The Creston Police Department reports a juvenile from Creston was referred to Juvenile Authorities on charges of Careless Driving and Eluding. 16-year old Patrick Farlow was then released Sunday to the custody of his mother. Last Friday, Creston Police arrested 46-year old Jerry Chapman, of Creston, on a charge of Theft in the 5th degree. Chapman was cited and released on a promise to appear later, in court.

And a resident of the 1000 block of 190th Street, in Creston, reported to police Saturday, that someone vandalized his semi that was parked at the Creston Hy-Vee parking lot. Two lights on the left side trailer of the semi were broken out, with damage estimated at $60. The incident happened sometime between 8 and 8:30-p.m., Friday.

This is Breast Cancer Awareness Month in Iowa and the yearly event is among the reasons why the number of survivors continues to grow across the state and nationwide. The death rate from breast cancer in this country has dropped by more than a third over the past 25 years. Roger Dahl, executive director with Susan G. Komen in Iowa, says increased awareness has led to an increase in women getting regular screenings and that saves lives.

“Because in those early stages of breast cancer it is far more treatable,” says Dahl. “The variety of treatment options available today make early detection even more important.”

Dahl recommends women get annual mammograms starting at age 40 or talk to their health provider about the possible need for earlier screenings if they have certain risk factors, such as family history. Dahl notes that risk factors or not, around one-in-eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. “So we really try to emphasize, don’t assume that breast cancer does not impact you, because chances are, sooner or later, unfortunately it will,” he says.

In Iowa, there are about 2,400 women newly diagnosed with breast cancer each year along with around 400 deaths.

(Iowa News Service)

Iowa school districts are encouraged to apply for federal funding to replace old school buses that emit large amounts of air pollution. Karen Grimes, with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says only a few Iowa districts are likely to be awarded a share of the money from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “There’s $7 million available nationwide…so that’s only about $140,000 per state,” Grimes said. Last year, seven school districts in Iowa were awarded EPA funding toward the purchase of at least one new bus.

Last year, seven school districts in Iowa were awarded EPA funding toward the purchase of at least one new bus. They were the Cherokee, Columbus, North Linn, Odebolt Arthur, Starmont, Waverly-Shell Rock, and West Delaware Community School Districts. Grimes says school buses built before 2007 have diesel engines that emit tiny particles linked to some serious health problems. “You know, here are school children who wait for those buses, often as those buses are running,” Grimes said. “So, it’s a really great program and opportunity to cut those diesel exhaust fumes down and make it safer for our kids.”

School districts have until October 30 to apply for the EPA funding rebates, which can be used to purchases new buses. The Iowa Department of Education reports there are around 6,000 school buses in the state and roughly one-third are from model years 2006 or older. Buses built after 2006 were designed to cut emissions by 90-percent.

(Radio Iowa)

Among the bacterial infections that are tracked by state health officials, sexually-transmitted diseases are the most frequently reported.  According to George Walton, a program manager for the Iowa Department of Public Heath, “Chlamydia definitely has the greatest number of new diagnoses, by far, compared to any other sexually-transmitted infection.”

State law requires doctors and laboratories to report confirmed cases of chlamydia, syphilis, gonorrhea, H-I-V and AIDS to the department. There were more than 11-thousand cases of chlamydia confirmed in Iowa last year. “It is relatively easy to diagnose and treat, but you have to be looking for it,” Walton says. “…The testing that we have available now is very sensitive…not nearly as many false-negatives as we saw with older testing technology.”

Chlamydia is the most common infectious disease in the United States. If left untreated, chlamydia can make it difficult for women to become pregnant. The recommended treatment now for chlamydia is a single dose of a prescription drug. The second-most prevalent sexually-transmitted disease in Iowa is gonorrhea. About 16-hundred cases of gonorrhea were reported in Iowa last year. Walton expects even more cases to be reported this year.

“That’s one that we’re really keeping an eye on for a number of reasons,” Walton says. “One is there’s a lot of concern with antibiotic resistance with that particular infection.” The other most common sexually-transmitted disease in the U.S. and in Iowa is syphilis. There was a 450 percent INCREASE in the number of new syphilis cases in Iowa in 2013. Syphilis is highly-contagious, but it can be treated with one dose of penicillin.

There were 99 cases of H-I-V infections diagnosed in Iowa during 2014. That was a “significant decline” of 19 percent from the year before according to Walton, but he expects the number of confirmed cases of H-I-V to be higher in Iowa this year. “My guess is that it’ll be closer towards the average for the last five years,” Walton says. Other types of infectious diseases that must be reported to state officials include any of the five strains of Hepatitis.

(Radio Iowa)