The Iowa Board of Chiropractic has filed a Notice of Hearing and Statement of Charges against a Chiropractor from Atlantic. According to IBC documents, a disciplinary contested case hearing for Melissa S. Sternberg, who operates Dr. Zook’s Family Chiropractic in Atlantic and Carson, will take place 10-a.m. Oct. 10th, in Des Moines. The Board alleges:

• Sternberg represented herself as a chiropractic physician, when her license was suspended or on inactive status, in Violation of Iowa Code.
• Sternberg is practicing with an inactive license, in Violation of Iowa Code.
• And, that she has failed to comply with a subpoena issued by the Board, or otherwise failing to cooperate with a Board investigation, in violation of Iowa Code.

The Board’s records show Sternberg’s business license to practice chiropractic was suspended in Feb., 2015. Her license expired on June 30th, 2016. Her license was indefinitely suspended in Feb. 2015 due to the Board’s receipt of a certificate of non-compliance from the Iowa Department of Revenue Centralized Collection Unit.  The statement issued by the Iowa Board of Chiropractic said the matter may be resolved by settlement agreement if Sternberg follows the procedural rules.

(More information on this case can be found here: https://idph.iowa.gov/Licensure/Iowa-Board-of-Chiropractic/Discipline-and-Public-Actions?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery )

The Harlan Fire Department was called to Essentia, east of Harlan, at around 5:24-p.m., Friday. According to our sister station KNOD in Harlan, the original call was for an explosion in the east part of the building. Harlan Fire Chief Roger Bissen said upon arrival, the fire department did not find any fire, but there was a lot of smoke in that area of the building. The cause of the smoke was powder inside of one of the hammer mills had ignited, causing the explosion. The blast was contained within the stainless steel tank. The Harlan Fire Department disassembled the machine and ventilated the building. There was no damage to the building.

(7/24 — Corrected to indicate how the pickup got out of the ditch)

A call to the Cass County Communications Center at around 3:52-a.m. today (Monday) resulted in the arrest of a man at gunpoint. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office says a caller reported a burgundy Ford Ranger pickup in the ditch at 700th and Quincy Road. A friend helped to pull the vehicle, driven by 38-year old Jared Finnell, of Cumberland, out of the ditch, after which he drove into Cumberland. About one-half hour later, Deputy Kyle Quist saw the pickup and initiated a traffic stop south of Cumberland. At the time, a passenger in the vehicle was ordered out and held at gunpoint while backup was called for.

Finnell refused to comply with the Deputies’ orders to exit the vehicle, but just as the Cass County K9 was about to be deployed, Finnell exited the pickup and was taken into custody without further incident. He was charged with OWI/1st offense, and Interference with Official Acts. Finnell was released from the Cass County Jail later in the day, Monday, on his own recognizance.

(Radio Iowa) — People living in the central Iowa town of Brooklyn are ramping up efforts to find a missing local woman. Twenty-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, who is a University of Iowa student, was last seen Wednesday night in Brooklyn. Friends and family say she had been dog sitting at the time she disappeared. Poweshiek County Sheriff’s deputies and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agents met Sunday at the Brooklyn fire station to talk about the investigation, while others in the community of about 15-hundred are trying to raise awareness that Mollie is still missing. Many businesses in the downtown area have posters on their front doors which describe Mollie as being five feet two inches tall with long brown hair. Volunteer Carla Kriegel talked with K-C-R-G T-V about the effort. “We’re trying to get the word out, we want Mollie home safe,” Kriegel says.

Most of the posters are being made at Live Now Designs in Brooklyn. People are volunteering to help print posters and then distribute them around the area. Kriegel also made cards with similar information about Mollie.  “My daughter is going to put them in the pay envelopes — she works at a local business, also a restaurant — we thought we would get these around to local restaurants,” she said.  Live Now Designs also plans to make yard signs, t-shirts and billboards with Mollie’s picture and information of how to contact authorities. Kriegel tells K-C-R-G T-V the Brooklyn community is close-knit and they all want to find Mollie. “They’re family, you know we look after each other,” Kriegel says. “You know you have a lot of ups and downs that go on in small towns and everybody knows everybody’s business. But when it comes down to it, we look after each other.”

The last community search happened Friday when the public went all through town and on the outskirts to look for Mollie. The sheriff’s office says it’ll post on social media if they need the public’s help for another search.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Fire officials in northeastern Iowa have requested that a city consider billing insurance companies for the cost of responding to crashes, fires and other emergencies. Fire Chief Pat Treloar recently told Waterloo City Council members that the program would only target insurers and wouldn’t seek to collect from those involved in the incidents when coverage is not available.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Treloar has proposed a contract with Fire Recovery USA. The California-based company provides services to more than 900 fire departments in 42 states. Treloar says the company has contracts with Waukee, Johnston, Grimes, Knoxville and Granger, Iowa. At least two council members say they felt the program was worth a try.

No date has been scheduled for the City Council to vote on the proposal.

(Radio Iowa) — Most streets are now clear of storm debris in Marshalltown, but much work remains to rebuild after last Thursday’s E-F-3 tornado plowed through the central Iowa town. The call went out immediately for first responders and one of the first to arrive was State Center Police Chief Jeff Bunn. Even though Bunn has been a law officer in State Center 21 years, this was a first. “We have what we call a general alarm where dispatch will send out an alert tone and they basically request all agencies to respond to Marshalltown,” Chief Bunn says. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard it, I mean, we’ve never really even practiced it.”

Despite a lack of training for how to respond to that general alarm, Bunn says everyone acted accordingly. “When that alert tone went out, I knew right away what was going to happen,” Bunn says. “The dispatcher announced, ‘This is a general alarm. All emergency services respond to Marshalltown immediately,’ and they did and it was amazing.” Bunn says in earlier drills, it was expected that if a disaster struck the area, authorities could count on ten ambulances responding. Last Thursday night, 43 ambulances arrived in Marshalltown. Much of the damage was concentrated on Marshalltown’s First Ward. Sue Cahill, the city councilor for that area of town, says the long term effects of the twister will be much more than just property damage. “Next door to me are some families who originally came from southeast Asia,” Cahill says. “They asked me that night of the tornado, ‘Is it going to come back?’ They didn’t have any idea what a tornado is. They might’ve been used to a monsoon or a different type of storm.”

She says countless residents will need professional counseling to overcome what they’ve experienced. “We have many people who are still recounting their time in the basement,” Cahill says. “There’s a story of someone uptown, he and his son were in a stairwell outside in the downtown. How are they going to handle that in the long term?” She notes it’s stunning that there wasn’t one death in the wake of the 12 tornadoes confirmed by the National Weather Service on Thursday statewide. With Marshalltown’s city offices among the many buildings damaged, the city council will meet tonight at the public library.