Red Oak Police responded at around 7-p.m. Thursday, to an accident in the 500 block of East Market Street, where a vehicle struck a tree. Witnesses told Officers the driver took off on foot, but he was located a short time later in the 300 block of E. Market Street, with the assistance of the Montgomery County K9 Unit. An investigation resulted in the arrest of 32-year old Jacob Wayne Dykes-Vargas, of Red Oak. He was taken into custody for Driving While Suspended, and cited for Failure to have insurance/accident related. Dykes-Vargas was brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $566.

Officials with the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday night, that 54-year old James Meek, of Blockton, was arrested Thursday in the 2900 block of 320th Street near Blockton. Meek was charged with Willful Injury Causing Bodily Injury and Violation of a No Contact Order, and was being held at the Taylor County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond.

The Iowa House has unanimously passed a bill designed to shield “whistleblowers” in state government from retaliation if they go to the state auditor with complaints. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton says”It’s a short and simple bill, but it is very good public policy.”

Kaufmann is chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee. The panel held three hearings this year to review activity at the Iowa Communications Network. Network employees went to the governor’s office last summer to report concerns about the agency’s manage. The state auditor’s office investigated and discovered the network’s manager went on a vacation to Belize at state expense, tried to sell state-owned property on E-bay and hired unqualified cronies who got huge raises.

The bill would make it clear the name of any whistleblower employed in state government may be kept confidential in investigations by the state auditor. The names of other witnesses interviewed by auditors could be kept secret, too.
Kaufmann says his panel took a bipartisan approach to addressing concerns raised by mismanagement of tens of thousands of dollars in the Iowa Communications Network.

“We partnered together to find and seek ways to make government better, so that a situation like this might not happen again,” Kaufman says. “I’m not saying we’ve totally closed that option from every happening, but I think this bill puts us a lot closer to being there.” The bill specifically says managers in state government are not to cut pay, demote or fire employees who disclose information to the state auditor.

(Radio Iowa)

High school students who screen children’s vision are asking Iowa lawmakers to restore state funding to the program that taught them how to do it. Aya Almajidi is a student at Waukee High School who conducts vision tests at elementary schools once a week.

“We have like seen kids who can’t even see at all and they know that, but they’re afraid to tell their parents, so we love going out and helping kids and then the next time we see them, they have glasses,” she says. “And they tell us: ‘Oh, thank you so much for screening us.'”

The Iowa Department of Public Health cut nearly 100-thousand of annual state funding for Prevent Blindness Iowa last year. Almajidi and other students presented petitions to legislators yesterday (Thursday), asking for that funding to be restored. “Keep the funding because it actually helps a lot of students,” she says. “…When students can’t see, it’s like a higher risk of failing high school.”

The director of Prevent Blindness Iowa says because state support ended, they can’t travel around Iowa to train more people in vision screening. The group estimates a quarter of school-aged Iowa kids have vision problems. Lions Club groups around the state have trained volunteers who conduct vision tests for babies who are at least six months old, but not yet two.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:00 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new law is expanding access to mental health services across Iowa. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation Thursday that creates six access centers to provide short-term care for people in crisis. The legislation also doubles the number of teams across the state that provide 24/7 flexible treatment and support to patients.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified a worker killed in a northwestern Iowa transportation hub accident. The Sioux City Journal reports that police say 42-year-old Brian McCormick, of Sioux City, died in the Wednesday accident at Big Soo Terminal. Big Soo general manager Kevin Knepper says McCormick was a warehouseman and maintenance technician. A news release said the accident involved a “switching operation with train cars,” in which McCormick was struck and killed by an unmanned car.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man threatened by city officials with legal action for saying on a website that his hometown smelled like “rancid dog food” because of an animal food processing plant has won a free-speech lawsuit. Josh Harms, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed suit in U.S. District Court earlier this month asking a judge to block Sibley officials suing him.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man died after suffering an electric shock at a Cedar Rapids mobile home park. First responders were sent to Five Seasons Mobile Home Park around 12:30 p.m. Wednesday. Police say he was pronounced dead at St. Luke’s Hospital. His name and other information haven’t been released.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa– On March 28, 2018, 32-year old Mark Edward May, of Missouri Valley, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Stephanie M. Rose to 14 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute and distribution of oxycodone and hydrocodone.

United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum says May was ordered to serve three years of supervised release to follow his prison term. May pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and five counts of distribution of a controlled substance on November 16, 2017.

May orchestrated the distribution of hydrocodone and oxycodone on multiple occasions to an undercover law enforcement agent from numerous individuals, including co-defendants Chiann May Jones, Jeremiah D. Jones, and Clara Ann Milks. May and his co-defendants made false medical claims to local physicians to obtain the pills.

The investigation was conducted by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Force, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, United States Department of Health and Human Services – Office of the Inspector General, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified a worker killed in a northwestern Iowa transportation hub accident. The Sioux City Journal reports that police say 42-year-old Brian McCormick, of Sioux City, died in the Wednesday accident at Big Soo Terminal.

Big Soo general manager Kevin Knepper says McCormick was a warehouseman and maintenance technician who had been working for Big Soo about eight months. Knepper would not comment on the circumstances surrounding the accident. A news release said the accident involved a “switching operation with train cars,” in which McCormick was struck and killed by an unmanned car.

The death remains under investigation.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold their regular weekly meeting tomorrow (Friday), beginning at 8:30-a.m. in their Courthouse Boardroom. On the agenda is a Resolution to enter into agreement to abate the tax and assign a tax sale Certificate on a County-held parcel in Marne, as well as the abatement of tax for a parcel in the City of Cumberland.

The Board will also act on a 28-E (cost sharing) contract and agreement for provision of law enforcement to the Unified Law Enforcement District, which is comprised of the Cities of Cumberland, Lewis, Marne, Massena, and Wiota.

And, the Supervisors are expected to act on appointing a County Weed Commissioner, for the period covering March 2018 to November 2018. Later discussion will center on County employee health insurance options under the ISAC group program.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man threatened by city officials with legal action for saying on a website that his hometown smelled like “rancid dog food” has won a free-speech lawsuit.

Josh Harms, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, filed suit in U.S. District Court earlier this month asking a judge to block Sibley officials from suing him. City officials said they’d sue if he didn’t stop criticizing the odor problem from an animal food processing plant and talking with reporters about it.

On Thursday a judge approved a permanent injunction prohibiting city threats. The city agrees to pay Harms $6,500 in damages and $20,000 in legal fees. The city promises to hold First Amendment training and will not prevent Harms from launching a website under the address www.sibleystinks.com .

A 400-year-old painting that was forgotten in a dark corner of a Des Moines venue for more than a century has been rediscovered. Entitled “Apollo and Venus,” the work by Dutch master Otto Van Veen was painted in the year 1600. Robert Warren, executive director of Hoyt Sherman Place, was searching for Civil War flags in a little-used storeroom when he noticed the painting wedged between a table and the plaster wall.

“So the assumption was it was tucked away there either because it needed some repair work,” he says, “or the content, because it is a full backside nude of Venus de Milo and another cherub sans clothing.” A tag indicated the discolored piece had been donated to the Des Moines Women’s Club at Hoyt Sherman in 1923 and it was evidently forgotten in the storage area under the balcony of the auditorium. Warren says it’s impossible to know the value of the painting because it has never been sold.

“I’m sure it’s severely undervalued,” Warren says, “as it was listed for $1,500 when it first came into possession of the women’s club.” Now that the painting has been restored, Warren is having appraisers determine its value. The artist Van Veen is best known for being a teacher of Peter Paul Rubens.

(Radio Iowa)