OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Representatives of a small aviation museum in southwestern Iowa hoped they had stumbled upon a rare postage stamp potentially worth a fortune. But experts at a national stamp convention in Omaha have delivered the sad truth: it isn’t the real thing, after all.

The Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenfield, Iowa, has had what it thought was an “Inverted Jenny” stamp on display for some 20 years and brought it to the Omaha gathering.

Ken Martin is with the American Philatelic Society that’s holding its national convention in Omaha. He said Friday that experts knew immediately the stamp wasn’t authentic because “it wasn’t the right size.”

Had it been real, Martin says it would be worth between $300,000 and $400,000. There were only 100 of the stamps printed in 1918, with the image of a JN-4-H “Jenny” biplane accidentally displayed upside down on a 24-cent stamp.

(Radio Iowa) — The company that manufactures medical marijuana in Iowa is introducing a line of medical cannabis vapor products that will be soon be available. MedPharm Iowa’s Lucas Nelson says they give patients a new option.

MedPharm’s Lucas Nelson

The main focus for vaporization is that it will serve this underserved community right now of patients who are suffering from things like ulcerative colitis, chron’s disease and stomach cancers, where they really can’t absorb any of the canabanoids through their oral digestion,” Nelson says.

Vaping-devices-medpharm

He says the vaporization allows for a quicker release for those needing them.  “Our other products will take a little bit longer to work in our patients’ bodies,” he says. “This vaporization will be released in minutes to help with pain or with some of those seizures or other symptoms that we are trying to treat.” He says some of the people using the current pills and cremes may switch over to using the vaporized product.  “What we’ve seen in other states is up to 60 percent of the population will move over to a vaporization product. I think in this state at least a quarter if not half of our patients will move to the vaporization product,” according to Nelson. “It won’t for every person of course — but for a lot of them this will be a really, really important option.”

Vaping has gotten a lot of attention recently as a replacement for cigarette smoking. Nelson says the publicity vaping has received should help some in giving patients a little knowledge of how it works before they decide to try it.  “I think it’ll help, I sure will still have some confusion on how it works, or is it actually working for me. But with our formulations and with the devices we’ve chosen, I think it will become quite clear to most of our patients that yes it is indeed working, and hopefully offers them a lot of relief,” Nelson says.

They plan to begin offering one C-B-D vapor product this month that will come in the form of a 250 milligram disposable and a 500 milligram cartridge. The second line will be available later this year and utilize T-H-C-A along with C-B-D. He says another benefit of the vapor products is they will cost less compare to a monthly usage of the current products. “The vaporization devices that we’ve released today will be under 50 dollars. The disposable will be under 30 dollars. That compares to capsules that can range from 18 all the way up to 120. And tinctures that range are around 70 or 80 and above from there,” Nelson says.

Nelson says they have been collecting data in the eight months since they began selling the medical marijuana products and are trying to adjust to what they’ve heard. “It will be another option of kind of that lower price bracket for patients that I think will address some of their needs that we’ve heard from on pricing,” Nelson says. Nelson says they still are doing a lot of education on the medical products. “We’ve got an extreme confusion problem between just the C-B-D that you can find all over the state and our program. And then you’ve got another layer of confusion between our program and the recreational programs with the one going live soon in Illinois,” Nelson says. “Again, its kind of a learning process that we have to make sure we’re doing and the state has to make sure its doing.”

The vaporization products were approved by the state. Medpharm says it has shipped 22-thousand medical marijuana products to the five state dispensaries since December. The company says it has had six-thousand transactions with patients at the two dispensaries it owns in that same time.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a Pottawattamie County man, 31-year old Andrew Steven Newport, was sentenced Wednesday in Council Bluffs to 10-years in prison for Coercion and Enticement of a Minor. Following his prison term, Newport will serve 10-years of supervised release.

In September 2018, Council Bluffs Police received a call from a concerned parent who had received messages through Facebook from Newport and thought Newport was communicating with her thirteen year old daughter. The mother gave the Facebook information to the Council Bluffs Police and an undercover officer continued to communicate with Newport. Newport asked who he believed to be the minor girl to meet him at the Council Bluffs Library and offered her $200 to have sex. Council Bluffs Police Officers met Newport at the arranged meeting place and arrested him. Newport had his phone, a pocket knife, airsoft gun with light mount, and a fraudulent FBI investigator card.

Newport admitted he went to the library to meet a 13 year old girl for sex. He plead guilty to the charge in March 2019. The case was investigated by the Council Bluffs Police Department. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

A man from Pottawattamie County was sentenced Wednesday in U-S District Court in Council Bluffs, for being a felon in possession of a firearm. A District Court judged sentenced 46-year old Kevin Lee Longo, to 46 months (Nearly 4-years) in prison, to be followed by a term of supervised release for three years.

On September 20, 2018, Council Bluffs Police responded to a call about a man who had pointed a gun and fired a round into the air. An investigation revealed Longo and a victim had an exchange regarding a former girlfriend of Longo’s, after which Longo pulled out a firearm and threatened the victim. Officers received permission to search Longo’s vehicle and located a pellet gun, marijuana, methamphetamine, crushed pills, pipes, a scale, bb’s, CO2 cartridges, and .380 ammunition. A subsequent search yielded a loaded black and silver Walther PK380 firearm Longo had hidden in a shed.

The case was investigated by the Council Bluffs Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa. The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.

A traffic stop today (Friday) at around 8:20-a.m. in Red Oak, resulted in the arrest of a Council Bluffs man. Red Oak Police say 26-year old Ozzy Ray Hunter was taken into custody for Driving While Barred. Hunter was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash bond.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A Bettendorf man charged in connection with the overdose death of another man has been given three years of probation. The Quad-City Times reports that Michael Spencer also was granted a deferred judgment. A deferred judgment allows Spencer’s conviction to be removed from court records if he fulfills his probation terms. He’d pleaded guilty to delivery of heroin. Prosecutors dismissed a conspiracy charge in return.

Prosecutors say Spencer prepared two syringes of heroin on April 7 last year that he’d bought with money given him by 23-year-old Tyler Ekstrand. A court document says Ekstrand overdosed and died on the floor of Spencer’s apartment.

By Scott Stewart, Iowa Western Community College

CLARINDA – Frank Kinyon pushes a tiller through the ground, preparing it to become a small garden over the coming months. While this agrarian activity hardly seems out of place in rural Page County, it’s a relatively recent development inside the fence of the state-operated Clarinda Correctional Facility. The Clarinda prison launched a horticultural program several years ago that has blossomed into an apprenticeship. It has since added beekeeping to help inmates learn job skills while enjoying the peacefulness coming from spending time outside beyond working out in the yard. Iowa Western Community College partners with the Clarinda Correctional Facility, an all-male medium security prison, to offer a variety of classes, including the horticultural program. The college has several programs that can help support inmates once they’re released, too, so they can continue earning career credentials as they seek employment.

Inmate Fank Kinyon, right, pushes a tiller at the Clarinda Correctional Facility on April 23, 2019. The Clarinda prison launched a horticultural program several years ago that has blossomed into an apprenticeship. (Photo by Scott Stewart/Iowa Western Community College)

Kinyon, 48, is serving the last two years of a six-year mandatory sentence for a drug conviction. His wife works in landscaping, and he hopes to

join her and start his own small business once he’s released. He said he worked pouring concrete foundations for years, but it’s time for something different. “I think my back is done with that,” Kinyon said while taking a break from operating a tiller in the garden. “I need to look for something a little better, and this seems to be a lot better.” Kinyon has been working on the landscaping around the parking lot near the entrance to the prison, and he said there are plans to redo the flower beds and add some additional plants. He said he’s learning to tell which plants are appropriate for different climate zones and how to properly care for them. “I’ve always had a green thumb,” Kinyon said. “It’s something that drives a more positive outlook. Flowers make everybody happy.”

A study found that inmates who participate in educational programs are 43% less likely to return to prison and are 13% more likely to obtain employment after release. That’s why the Iowa Department of Corrections contracts with Iowa Western to provide quality education and vocational programs. “These guys come in with often very little education and our biggest hurdle is convincing them that they can learn,” said Lori Lastine, educational coordinator at Clarinda Correctional Facility. Brandon Feller, 32, said he’s learned a lot over the past few years working with the garden, and he also sees those skills as providing a foundation for himself when he’s released.

“I’ve got a family member who owns a greenhouse in Nebraska,” Feller said. “I think this helps a lot of guys because it makes you feel a little bit more at home than being in here. And it’s a learning thing, it keeps you busy, it keeps your mind busy. There’s always going to be greenhouse work when you get out, I mean always. There’s always something to do, and it’s a good job opportunity.”

Inmate Jason Fransene works in Microsoft Office during a computer class at the Clarinda Correctional Facility on April 23, 2019. The Clarinda prison offers a variety of educational programs to help inmates prepare for their release. (Photo by Scott Stewart/Iowa Western Community College)

Inmates at the Clarinda Correctional Facility have a variety of other educational programs through Iowa Western, including life skills, high school equivalency and computer software. Jason Fransene, 41, hopes to work in residential electrical installation when he is released. He’s taking a Microsoft Office 2016 class to learn how to prepare presentations, proposals and reports to customers and general contractors. Fransene said he’s learned some electrician skills while serving a sentence in another institution, and now he wants to learn how to market those skills to land a job. “What I’m doing now is trying to supplement that with self-studies and traditional classes,” Fransene said. “We have the ability to either improve ourselves if we choose or not to, and I am of the disposition that I would prefer to use my term wisely and learn skills that would allow me potentially to not come back.”

Fransene said he’s made a lot of mistakes, which he realizes as an older prisoner, but he believes the educational programs offer a path toward improving his life. He said he’s appreciated the shift in approach in recent years toward offering education programs aimed at re-entry into the community. “As I continue to advance my education through the opportunities in this institution, I believe that the skills learned will allow me to continue to make the proper decisions in the future,” Fransene said. David Stephens, an Iowa Western instructor assigned to the prison, said the horticulture program gives participants important lessons on responsibility and work ethic, on top of the subject-specific lessons.

“It gives guys a skillset in here that, when they’re released, there are more doors open,” Stephens said. “They can work landscaping jobs on the street with companies. Even if they get released in the winter, they can get on a snow removal team. Wineries are really big in Iowa right now, and there are opportunities that they can go to there.” The fresh produce grown at the prison is harvested at the end of the summer and fall. Inmates are allowed to buy it, and access to the produce is used as an incentive to encourage good behavior. “The guys who are in the class know that they have got to keep their noses clean,” Stephens said. “There’s not a lot of color in prison, so when you get some of that green, some of that fresh produce, it’s a big difference.” Lastine said the prison brings in offenders who need to earn their high school equivalence, but most of the educational programs are voluntary. Iowa Western runs the literacy and High School Equivalency Test programs, and the Microsoft Office class is a certificate program through the college, she said.

The horticulture program was started by the prison, and it has grown into a registered apprenticeship is through the U.S. Department of Labor, with Iowa Western overseeing classroom instruction, hydroponics and the gardens. Those successfully completing the registered apprenticeship can earn a certificate that they can use to land a job after release. About 40 to 50 inmates get their HiSET each year at the prison, Lastine said. Instruction for that program takes two full-time teachers, and the prison also has an employee for the horticulture and computer courses with one teacher. “We are able to impact the lives of these guys with a very small, very dedicated staff,” Lastine said.

Ultimately, programs like the garden and other educational opportunities provide a connection to the outside world and provide a positive experience that helps many inmates pass the time productively. “I just appreciate it,” Feller said. “We’re all trying to do better in our life. This is a great program to be in, and this a good thing that these guys need. This has helped a lot of us out.”

(Scott Stewart is a freelance journalist and communications consultant. This article was prepared on behalf of Iowa Western Community College’s Division of Economic and Workforce Development.)