DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A 53-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a woman at her home in Dubuque. Police say Garry James has been in custody since Saturday on unrelated charges from a bar disturbance. The murder charge was filed Monday. Online court records don’t list the name of an attorney who could comment for him.

Friends told police they found the body of 53-year-old Michelle Kinney early Monday morning. Officers say she’d suffered puncture wounds. Police say evidence collected from James’ clothing “corroborated evidence” found in Kinney’s apartment.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — A former school district official in northern Iowa has filed a lawsuit alleging gender and wage discrimination. The Globe Gazette reports that Mason City Schools’ former human resources director Jodie Anderson filed the suit Friday. The lawsuit names Superintendent Dave Versteeg, School Board Vice President Jodi Draper, HR Director Tom Drzycimski and the district. The lawsuit says Anderson found that “men were being paid more than women for the same categories of work” when she examined salary structures in 2015. The lawsuit says Drzycimski was hired for about $23,000 more than Anderson made, despite the equal work of the role.

Anderson worked for the district from 2015-2017. She says she resigned in part after feeling she had been discriminated against. Draper declined to comment to the newspaper.

Deputies in Page County responded at around 7-a.m. today (Tuesday), to a call of an intruder at 3095 Ivy Avenue, about one-mile north of Blanchard. When Deputies arrived, the homeowner explained that they woke up and found 34-year old Brandon Michael Risner, of Bedford, asleep in their entry way. The residents did not know Risner. When they tried to wake him, Risner responded that he had permission to be there. Deputies spoke with Risner, who did not know the homeowners or where he was.

Brandon Risner

Risner was found to have a warrant from Minnesota for 3 felony counts of Damage to property in the 1st degree and 3 counts of tampering with a motor vehicle. There is no bond on the warrant. He was transported to the Page County Jail where he is being held without bond, pending extradition to Minnesota.

BUFFALO CENTER, Iowa (AP) — The state has proposed fining a northern Iowa nursing home nearly $30,000, in part over the treatment of an 87-year-old woman officials said was in pain and may not have had water several days before her death. The Iowa Inspections and Appeals Department hasn’t imposed the fine yet against Timely Mission Nursing Home in Buffalo Center, so the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could take over the case. The Des Moines Register reports that no state or federal fine has yet been imposed.

A spokesman for the Iowa department, David Werning, said Tuesday the proposed fines covered the woman’s case and two others: the lack of proper assessment and care of another patient who died at the home the same day and the lack of proper assessment and care of a woman who was diagnosed at a local hospital with infectious colitis, a painful inflammation of the colon. Trinity Mission is run by a tax-exempt nonprofit corporation headed by President Lorie Bierle and Vice President Larry Weaver. Staffers told inspectors that the 87-year-old woman, Virginia Olthoff, was often in pain in the days before her death. Before she went to a hospital Feb. 27, the state citation said, Olthoff was crying, moaning, screaming and bleating “like a sheep” but was given only a nonprescription pain reliever.

Timely Mission staffers noticed Olthoff’s eyes were sunken and dark and told inspectors they couldn’t get a blood pressure reading or feel her pulse. Nearly three hours later Olthoff taken by ambulance to the hospital. Inspectors said a registered nurse at the home explained the delay by saying she didn’t think Olthoff was “that bad yet” and said the staff “had other things to do besides sit there and watch the clock go by.” A hospital emergency room doctor later told inspectors that laboratory tests indicated Olthoff probably hadn’t consumed any fluids for four to five days and might have had very limited fluids for weeks. Olthoff was comatose when she arrived, the doctor said, but was awake and alert after receiving a more than 2 pints (1 liter) of water.
She died after being returned to the home that same day, the report said.

In an update to our earlier reports, a man who was seriously injured during a motorcycle accident Saturday afternoon in Ringgold County, has died. The Iowa State Patrol confirms 54-year-old Dewayne A. Clark, of Mt. Ayr, died from his injuries after being flown to a hospital in Des Moines.

Clark, who was not wearing a helmet, was riding a 2003 Harley Davidson motorcycle on Highway 169 in Mt. Ayr at around 1-p.m., Saturday, when he passed a golf cart on the left, as the cart was turning left onto E. Monroe Street, in Mt. Ayr.

The two occupants of the golf cart were not injured in the collision.

(Radio Iowa) – After years of trying to fix critical problems in many of the nation’s Veterans Affairs hospitals, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says confirming Robert Wilkie on Monday as the new V-A Secretary is a big plus. Grassley, a Republican, says Wilkie has proven himself as being a supporter of whistleblowers and he doesn’t retaliate against those who speak out when there’s trouble. “Respect for whistleblowers, because we wouldn’t have known anything about everything that was happening that was so tragic down in Arizona four or five years ago if whistleblowers hadn’t of come forward.”

A report issued earlier this month found almost 700-thousand veterans were waiting more than 30 days for appointments at V-A facilities, while 76-thousand veterans had waited more than six months. Only the Pentagon is larger than the V-A, so in a bureaucracy of that size, Grassley says it can be a difficult process to identify and remove people who are part of the problem. “When things are wrong, if heads don’t roll, nothing changes,” Grassley says. “It’s going to be easier under existing law for the VA to fire people, so when something’s wrong, you send a real strong signal if you fire people.”
In a news release, Grassley says, “Wilkie has dedicated his life to defending and serving his nation as a member of the armed forces and a distinguished public servant.” The Choice program that was set up in the V-A in 2014 isn’t working the way it should, according to Grassley, and he trusts Wilkie to make the needed corrections. “Getting that straightened out so people can have access to private medical care when the VA can’t deliver it within 30 days for a non-emergency situation ought to be a top priority,” he says.

Wilkie becomes the fourth V-A secretary in five years. The inspector general’s report found more than 23-hundred job openings in V-A clinics nationwide. In recent years, some officials in V-A hospitals were accused of falsifying wait times and at least 40 veterans died while waiting for care. A V-A report released in June found the suicide rate among veterans in 2011 was 16 per day, while now, up to 20 veterans take their own lives each day.

Red Oak Police report two people were arrested this (Tuesday) morning, on drug charges. 22-year old Paige Marie Clark, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Her bond was set at $300. And, 27-year old Aaron Gar Nelson, of Omaha, was arrested for felony Ongoing Criminal Conduct, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. His bond was set at $25,000. Both were taken into custody just before 8-a.m. in the 300 block of N. 8th Street, in Red Oak.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports 38-year old Michael James Chamberlain, of Afton, was arrested at around 2-a.m. Friday in Afton. He was arrested on a Palo Alto County Court Order and a Palo Alto County warrant for failure to appear. Chamberlain was held in the Union County Jail until being picked up by Palo Alto County Deputies.