As part of Donate Life Month in Iowa, residents are being asked to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and to celebrate those who have saved lives through the gift of donation. Deb Thielen (TEE-lun), a registered nurse at Van Diest Medical Center in Webster City, says the number of Iowa donors continues to grow, but so does the waiting list. “In 2017, a total of 54 Iowans shared the gift of life through organ donation, saving 183 lives,” Thielen says. “Thousands more were healed by 1,743 tissue donors in Iowa.”

There are more than 600 Iowans on the organ transplant waiting list and 115-thousand waiting nationwide. In Iowa, recent reports find about 65-percent of adults have already committed to being organ donors. For those who haven’t, she has a message. “Join the majority of Iowans signed up and register as a donor today,” Thielen says. “Make your wishes known by signing up online at IowaDonorNetwork.org, or check the box when you apply or renew your driver’s license at the Iowa DMV.”

Another person is added to the national waiting list every 10 minutes, while 22 people die each day because the organ they need is not donated in time. Learn more at the website: www.donatelife.net.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Glenwood report 28-year old John Pepper, of Glenwood, was arrested Friday, for OWI/1st offense. Pepper was brought to the Mills County Jail, where his cash or surety bond was set at $1,000.

Officials with the IA Dept. of Transportation’s District 3 Office report road construction work for the expansion of U.S. 20 in Ida and Sac counties will require closing the roadway to traffic between Ida County Road M-25 (near Galva) and U.S. 71 (near Early) from noon Wednesday, Apr. 18, until Friday, Sept. 28, weather permitting. Motorists will be directed around the work zone on a signed detour using Ida County Road M-25, Ida/Sac County Road D-15, and U.S. 71.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Two youths accused in the slaying of another Davenport teenager have made plea deals. Authorities say 18-year-old James Bailey Jr. and 17-year-old Joseph Howard-Rogers Jr. are scheduled to be sentenced May 30 for killing 17-year-old Akeim Hill last May. Police say the two boys met Hill in a parking lot. A fight broke out, and Hill was shot twice. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.

Court records say Bailey pleaded guilty last week to theft after prosecutors dropped murder and robbery charges. Howard-Rogers pleaded guilty to attempted murder after prosecutors dropped murder and robbery charges. They were prosecuted as adults, but Howard-Rogers’ plea agreement says that because he was under 18 when the crime occurred, the court can suspend all or part of his sentence.