• On April 2nd, Dale Allen Wehr was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant. Wehr was transported to the Shelby County Jail.
• On April 1st, 35-year-old Brendan Lee Farris, of Nemaha, IA, was arrested following a traffic stop. Farris was charged with prohibited acts penalties, possession of controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia;  59-year-old Leonard Charles Pauley, of Harlan, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia; And, 36-year-old Danielle Michelle Fuhs, of Earling, was arrested for operating while intoxicated and violating a one-way traffic designation.
• On March 31st, 41-year-old Terry Michael Fields, of Harlan, was arrested for child endangerment.
• On March 28th, 18-year-old Alexander Lee Anastasi, of Defiance, was arrested following a traffic stop. Anastasi was  charged with operating while intoxicated, minor in possession of alcohol, and careless driving.
• On March 28th, 22-year-old Justin Michael Couch, of Harlan, was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and supplying alcohol to a person under the legal age.
• And, on March 27th, 23-year-old Anton Jason Ahlhelm, of Harlan, was cited for driving while suspended.

(Des Moines – KCCI) State Police in Iowa drew their weapons and used force against suspects significantly more often in 2020 than prior years, due to a major increase in resistance. That’s according to an internal annual report conducted by the Iowa Department of Public Safety. The data comes from detailed reports that officers must complete whenever they use force, regardless of whether injuries result.

The report on force incidents found that suspects fled in vehicles and on foot from officers far more often in 2020. It found that officers responded by drawing their handguns, shotguns and rifles 269 times in 2020, an 83% percent increase from the prior year.

Officers also took or ordered suspects to the ground in dozens of more cases compared to 2019. While rare, officers also fired their weapons, deployed chemical spray, shot nonlethal munitions such as rubber bullets, intentionally struck vehicles and used stun guns more often in 2020 than 2019, the report found.

Officers discharged their weapons in two cases in 2020 compared with none in 2019, killing one person, an armed Black man who had allegedly threatened to shoot a female hostage in Webster City. He was the only person killed in any of the incidents, while at least three dozen other suspects suffered visible injuries. Twenty injuries to officers resulted in at least some medical treatment, while many others were categorized as minor.

The 22-page report did not seek to explain what was causing more suspects to resist officers and did not mention either the pandemic or the nationwide protests against racial injustice and police brutality. The increase in force cases began in January 2020 and continued most of the year across the state, decreasing only in April compared with 2019, according to the data.

The report said all sworn officers will complete training courses on those subjects, and that de-escalation will be incorporated into required defensive tactics training.

(Radio Iowa) – COVID-19 vaccine appointments are now open to all Iowans ages 16 and up, but as demand still far outpaces supply, it’s led some Iowans to make multiple appointments as they search for one closer to home. Kate Gainer, C-E-O of the Iowa Pharmacy Association, says when people don’t cancel unwanted appointments, it can lead to wasted doses.

“It does create some workflow concerns. It creates concern over waste and having doses that have a very short window of time when they can be used,” Gainer says. “Those no-show appointments if not canceled, are difficult to get rescheduled.” When people schedule an appointment for a first dose at a pharmacy far from their home, they’ll shop around for a second dose nearby, but Gainer says this causes supply issues for pharmacies.

“Pharmacies receive their allocations of the vaccine for second doses based on how many first doses they get,” Gainer says. “Every dose is reported and those shipments are based on how many given doses are reported.” Gainer says Iowans should try to go to the same location for both of their vaccine doses, and they should cancel any appointments they will not use to ensure doses are not wasted.

(By Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – House Republicans are proposing a 20 million dollar increase in the budget for the Iowa Department of Corrections. The president of the union that represents prison employees says it’s not enough. Representative Gary Worthan of Storm Lake leads the subcommittee that developed the House G-O-P plan. “We support those people that are guarding our institutions and taking of the offenders and standing that if you want to call it a thin blue line or a thin brown line that stands between us and anarchy,” Worthan says.

Republicans are not directly citing the recent escape attempt and murders of two staff at the state prison in Anamosa as the reason for the proposed spending increase. Worthan says it’s the culmination of a decade of examination of the budget for the Department of Corrections and other agencies in the justice system, like the Department of Public Safety. “We’re trying to bulk them back up, improve staff numbers and so on there,” Worthan says.

AFSCME Council 61 president Danny Homan says the extra money merely covers negotiated salary increases over the past couple of years and doesn’t fill nearly 250 vacant positions in the prison system. “Republicans, it’s time to step up to the plate,” Homan says. “It’s time to fund your facilities in this state. It’s time to make it so that people feel safe.”  Homan is calling for reopening a training program for prison staff and for an independent investigation of the murders at Anamosa. He’s also calling for the warden at the Anamosa prison to be fired.

Atlantic, IA — Cass County Health System officials and staff welcomed Amy Petersen, ARNP to the AMC Rapid Care team, this winter. She is board-certified through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, and she will work in both AMC Rapid Care and the CCHS Emergency Department. Petersen began her career as a nurse more than 25 years ago, and now works as a nurse practitioner in AMC Rapid Care, a walk-in clinic that’s open seven days a week.

Amy Petersen (Photo submitted by CCHS)

“I started in northern Iowa, and I’ve worked in about every unit a hospital can have. I was at Creighton for 14 years, and in during the last 10 years, I’ve worked in the emergency department,” she said. While working, Petersen continued her education in nursing. She graduated in October 2020 from Simmons University out of Boston, Massachusetts. She also recently began her doctoral studies from the same university, and she will graduate with her Doctor of Nursing (DNP) next year. Petersen said that she has always loved learning and wanted to become a provider so that she could be more active in patients’ care. “Once my kids were old enough, I decided to start pursuing my next degree. I like caring for people. The people, the patients, they’re everything. I enjoy meeting them, caring and helping them, and learning about them.”

Petersen said that her new role here is a good fit for her. “I love working in the emergency department, and Rapid Care is similar in that you are working with a huge range of patients and problems, and it’s never the same. I enjoy that. I think that my past experiences, working all of the different units, it’s been an advantage now in how I deliver care,” said Petersen. Originally from Nebraska, Petersen and her husband moved to an acreage outside Hancock 20 years ago. They have four children, ages 18 to 30, and twin grandsons who are four.