Today: Sunny, with a high near 60. East winds @ 5 to 10 mph. Tonight: Partly cloudy, with a low around 35. E/SE winds 10-25 w/gusts to near 30 mph. Tomorrow: Sunny & windy, w/a 20% chance of afternoon showers. High near 65. E/SE @ 20-40 mph. . Tom. Night: Showers and possibly a thunderstorm. Low around 43. E/SE @ 20-45 mph. Sunday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, otherwise partly sunny & windy. High near 63. Winds SE @ 15-30 mph. Sun. Night: Breezy. A 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. Low around 40. Monday: Partly sunny & breezy, with a high near 58.
Thursday’s High in Atlantic was 59. Our Low this morning, 24. Last year on this date, the High in Atlantic was 59, and the Low was 30. The All-Time Record High on April 5th in Atlantic, was 88, in 2000. The Record Low was 14, in 1920. Sunrise: 6:56. Sunset: 7:49.
(Radio Iowa) – A senator has a plan that would give the governor authority to appoint the majority of members on commissions that nominate Iowans to be district court judges. Republican Senator Julian Garrett would have the governor appoint six of the 11 members on each of the district court nominating panels. “The process is already politicized from my perspective,” Garrett says. “We’re trying to improve it and fix it.”
A budget bill that’s cleared initial review in the Iowa Senate includes Garrett’s proposed change for district court judicial nominating commissions. Iowa governors appoint judges from lists of nominees submitted by these commissions and Peter Hird of the Iowa A-F-L C-I-O says the change would give the governor more influence over the judicial branch. “Giving the governor the power to appoint the majority of people who are going to nominate judges definitely to me and to our organization gives us a lot of concern.”
Garrett’s proposal also removes the judges from each of the district court nominating commissions. Doug Struyk, of the Iowa State Bar Association, says the perspective of a local district judge provides valuable insight about the lawyers who’re applying to become a judge. “The judge would have interacted with these applicants, seen their temperament, seen their timeliness of filings,” Struyk says, “and I believe that, from someone who’s been in the shoes of a judge, would be particularly good information for the other members of the commission to have when they were reviewing applicants.”
In 2019, Governor Reynolds signed a law that removed the longest serving Iowa Supreme Court justice from the commission that nominates people to serve on the Iowa Court of Appeals AND the Iowa Supreme Court. For the past five years Reynolds has also had the authority to appoint a majority of the members of that STATE judicial nominating commission.
MARLENE ANN REMSBURG, 84, of Audubon, died Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024, at the Audubon County Memorial Hospital. Funeral services for MARLENE REMSBURG will be held 10:30-a.m. Saturday, April 4th, at the Audubon Church of Christ. Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon has the arrangements.
Friends may call at the funeral home, where the family will meet with friends on Friday, April 5th, from 5-until 7-p.m.
Burial is in the Maple Grove Cemetery, in Audubon.
Memorials may be directed to the Audubon Fire and Rescue Association, and sent to the care of Mark Remsburg (210 Broadway Street, Audubon, Iowa, 50025).
MARLENE ANN REMSBURG is survived by:
Her husband of 61 years – Randy Remsburg.
Her son – Mark (Janell) Remsburg.
Her daughters – Mindi (Richard) Kacmarynski, and Shelly (Chad) Madden.
Her brothers – Ron (Carol) Brant and Phil (Susie) Brant.
Her sister – Karen Henning .
9 grandchildren; 3 great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.
The Panorama boys soccer team got their regular season underway last night in 5-4 win against East Sac County. The Panthers have 19 participants out and are coached by Matt Fron.
Coach Fron gave a brief recap on how last season went.
Coach Fron said his teams defense is going to be their shining position this year.
Junior Panther Captain Taytum Bates indicted that playing other sports has helped him play as a team and got him prepared to play soccer.
Coach Fron says the teams main focus is to make the playoffs.
The Panthers next match will be taking on Kuemper Catholic on Friday April 5th in a non-conference match. That match will start at 7:00 p.m.
(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – A state-certified caregiver has been arrested and charged with sexually exploiting a minor while employed by an Iowa nursing home. Over the past 12 months, Martell Guider, a 36-year-old male certified nursing assistant, has been the subject of complaints regarding a series of alleged incidents involving sexual impropriety at three Iowa nursing homes located in Audubon, Correctionville and Kalona. The most recent case, and the only one in which criminal charges have been filed, involves Guider’s employment at the Pleasantview Home in Kalona.
According to police and prosecutors, officials at Pleasantview confronted Guider sometime in January after multiple employees raised concerns that he was being inappropriate with a minor who was present at the home but not a resident.
Martell Guider, a state-certified nursing assistant. (Photo courtesy of the Washington County Jail)
Police allege that after his supervisors talked to him about the complaints, Guider sent explicit photos of the minor to his employer. According to the police, Guider had threatened the minor to induce her to send him the photos via the social-messaging platform Snapchat. When asked about the photos, Guider allegedly acknowledged he had saved them for his sexual gratification.
According to the police reports, Guider’s colleagues at Pleasantview also complained that he had been making unwanted advances toward female co-workers in the nursing home. He was then barred from the care facility, according to police. Guider is now charged with sexual exploitation of a minor by causing the minor to engage in a sex act; sexual exploitation through the use of photographs; possession of material depicting a minor engaged in sex; and first-degree harassment. He has yet to enter a plea in the case. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 9.
Court records show that at the time of his arrest, Guider was employed through Shiftkey, a temp agency that provides workers for health care facilities. Prior to his arrest in the Pleasantview case, Guider was fired from two other Iowa nursing homes amid allegations of sexual impropriety.
The first of those cases dates back to April 2023, when a female caregiver at Audubon’s Friendship Home filed a complaint with the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing about Guider’s behavior. Six months later, Guider was working at Correctionville Specialty Care when he was the target of a complaint that he had raped a resident of the home.
No charges were filed in either the Correctionville case or the Audubon case. Audubon police have acknowledged they fielded at least two complaints about Guider’s conduct at Friendship Home but didn’t pursue the matter. Audubon Police Chief Coby Gust said the complainants provided text messages and photos and expressed concern that the man’s behavior could spill over into his interactions with vulnerable residents, Gust said.
According to the complainant in the Friendship Home case, officials at the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals rejected her complaint about Guider last April, allegedly telling her the issues she raised were best addressed by management at the home since they involved worker-to-worker conduct that had no actual or potential impact on residents.
When asked about that, DIAL spokeswoman Diane McCool said the agency “cannot comment on whether information was received regarding a particular individual.”
The second ranked Iowa Hawkeye women make their second straight appearance in the Final Four on Friday night when they play UConn in Cleveland. Sophomore forward Hannah Stuelke says the team’s mindset is just like it was when they went to the Final Four last year.
Stuelke says their focus this year is wanting to do the best they can on the court.
Stuelke talks about the matchup inside with UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards
Junior guard Sydney Affolter says the whole team knows they should be ready at any time to get the ball from Caitlin Clark.
Affolter says conditioning has been a key to being able to play their up-tempo style.
For senior guard Gabbie Marshall, it’s a homecoming for her final college games. The Cincinnati native knows she’ll have a lot of people in the stands supporting her.
Marshall says Affolter has stepped in and excelled after the injury to Molly Davis.
Marshall says Affolter’s poise has been the key to her success in the starting lineup.
For the second year in a row, Iowa senior Sharon Goodman has won the Elite 90 award from the NCAA. The Elite 90 award winner in women’s basketball recognizes the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating in the Final Four. Goodman says it’s the full team and not just her making sure they focus on academics.
The health studies major from Lime Springs has decided to end her basketball career after this season instead of rejoining the team for another season.
Goodman was part of a state title winning team at Crestwood in 2018 and says she never imagined in her high school days being able to participate in two Final Fours.
Goodman currently carries a 4.0 GPA and will be graduating in May.
UConn coach Geno Auriemma says getting to the Final Four has been a great accomplishment. The Huskies have survived a number of key injuries this season and make their 23rd appearance in the Final Four on Friday night against Iowa.
Auriemma admits after all the injuries he was not sure how far this team could go in the tournament.
The game will feature UConn star Paige Bueckers against Iowa’s National Player of the Year in Caitlin Clark.
Bueckers grew up in Hopkins, Minnesota, and competed against Clark on the AAU circuit.
The Iowa Hawkeye women play UConn Friday night in Cleveland in the Final Four. The Hawkeyes are 33-4 and making their second straight trip to the final four after a runner-up finish last year.
That’s Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. The game features two of the nation’s biggest stars in Hawkeye guard Caitlin Clark and UConn guard Paige Bueckers.
Bluder says with all the activities surrounding the Final Four it is important the players get enough rest prior to Friday night’s game.
Bluder felt the team took part in too many activities last year.
It matches an Iowa team that averages nearly 92 points per game against a UConn team that is averaging nearly 80 points per game.
Iowa star Caitlin Clark says while the atmosphere at the Final Four is fun the Hawkeyes have a job to do.
Clark says she has been impressed with the way UConn star Paige Bueckers has overcome injury to help the Huskies return to the national stage.
Iowa’s win over LSU Monday night was the most watched women’s game of all time but Clark says the ratings and increased popularity of the sport aren’t important when the games begin.
Iowa senior forward Kate Martin says while slowing down Bueckers is important it is more about how the Hawkeyes play.
Clark was asked about Cleveland being the end of the road for an Iowa team that captivated the nation with record television ratings and sold-out arenas.
(Radio Iowa) – The legislature has approved new rules for how Iowa landlords handle requests from renters who ask to have an emotional support animal or a service animal in their unit. Senator Scott Webster of Bettendorf says it aligns Iowa law more closely with federal regulations.
“A good majority of our veterans have emotional support animals…We don’t want other people damaging the system of people who need these particular items — dogs, cats,” Webster says. “…We want to make sure those that are abusing it don’t have quite the right to abuse it that they do now.” Representative Jacob Bossman of Sioux City says the bill provides common sense guidelines for what kind of documents landlords can request from tenants who ask to have a service or support animal in their rental. The bill also outlines when landlords may reject requests due to safety or financial concerns.
“Pets are wonderful companions and as anyone who’s ever had a pet knows, they can also be very healing as well, “Bossman said. “That’s why support animals are so vital, but to maintain the stability of the system, there must be guardrails.”
Representative Josh Turek, of Council Bluffs, says there’s a need for more regulation on emotional support animals, because service animals are a lifeline for many individuals with a disability. “A service animal requires the individual to have a physical disability. It also is limited exclusively to a dog and, in incredibly rare cases, to a small horse,” Turek said. “This animal also has to be trained and, probably most important and significantly, it is required to perform a task that the individual with a disability, the disability prevents them from doing.”
The bill would let landlords ask for documentation from a health care provider if a tenant’s need for an assistance animal is not readily apparent. The bill won unanimous approval in the House and Senate and it’s now headed to the governor for review.
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