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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A state hotline to combat bullying is under consideration for Iowa. The idea follows the weekend suicide of a 14-year-old northwest Iowa boy who was bullied after he acknowledged to others that he was gay. At least two lawmakers are checking into whether a hotline can be set up before the legislative session ends. Rep. Mary Mascher, D-Iowa City, says she’s been thinking about “how isolating it is for kids who are bullied and are scared.”  Mascher and Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, are checking costs and looking into whether an anti-bullying component could be added to the Iowa Suicide & Crisis Hotlines.

Residents in Shelby County currently signed-up for the “Code Red” alert system will receive an alert next week, as part of a test of the system. The test is scheduled to occur at about 7-p.m., on April 26^th. County Emergency Management Coordinator Bob Seivert says any resident of Shelby County who has not signed-up for the Code Red Alerts, should do so as soon as possible, especially in light of the severe weather season.

The system was made available to residents of the County in 2009. Sievert says nearly 17-hundred out of the County’s 12,000 residents are currently signed-up for the alerts. The Code Red system was used in Fremont County, and was credited with making a difference in saving the lives of Thurman residents, who were alerted to a tornado which nearly destroyed the small town, but resulted in no deaths. 

The Code Red system will deliver warnings to your cell and home phones. It can also be used for a missing child alert, chemical spill or release, and other such emergencies. To sign-up for Code Red Alerts in Shelby County, log on to https://cne.coderedweb.com/Default.aspx?groupid=roU6u4tSj3bzjR8hdqfzcg%3d%3d,go to http://www.shco.org/ and click on the Code Red Warning System quick link, or call 712-755-2124.

Representatives of First Whitney Bank and Trust recently presented Cass County Memorial Hospital Foundation Director Dawn Marin with a check for $10,000, to be used for the CCMH Foundation’s “Healing Garden” Project, to be located on the Cass County Health System Campus.

Paul Gude (left) and Jason Nicholas, representing First Whitney Bank and Trust, recently presented Dawn Marnin, Foundation Director at Cass County Memorial Hospital, a $10,000 donation to be used toward the creation of a Healing Garden on the CCHS campus.

The Healing Garden is being designed to serve as a “Peaceful haven for patients, their family members and the hospital staff.” It will feature a fountain, quiet places, benches and a healing Garden of Hope.

For more details on the project, listen to the KJAN podcast of “Backyard and Beyond,” with Lavon Eblen. Just go to our “Podcasts” page to find and download or direct play the program. Or, for more information on how you can help with the project, contact Dawn Marnin, 712-243-7409 or go to www.casshealth.org<http://www.casshealth.org>.

The Iowa Small Business Development Center (SBDC) recently elected Kathy Jordan of Council Bluffs as the newest members of its State Advisory Board. Jordan joins 2012 Board Chair Brian Brown, CEO and Founder, Murphy Business & Financial of the Heartland Corporation, Cedar Rapids, and 2012 Vice Chair Jim Patton, Governor of Rotary District 5970, Rockwell City, and 31 other board members who represent all regions of the state and many of the partners and associations that represent Iowa’s businesses and industries.

Jordan is the president and owner of Kathy’s Koffees, doing business as Scooter’s Coffeehouse, and operates two Scooter’s Coffeehouse franchises in the Council Bluffs area. She is currently the longest standing franchise owner for the company and has over 20 years of management experience in the food service industry. As an Iowa Small Business Development Center State Advisory Board member, Jordan will provide insight and perspective to this successful business assistance organization.

The Iowa Small Business Development Center is an outreach program of Iowa State University’s College of Business. Partially funded by the U. S. Small Business Administration, the organization has 16 regional business assistance centers located strategically across the state. Since program inception in 1981, the organization has provided free, expert, confidential business advice and affordable, practical training workshops to hundreds of thousands of Iowa businesses and entrepreneurs.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of a Red Oak man on Wednesday.

At about 3:00 PM in the 1200 block of Highland in Red Oak, the Sheriff’s Office arrested 54-year-old Charles Netherton on Red Oak on a harassment charge.  Netherton was transported to the Montgomery County Jail where he later posted bond and was released.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say a Griswold woman was arrested Wednesday afternoon on theft charges, in connection with money allegedly stolen from the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital Foundation and MCMH Employee Sounding Board. 48-year-old Mitzi Wallace, of Griswold, is alleged to have taken about $10,000 from both entities over an extended period of time, but the actual amount could be more. Wallace was arrested on two counts of 2nd degree theft.  An investigation into the crime remains ongoing.

(5-p.m. News, Thursday)

The Iowa Department of Transportation, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration and Illinois Department of Transportation, will be hosting both in-person, and online, self-directed open house meetings May 1st through May 12th, 2012, for the Chicago to Omaha Regional Passenger Rail System Planning Study. 

The open house meetings are intended to illustrate various route alternatives, explain the process used to evaluate the route alternatives, discuss results of the alternatives analysis, and gain public input on the route alternatives. The online, self-directed open house meeting and route alternatives analysis report will be available May 1st through May 12th on the study’s website at www.iowadot.gov/chicagotoomaha/.

 In-person open house meetings will be held:

In Des Moines, on Wed., May 2nd, from 4-7pm,  at the State Historical Society of Iowa Building Atrium, 600 E. Locust St.

And, in Council Bluffs, on Thu., May 3rd, frm 4-7 p.m., at the Mid-America Center, Rooms E/F, One Arena Way

Tamara Nicholson, director of the Iowa DOT’s Office of Rail Transportation says “Findings from the route alternatives analysis will be presented at in-person and online public meetings. Each meeting will contain the same information.”  The route alternatives analysis report will be available on the study’s website. Comments on the document can be provided on the website or at any of the in-person open house meetings. All comments on route alternatives and the alternatives analysis report, submitted online, by mail, phone message or in person will be accepted until May 21, 2012. For those without Internet access, all meeting materials, including a comment form, may be requested by calling the study’s toll-free line at 800-488-7119. Comments are also being accepted by calling this number.

Damage in southwest Iowa from last weekend’s twin tornadoes is climbing into the many millions of dollars, but the price tag apparently isn’t high enough for two hard-hit communities to qualify for federal aid. Iowa U-S Senator Tom Harkin says it’s an unfortunate fact and the rules are in place for a reason. “We’ve spoken with Homeland Security about this,” Senator Harkin says. “They’ve noted that it’s quite unlikely that Thurman would be eligible for a presidential disaster declaration, given the level of loss and the expected insured rate. The same would be true also, I’ve heard, of Creston.”

In the small town of Thurman, virtually every home had at least some twister damage, while 14 houses were destroyed and 28 more were heavily damaged. In Creston, the hospital and community college were among the larger structures that were hit by the tornado, in addition to a number of homes and other businesses. Governor Terry Branstad has declared Union and Fremont counties as state disaster areas, but Harkin says that’s probably as far as it’ll go.

Harkin says, “What you look at are the uninsured losses and they’re well below the limits that would be required for a presidential declaration at the national level.” It’s not that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is broke, Harkin says. FEMA has the money, he adds, it’s just that Creston and Thurman won’t qualify for it.

“Obviously, budgets are tight,” Harkin says. “We’ll do whatever we can to assist and help but there are pretty set requirements for what is a national disaster and what is a local or state-type of disaster.” Both tornadoes that hit Saturday were classified as E-F-2s, with winds topping out around 125 to 135 miles an hour.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)