(Radio Iowa) – A bill that’s making its way through the legislature could expand the number of people eligible to serve as substitute teachers in Iowa. It would let the Iowa Board of Education Examiners authorize people to be substitute teachers if the person has earned as associates degree or completed at least 60 credit hours as an undergraduate. These AUTHORIZED substitutes would be limited to 10 days per month, while LICENSED substitutes have no such restriction. Representative Garrett Gobble, a social studies teacher in Ankeny, says if this bill had been law when he was a student, he would have had the chance to substitute.

“This bill will allow the next generation of teachers to have the opportunity to experience the classroom and develop into the teacher they want to be in a real world experience,” Gobble says. The bill would make permanent a provision in the governor’s public health emergency proclamation that was designed to help schools find substitute teachers during the pandemic. Margaret Buckton is a lobbyist of the Rural School Advocates of Iowa and the Urban Education Network. She says because of the governor’s emergency order, schools were able to find substitutes who hadn’t considered teaching before.

“So it was great to use that as not just fulfilling that need, but also recruiting new professionals to the classroom,” Buckton says. Senator Tim Goodwin of Burlington is a former teacher, coach and school administrator in southeast Iowa. “(The) teacher sub shortage has been around for quite some time and I can remember where it went from having to have teacher licensure to then a bachelor’s degree and now what’s being proposed now,” he says, “and so any way that we can help bridge that gap, I’m going to be in support of.”

The bill has no registered opposition. It has just cleared a Senate subcommittee and the full House approved it unanimously earlier this month.

(Radio Iowa) – A University of Iowa study finds things you post on social media could prevent you from getting your dream job, even though it’s a fuzzy, gray area for potential employers to be scouring your online accounts. Chad Van Iddekinge, U-I professor of management and entrepreneurship, says they reviewed the Facebook pages of 140 job applicants and compared it to recruiters’ evaluations of those applicants. “Recruiters tended to give higher ratings to people who were in a relationship or married than to single job seekers,” Van Iddekinge says. “They also gave lower ratings to people who included some information about their religious beliefs than to people who didn’t include any religion information on Facebook.”

The study found potentially job-relevant information, like education, work-related training, and written communication skills that were displayed on social media were associated with better evaluations. “More negative behaviors, such as profanity, substance use, information about sexual behavior, and even information about illegal activities,” he says, “recruiters picked up on these types of information and gave lower ratings to the job seekers whose Facebook pages included such information.”

Anyone who’s looking for a job would be wise to “scrub” their social media accounts before applying, he says, because potential employers will certainly be looking. “We would never ask applicants to report on an application information about their race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, their religious beliefs, political beliefs and so on,” Van Iddekinge says, “but all of this information is widely available on social media. There’s really nothing regulating or prohibiting employers from looking up this information.”

Caution is recommended on all sides, when you’re posting information about yourself online and for potential employers who are harvesting those personal tidbits. “It’s hard to blame organizations who very easily can look up a job applicant to see if there are any red flags,” he says, “but the problem is, once you get exposed to this information, it’s very difficult to set it aside and focus on more job-relevant information.”

The study is being published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

DOW CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Crawford County woman has pleaded not guilty in the shooting death last month of her boyfriend. The Sioux City Journal reports that 44-year-old Beth Guzman, of Dow City, pleaded not guilty Friday to a count of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 46-year-old Jeremy Frank. Crawford County Sheriff’s deputies say they found Frank unresponsive and bleeding after being called Feb. 21 to the home he and Guzman shared.

Frank was taken to a hospital in Denison, where he was pronounced dead from a single gunshot wound. Prosecutors say Guzman told investigators she and Frank had argued and that she shot Frank in a bedroom as he tried to leave.

A man from rural Page County faces a charge associated with an open burning ban. Authorities say Page County deputies responded March 11th to a complaint about a field fire east of Braddyville, near 3133 310th Street, in rural Page County. Three days earlier, the State Fire Marshall’s Office, in response to a request of all of the Fire Chief’s in Page County and Page County EMA, had issued a burn ban for open burning in all of Page County.

An investigation into the illegal burn of a field fire showed that 53-year old Henry Joseph Tamagni III, of rural Braddyville, intentionally used fire to burn a field during the burn ban. A complaint against Tamagni was filed in Page County Magistrate court for violation of an open burn during a burning ban. This is a Simple misdemeanor charge.  Fire departments from Braddyville and Clarinda responded to the fire along with Page County Emergency Management.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports four arrests: This past Sunday, 30-year old Jordan Allan Andreesen, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Mills County Sheriff’s Office, on a warrant for Sexual Abuse. He remains in the jail without bond; 40-year old Philip Jay McClish, of Clarinda, was arrested on at the Cass County Jail a warrant for Failure to Appear on an original Possession of a Controlled Substance charge. Bond was set at $2,000; and, 40-year old Lindsey Renee Kent, of Omaha, was arrested at Mills County Corrections, Sunday, for Possession of a Controlled Substance in a Correctional facility. Her bond was set at $5,000.

Kent had previously been arrested Saturday, following a traffic stop, during which she was charged being a Fugitive from Justice. She was being held without bond on that charge.

The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports a woman from Menlo was arrested March 8th, on three warrants. 21-year-old Payton Allyssa Hill was taken into custody at the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office on three Adair County warrants for: failing to appear on charges of Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense & Possession of a Controlled Substance/Meth – 1st offense; Failure to appear on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense; and a felony warrant for Violation of Probation. Hill was being held in the Adair County Jail on bonds totaling 3,000 (a $2,000 cash-only bond, & $1,000 cash or surety bond).

Also arrested March 8th, was 59-year old Robert Edward McCrory, of Greenfield. He was taken into custody by Greenfield Police on a charge of assault causing serious injury, after allegedly pushing his sister down the stairs, causing her to break her hip.  McCrory was released the following day on a $5,000 cash-only bond.

On March 9th, 39-year old Stormy Crawford, of Greenfield, was arrested following a brief pursuit at around 9:30-p.m.   She was charged with OWI/1st offense, after she was observed failing to stop at a controlled intersection in Orient, and for speeding 79 mph in a 45 mph zone. During an investigation, an Adair County Deputy saw there was an opened can of beer on the floorboard of the pickup she was driving. Crawford also had bloodshot and watery eyes, and was slurring her speech. She was given a standard field sobriety and preliminary breath alcohol test, the latter of which indicated at BAC of more than .08%.  Crawford consented to a separate breath alcohol test, which indicated her BAC was .162, or twice the legal limit. She was released later that night on a citation.

And, on March 11th, 35-year old Lafayette Allen Easterling, of Ft. Worth, TX., was arrested at the Dollar General Store in Adair. He was taken into custody at around 4:20-p.m. for Trespass. The Sheriff’s office had received a 911 call from the store at around 1:50-p.m. about a man walking behind the counter, bothering the workers and refusing to leave. While enroute to the store, authorities were informed the suspect had knives in his possession, and was attempting to pour lighter fluid on himself.

The man cooperated with a sheriff’s deputy and was taken into custody. Easterling told the deputy he had taken ecstacy during the past 24-to 36-hours, to help keep him awake while driving. Easterling was released from custody the next day on a $300 cash or surety bond.

Sheriff’s deputies in Page County, Sunday, received a complaint about a vehicle sitting on private property that had driven through a fence in the 1400 block of Highway 71.  An investigation determined 21-year-old Brodee Allen Means, of rural Villisca, was operating a 2008 Chevy pickup northbound on Highway 71 at approximately 11:00 PM on March 13th. Means told authorities that he was the only occupant of the vehicle when it hydroplaned on the wet road, entered the west ditch, and struck a residential drive at 1465 HWY 71. The vehicle then struck a MidAmerican Energy-owned power pole before driving through a fence owned by Richard Negley. The pickup came to rest in Negley’s pasture.

Means said he then left the vehicle and went to his residence for the night. There were no injuries reported from the accident. Damages amounted to $9,000. No charges were filed.