Authorities in Pottawattamie County say a Carter Lake Police Officer was taken to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs as a precautionary measure Monday morning after he responded to an incident at a Carter Lake motel and later became light headed. Carter Lake Police Chief Shawn Kannedy told KETV in Omaha, that the incident happened after employees at a Super 8 motel around saw bags of drugs left in a room and called police at around 11-a.m., Monday.  Officer Brock Gentile was on the scene along with Pott. County Sheriffs Deputies, the Iowa State Patrol, Omaha Police and Omaha Fire fighters. Gentile brought the drugs back to police headquarters to be booked into evidence and test the narcotics.

Kannedy said that’s when Gentile got light headed. Afterward, Carter Lake police requested additional help to make sure wasn’t the powerful drug fentanyl or something more dangerous. The drug tested positive for methamphetamine. The bags contained about 1.5 lbs. of meth. Officer Gentile was held overnight in the hospital, and was expected to be released and back to work today (Tuesday).

The investigation is currently in the hands of the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Force. Investigators are working to track down where the drugs came from based on the log of motel guests.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Democratic lawmaker has filed a lawsuit alleging Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds and a top aide broke the law when they transferred $13 million from a reserve fund to balance the budget. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Reynolds and Department of Management director Dave Roederer by Rep. Chris Hall, the ranking member on the House Appropriations committee.

It asks a judge to declare that Reynolds’ proclamation ordering the fund transfer in September was illegal and to void “all actions” taken as a result. At issue is a $13 million transfer from the State Economic Emergency Fund, which was created to cushion the blow of fiscal downturns on core services. The lawsuit claims that the legal conditions weren’t met to trigger the governor’s transfer authority, an argument Reynolds has dismissed.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests. Saturday morning, 27-year old Chantel Marie Jones, of Lorimor, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center for simple assault. Jones was later released from Jail on $300 bond. And, 23-year old Patrick Riley Iiams, of Creston, was arrested Friday nighton a Union County warrant for probation violation. Iiams was picked up from the Montgomery County Jail and transported to the Union County Jail where he is being held on $5,000 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lottery players have a chance at winning two giant jackpots that together amount to nearly $800 million. The Mega Millions drawing will take place Tuesday night, offering players an annuity jackpot of $343 million, paid over 29 years. The game’s cash option is an estimated $215 million. It’s the largest Mega Millions prize since a $393 million drawing last August.

On Wednesday night, players of the Powerball game will seek a $440 million annuity prize, or a $278.3 million cash prize. Powerball hasn’t had such a big prize since August, when a Massachusetts player won a $758.7 million jackpot.

The odds of winning jackpots in either game are incredibly small. Mega Millions has odds of one in 302.6 million and Powerball is slightly better at one in 292.2 million.

Republican Congressman Steve King says census-takers in 2020 should ask if people living in the United States are citizens. “We need to be counting citizens instead of people for the purposes of redistricting,” King says. “That’s going to take at a minimum a statute and it may take a constitutional amendment and so in this upcoming Census, I want to count separately the citizens separate from the non-citizens, the lawfully present Americans separate from the illegal aliens that are here so that America can see how bad this is.”

King says if the Census is conducted as he proposes, Iowa would gain a congressional seat from a state like California. “In districts like Maxine Waters, who only needs about 40,000 votes to get reelected in her district and it takes me over 120,000 in mine because hers is loaded with illegals and mine only has a few,” King says.

The Justice Department has asked the U.S. Census Bureau to put a citizenship question on the 2020 Census forms, to calculate “the voting-age population” in areas “where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected.” Critics say the question will make it harder to count minorities and immigrants. The U.S. Census Bureau’s website credits the nation’s founders for planning to “count every person living in the newly-created United States of America and to use that count to determine representation in Congress.” U.S. Supreme Court rulings have upheld the power of congress to direct census-takers to collect other data. The first Census was conducted in 1790 and has been done every 10 years since.

(Radio Iowa)

Air temperatures in the teens-below-zero with wind chills in the 20s and 30s-below caused a host of problems for Iowans since 2018 arrived.  The water tower froze on New Year’s Day in Evansdale, leaving residents in the Waterloo suburb without water for hours and under a boil order. The cold caused a fire hydrant to malfunction when crews arrived at a burning condo complex in Urbandale last night. Damage was heavy to the 36-unit building. Nearby, there was an 11-vehicle chain-reaction crash on Interstate 235 in Des Moines this morning on a slippery overpass. School districts like Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown and Ottumwa stayed closed today, while others were delayed. Sioux City had an air temp of 24-below a night ago, the coldest reading there in 28 years.

(Radio Iowa)

The State of Iowa has launched a new initiative to combat childhood obesity. The childhood health campaign called “5210 – Healthy Choices Count” is a public-private partnership with the Healthiest State Initiative and the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). 5210 is a nationally recognized childhood obesity prevention program that focuses on the importance of four simple daily health habits:

5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables;
2 hours or less of screen time (television, computer, video games, phones, etc.);
1 hour or more of physical activity; and
0 (or reduced) sugar-sweetened beverages.
“Research has shown that children who have healthy eating habits, are physically active and spend less time in front of a screen do better in school,” Gov. Reynolds said. Local obesity rates are a concern to the Healthy Cass County group. Looking at Iowa teen data, nearly 30 percent are overweight or obese, according to IDPH.

The childhood obesity prevention program was developed in the state of Maine. The goal is to increase physical activity and healthy eating for children from birth to 18 years through three core principles: healthy places support healthy choices, consistent messaging across sectors is essential, and strategies are based on science and recommended by the medical community. Watch for future articles promoting health and well-being from Healthy Cass County.