(Radio Iowa) – The 50th anniversary of the signing of the Paris Peace Accord — which ended the Vietnam War — was last week and students from Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge are tracking down stories of dozens of locals who were killed in the conflict. T-J Martin, Iowa Central’s dean of distance learning, says they ultimately want to create a book about those fallen Iowans. “The project is based around finding the 55 names of service members who died serving in Vietnam,” Martin says, “and they were from our service area of Iowa Central Community College which consists of nine counties in north-central/northwest Iowa.”

Martin and Kurt Schmid, a professor in social science at Iowa Central, are teaching a course called “Local Vietnam History.” “We usually have a handful of students in our class,” Martin says, “and the class along with us, we do some research trying to find names of family members of these gentlemen that were killed in action while serving our country over in Vietnam.” Martin says they’re looking for a range of background information on the early lives of these veterans. “What are some of the fun things they used to do growing up as a kid?” Martin says. “Did they play basketball, did they grow up on a farm, did they own a 68 Mustang? What are some of the fun things they used to do, just to learn about their personality.”

The goal is to compile the biographies into a book that would preserve the memories of the men for future generations. A list of the names for which information is still needed includes:

• Thomas Richard Poundstone, Jack Rae Smith, Loren Francis Studer and Richard Wehrheim, all of Clarion.
• Melvin Eugene Thompson, of Fonda.
• David Allen Fleskes, Donald Henry Holm, Donald Kay Lakey, William Harrison Pease and Daryl David Shonka, all of Fort Dodge.
• Rickey Eugene Swaney, of Grand Junction.
• Frederick August Holst, of Knierim.
• Melvin Dale Miller, of Newell.
• Robert F. Fox, of Odebolt.
• Wayne Thomas McGuire, of Peterson.
• Calvin William Binder II of Rembrandt
• Keith Russell Heggen, of Renwick.
• James “Jimmy” Lee Buckley, Randall Gaylord Freeman, Gerald Claude McKeen and Larry Eugene Smith, all of Sac City.
• Herman Smits Junior, of Scranton.
• Thomas William Carrington of Storm Lake, and
• LaRoy Frederich Roth of Lake City.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – As week number four of the Iowa Legislative General Assembly was winding down, House District 21 Republican Representative Tom Moore, of Griswold reported on what’s transpired at the Iowa Capital. Moore started out talking about some special visitors to the Capital Rotunda and Chambers.

Moore said also, he kept busy throughout the week by attending numerous committee meetings. The Health and Human Services Committee met both Monday and Tuesday, according to Moore. One bill that passed through Committee was HF-102, or, “The Medical Malpractice non-economic damages bill.”

Moore said “One massive award for non-economic damages can close a smaller hospital or physician’s practice, leaving all of those Iowan’s without access to the care they need.”

Representative Moore said also, another medical-related bill that passed through committee, was House Study Bill 11, which allows PT’s (Physical Therapists) to order diagnostic imaging, and requires results to be provided to the patient’s primary care provider within seven days.

He wrapped up his audio newsletter by reminding Iowans about “Address confidentiality for survivors of domestic violation, sexual abuse, assault, trafficking, and stalking, through “Safe at Home.”

Visit safeathome.iowa.gov, to learn more.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds says if a book is banned in one school district, state law should require that all Iowa schools get a parent’s permission before letting a student see it. Reynolds spoke last night (Thursday night) at a town hall event organized by Moms for Liberty, a conservative parents’ rights group. “Thank you for speaking out, for your refusal to stand quietly by as we’ve seen the radical left treat our kids like their personal property. Not on your watch, not on my watch, not on our watch!” Reynolds said, to cheers.

Local members of Moms for Liberty have led efforts to remove books they consider obscene from Iowa school libraries. They also support a bill to ban materials or instruction about gender identity in kindergarten through eighth grade classrooms and another that would require parents be notified if their child asks to be known by a different name or gender at school. “You’re fighting for the fundamental principle that parents are the primary decision makers for their children,” Reynolds said, to cheers.

Protesters who shouted and waved a transgender flag at one point during the governor’s remarks were escorted out by police. A small group of Republican legislators also spoke at the event and answered questions from the crowd.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report a man was arrested Thursday night in Stanton, on an active Montgomery County warrant. Rex Sebeniecher was taken into custody at around 9:30-p.m in the 600 block of Meadow Avenue in Stanton, on a warrant charging him with two counts of Assault (Both are simple misdemeanors). Sebeniecher was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A state employee who has guided millions of visitors through the Iowa Capitol building is retiring. January 23, 1976 was Joan Arnett’s first day as an Iowa Capitol tour guide. “After I had worked here for about three days I filled out an application and I began my career here,” Arnett told Radio Iowa. Now, 47 years later, this is Arnett’s last day on the job.

“My children asked me a few days ago — they were here taking a tour, believe it or not — and they said: ‘What are you going to do on your last day, mom?’ And I said, ‘Cry.’ It’s going to be very hard to leave here,” Arnett said. “But I feel like I leave the building in good hands. There are a lot of people that have a lot of passion about this building and hopefully that will carry through into future generations.”

About 75-thousand people sign up for tours through the building each year. Many arrive on school buses. “A lot of our visitors start very young,” Arnett says. “We hope that they come back again and again, so it’s really not so much about learning facts about the building as learning that this is their building, that they’re always welcome here.” The Iowa Capitol is 137 years old and tour guides lead visitors all the way up to what’s called the whispering gallery. It’s a narrow passageway inside the golden dome that’s 275 feet above the ground. Arnett is also fascinated by areas that aren’t on the public tours — the attics and the space that’s a story below the basement.

“We see the pretty parts all day every day, but we never think about what it takes to support that,” Arnett says,” and there’s just a lot behind the scenes.” For the past 25 years, Arnett has been the supervisor of all the guides who lead tours of the building six days a week. For decades, the Capitol tour guides operated from a small desk on the edge of the first floor rotunda — with a narrow, three story closet to store pamphlets about the Capitol and other supplies.

“We eventually added another desk” she says. “Of couse we added a computer and eventually we moved down here to the ground floor.” The ground floor is where visitors enter the building and find the tour guides, as well as souvenirs and a collection of artifacts found over the past 40 years during restoration of the Capitol. Arnett says she often thinks about the four men who were in charge of constructing the Capitol in Des Moines.

“I think the most amazing part is that they had the foresight to think beyond their years and they didn’t just think: ‘We’re going to build a building that people will be proud of today.’ They said: ‘We’re going to build a building that people would be proud of 1000 years from now,'” Arnett says, “and I think they accomplished that.” Former State Representative Chuck Gipp of Decorah led the Capitol restoration effort during his 18 years in the legislature and he credits Arnett for helping to make the Capitol a welcoming place for visitors.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s attorney general has signaled she would likely join a multi-state lawsuit if major pharmacy chains start selling abortion pills by mail. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has not issued a written statement of her own, but has added her signature to letters from attorneys general in Missouri and Alabama. One of the letters Bird and 19 other Republicans signed says as state attorneys general, it is their responsibility to protect the health, safety, and well-being of women and unborn children in their states.

The letters to Walgreens and C-V-S come after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced women seeking abortion pills could get them through the mail.

A bill has been introduced in the state legislature that would ban sending abortion pills through the mail in Iowa. Medication abortion has been available in the United States for 23 years. The most recent data indicates nearly 80 percent of abortions in Iowa in 2020 were induced by medication. About a dozen other states now ban abortion pills.

Des Moines, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 24-year-old Kenneth Quinton Crosby,  of Des Moines, was sentenced today (Thursday) to 12 months and 1 day in prison following his guilty plea to four counts of False Statement During Purchase of a Firearm and one count of Unlawful Drug User in Possession of Firearms. Following his prison term, Crosby also will have to serve three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

According to court documents, Crosby purchased at least five firearms in 2020 and 2021. Each time he did, Crosby knowingly made several false misrepresentations on a required form, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive (ATF) Form 4473. This Form requires firearm buyers to answer several questions, including those about the buyer’s competency, criminal history, drug use, immigration status, and history with domestic violence. On February 9, 2022, Crosby knowingly possessed four pistols while being an unlawful user of marijuana.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Essley prosecuted the case, which is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).

DES MOINES, IA – A man from Des Moines was sentenced Wednesday (Feb. 1, 2023) to a total of 30-years in prison in association with multiple child exploitation offenses. 27-year-old Shaun Taylor Solem will be on supervised release for ten years after his sentence is concluded. He is also required to register as a sex offender. There is no parole in the federal system.

In 2019 and 2020, Solem communicated with multiple minor females on Snapchat, including victims he knew were as young as twelve years old. During his communications, Solem falsely stated that he was a similar age. Solem requested and received sexually explicit images from many of the victims. He directed several of the minor victims to take explicit photos or videos of themselves and multiple victims did.

After receiving the images, Solem threatened to disseminate their images to family, friends, or publicly if the victims did not continue to send sexual images to him. The minor victims ranged in age from 12 to 16 years old and were located across the United States, including at least three minor victims who lived near Des Moines.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal urged parents to “Please continue to be aware of who your children and teenagers are interacting with on social media sites.” He said “Relentless predators like Solem have no reservation in attempting to exploit their way into any home via the internet. In this case, the combined efforts of a vigilant parent and dedicated law enforcement officers brought a dangerous predator out from behind his keyboard and into incarceration for a lengthy period of time. Child exploitation of any kind will not be tolerated, and predators will be brought to justice.”

The case was investigated by the Urbandale Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI)’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children. Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

Parents and guardians are encouraged to have open and ongoing conversations about internet safety with children. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc and click on the Publications & Resources tab.

(Radio Iowa) – The northeast Iowa community that’s known for being the home to the “Field of Dreams” is getting some national attention. Karla Thompson, director of the Dyersville Area Chamber of Commerce, says the small town is up for some big honors. “We are in the ten best categories, actually in two different categories, from USA Today,” Thompson says. “So we are spreading the word about voting. We can vote every day for those two topics and one is the Small Community in the Midwest, and Small Community in Culture.”

Dyersville is toward the top of the rankings in both categories. Thompson encourages all Iowans to vote and to vote daily. “We always think every community is special and near and dear to our hearts,” she says. “We hear other people comment about our community on how great it is, but when national magazines and websites and other people nominate you, then it really kind of sinks in, saying, you know what, we are really special. We do have a lot going on for us.”

Dyersville (KMCH photo)

The links to vote are below:

https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-midwestern-small-town-2023/
https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-small-town-cultural-scene-2023/

You can vote daily through February 20th. The winning small towns will be announced on 10Best.com on March 3rd.

(Radio Iowa) – The University of Iowa is launching a new research center to improve flood prediction. Engineering professor Ibrahim Demir says the country has a lot to learn from Iowa, as he says the UI stands out for its emphasis on projects that help residents better understand their flood risk locally. As an example, The Iowa Flood Information System, or IFIS, can be used by homebuyers to better understand a properties potential for flood damage.

“You cannot really find any information easily from FEMA or other websites,” Demir says. “When you go to IFIS in Iowa, you can enable these flood maps at 100-year flood map, 500-year flood map, and you have all this 8 different periods, you can just find out your business or new land or new house you are purchasing will be in the flood zone and its potential for some damages.”

Prior to 2009, there was a flood gauge in Cedar Falls and another in Cedar Rapids. This offered relatively little data for predicting floods like the one in 2008 that rocked the region. Fast-forward to 2023, there’s a network of sensors all along Iowa’s rivers and streams. Larry Weber is a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the UI.

Prof. Larry Weber (U-I photo)

Weber says, “We provide hundreds of forecast points between those two locations so every small community, every homeowner, every farmer or land owner in that space between Cedar Falls and Cedar Rapids in the past was left without information, now has ample information.”

The Center for Hydrologic Development joins a cooperative of other research institutes sharing approaches like this with its peer institutions. Iowa will receive $21 million from the collaborative.

(reporting by Zachary Oren Smith, Iowa Public Radio)