LONG GROVE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a driver and a student were injured in a collision of two school buses in eastern Iowa’s Scott County. The accident occurred around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, about two miles northwest of Long Grove. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office says a northbound bus halted at a stop sign and then proceeded into the rural intersection, colliding with a westbound bus.

The driver of the northbound bus, 67-year-old Stanley Ray, was taken to Trinity Bettendorf hospital for treatment of injuries believed to be non-life-threatening. One child was treated at the scene.  It’s unclear how many children were on the two buses. The Sheriff’s Office says both were carrying children from the North School Community Schools district. The collision is being investigated.

Red Oak Police, Wednesday afternoon, arrested 25-year old Robert James Adams, of Red Oak, for Driving While License Suspended. Adams was taken into custody at around 4:20-p.m. in the 400 block of E. Linden Street, and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $300.

Officials with the Senior Alumni Scholarship Foundation (SASF) report the Foundation will award three, $1,750 scholarships to Atlantic High School seniors. Applications are due Monday, April 3rd. Application forms are available on the Atlantic Community Schools website. Follow the links to Atlantic High School, Guidance, Local Scholarships and then scroll down to SASF Scholarship.

SASF Chair Leslie Bullock Goldsmith says many students meet the criteria for SASF scholarships, which are broad-based and require: Financial need; A character reference; A GPA of 2.5 or higher, and acceptance to a two- or four-year college or vocational/technical school.

SASF encourages high school seniors and their parents to check out all of the local scholarships on the school’s website. Students may be eligible for several of the scholarships on the list.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) – Another Iowa hospital is closing its inpatient psychiatric care unit. Mahaska Health Partnership Chief Executive Officer Jay Christensen said Wednesday that the Oskaloosa hospital discharged its last psychiatric inpatient Monday.

He says the unit has been losing about $500,000 a year, in large part because many psychiatric patients have to stay in the hospital for weeks or months after they’re ready to leave, because nursing homes or other residential facilities won’t take them. He says many of the patients are physically aggressive.

The Oskaloosa psychiatric unit is the latest of several closed over about the past several years in Iowa. The state closed its Clarinda and Mount Pleasant psychiatric hospitals in 2015. Community hospitals in Creston, Fort Dodge, Iowa Falls, Keokuk and West Union also closed their inpatient psychiatric units.

Should they stay or should they go? Iowa Senators debated the fate of traffic enforcement cameras for nearly an hour last (Wednesday) night, dramatically ditching a proposal to ban the cameras. Instead, senators voted to let the cameras remain, with the fines used exclusively for public safety or roads. Senator Dan Zumbach, a Republican from Ryan, touted the traffic cameras along Interstate-380 in Cedar Rapids. “Those traffic cameras have changed people’s habits,” Zumbach said. “…The road is safer because of those cameras.”

Senator Kevin Kinney, a Democrat from Oxford, is a Johnson County Deputy Sheriff. He says the cameras are helpful on congested highways where law enforcement cannot safely pull drivers over for speeding. “I’ve had to tackle a state trooper to get him out of the way of vehicles coming at us,” Kinney says.

Traffic cameras have passionate critics, too. Senator David Johnson, an independent from Ocheyedan, ridiculed colleagues who voted to keep the cameras going. “This group hug for Big Brother.” Senator Brad Zaun, a Republican from Urbandale, has tried for years to pass a bill to outlaw traffic cameras.  “I am very disappointed, but that does happen,” Zaun said. “…I call these ‘gotcha cams.'”

The first automated enforcement cameras were installed in Iowa about a dozen years ago. Since then, legislators have debated bills that would limit fines as well as legislation to completely ban the cams, but there’s never been a final resolution. Critics say out-of-state companies that review the video and mail out the citations are making too much money from the cameras. In late January, the chiefs of police in Iowa’s two largest cities told senators the cameras in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids had been placed on interstates where it’s not safe for police to pull drivers over and ticket them for speeding.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s congressional delegation is part of the drama over whether enough Republicans will vote for House leadership’s plan to replace President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Iowa is represented by four congressmen. Three of them will vote NO on the bill. Democrat Dave Loebsack of Iowa City has been a firm “no” on the bill.

On Tuesday, Republican Congressman Rod Blum of Dubuque announced he could NOT vote for the Republican plan. Blum tweeted that the bill does not do ENOUGH to lower insurance premiums. On Wednesday, Congressman David Young of Van Meter called the plan a “good start,” but said it “does not yet get it right.” And then on Wednesday afternoon, the White House announced Republican Congressman Steve King of Kiron had been convinced by the president during a meeting in the White House to vote FOR the bill.

King posted a video on Facebook about his meeting in the Oval Office. “In the end, we have the best chance to get a package that is the closest thing to a full repeal that we can get within this political environment,” King says. And King said he was confident President Trump would use his “bully pulpit” to get other reforms through, like separate legislation that would allow health insurance to be sold across state lines.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

Using a cell phone the wrong way at the wrong time could get you a traffic ticket if a bill that cleared the Iowa Senate last (Wednesday) night becomes law. Drivers still could use a hand-held device to make a phone call or look at a digital map to get G-P-S driving directions, but police could pull a driver over for texting, Snapchatting or having a Facebook live session behind the wheel. Senator Liz Mathis, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, would like to go farther, but she and most of the other senators voted for the bill.

“Maybe someone will be deterred from texting and driving, but we still, I think, in the future will have to address hands-free driving,” Mathis said. “It’s possible to do. We’re going to have to do it to save lives.” Senator Michael Breitbach, a Republican from Strawberry Point who’s a former insurance agent, says he’d like to have a “stronger” state law, too, but the reality is a “hands free” proposal couldn’t pass the legislature. “This is the bill that I can get done today. Whether we can get something more done next week or the week after, I’d be more than happy to explore.”

Breitbach said also, “Some people think that you can’t pass a hands-free bill. Well, guess what? We’ve got it already in Iowa and it happens to be anybody who is driving a commercial vehicle. They are not allowed to use anything but hands free. We can get there. I expect at some point we will get there and I am sure we haven’t see the last of this issue yet.”

A couple of other senators expressed support for an “eyes on the road, hands on the wheel” approach that would keep drivers from using a smart phone. Senator Tod Bowman , a Democrat from Maquoketa, says the bill is at least a step in the right direction. “While it’s not perfect and it may create some enforcement issues, studies have shown that having your eyes off the road is certainly bad,” Bowman said. “Having your mind off the road is bad and having a hand off the wheel is bad.”

The bill that would let police pull adult drivers over for fiddling with their smart phone while driving cleared the Senate on a 43-to-six vote. The state’s law for teenage drivers has been “hands free” for several years.  Governor Branstad and a coalition called “Stay Alive: Don’t Phone and Drive” are pressing legislators to pass a “hands-free” law for all Iowa motorists.

(Radio Iowa)