Officials with the Cass County Memorial Hospital today (Friday), report the first baby of 2017 born at Cass County Memorial Hospital was Khaicyn Lee Bo Dean Benton, of Atlantic. He was born on New Year’s Day. The CCHS OB Department celebrates the first baby of the year with a gift of a special embroidered blanket, certificate, and a year’s supply of Pampers diapers.

In the photo, Khaicyn is shown with his mom, Kayleigh, and older brothers Kohldyn and Traevyn.

Governor Terry Branstad says recent employee misconduct at the state-run facility in Glenwood for patients with profound mental disabilities highlights the need for a law change. Six employees at the Glenwood facility were fired, six quit and five others were disciplined after an investigation found 20 residents had been physically and verbally abused by the staff.

“I have by executive order done some things to try to open up the process, but we have a provision in law that makes these personnel matters confidential and it’s a real problem, not just for state government, but for counties, cities and school districts, too,” Branstad says. “So if you have somebody that’s done something inappropriate — could be child abuse, could be abuse like at Glenwood — and then that person is terminated, is fired, that information is considered to be confidential personnel information.”

Branstad tried to get that changed in 2013. The Republican-led Iowa House passed a bill on the subject, but Democrats in the Iowa Senate were able to block it, arguing the move would expose the state to defamation lawsuits. Now that Republicans have majority control of both the House AND the Senate, Branstad hopes a bill will be passed that would make records about government employee firings open to the public.

“I do understand why state employees don’t want this made public if it’s just an accusation,” Branstad says, “but if there’s a final determination made that person has been guilty of wrongdoing and they are dismissed for it, that information should be made public and it should be available to future employers.”

Branstad would like the law changed to apply to the firing of employees in city and county government in Iowa as well as firings in the state’s schools. In 2013, Democrats objected to the move, arguing at the time that Branstad was seeking the change to deflect attention from “hush money” payments to state employees who were being laid off. Some state managers made confidential settlements to give workers a departing bonus if the employee agreed to keep the terms of their exit agreement secret.

(Radio Iowa)

Governor Terry Branstad today (Friday) appointed 49-year old Julie A. Schumacher, of Schleswig, as judge to the 3B Judicial District. Schumacher was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Mary Sokolovske. Schumacher currently serves as District Associate Judge for the Third Judicial District of Iowa.

Prior to her appointment as District Associate Judge, she served as a prosecutor with the Crawford County Attorney’s Office and as the Assistant City Attorney for Denison. Schumacher received her law degree from Creighton University School of Law in 1993 and her Bachelor of Arts degree from University of South Dakota in 1990.

District 3B consists of Crawford, Ida, Monona, Plymouth, Sioux, and Woodbury Counties.

A little more than two-years after the Iowa Board of Corrections approved the appointment of Sheryl Dahm as Warden of the Clarinda Correctional Facility, the Board today (Friday), appointed her Warden of the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women, in Mitchellville. Dahm succeeds Patti Wachtendorf, who was appointed today (Friday) as the first female warden of Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. The Iowa State Penitentiary has had a man in charge since it opened 178 years ago.

The ICIW is a medium/minimum security prison that houses offenders in dorm-like living units and celled housing. The correctional facility provides educational and vocational services to offenders,  and emphasizes responsibility and accountability in preparing women offenders for successful Re-Entry to the community.

Dahm has extensive administrative corrections experience with proven leadership in the management, supervision and treatment of adult offenders. She has more than two decades experience counseling prison inmates with substance abuse and mental health issues, and became Warden at the Clarinda facility in Nov., 2015.  The Clarinda facility houses around 800 offenders.

Deputy Warden Stephen Weis is appointed acting warden of the Clarinda Correctional Facility in the interim, until a full-time person is approved for the post.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A northern Iowa woman must pay more than $6,000 in restitution that authorities say she took while working for the U.S. Postal Service. Prosecutors say DeAnn Lewman also was put on probation for five years and fined $500. She pleaded guilty to one count of making a false entry. Prosecutors dismissed two counts of misappropriation of postal funds and 41 counts of making a false entry in exchange for her plea.

Lewman had been postmaster in Nora Springs. Prosecutors say that between May 2014 and January 2015, Lewman took nearly $3,000 in cash and stamps and took nearly $3,100 that was meant to buy Postal Service money orders in December 2014 and January 2015.