center in  Shenandoah, which was fined $163,034; Crown Pointe Estates in Sioux Center, which was fined $161,905; Ivy at Davenport in Scott County, which was fined $111,039; Maple Crest Manor in Fayette, which was fined $107,7468; and Heritage Specialty Care in Cedar Rapids, which was fined $105,645.

Two of the Iowa care facilities that racked up the highest number of federal penalties in the current fiscal year, without regard to the total dollar amounts, are Valley View Community and Lakeside Lutheran Home. So far this year, each of the homes has been fined $97,073 for 14 violations — all of which are tied to a failure to submit weekly COVID-19 data reports to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data reported by CMS makes it difficult to identify the Iowa nursing home chains that have the worst record of compliance with regulations. Facilities that are clearly part of a multifacility chain, operating under common ownership, are incorrectly reported as having no affiliation with any chains.

For example, two of the most heavily fined care facilities in Iowa, Lantern Park Specialty Care and Heritage Specialty Care, are part of a 44-facility chain run by Care Initiatives of West Des Moines. CMS. However, reports state that neither facility has any affiliation with a nursing home chain.

In June 2021, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported that CMS was only informing the public of the fines it had imposed against care facilities if and when the owners chose to pay those fines. Unpaid fines were not being reported at all by CMS.

That policy led to situations such as the Dubuque Specialty Care nursing home being fined $84,825, with CMS reporting to the public several months later that no fines had been imposed. At the time, an agency spokesman said that because the facility had not paid anything toward the fine, CMS policy was to report to the public that no fine had been imposed.

By the end of the year, CMS had reversed that policy and was reporting fines within 90 days of when they were incurred, rather than when they were paid. However, the agency also stopped disclosing whether the fines were paid, stating only that “this information is not generally publicly available.”