(Radio Iowa) – The Siouxland Freedom Park has opened a temporary exhibit to honor local military hero Bud Day. Brigadier General Day received the Congressional Medal of Honor after surviving years of torture in a prison camp during the Vietnam War. Freedom Park board member Marty Hogan says the exhibit honors the hero and his wife Doris as Day’s 99th birthday approaches February 24th.

“We have a lot of really good pictures, several with him and his family before he went to Vietnam and then there’s some after Vietnam. We have some little items that Doris started that remember our P-O-Ws, we have a bumper sticker from that era,” he says. Hogan hopes the display at the interpretive center of the park will spur donations of local memorabilia that will eventually become a permanent display.

“Hopefully this will kick start a few donations coming in for you know of items and then we can start on our permanent display,” Hogans says. “We would like a collage of pictures on the wall, so most of those pictures that you’ll see will be incorporated into that. But then I would like a showcase to have items inside there with little stories beside them.” Day endured more than five years of torture after being shot down. He escaped a P-O-W camp, but was recaptured and punished more for escaping. Hogan is a retired major who marvels at the fortitude of Day throughout the ordeal.

“To not hold endless hate in your heart, his faith, his faith in his country, everything that he did was geared towards getting back home to his family,” Hogan says. “And on the converse side of that, his wife was doing the same thing here. And that is a family value. I think that Americans have kind of let slip away.” Day earned 70 decorations in service to his country, second only to General Douglas MacArthur. Day was posthumously promoted to Brigadier General in 2017.

The Interpretive Center is currently open Saturdays from 10 a-m to 4 p-m in South Sioux City Nebraska.

(Creston, Iowa) – Two accidents occurred Thursday (today), in Creston, but no one was injured. According to Creston Police, the first accident happened at around 1-a.m., on Spruce Street. Authorities say a 2002 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 21-year-old Christopher Gage Selvy, of Creston, was stopped in a driveway. Selvy didn’t realize the vehicle was in reverse. When he reached down to grab something in the vehicle, he stepped on the accelerator.

The pickup crossed Spruce Street and struck a 1991 Dutchman camper which was parked in a yard. The camper was pushed into a 1990 Ford Econoline E-350 motor home/RV, which was also parked in a yard. The front of the camper also struck a 2006 Dodge RAM 2500 pickup, which was parked in front of the camper. No citations were issued.

Damage from the accident amounted to $10,500. Police were notified about the accident at around 9-a.m.

The second accident happened at around 1:30-p.m., Thursday, at S. Maple and E. Page Streets. Creston Police say a 2008 Dodge Avenger driven by 25-year-old Joshua Lee Rafter, of Creston, was traveling south on S. Maple Street, while a 2012 Chrysler van driven by 20-year-old William Brandon Berry, of Creston, was traveling east on E. Page Street.

As both vehicles entered the uncontrolled intersection, Rafter failed to yield the right-of-way. His car was struck on the passenger side rear door by the van. The damage amounted to $10,500 altogether. No citations were issued.

(Radio Iowa) – City councils would be able to strip Iowa public library boards of their authority and take over management of their city’s library under legislation that’s cleared an Iowa House subcommittee.

City councils would be able to hire or fire the library’s director and decide what books should be in the library. The bill is a response to a failed effort to get a graphic novel removed from the shelves in Pella’s library. Pella’s city council held a city-wide vote — which is allowed under current state law — that would have put the council in charge of the library, but the referendum narrowly failed last November.

“Please don’t overturn this by an end run around and legislate a way of stopping the vote,” Mary Timmer of Pella told legislators during a subcommittee hearing late this morning.

Several library directors and members of local library boards urged legislators to defeat the bill. Wade Dooley, a farmer from Albion, is chairman of the board of trustees for the public library in his town of fewer than 500 residents.

“This bill is a train wreck,” Dooley said. “It opens up all sorts of possibilities for very disastrous consequences if you get an activist city council that starts seesawing on what they believe for a library to be or not be. Our city council has barely any training to be a city council, now you also want them to run a library?” I’m sorry, but that’s not a good idea. This bill should be squashed.”

Amanda Brewer, director of the Harlan Community Library, says library boards receive extensive training in what’s involved in governing a library.

Harlan Community Library director Amanda Brewer testifies at a House subcommittee hearing in the Iowa Capitol on Feb. 8, 2024. (RI photo)

“Our city councils can’t step up and take on that role,” Brewer said. “They’re already maxxed out on their responsibilities and they also need the buffer of the library board to protect them as a city and make the decisions that need to happen in the library.”

Republican Representative Carter Nordman of Adel said he’s heard privately from members of city councils as well as city administrators who have complaints about their public libraries that go beyond debates over books and content.

“The city council funds the libraries. There’s personnel issues. There are taxpayer dollars being spent and these are the individuals who are elected to make those decisions, so if there is issues with the library board, I think the buck stops at the city council,” Nordman said. “That’s why I think I am OK with moving this forward and continuing to have the conversation on making this bill better.”

The other Republican on the subcommittee said she had “reservations” about the bill, but voted to send it on to the House Local Government Committee to “continue the conversation.” The Democrat who served on the subcommittee said the bill “is a bad idea” and “there’s no reason for it.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Officials with Cass Health said Thursday (today), “We have been made aware of a series of scam phone calls and texts involving Cass Health.

“The callers claim to be from Cass Health and are asking to confirm or update your information including address, phone number, date of birth, as well as billing information. These are not legitimate phone calls and residents should not give out any personal information. Please hang up and disregard these calls.

“We’ve also been made aware of scam text messages claiming patients need to pay their bill by clicking on a link. We do not send text messages about payments due. Do not click on these links; you can disregard or block the number.

Keep in mind that our Registration team may call some patients to pre-register you for a a limited number of upcoming appointments (such as telehealth or clinical dietitian appointments). If you’re ever unsure about a call from us being legitimate, you can always hang up, call us at 712-243-3250 and ask for the department that contacted you.”

(Atlantic, Iowa) — Cass Health, in Atlantic, was recently named one of the four finalists for the 2023 Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award from the American Hospital Association. Hospital officials say the award recognizes small or rural hospital leadership teams who guide their hospital and community through change and innovation. The awardees display outstanding leadership, responsiveness to their community’s health needs, and a collaborative process that has led to measurable outcomes.

Cass Health CEO Brett Altman says “Cass Health’s staff is dedicated to our vision to be the best rural hospital in the country. Meeting that goal means we do a lot of behind-the-scenes work to really delve into our community’s needs, research solutions, recruit quality providers to allow greater access to specialty care and invest for the future. We’re very proud of our entire team to be one of the finalists for the American Hospital Association award, and I hope the many southwest Iowa communities we serve feel the same.”

The American Hospital Association shared that Cass Health was selected due to their work in three main areas. First, for labor and delivery services and growth in maternal health services. Second, their student experience program that provided around 120 clinical opportunities in nursing, medicine, pharmacy, physical therapy, radiology, and other healthcare careers last year. Lastly, Cass Health was selected due to their Healthy Equity Committee, which focuses on health disparities, social determinants of health, and social needs.

The winning recipient of the Rural Hospital Leadership Team Award was Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital, in Waimea. Other finalists included the teams at Providence Alaska in Seward, Valdez and Kodiak, Alaska; and Hannibal Regional Healthcare System in Hannibal, Missouri.

(Radio Iowa) – The wife of a Woodbury County supervisor who was convicted of voter fraud will be sentenced on April 1st. Kim Phong Taylor was found guilty on multiple charges in a scheme to illegally gather votes from the Vietnamese Community for her husband Jeremy. Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill was one of the witnesses for federal prosecutors. Gill says workers in his office raised a concern about absentee ballots in the 2020 primary election. “There were 135 write ins for Jeremy Taylor as auditor and 150 in that supervisor seat. And what was noticeable, why they called me down is the handwriting was all the same,” Gill says. He says there wasn’t enough to take action on at that point.

“And I just kept saying you know it’s a get out the vote effort unless one of those voters tells me differently, there’s nothing we can do about it,” he says. Things changed when a brother and sister came forward and said they were not allowed to legally vote because someone had forged ballots cast in their names.

Kim was found guilty of 26 counts of providing false information, 23 counts of fraudulent voting, and three counts of fraudulent registration. She faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison for each count. Jeremy Taylor, was named an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the case but hasn’t been charged with a crime. Taylor was urged to resign by fellow board of supervisor members, but has refused.

(Radio Iowa) – Lawmakers on a Senate subcommittee have agreed to advance a bill that would double the number of medical cannabis dispensaries in Iowa, but they’re expressing reservations about the plan. About 18-thousand Iowans are currently registered to buy cannabidiol or C-B-D products from the five state licensed businesses. Senator Mike Bousselot, of Ankeny says a proliferation of products that produce a high are being sold elsewhere. “I think we ought to take a broader look at the program in light sort of all of the different facets of weed and hemp and THC and lack of action at the federal level,” Bousselot said.

Senator Janet Weiner, of Iowa City says Iowa’s medical marijuana program is really little — for a reason. “We’re just dancing around the issue of the fact that neighboring states have recreational marijuana and we’re losing out on a lot of revenue,” Weiner says. Marijuana is legal for recreational use in Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri. The five medical marijuana dispensaries licensed by the State of Iowa are in Coralville, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Waterloo and Windsor Heights. The Iowa Cannabis Company operates three of those and a lobbyist for the company raised concerns about a section in the bill that says if the number of dispensaries expands to 10, one company could only operate three.

Tim Coonan is a lobbyist for Green Leaf Cannabis Company, a firm that backs the bill because it wants to apply for a license.  “That restriction makes it more competitive,” Coonan said, “rather than have the market completely dominated and monopolized by a certain few entities.”

Iowa Capitol Building (RI file photo)

MedPharm Iowa has the license for the state’s other two dispensaries.