WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo woman has pleaded guilty for her role in her 4-year-old daughter’s death and has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The Courier reports that 34-year-old Kristi Amber Buss pleaded guilty Friday to three felony charges: neglecting a dependent person, child neglect resulting in serious injury and involuntary manslaughter. She had originally been charged with child endangerment causing the death of her daughter, 4-year-old Gracie Buss, and had faced 50 years in prison.

Kristi Buss’ boyfriend, 35-year-old Chad Allen Little, was convicted in May of first-degree murder in the death and sentenced in June to life in prison.
Prosecutors say Little abused his Buss’ two children, and delivered a fatal head injury to Gracie in May 2015.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said Friday that President Donald Trump “seems to derive joy” from provoking some Americans to hateful speech and actions, and she says that goes to issues deeper than whether the president is a white supremacist.

“I’ve not said this out loud, but I think it and I feel it,” Harris told The Associated Press during an interview traveling across Iowa. “He seems to derive joy from the response he gets when he talks this way. It seems he derives some element of joy in inciting people around, around outrageous and hateful rhetoric.”

Trump’s recent series of racist remarks toward women of color in Congress, as well as the ties between his anti-immigrant rhetoric and the deadly mass shooting in El Paso, have sparked a debate in the 2020 Democratic field over whether the president is a white supremacist.

Harris, like former Vice President Joe Biden and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, has stopped short of using the label. Meanwhile, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg have said it applies.

Harris, on a weekend-long campaign trip to the early caucus state, said that debate misses the point. “It literally oversimplifies the issue, because it’s almost that the conversation begins and ends with that,” Harris said on her tour bus traveling across rural northwest Iowa. “The lens through which I think about it is so much broader than a label.”

Harris cited Trump’s 2017 ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries, his 2018 order banning transgender individuals from serving in the armed forces except under limited circumstances, and his constant degradation of immigrants entering the U.S. from the Southern border. She said they are part of a pattern Trump has followed to feed his own psyche instead of encouraging acceptance at a time of increased hate crimes.

By ascribing personal motives to Trump’s rhetoric, Harris’ comments go further than most candidates, who have not shied from connecting Trump’s rhetoric and the El Paso shooting Saturday, when 22 people were killed by a man who admitted to police he had targeted Mexicans.

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Nearly all the Democrats running for president are descending on northern Iowa to make personal pitches to hundreds of would-be supporters in the state that kicks off presidential primary voting.

Around 20 candidates are speaking at Friday night’s Wing Ding, an annual fundraiser featuring chicken wings in Clear Lake, population about 8,000.
The event coincides with the state fair in Des Moines, and most White House hopefuls have been crisscrossing Iowa for days, some by bus or RV.

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke canceled his planned Iowa visit to remain in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, where a mass shooting killed 22 people. O’Rourke said Friday on Facebook that he’ll attend more funerals and continue hospital visits, but will rejoin the campaign “at some point” and “sooner or later.”

NOEL, Mo. (AP) — Investigators have tentatively identified a body found on a hillside in southwest Missouri as a mother of three young children. McDonald County Sheriff Michael Hall said positive identification of the body found July 29 is pending but authorities believe it was 25-year-old Jessica McCormack. He said McCormack’s family was notified. The Joplin Globe reports Hall initially announced the tentative identification Thursday out of concern for McCormack’s three young children, who were considered missing.

Police in Des Moines, Iowa, said Friday the children’s father had dropped them off with a relative a few days ago. Police are seeking the man. McCormack was last seen around Noel in mid-July. Investigators believe her body was stuffed into a suitcase that rolled down a hill after being thrown from a moving vehicle. The body fell out as it deteriorated. No cause of death was announced.

Atlantic Parks and Recreation Interim Director Bryant Rasmussen said today (Friday), “Due to the pool pump continuously overheating, we are having to CLOSE Sunnyside Pool effective immediately for the season. If you had a season pass, we will continue to accept those through Wednesday, August 21st at the YMCA. However, from only 1-7 pm and with some restrictions due to the YMCA’s hours. We apologize for any inconveniences this may have caused. We hope that you have enjoyed the pool this summer and have a great 2019-2020 school year!”

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports that between July 10th, 2019 and August 1st, 2019, Guthrie County Sheriff’s Deputies executed a total of twelve search warrants as part of drug investigations in Guthrie County. Ten of the search warrants were executed in Guthrie County, with one in Carroll County and one in Audubon County. A total of twenty drug violators have been arrested or having pending arrests. Of the twenty arrested or with pending arrests, seventeen were arrested on a felony charge or charges. A total of one hundred criminal charges have been filed against the twenty individuals with thirty-two of those charges being filed as felonies. Nineteen of the twenty cases involved methamphetamine or ecstasy. Only one involved marijuana alone, and in that case, it is alleged the marijuana was for sale.

The following thirteen individuals are charged with crimes where they are alleged to have possessed controlled substances with intent to deliver or are alleged to have delivered controlled substances: David Elliott, Laura Smith, Gabriella Madison, Charles Bradshaw Jr., Shawn Lyons, Sherri Lyons, Doug Esslinger, a juvenile male,Conner Weatherly, Jeff Herron and Brandon Niedowicz, all of Bayard, along with Kevin Moore, of Carroll, and Jeremy Evans, of Dallas Center .

Of note, David Elliott is alleged to have delivered controlled substances to a minor and Conner Weatherly is alleged to have used the Bayard City Park as a location for controlled substance delivery. A total of four individuals were located during the search warrants with active arrest warrants: Charles Bradshaw Jr., Brandon Potter, David Elliott and Shawn Gifford. Due to the search warrants, their arrest warrants will be satisfied. A total of three firearms were seized, along with $2,078 in suspected drug money. Marijuana, prescription drugs, methamphetamine and marijuana were also seized in the investigations.

Most importantly, five children were removed from homes where drug violations were alleged to have occurred. Five people face a total of fourteen counts of child endangerment: Doug Esslinger – two counts, Kelsey Stringer – three counts, Brandon Niedowicz – three counts, Rodney Blackmon – three counts and Shawn Gifford – three counts. Sheriff Marty Arganbright says these cases remain under investigation and additional charges may be pending and additional individuals may be arrested.

The following agencies assisted the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office in these investigations: Audubon Police Department, Audubon County Sheriff’s Office, Carroll Police Department, Carroll County Sheriff’s Office, Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, Greene County Sheriff’s Office, Guthrie County Attorney’s Office, Jefferson Police Department, Panora Police Department, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation – Criminalistics Laboratory, Iowa Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Enforcement – Investigations Division.

Arganbright says the Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to pursuing drug violations in Guthrie County and the surrounding areas. Our office will answer the call 24/7 to handle these quality of life investigations.

OMAHA, Neb. (August 8, 2019) – Creighton University, in Omaha, has been awarded two grants to improve medical outcomes for people diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in rural areas of Nebraska and Iowa, where receiving access to specialized care is challenging for people affected by the condition. With nearly $300,000 in funding between the two grants, interprofessional teams from Creighton University are engaging and recruiting community stakeholders and families with connection to Type 1 diabetes to help identify health management challenges and provide the solutions to overcome them.

The first grant for $247,020 was funded by Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and supports developing two patient-centered focus groups in rural communities to identify treatment barriers and develop solutions to overcome service gaps. In Nebraska, the only pediatric endocrinologists in the state are located in Omaha. An advisory team comprised of community stakeholders is also assisting Creighton faculty and students involved with the project. It includes a young adult diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, a mother to a child with the condition, a health care provider and a representative from an advocacy group. They are recruiting participants for two focus groups.

The first focus group will identify processes that work well and highlight issues experienced after diagnosis. Themes from the first study will be presented to a second focus group recruited to develop creative solutions to identified challenges. Based on the findings from both focus groups, Creighton’s faculty and students and the advisory team will create a research agenda and submit for a larger grant to study the effectiveness of the ideas implemented from the focus groups. Vanessa Jewell, PhD, OTR/L, vice chair and assistant professor in Creighton University’s occupational therapy department is leading the engagement project. She is also a mother of a child with Type 1 diabetes.

Jewell says “We are recruiting a diverse group of people for our focus groups that all have connection to Type 1 diabetes – broader than people who have Type 1 diabetes and their families. We want to include health care providers, school staff that work with children with Type 1, people involved in legislation, and medical billing and durable medical equipment representatives. We want to involve all of them and learn from their experiences to inform the research agenda we propose so we can address the whole spectrum of patient support after diagnosis.”

Focus groups are open to those who have Type 1 diabetes, have a connection to individuals with the condition or provide care to them. Participants must also live in rural Nebraska or Iowa (at least one hour outside of Omaha or Des Moines) and be between 8 and 80 years of age. Each participant will receive a $25 gift card. To volunteer to be in a focus group or for more information, please visit spahp.creighton.edu/diabetes.

An additional interprofessional team led by Jewell recently received a second grant for $49,340 from Creighton University’s Health Science Strategic Investment Faculty Development Fund to support its research on the effectiveness of occupation-based telehealth treatment services for Type 1 diabetes in rural areas. The study focuses on the health of the entire family unit after a child receives a Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. The intervention provides telehealth services for a period of three months.

The team conducting the two-year study includes a Creighton University School of Medicine endocrinologist, and an occupational therapist, pharmacist, nurse and statistician from the Creighton School of Pharmacy and Health Professions. The study on telehealth services is not actively seeking participants yet. When recruitment begins, information will be provided at spaph.creighton.edu/diabetes.