Cass County Wellness Coordinator Brigham Hoegh, Monday, reminds area residents QPR training program in suicide
prevention is being offered in Anita, Tuesday night. “Question. Persuade. Refer.” (QPR) is a program delivered by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach that teaches three simple steps to help save a life from suicide. QPR will be held Tuesday at the Anita Community Center (805 Main Street), from 6:00-7:30 PM. Cass County ISU Extension will be providing free pizza to attendees of the Anita event. The event is being hosted in partnership with Anita Public Library and Anita Healthy and Wellness Center.

Participants of in-person QPR sessions are encouraged to wear a face covering indoors, particularly if space is limited, crowds are large, or spaces are poorly ventilated.

Farmers and people from rural areas are at higher risk of death by suicide. Sue Riggs, a retired teacher from Atlantic married to a farmer, attended QPR training in Atlantic on February 14. Riggs commented, “The QPR program was really informative. I now know how important it is to ask someone if they are considering suicide and where to refer them for help.”

All QPR sessions in Cass County are being offered at no cost, thanks to a grant from the USDA-NIFA 2020-70028-32728 that provides this training for free for rural communities with large populations of farmers and agricultural related business. All adults in Cass County and surrounding areas are invited to attend a QPR program, especially those who work in agricultural areas, health care, mental health, government, schools, libraries, or anyone who has an interest in learning more about mental health and suicide prevention.

The next Question. Persuade. Refer. suicide prevention training in Cass County is in Griswold on Feb. 21st, from, 5:30 – 7:00 PM, at the Griswold Public Library (505 Main St., Griswold), and is being hosted in partnership with Griswold Public Library

Although not required, registration is appreciated. To register for a QPR session in Cass County visit www.extension.iastate.edu/cass/ or call Cass County ISU Extension at 712-243-1132.

(Radio Iowa) – House Republicans are working on a bill that proposes a new process to confirm applicants for food assistance or government health care coverage are Iowans who qualify for the benefits. Doug Struyk is a lobbyist for companies that provide this type of screening in other states and he says it’s beyond traditional questions, like “did you live in this zip code?” or “what’s your mother’s maiden name?”

“Fraudsters have become very good at accessing that type of information,” he says, “and what we found…during the pandemic was a group of very savvy tech folks who were able to crack through systems that relied exclusively on that type of screening mechanism.” The bill would require the Iowa Department of Human Services to perform more frequent financial cross-checks to confirm a person enrolled in government health care or food assistance programs remains eligible.

Andrea Dencklau is with Iowa ACEs 360, a group that does research into adverse childhood experiences. She says adults who qualify for Medicaid and children who qualify for the state-paid insurance through the Healthy and Well Kids program could lose coverage if they’re unable to come up with the monthly co-payments. “Not only will their health outcomes suffer, we will all bear the price,” she says. “Without health insurance, these individuals are more likely to delay necessary care and end up requiring more expensive treatment, which will fall on all providers as uncompensated care.”

Republican Representative Ann Meyer of Fort Dodge voted to advance the bill out of a House subcommittee. “We are providing the safety net that Iowans need, but we also want to protect the taxpayer dollar,” Meyer says. Senate Republicans have been working on similar proposals for the past few years, but none has advanced through the House.

(Radio Iowa) – The number of providers and people using the state’s medical-marijuana program increased last year as the state came out of the pandemic. Program Bureau Chief, Owen Parker, says the number of providers increased to 16-hundred in 2021. “And that was a 21 percent increase over 2020 — at the end of 2020 we had a little over 13-hundred providers,” Parker says. He says they started seeing the impact of the law that added more people to the list of those who can prescribe medical cannabis for patients.

He says 50 percent of the new prescribers were Advanced Registered Nurses, 40 percent were doctors and less than one percent were podiatrists. He says the number of people who got cards for medical marijuana increased to more than eight thousand. “During the pandemic due to numerous issues that we came up with solutions for, we had a little less than five thousand at the end of 2020. So we’ve seen almost a 60 percent increase in the total patient population since 2020 ended,” according to Parker. Parker says the age of those getting the products hasn’t changed dramatically.

“There’s always a concern about whose participating in the program. But at this point less than two percent of the population is under the age of 18,” he says, “And then, it’s really kind of broken down 50-50 between those under the age of 50 and those over the age of 50.” Parker says sales went up in 2021.

“We saw over six-point-two million dollars in sales — that’s a 76 percent increase over the three-point-five that we saw in the year before. We are seeing about 33-hundred average transactions per month, which when you compare year-end end 2020, is 36 percent more traffic,” according to Parker. He says the average transaction price stayed right about 150 dollars. Parker made his comments at the Board’s meeting last week.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office has released a report on arrests from over the past week:

On Feb. 9th, 28-year-old Donovan Charles Bruning, of Griswold, was arrested on an active warrant for Failure to Appear.  He was transported to the Cass County Jail and later released on bond; and, 28-year-old Robert Paul Joens, of Exira, was arrested on three active warrants for Violation of Probation. Joens remained in the Cass County Jail as of Monday.

On February 10th, 18-year-old Tamora Deion McGee, of Atlantic, was arrested on an active warrant for assault with intent to inflict serious injury.  She was released from custody the following day.

On the 11th, Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 26-year-old Dalton Eugene Christensen, of Atlantic, on 2 active warrants for Intimidation with a Dangerous Weapon, and Reckless Use of a Firearm.  Christensen was booked into the Cass County Jail and subsequently released on bond.

And, four people were arrested last Saturday, in Cass County, and later released:

• 25-year-old Lucas Lee Stone, of Atlantic, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance.
• 42-year-old Nicholas Gene Paulsen, of Atlantic, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
• 29-year-old Stephen Edward Ross, of Atlantic, was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance.
• and, 20-year-old Mikayla Veronica Waldron, of Atlantic, was arrested on an active arrest warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree.

(Radio Iowa) – The League of Women Voters of Iowa led a coalition of groups that have collected five-thousand signatures on petitions asking the Republican-led legislature to repeal recent election law changes. The coalition is asking Republican lawmakers to restore a longer period of early voting and get rid of restrictions that limit who may help older Iowans cast an absentee ballot. The group cites data from low turn-out elections held in 2021 that indicate hundreds of Iowans who tried to vote early couldn’t get an absentee ballot in time and they warn thousands more will face those obstacles in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

The head of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa says the coalition is on a moral mission to protect Iowans’ fundamental right to vote. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has said the election law changes made a year ago give Iowans even greater confidence as they cast their ballots. During debate last year, Republican Senator Jim Carlin said the changes were made because many in the G-O-P believe the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump.

(Radio Iowa) – The chance of spring flooding in eastern Iowa is “near normal to below normal,” according to the first flood outlook from the National Weather Service in Davenport. Rich Kinney, the warning coordination meteorologist, says that doesn’t mean there won’t be any flooding along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. Even though local snowpack is mostly melted, the snowpack in Minnesota hasn’t, and it’s storing an above-average amount of water.

“The rate of the snow melt, especially way up north in the upper reaches of the Mississippi River valley where there’s a lot more snow than there is down here,” Kinney says. “We’re also looking at additional snowfall or heavy spring rains.” From now through April, Kinney expects slightly above-normal precipitation. Another factor is — the ground is only frozen a few inches deep. That’ll allow melting snow and spring rain to be absorbed, instead of running off into local rivers.

“Our river levels are, for this time of year, running around normal to, in some places, a little bit below normal,” Kinney says. “So, we’ve got quite a bit of room in the rivers right now for storage for heavy precipitation.” At Lock and Dam 15 in the Quad Cities, the chance of the Mississippi River reaching flood stage is 51-percent, slightly lower than normal, and the chance it’ll reach major flood stage is 21-percent, also slightly lower than normal.

The weather service plans to begin offering in-person “spotter training” sessions soon, for the first time since early 2020. More than 4,000 people serve as spotters across 36 counties in the region.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater today (Monday), said there was just one arrest last week. 39-year-old Joshua William Cox, of Harlan, was pulled over by Adair Police on I-80 westbound, near mile marker 72. The traffic stop at around 7:15-p.m. was the result of a call about a vehicle unable to maintain its lanes, causing a dangerous situations for other motorists.

The subject vehicle, a 2016 Dodge RAM pickup, was located and stopped when the Adair Police Officer saw the pickup crossing the center and yellow lines on the road. During questioning of Cox, the Officer noticed a strong odor of alcoholic beverages, and observed multiple open beer cans in the cup holders.

When Cox refused to take the Standard Field Sobriety Tests, he was taken into custody and transported to the Adair County Sheriff’s Office, where he also refused implied consent. He was booked into the Adair County Jail for OWI/1st offense and Open Container-Driver. Cox was released later that night on a $1,000 bond.

A head-on collision between a car and a pickup truck in northwest Iowa’s Sioux County resulted in both drivers being transported to the hospital. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2008 Nissan Altima driven by 20-year-old Dalton Denhartog-Hopcroft, of Alton (IA), was traveling west on Iowa Highway 10 at around 7:27-a.m., when the vehicle crossed into the eastbound lane. An eastbound 2014 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 21-year-old Colin Heronemous, of Orange City, was traveling eastbound and swerved left to avoid a collision. Denhartog-Hopcroft swerved back into his own lane prior to the vehicles colliding head-on.

Dalton Denharthog-Hopcroft, who was wearing a seat belt, was flown by Mercy Air Care to MercyOne Siouxland Hospital. Heronemous was not wearing a seat belt. He was transported by Orange City Ambulance to the Orange City Hospital. The accident remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Board of Educational Examiners is proposing an emergency rule to let para-educators continue to serve as substitute teachers in any class in the district where they’ve been working. Paraeducators had been allowed to sub in multiple classrooms under the governor’s public health emergency proclamation, which expires tomorrow (Tuesday) at midnight. Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says he heard from superintendent who’d been assigning para-educators to cover for multiple teachers and was concerned the governor’s proclamation was expiring.

“A lot of our schools are already having a shortage,” Wahls says, “and they’re really worried that we’re going to see that be dramatically exacerbated.” Before the pandemic proclamation, para-educators had been assigned to work under the supervision of a licensed teacher rather than serve solo in any classroom as a substitute. A legislative committee that reviews agency rules is scheduled to meet tomorrow (Tuesday) and is expected to approve the emergency directive to let para-eduators continue to be substitutes for any class.

(Ames, Iowa) – Iowa’s beef producers are asking their fellow Iowans to help find Iowa’s Best Burger in 2022. In this year’s quest, the Iowa Beef Industry Council (IBIC) and the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association (ICA) are encouraging you to nominate your favorite burger, whether it’s gourmet or down-home style. Kent Pruismann, a Rock Valley cattleman and IBIC Chairman, says “We are looking for the best burger served in an Iowa restaurant. Although burgers are often standard fare, we know from experience that the winners of this contest are well-above standard, and serve outstanding burgers. Finding these great burgers depends on Iowans choosing their favorite, and nominating them.”

This is the thirteenth year the two groups are holding the annual Iowa’s Best Burger contest, which officially kicks off on February 14, 2022. During the first phase of the contest, Iowans are encouraged to nominate their favorite burger before March 14, 2022. To qualify to be named Iowa’s Best Burger, the burger must be a 100% real beef patty and served on a bun or bread product. The more nominations a restaurant receives, the better the chances are for that burger to make it on the “Top Ten” list announced March 18 on WHO Radio’s “The Big Show”. Finalists will receive a certificate and be eligible for the secret taste-test of contest judges. The 2022 Best Burger in Iowa will be announced on May 2, 2022, with the kick-off of May Beef Month in Iowa.

Details about the contest, rules, and the voting form are available on the Iowa Beef Industry Council website, www.iabeef.org. Burger lovers can also find a link to the online nomination form at the Iowa Beef Council Facebook page; or by texting BEEF to (515) 337-8924. Photos of your favorite burger can be shared socially using #IABestBurger. The nomination period will close at 5 p.m. on March 14, 2022.

Restaurants can download a digital toolkit including promotional materials for the contest from IBIC’s website at www.iabeef.org to promote the contest to their customers. The promotional materials can be used in the restaurants, online, or on social media.