DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines Orthopaedic Surgeons, known as DMOS, recently informed patients of a possible data breach involving their personal information. In the letters, DMOS said it notified the FBI of the potential breach and discovered the unauthorized removal of patient files in December.

The letter said “We recently experienced a security incident on or around February 17, 2023, when an unauthorized actor was able to access and remove certain DMOS files from certain systems within our network due to a DMOS vendor failure.” The discovery led to patients being notified in the January, 2024.

The breach included personal information including full names, addresses, birth dates, information off drivers licenses and state IDs as well as medical and health insurance information. In the letter, DMOS told recipients what they can do to protect their personal information — like placing fraud alerts and/or security freezes on their credit files. Affected individuals can also obtain a free credit report.

The President and CEO of DMOS said in the letter, “Please accept our apologies that this incident occurred,” and that since then incident was discovered, they have changed their technology vendors, upgraded security on all servers and workstations with outside monitoring, and implemented Multi Factor Authentication for network access.”

As of the letters’ release, DMOS said there is no evidence that any information has been used for fraud or identity theft.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds is urging legislators to advance her plan to overhaul the state’s Area Education Agencies. “To stick our head in the sand and say: ‘Everything is perfect. I don’t want to change anything! We need more time.’ That’s ridiculous. Businesses have to do this every day to survive. We need to start operating government in that manner because ultimately that is how the kids are going to get a quality education.”

Reynolds says test scores show students with disabilities aren’t being served well by the A-E-As. The governor spoke with reporters just before hour-long hearings yesterday (Wednesday) in the Iowa House and Senate on her bill. Key House Republicans say there’s still a need for more discussions before the bill is ready for a committee vote. The bill did clear a SENATE subcommittee, but Republican Senator Ken Rozenboom of Oskaloosa says legislators need to find answers to questions that have been raised. “I’m not going to dissect the bill today. We’ve had discussions about it. We’ve heard pros and cons,” Rozenboom says. “There are conceptual fundamental pieces of this that we need to address…and then we have to wrestle with the rollout and a timeline that, again, serves our children well.”

Okoboji Superintendent Todd Abrahamson says he supports giving school districts the federal, state and property tax money that’s currently being forwarded to the A-E-As, so his district can hire its own staff. “Change is good,” Abrahamson says. “We’ve already started to look at what we would do with the dollars — a special ed director, a speech therapist, a behavior psychologist so we could meet the needs every day in our district because those needs are not being met currently.”

Senate subcommittee hearing on governor’s AEA overhaul on Jan. 31, 2024.

Council Bluffs Superintendent Vicki Murrilo says the governor’s plan will transform an outdated system.”For the past seven years I have watched millions of flow through dollars from our district go directly to the AEA’s without having a voice for how those dollars will be used to support the needs of our district,” Murillo said. Waukee Superintendent Brad Buck, the former director of the Iowa Department of Education, says the bill will create winners and losers. “It’s far more likely that larger districts will come out in better shape in this bill than smaller and especially rural districts,” Buck said.

Dan Daughton, a former principal and superintendent, is a lobbyist for the School Administrators of Iowa and Rural School Advocates of Iowa — groups that oppose the bill. “Right now districts are sharing school social workers with AEA’s in order to provide mental health services for their children,” Daughton says. “That will go away with this bill as it is prohibited…Rural schools will be impacted, I think, more so than others….We couldn’t find mental health workers before we had this sharing agreement.”

Others who testified urged lawmakers to hit the pause button. Deb Davis, a member of the Johnston School Board, says if the bill is rushed through, there could be unintended consequences. “I recommend taking the time needed to do an audit and study on the AEA’s and invite superintendents and school districts to be a part of this process as this bill is formulated and tweaked,” Davis said.

Suzanne Costello of Kellogg is the parent of a child with learning disabilities including dyslexia who she says has been helped by the local A-E-A. She doubts small schools will be able to hire professional staff.  “You’re going to take the person with the most special needs and you’re going to put them with somebody with a high school diploma who has very little education and skill sets and that’s what my kid’s going to get?” Costello said. “No way!”

Representatives of Iowans for Tax Relief, Americans for Prosperity and the Iowa Manufactured Housing Association urged legislators to ratify the governor’s changes, which would reduce property taxes by 33 million dollars.

(Radio Iowa) – All three members of a House panel have voted against a bill that would have removed protections for gender identity from Iowa’s Civil Rights Act. Republican Representative John Wills of Spirit Lake says he has problems with the law in general, but he voted to block the bill from advancing.

“All people are created equal. The way I look at the civil rights code right now, it actually gives extra rights to people,” Wills said. “With that said, I don’t think that this bill is the right way to move this forward.” Hundreds of people came to the statehouse to oppose the bill, and chanted “trans rights are human rights” outside the committee room.

Critics of the bill said it would have lead to transgender Iowans being denied housing or service at restaurants. Jocelyn Krueger of Poweshiek County told lawmakers about living in Indiana and being denied service at a grocery store. “I regularly faced discrimination because of my gender identity,” Krueger said, “and I was told that I was hated and that people could get away with it because gender identity was not a protected class.”

Crowded meeting room for subcommittee hearing on Jan. 31, 2024. (RI photo)

Iowa’s Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination in employment, wages, bank loans, housing and education that’s based on a person’s race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, religion, ancestry, disability or gender identity.

Representative Jeff Shipley, the bill’s sponsor, says the conversation about removing gender identity from that list will continue despite the bill’s defeat. Shipley’s bill would have declared gender dysphoria a disability under Iowa law.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – A man who was riding a bicycle near Guthrie Center and was struck by a pickup truck Wednesday evening, has died from his injuries. The Iowa State Patrol was called to assist the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office with an investigation into the accident at around 5:38-p.m., in Guthrie Center.

Authorities say a 2013 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 83-year-old Francis Junior Flanery, of Panora, was westbound on Highway 44 just east of Bluff Street. A bicycle towing a bicycle buggy, and being ridden by 69-year-old Wayne Wesley Hayes, of Guthrie Center, was also westbound on Highway 44, when it was struck by the pickup truck.

Hayes was transported by Panora EMS to the Guthrie County Hospital, where he died from his injuries. Flanery was not injured in the collision. The accident remains under investigation.

(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – January was a bit of a slower month for processing inmates at the Guthrie County jail. Deputy Sheriff Jesse Swensen, in his monthly report issued today (Wednesday), said “The weather was partially to blame. We processed 65 inmates during the month.

“We held 33 out of county inmates for different periods of time. We brought in $22,250 from holding out of county inmates. With the 14 inmates we received from Polk County yesterday, February’s revenue should be significantly higher.”

You can view pdf reports on the jail stats, below:

January Average Population

January Monthly Summary

January Billing

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congressman Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull says the time for the U.S. to respond to the drone attack that left three American soldiers dead in Jordan is now.

“Well, first of all, it’s a tragedy when we lose three military personnel. That should never happen. And we have to hold Iran accountable. We know Iran, Iran is behind this,” Feenstra says. “Obviously, we have to make sure Iran’s oil is cut off. You know, we also have to make sure that we stop Iran from using drones and coming after us. I mean, we have to make this punitive and they have to know that they don’t mess with America.”

Randy Feenstra

The House is set to vote on the impeachment resolution for Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Feenstra says thousands of illegals are crossing the U-S boarder every day because the Secretary is not doing his job. “I will be voting yes to impeach Mayorkas. I think this is one time where a cabinet member has not done their job and is creating just a terrible situation in the United States it’s a complete dereliction of duty,” Feenstra says.

Mayorkas would be the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.

(Radio Iowa) – A deer in Sioux City somehow got its antlers stuck in hammock tied between two trees behind a house. Police and animal control were called to try and untangle the creature’s antlers from the mesh as it was hopelessly stuck.

Officer Mike Koehler says when he arrived, he saw the deer had minor injuries. “The buck was about an eight-point buck, it was a mature deer and it was a pretty strong animal,” Koehler says. “The big thing was, when I approached with my trainee, I told him to be careful because the deer has antlers that can be used as weapons and also the hooves are very dangerous and he’s full of adrenaline and he’s going to be scared.”

Koehler came up with a plan to set it free by cutting the ropes with his knife. With the deer thrashing around, they couldn’t get too close, but managed to eventually trim off most of the mesh and set it loose.

Sioux City Police had to cut a deer free from a backyard hammock. (SCPD photo)

“The buck was free,” Koehler says. “It was able to run off. I’m sure it was tired. I’m sure it was scared. It did have a big tangle of netting from the hammock in its antlers, but we’re thinking those are gonna fall off here when the bucks shed their antlers here in late January and early February, so hopefully he made it.”

Officer Cade Gill also responded to the call to help the struggling animal. “It’s definitely one of the most unusual ones for me that I’ve ever responded to, particularly when it concerns an animal like a deer,” Gill says. “It was pretty exciting. It felt good after the fact, knowing that we had gotten there and were able to rescue that deer.”

(Radio Iowa) – A special investigation by the State Auditor finds problems with the handling of funds by the former city clerk of Steamboat Rock.

The investigation found more than $30,000 of undeposited, uncollected, or unbilled utility fees, $5,000 in improper disbursements, and nearly $8,000 in unsupported disbursements. The auditor found a majority of the improper disbursements by former clerk Renee Oltrogge. were personal charges on the city credit card.

It says a number of documents Oltrogge submitted as support for purchases she made with the city’s credit card were altered. The audit report also says records were not sufficiently maintained and it is not possible to determine if there were other improperly disbursed funds.

The investigation report has been turned over to Hardin County Sheriff and County Attorney along with the D-C-I and state Attorney General.

(Creston, Iowa) – No injuries were reported following a minor accident this (Wednesday) morning, in Creston. According to Creston Police, a pickup driven by 78-year-old Douglas W. Minnick, of Creston, was traveling east on Lucas Street at around 8-a.m.  Due to sun glare, Minnick failed to notice a legally parked 2014 Jeep Cherokee.

His pickup hit the SUV on the left rear side, causing $2,000 damage to the Jeep, and $1,500 damage to the pickup. No citations were issued.

Atlantic, IA – Cass Health’s next session of Healthy U will feature Kasey Meneely, DPT discussing LSVT BIG (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment, a program aimed at an increase of movement amplitudes in persons with Parkinson’s Disease). The session will be held Thursday, February 15th at noon in Conference Room 2.

LSVT BIG is an intense one-on-one training program for people with Parkinson’s disease or other neurological conditions, with an emphasis on the quality and largeness of movement. LSVT BIG helps improve a patient’s physical abilities, and therapy sessions focus on a specific routine of daily BIG exercises, walking with BIG movements, and incorporating these techniques into patient identified, difficult daily tasks to promote more confidence with balance and movement. As an LSVT BIG certified clinician, Meneely works with many patients who live with Parkinson’s disease and other neurological conditions that impact how confident they feel with movement during everyday tasks.

Kasey Meneely, DPT

Meneely graduated from Creighton University in 2016 with her Doctorate in Physical Therapy. She offers a full spectrum of care within physical therapy, but has special interest in neurological disorders, pelvic floor and pre/post-natal health, and acute inpatients. Kasey is licensed and board certified by the Iowa Board of Physical & Occupational Therapy and is a member of the Iowa Physical Therapy Association and the America Physical Therapy Association.

Space is limited! A free boxed lunch is provided for all attendees, so reservations are required. Call 712-243-7479 to reserve your seat. For more information about Healthy U, visit casshealth.org/healthyu.