(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – The Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner’s Office is celebrating the distinction of being named Iowa Donor Network’s 2023 LEGACI Award Winner for Innovation. LEGACI Awards are given to Iowa Donor Network’s (IDN) partner agencies and/or their dedicated team members for going above and beyond to collaborate with IDN on meeting its mission of “Working Together to Transform Lives through Organ and Tissue Donation”.

There are six categories under the LEGACI Awards: Leadership, Education, Gratitude, Advocacy, Clinical Excellence, and Innovation. The award for Innovation is given to individuals and/or partner agencies who seek new ways to educate and promote donation, develop, and implement breakthrough best practices, and promote the use of technology to establish/ improve the donation process. “Our team is extremely appreciative of this recognition,” said Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Elliott. “We’re advocates of organ and tissue donation and it’s rewarding to be recognized for promoting an initiative we strongly believe in.”

The Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner’s Office was nominated for its support in piloting technology known as iReferral. iReferral uses an electronic portal in lieu of a phone call to share information with Iowa Donor Network. The Office’s assistance in piloting the program helped Iowa Donor Network learn how other Medical Examiner offices, as well as EMS agencies, might utilize the program to increase the number of patients and families in Iowa who may be offered the opportunity of donation. In 2022, the Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner’s Office made 117 referral calls to Iowa Donor Network, resulting in five donors who went on to give the life saving and life enhancing gifts of tissue. One tissue donor can impact between 50 to 300 individuals.

Photo: Front row from left: PCMEO Investigator Felica Luczek, PCMEO Investigator Kalen Knight, PCMEO Investigator Abby Robinson, PCMEO Chief Investigator/Coordinator Cheri Dahlheim, IDN Partner Relations Coordinator Madelyn Clark, PCMEO Medical Examiner Dr. Christopher Elliott. Second row from left: Board of Supervisors, Tim Wichman, Scott Belt, Brian Shea, Susan Miller, Jeff Jorgensen. (Courtesy Craig Carlsen, Pott. Co. Public Relations)

“Donation is a collaborative effort, and Iowa Donor Network is grateful to the entire Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner team for all they do to promote donation in their community,” said Iowa Donor Network Partner Relations Coordinator Madelyn Clark.

About Iowa Donor Network: Iowa Donor Network (IDN) is a non-profit organization that operates as the primary contact for organ, tissue and eye donation services for the state of Iowa. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have certified IDN to function as the single organ procurement agency in the state. IDN also serves as the tissue recovery agency for the state. To learn more, visit iowadonornetwork.org.

About Pottawattamie County: The purpose of Pottawattamie County government is to provide the highest quality government possible to the citizens of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, and other governmental entities in the most efficient and cost-effective manner possible. It is also to encourage economic development, enhance our tax base and provide higher quality jobs for our citizens. For more information, visit PottCounty-ia.gov.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports four recent arrests. Three arrests took place on Tuesday (June 6):

• 41-year-old Jennifer Lee Kell, of Council Bluffs, was arrested at around 1:50-p.m. on Highway 34 at Ingrum Ave., for Driving While Barred (Bond $2,000).
• 33-year-old Tyler Eldon Buckner, of Emerson, was arrested at around 11:15-p.m. Tuesday, for being a Felon in Control of A Firearm. (Bond $5,000).
• and, 61-year-old Jeffery Richard Pape, of Emerson, was arrested at around 5:20-p.m., Tuesday, on a warrant for Contempt of Court. (No bond)

On Saturday (June 3), 39-year-old Kevin Douglas Wendt, of Pacific Junction, was arrested in Mills County at around 7:25-p.m., on a warrant for Violation of Probation. (Bond $1,000)

(Radio Iowa) – Keokuk is getting a two-million dollar federal grant to clean up an abandoned industrial site, with plans in the works to redevelop the land. The former Elkem-Carbide plant has been vacant for more than 16 years and is contaminated with a variety of toxins. As the 80-acre site gets sanitized, Keokuk Mayor Kathie Mahoney says the city will look to attract businesses there. “It’s going to cleanup a brownfield area that we’ve needed to get cleaned up,” Mahoney says, “and it’s going to put some hope and promise in the city of Keokuk for a better, cleaner place.”

The site will be divided into six sections. Four will be developed for business and industry. The city will rent one parcel to Alliant Energy for a solar field. The sixth section, due to its topography, will be developed into a nature and recreation area.

(Radio Iowa) – Another lawsuit is being filed following the partial collapse of a downtown Davenport apartment building that killed three tenants. Lexus and Quanishia Berry were in their apartment on May 28th when their part of the six-story building dropped to the ground. Lexus was able to escape, but her wife was trapped for nearly eight hours, and only got out of the rubble after part of one leg was amputated. Lexus Berry spoke at a news conference on Wednesday. “All that we want is just accountability to be able to have closure and to know why this happened and to be able to move forward with our lives,” Berry says. “We definitely, most importantly, want you guys to know that we are not victims to the situation. We are survivors.”

Steven Hart is the attorney for the women and says he asked them what they wanted. “And what they said is, ‘We’ve been quiet too long. We’ve been pushed down too long. We’ve been taken advantage of too long. And it struck us as we fell four floors into a pile of rubble that it’s time for someone to be held accountable,'” Hart says.

The lawsuit filed Wednesday names building owner Andrew Wold, several L-L-Cs connected to him, as well as his property management company, engineering firm and contractors. It also names the City of Davenport and the building’s prior owner. The Berrys’ lawsuit is the second to be filed in connection with the incident.

(Washington, D-C) – The expected El Nino has emerged, according to scientists at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center, a division of the National Weather Service. In the monthly outlook released today, forecasters issued an El Nino Advisory, noting that El Nino conditions are present and are expected to gradually strengthen into the winter.

El Nino is a natural climate phenomenon marked by warmer-than-average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator, which occurs on average every 2-7 years. El Nino’s impacts on the climate extend far beyond the Pacific Ocean.

​”Depending on its strength, El Nino can cause a range of impacts, such as increasing the risk of heavy rainfall and droughts in certain locations around the world,” said Michelle L’Heureux, climate scientist at the Climate Prediction Center. “Climate change can exacerbate or mitigate certain impacts related to El Nino. For example, El Nino could lead to new records for temperatures, particularly in areas that already experience above-average temperatures during El Nino.”

El Nino’s influence on the U.S. is weak during the summer and more pronounced starting in the late fall through spring. By winter, there is an 84% chance of greater than a moderate strength El Nino, and a 56% chance of a strong El Nino developing. Typically, moderate to strong El Nino conditions during the fall and winter result in wetter-than-average conditions from southern California to along the Gulf Coast and drier-than-average conditions in the Pacific Northwest and Ohio Valley. El Nino winters also bring better chances for warmer-than-average temperatures across the northern tier of the country.

A single El Nino event will not result in all of these impacts, but El Nino increases the odds of them occurring.

The anticipated persistence of El Nino also contributed to the 2023 Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Hurricane Outlooks issued by NOAA last month. El Nino conditions usually help to suppress Atlantic Hurricane activity, while the presence of El Nino typically favors strong hurricane activity in the central and eastern Pacific Basins.

The Climate Prediction Center’s seasonal temperature and precipitation outlooks will continue to take into account current and forecasted El Nino conditions. These seasonal outlooks are updated monthly, with the next update on June 15. The Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook will be updated in early August.

Scientists have been forecasting the development of El Nino for the last few months and issued the first El Nino Watch on April 13.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – The Mills County Sheriff’s Department reports the arrest on Wednesday, of 38-year-old Jacob Jones, from Glenwood. Jones was taken into custody for Driving While Barred. He posted a $2,000 bond, and was released.

(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Union County Sheriff’s Office report the operator of a motorcycle was transported to the hospital following a collision Wednesday evening on Highway 34. Authorities say 20-year-old Hunter L. Walter, of Creston, was operating a 2016 Kawasaki motorcycle eastbound on Highway 34, when the machine collided with the rear of a 2009 Chevy Cobalt, driven by 25-year-old Fulton S. Abraham, of Murray. Following the collision that happened at around 6:15-p.m., Wednesday, the cycle ended-up in the south ditch.

Hunter Walter was ejected from the motorcycle and slid on the road before coming to rest. He was transported by ambulance to the hospital in Creston. An accident investigation revealed the motorcycle left a long skid mark prior to hitting the car. No citations were issued.

Damage from the crash amounted to $2,000 for the car and $5,000 to the motorcycle.

(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain reports its gross profit rose in the just completed fourth quarter by nearly nine percent compared to the previous year. President and C-E-O, Darren Rebelez, says their in-store sales were up, while the fuel gallons remained flat. He says they are starting to see a few changes in what’s been a tough economy as some of the costs brought on by inflation have eased.

The company saw an increase in sales of its private brand products in stores, which Rebelez says is due in part to the impact of inflation and price increases for national brands. For the fiscal year, Casey’s reported net income increased 31-point-five percent to nearly 447 million dollars. The company added 81 new stores in the fiscal year, ending the year with two-thousand-521 stores.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department reports deputies Wednesday night, arrested a man wanted on an active Pottawattamie County warrant. Logan Hastings was arrested at around 10:15-p.m. in the 100 block of Coolbaugh Street, on the warrant for Violation of Probation. Hastings was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 cash-only bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Former Vice President Mike Pence says he’s entering the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential race because he has a different vision for the country and the party than Donald Trump.  “We are here because we know that Iowa was the right place to start our engines for the great American comeback,” Pence said, to cheers. Pence kicked off his campaign over the noon hour Wednesday, with a rally in Ankeny, calling the former president reckless.

“We need leaders who can distinguish between starting fights and finishing them, between the politics of outrage and standing firm.” Pence spent several minutes discussing the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on the day congress confirmed Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. Pence, as he’s said before, stresses that he had no authority to reject or overturn the results.

“The American people must know leaders in the Republican Party we will keep our oath to support and defend the constitution even when it is not in our political interests to do so,” Pence said. “Anyone who puts themselves over the Constitution should never be president of the United States and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again.”

Pence served 12 years in the U.S. House and was governor of Indiana when Trump chose him as his 2016 running mate. Pence says he’s incredibly proud of the Trump Administration’s conservative agenda.  “As your vice president, I was proud to stand by President Donald Trump every single day when we made America great again,” Pence said. But Pence has been cautioning Republicans to resist the siren song of populism and return to the roots of the Reagan Revolution, leading with tax cuts and repealing regulations.

“We must elect a new Republican president to chart a course for our nation guided by our timeless principles,” Pence said.