Blake Collingsworth speaks to the Atlantic Kiwanis Club on May 10, 2018 about the Josh the Otter Program

The Atlantic Kiwanis Club welcomed in some special guests at their meeting on May 10th including Blake Collingsworth who heads up the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation and Josh the Otter Program. The Atlantic Kiwanis Club has been implementing the Josh the Otter water safety program in the Atlantic school district for about 8 years now and they were presenting their latest program to Kindergarten students at Washington Elementary on Thursday.

The program was started by Blake and Kathy Collingsworth after their son Josh died in a tragic drowning accident in the family pool when he was 2 and a half years old. In speaking with the Atlantic Kiwanis Club Blake Collingsworth stated that he wants the program to help kids understand at a young age that they need to be with an adult when they are around water.  After Josh’s death the family created the Joshua Collingsworth Memorial Foundation and then wrote the Josh The Baby Otter book to help deliver their message.

Blake shared that the number one cause of unintended death of children 4 and under is drowning, something he was upset he didn’t know sooner. He also said drowning is the #2 cause of unintended death of children 14 and under. He hopes that the Josh the Otter program can change the statistics and save lives.

Collingsworth also works with the National Drowning Prevention Association and said statistics show that drowning deaths have decreased by 17% since 2010 and he believes his son Josh and this program is a part of that progress. The Josh the Otter Program has been implemented all around the United States, into Australia, and continues to grow. They have distributed over 250,000 books through service organization efforts.

Kindergarten students in Atlantic, Massena, and Anita receive a copy of the Josh the Otter book when they attend the program. Atlantic Kiwanis Member and project leader Steve Green said they hope to spread the program to the Griswold schools by next year as well. Collingsworth thanked the Atlantic Kiwanis Group for bringing his message to the area.

Find out more about the Foundation and program at www.joshtheotter.org

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A lawyer for the Iowa Public Information Board says agencies can keep secret the personal email addresses used by their board members for official business. In a draft opinion, board legal counsel Travis Starr says private email addresses used by government officials can be exempt from disclosure under the Iowa Open Records Act. He says the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board likely acted lawfully in redacting the email addresses of board members in records released to Bleeding Heartland, a blog that covers Iowa politics.

The board will consider whether to adopt Starr’s opinion next week. Bleeding Heartland editor Laura Belin says anyone who agrees to serve on a board should be accessible to the public. She says agency staffers shouldn’t be allowed to prevent citizens from contacting board members to ask questions or report misconduct, and it’s “disturbing” the information board could give its blessing to that practice.

(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags on the Capitol Complex to be lowered to half-staff from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday, May 11, 2018, in observance of the Iowa Peace Officer Memorial Ceremony. Flags at the Iowa Peace Officer Memorial, located at the Oran Pape State Office Building, will be flown at half-staff the week of May 13-19, 2018, in honor of National Police Week. The governor’s directive applies to all U.S. and state flags on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays on the Capitol Complex. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

The Iowa Peace Officer Memorial Ceremony is open to the public. All are invited to pay their respects to Iowa police officers killed in the line of duty.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Investigators have determined that someone intentionally started a fire at a Cedar Rapids apartment building, injuring eight residents. A city news release says the fire reported around 3:45 a.m. Thursday originated in a hallway of the three-story, six-unit building. No arrests have been reported. The Cedar Rapids Fire Department says arriving firefighters found some people hanging from windows and others injured during their escapes. The department says ladders were quickly employed to help residents to safety as firefighters attacked the blaze, which was extinguished by 4:50 a.m.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — With best friends like these, who needs enemies? An Iowa man says his dog inadvertently shot him while they were roughhousing Wednesday. Fifty-one-year-old Richard Remme, of Fort Dodge, told police he was playing with his dog, Balew, on the couch and tossed the dog off his lap. He says when the pit bull-Labrador mix bounded back up, he must have disabled the safety on the gun in his belly band and stepped on the trigger. The gun fired, striking one of Remme’s legs. He was treated at a hospital and released later that day.

Remme told The Messenger newspaper that Balew is a “big wuss” and laid down beside him and cried because he thought he had done something wrong. Police Chief Roger Porter called the shooting a freakish occurrence.

Several wind energy projects are being proposed and planned across Iowa and most of them need approval at the county level before advancing to state and federal levels. Lucas Nelsen, a program policy associate at the Center for Rural Affairs, says many county leaders don’t have the expertise needed to come up with appropriate rules and policies. “Counties can find themselves way over their heads just from the amount of information they have to dig through,” Nelsen says. “What we wanted to develop was a guide that just lays out the basic features of a wind energy ordinance. It’s not exactly a blueprint you would adopt wholesale but it’s something that walks you through the pieces you’d expect to find in an ordinance.”

Nelsen says many counties have a hard time finding a balance between development and private property rights. “You have to allow the public to come in and be a part of the process and try to find the middle ground, that’s the most important part,” Nelsen says. “Don’t just pass something to pass something. Really try to find a compromise that can ensure that people have the right to use their land but also people don’t feel like they’re being caught out by any development.”

Nelsen says it’s best if the public is involved from the earliest stages and he says if private developers approach you and want a meeting, you might not want to take them up on it. “Try and figure out if you can have that happen at a community level, not just at a private level,” he says. “In some of those cases, just meeting and hashing out the concerns, figuring out if you’re just hearing rumors about a thing rather than what the facts may actually be, it’s an important piece, too.”

Nelsen says tax policy, energy demand, and the development of new power lines is helping spur the drive to build wind power projects. The Center for Rural Affairs is based in Lyons, Nebraska.

(Radio Iowa)