Atlantic Specialty Care has been named winner the 2016 Governor’s Award for Quality Care in Health Care Facilities. Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds will present the award to Atlantic Specialty Care in Atlantic early this fall. The Atlantic facility was nominated by a family member of three former residents, all of whom required special care and attention due to their illnesses.

The Governor’s Award for Quality Care was established to recognize long-term care facilities that provide – in the nominator’s opinion – a high level of care to their residents. This year’s Governor’s Award recipients were selected from a field of 17 nominated facilities. Since the first awards were presented in 2001, a total of 53 awards have been presented to 46 individual facilities.

Iowa’s spokeswoman for people with disabilities is leaving this weekend for Michigan where she’ll represent Iowa in the Ms. Wheelchair America pageant. Pattie Duff is a mother of four in Des Moines and as the 2016 Ms. Wheelchair Iowa, she’ll be competing in the 45th annual national event next week in Grand Rapids.

“It’s going to be really exciting from the different things we’re going to do and it sounds like it’ll be really fun,” Duff says. “I’ll just be glad to experience a lot of different things that I haven’t already and to get to meet face-to-face a lot of the contestants I haven’t even talked to on Facebook and build that bond.” The competition is not based on physical beauty but instead on a woman’s advocacy and accomplishments.

Duff uses a wheelchair for mobility after a spinal cord injury about three years ago. In addition to her three biological children and a step-daughter, she also has a seven-month-old foster child. That foster-daughter is the basis of Duff’s pageant platform, reinforcing that people with disabilities -can- be foster parents. “As long as you are physically able to take care of yourself and a child, then you are able to be a foster parent,” Duff says. “I just want more people that utilize wheelchairs to be able to become foster parents, if they would like to be.”

The 43-year-old Duff has degrees in psychology and human services and is working toward a new degree in special education. She works for Easter Seals of Iowa, a non-profit group that offers a range of services and camps for children and adults with disabilities. “I help feed them, if they need help showering, if they need help dressing, if they need help with the arts and crafts, anything they need help with,” Duff says. “We help promote independence and we try to get them to do what they can for themselves, but if they can’t, then I help them.”

The new Ms. Wheelchair America will be crowned next Saturday night, August 13th, and she’ll represent the 56-million Americans living with disabilities.

(Radio Iowa)

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman reports the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) handicapped-accessible entrance on the south side of the Cass County Courthouse, will be closed Friday, August 5th, while work is done on the roof above the steps at that entrance. The west, single door on the south side of the courthouse will serve as a temporary entrance.

Work will also be done on the roof above the north exit/entry steps on Friday.

The Cass County Conservation Board (CCCB) is sponsoring a “Breakfast with the Birds” Program. The program will be held at Sunnyside Park, Kiddie Korral Shelter in Atlantic, Saturday, August 13th, beginning at 9-a.m. Free will donations are being accepted. 

During the event, Terrie Hoefer, rehabilitator and Educator at S.O.A.R., Saving Our Avian Resources, will show and discuss several of her permanently injured birds and will hopefully have one that is fully recovered and ready to release back into the wild.

Breakfast with the birds is made possible by the Dick McCauley Memorial Fund. The CCCB asks you to help them support raptors and education, by attending “Breakfast with the Birds,” on Aug. 13th.

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) – Officials say a pharmaceutical supply company plans to hire 100 more workers for its Clear Lake operation. McKesson Distribution Center opened in May and currently employs 120 workers. Director of operations Chris Van Norman told the Mason City Globe Gazette that the center serves 2,500 pharmacies in the Midwest and north-central Plains.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) – A northwest Iowa woman accused of stealing a winning lottery scratch game ticket has pleaded not guilty. The Sioux City Journal reports  Ashley Bosler, of Sioux Rapids, entered the pleas Monday in Storm Lake to charges of theft of a lottery ticket or share and abetting theft of a lottery ticket or share. Her trial is to begin Nov. 15th.

Prosecutors say Bosler was working at a convenience store when she found the winning ticket by scratching off a corner and scanning the bar code that confirmed it was a winner of a $250,000 prize. Prosecutors say she hadn’t paid for the ticket and was too young to play, so she asked a co-worker to sign it and eventually her boyfriend, who tried unsuccessfully to claim it.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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Cass County Auditor/Election Commissioner Dale Sunderman reports Monday, Aug. 8^th, is the first day for non-party organizations and candidates nominated by petition, to file nomination papers for county or township offices. The petitions may be filed with the County Auditor’s Office. The last day to file, is Aug. 31^st. Nomination petitions and other election forms are available at the office of the Cass County Auditor, as well as from the Iowa Secretary of State’s Office at sos.iowa.gov.

Non-partisan positions scheduled to appear on the Nov. 8^th General Election ballot in Cass County, include:

1. Cass County Soil and Water Conservation District commissioner (3 positions)
2. Cass County Agricultural Extension Council (4 positions)
3. Township Trustees – 1 full-term trustee each in the Edna and Union Townships; and, 1 vacancy term trustee in Edna and Union Townships. (you must be a resident of the respective township, which includes the cities).
4. Cass County Hospital Trustee – 2 full-term positions: 1 for the Northwest District, and 1 for the Southeast District. To be eligible for the Northwest District, you must reside in the Brighton, Pymosa, Washington or Grove Townships (Including the cities of Marne and Atlantic); To be eligible for the Southeast District position, you must live in the Edna, Massena, Union or Victoria Townships (including the cities of Cumberland and Massena).

Nomination petitions must include the following number of signatures: 25 each for the Ag Extension and Soil and Water Conservation seats and 50 for Hospital Trustee. Township Trustees candidates do not need nomination papers. You only need to file an Affidavit of Candidacy. Only Edna and Union Townships will fill their positions by election. The other 14 townships’ officers are appointed by the Cass County Board of Supervisors.

Incumbents for the aforementioned positions set to appear on the ballot include:

Cass Co. Hospital Trustee/NW District: John Molgaard

Cass Co. Hospital Trustee/SE District: Phyllis Stakey

S&W Conservation District Commissioner: Curt Behrends; Chase Wheatley & Norbert Ray Wilson.

Co. Ag. Extension Council: Julie Aupperle; Darrin Petty; Marcy Jo Dorsey & Malena Sothman.

Incumbents Township Officers: Edna – Trustee: Keith Nelson; Trustee (Vacancy Term) Kevin Stender; Union Township – Trustee: Delmar South; Trustee (Vacancy term) Richard Hoffman. For additional information, call Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman at 712-243-4570, or e-mail auditor@casscoia.us.

When parents separate and fathers move out, children often experience long term negative effects. But what happens when mom and dad get back together? A new Iowa State University study finds parents reconciling benefits a daughter’s mental health. I-S-U human development researcher Cassandra Dorius is part of a team that studied a national sample of 3,700 children.

The group looked at the implications of “boomerang” dads — fathers who separate and then reunite with their child’s mother. Dorius says while sons don’t seem to benefit from the reconciliation, daughters do. “Girls are much more likely to be depressed. And so they might be more responsive to this because one of the reasons they’re more depressed is because they tend to internalize a lot of the emotions from the relationships that they’re in,” Dorius said.

A boomerang dad’s additional time and financial resources may also play a role. Dorius believes dads who reconcile with their child’s mother tend to be more invested in their children. “And they’re actually kind of blocking other men from coming into the home, which may also be associated with some negative things. And I think that the fact the dad is present, investing more money…and then also there is not another father figure in the home, we are hypothesizing that those are some of the reasons these children are able to maintain higher levels of mental health,” Dorius said.

The national study is published in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

(Radio Iowa)