DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of Dubuque home invasions and sexual assaults in 2011 and 2014 has pleaded not guilty. Dubuque County court records say 29-year-old Martel Fountain Sr. filed the written pleas Tuesday. He’s charged with four counts of sexual abuse and four of burglary. A trial date hasn’t been set.

The records say Fountain assaulted three women in 2011 after forcing his way into their homes. The documents say another was raped in 2014 after Fountain forced her into her garage.
Prosecutors say a DNA sample taken from Fountain in March 2018 after his arrest in the federal drug case linked him to the four Dubuque assaults. DNA information from those four cases had been filed in an FBI database.

The East Pottawattamie County 4-H program offered “Cooking with Kids” afterschool program on Wednesday’s in March and April at the Carson United Methodist Church for all 4th grade youth.  Youth spent the afternoon learning about basics and safety of cooking and baking, measuring, reading a recipe, using kitchen utensils and appliances, setting a table, manners and working together.

East Pott. County Extension officials say throughout the sessions, youth learned to crack eggs, cook meat to the safe internal temperature, dice up meat and fruit, use the stove top, oven, blender, griddle, make French toast, mini chicken pot pies, fruit smoothies, peanut butter cookies, toss salad, and fruit salad all while getting to taste test and learn how to perfect their recipes.  Youth also created a cookbook with a collection of all of their recipes along the way.

Cooking with Kids Riverside 2019
Front row – Myah Husz, Ashlinn Chappelear, Caelen Schueman, Kayler Kallsen. Middle Row – Paisley Anderson, Mia Husz, Courtney Kvaal, Sarah Cody. Back Row – Sophia Fenner, Julienne Schutt, Kaleb Myers, Owen Fenner, Nathan Smith, Hunter Shady. Not pictured is Jaxon Kadel.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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(Lenexa, Kansas, April 11, 2019) – Both federal and state agencies are asking Iowans to report any dangerous containers displaced by floodwaters in western Iowa. Recent flooding scattered tanks, drums, cylinders and barrels onto properties adjacent to the Missouri River and its Iowa tributaries. These items may contain hazardous materials such as propane and industrial chemicals and should only be handled by trained professionals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been given a Federal Emergency Management Agency mission assignment to coordinate hazardous material recovery along the I-29 corridor in Iowa. EPA is working closely with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to identify and retrieve containers swept away by floodwaters in Iowa. Iowa residents are encouraged to report displaced (“orphaned”) tanks, drums or other containers found in flood debris using the online form located on the Iowa DNR Disaster Assistance web site.

The Adair County Sheriff and his Deputies were involved in four pursuits over the past two weeks. Most recently, at around 9:40-a.m. Thursday, an attempt by Sheriff Jeff Vandewater to initiate a traffic stop in Bridgewater, resulted in a 40-minute pursuit that came to an end when “stop sticks” were successfully deployed southwest of Massena. The driver of the vehicle, 36-year old Daniel Floyd Edwards, of Tingley, was arrested on multiple, outstanding warrants. Additional charges are pending. Other agencies assisting in the pursuit include: The Cass County Sheriff’s Office; Iowa DNR/Traffic Enforcement; State Fire Marshal’s office; the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa State Patrol, and Fontanelle Police.

On April 7th at around 4:50-p.m., an Adair County Sheriff’s Deputy attempted to stop a Dodge Durango pickup driven by 32-year old James Robert Lyman, of Greenfield, who has an active warrant for Driving While Barred (DWB). Lyman tried to elude law enforcement for about 12 minutes on secondary roads and through fields until he barrel-rolled out of the moving vehicle. He was captured after a short foot pursuit and faces charges that include Felony Eluding, Possession of a Controlled Substance (Meth) with the intent to deliver, driving while barred and on the outstanding DWB warrant. Lyman was arrested three days earlier, following another pursuit with nearly identical circumstances. Warrants were filed following the April 4th incident, charging Lyman with Failure to Obey a Stop Sign and DWB.

And, as we mentioned earlier this week, 37-year old Marco Antonio Gonzalez-Batista, of Omaha, was arrested during the late evening hours of March 31st, following a pursuit that began in Greenfield and ended east of Massena on Highway 92. Gonzalez-Batista was charged with Possession of Meth, Eluding, Reckless Driving, and Speeding.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A woman who implicated two innocent people in a Des Moines slaying has been sent to prison for murder. Polk County District Court records say 54-year-old Helen Frazier was sentenced last week to 52 years in prison. She’d been convicted of second-degree murder and two counts of malicious prosecution. Prosecutors say she stabbed to death 55-year-old Andrea “Andre” Brown in January 2017.

Frazier initially provided police information that led to the arrest of a Des Moines man. He spent 17 days in jail before charges against him were dropped. Prosecutors say Frazier lied again in telling investigators that another person killed Brown.

(Radio Iowa) — Twice this year, Democrats in the Iowa House have been unsuccessful in getting Republicans to vote for a major change in the state’s Medicaid program. Democrats like Lisa Heddens of Ames argue care for about 38-thousand intellectually disabled Iowans should no longer be managed by private, for-profit companies. “I’m tired of hearing from the families…knowing nothing is going to change,” Heddens says.

Private companies oversee long-term services for intellectually disabled Iowans who need a ride to a job or staff assistance in an independent living home. Heddens is the mother of an adult son who is intellectually disabled. His Medicaid benefits have been managed by UnitedHealthcare, the company that’s exiting Iowa’s Medicaid program. “I’m frightened for the future for my son and so are the families that are out there and they are just begging this body to carve out this small population, give them some stability,” Heddens says.

Heddens favors a return having state-employed case managers for Medicaid recipients like her son. Iowa Department of Human Services director Jerry Foxhoven says the managed care contracts provide protections for Medicaid recipients who have to switch from UnitedHealthcare to another company. Governor Reynolds has repeatedly said the state will stick with managed care for all Iowa Medicaid patients, as costs were escalating in the old fee-for-service system.

A man wanted on a Montgomery County Bench Warrant was arrested Thursday afternoon. 44-year old Anthony Deon Gregory, of Keokuk, was taken into custody on the warrant for Comtempt of Court/Resistance of a Court Order. He was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) — A proposal approved by the Iowa House would direct a state agency to investigate whether prescription drug industry middlemen are overcharging Iowa’s Medicaid program. Representative John Forbes, Democrat from Urbandale, is a pharmacist. He says the State of Ohio found these pharmacy benefit managers — or P-B-Ms — overcharged that state’s Medicaid program by more than 200-million dollars.

“There is a need for more transparency within the PBM industry and I think the state of Iowa with doing this is taking a lead across the country in making sure that the PBM industry’s not taking advantage of people here in the state of Iowa,” Forbes said. Representative Joel Fry, a Republican from Osceola, says Forbes has unearthed concerning data from Ohio’s experience with prescription benefit managers.

“We look forward to the opportunity to make sure that the payments that he is suggesting are off, that we understand those better and figure out if we need to do something for oversight,” Fry says. The proposal passed the House unanimously. It’s included a larger bill that outlined spending for five state agencies.

A separate bill that cleared the Senate this week calls for an annual report on the fees prescription drug benefit managers charge the state’s Medicaid program. That bill also seeks an accounting to determine if the prescription drug managers pass along all the savings from the rebates offered by manufacturers of prescription medications.

(Radio Iowa) — A 400-million dollar spending plan for one state agency has gotten final approval in the legislature and is headed to the governor for approval. All the money for the Iowa Department of Transportation’s next budgeting year comes from the state’s tax on motor fuels. The House and Senate have approved hiring eight new D-O-T employees who will be based in central Iowa.

Representative Gary Mohr of Bettendorf, the Republican in charge of shepherding the D-O-T’s budget through the House, says “We are establishing, as more people move to the western suburbs of the Des Moines metropolitan area, a new drivers license location in Dallas County.” As Radio Iowa reported earlier this week, the D-O-T’s budget plan includes nearly nine-million dollars extra to restock the road maintenance sheds where salt is stored for NEXT winter.

“Our choice is either use more salt or drive on icy roads,” Mohr says. “I think all of us as legislators, on behalf of the people of Iowa, would prefer to have salt so we’re not driving on ice.” Lawmakers have also approved a 27-million dollar plan to consolidate five D-O-T facilities in the Sioux City area into one location.