OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new report says the Mid-America Business Conditions Index in February hit its highest level since September, signaling solid economic growth over the next three to six months for nine Midwest and Plains states. The report issued Friday says the index rose to 57.9 last month from 56.0 in January. The September figure was 57.5. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says even stronger growth was hampered by shortages of skilled workers and international trade tensions.

The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline. The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

The President and owner of Rex Pharmacy in Atlantic, today (Friday) announced plans for its two current Atlantic locations, Rex Pharmacy downtown and the Atlantic Medical Center Pharmacy, to merge and become one pharmacy located in the former Sears building at 1607 E. 7th Street. Josh Borer says the plans are the result of Rex Pharmacy’s desire to make community pharmacy a more viable part of patient outcomes in Atlantic and the surrounding area.

With all the pharmacists and team in one location, Borer says the merge and move will offer the community better access to pharmacists as well as more and improved services; including a drive through pick-up service and expanded delivery services. The new space will be designed with private clinical rooms for patient medication reviews, education, consultations and immunizations. It will be a full-service pharmacy with all the over-the-counter medications and supplements as well as in-home medical equipment and supplies.

It was a big decision to leave the downtown location, where Rex Pharmacy has served for over 75 years, but Josh Borer said in his statement “We feel we’re doing it for all the right reasons…this move will allow us to further pursue our Core Purpose, which is to improve health outcomes for the patients in our communities. It really fits our “WHY”.”

The transition is expected to take place sometime this summer; and they are currently exploring the possibilities for other occupants of the downtown building.

(Radio Iowa) — There’s a move in the Iowa Senate to change the definition of a circus. Last year, the elephant rides at the Mississippi Valley Fair in Davenport were cancelled. It’s against the law. The bill would change that. Senator Mark Costello said “This will allow a person who owns an elephant to offer controlled rides on the elephant.” Costello convened a small group Thursday morning to review the bill.

Senator Zach Wahls was there. “We’re only creating a single exemption for elephants. There won’t be any tiger rides or anything happening.” Senator Jeff Edler was an enthusiastic yes. “As a youngster, I do remember riding an elephant at a circus.” It was legal back then in Iowa, but a state law passed in 2007 classified elephants as “dangerous wild animals.”

People for the Ethnical Treatment of Animals says elephants are abused by circuses and PETA complained to state officials that the law wasn’t being followed. The state veterinarian then sent out the notice that elephant rides are not allowed in Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) — A bill that would remove the time limit on filing criminal charges in child sex abuse cases has cleared its first hurdle in the Iowa Senate. Under current state law, criminal charges must be filed before the victim turns 28. Studies show many victims never reveal they’ve been abused until much later in life. Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines has been pushing for this change for years.

“Our laws not only benefit perpetrators, but they also benefit organizations that have covered up crimes against children,” Petersen said, “and that is simply wrong.”

The Senate passed the bill last year, but it stalled in the Iowa House. Republican Representative Steven Holt of Denison is the new chairman of the committee that will review the bill, if passed the senate. Holt says he’s “looking very favorably” at the concept, but some time limit for filing CRIMINAL charges may be warranted.

“Anybody that’s been a law enforcement officer like myself, you can get two witnesses together for something that happened three days ago and have a different story,” Holt says, “so when you’re talking about something that happened decades ago, you also have to be careful in terms of the rights of the accused.”

There’s a separate bill in the SENATE that would remove the time limit for adults to file CIVIL lawsuits seeking monetary damages for sex abuse that occurred when they were under the age of 18.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST

EARLVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say the husband of a woman killed in what was initially believed to be a fatal fall at a northeastern Iowa farm has been charged with her murder. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday that 42-year-old Todd Michael Mullis had been arrested on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the Nov. 10 death of 39-year-old Amy Lynn Mullis. An autopsy shows Amy Mullis was stabbed multiple times in the back with a corn rake.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa settled sexual harassment claims against an agency director for $4.15 million after one victim’s lawyer threatened to sue before the November election and to investigate the harasser’s long association with Gov. Kim Reynolds. Records show Attorney Paige Fiedler backed off her plan to file the lawsuit after a top state lawyer told her Nov. 1 that he had “just got authority this morning” to settle from the governor’s administration. The agreements were negotiated weeks later.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa farm and its managers have been given probation in a water pollution case. Federal prosecutors for Iowa said in a news release that Etcher Family Farms owner Scott Allen Etcher was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation. Farm manager Benjamin Allen McFarland was sentenced to two years’ probation. Officials say that in July 2015, McFarland _ at the direction of Etcher _ dumped agricultural waste at the New London farm that ended up in Big Creek.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Police in central Iowa say no one was hurt when officers executing a search warrant at a Marshalltown home fired their guns. Marshalltown police say in a news release that the incident happened around 10:20 a.m. Thursday when the officers entered the home and encountered an armed man. Neither the man nor the officers were injured, and the man was detained. The two officers who fired their service weapons have been placed on paid administrative leave.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Police in central Iowa say no one was hurt when officers executing a search warrant at a Marshalltown home fired their guns.

Marshalltown police say in a news release that the incident happened around 10:20 a.m. Thursday when the officers entered the home and encountered an armed man.
Neither the man nor the officers were injured, and the man was detained. The two officers who fired their service weapons have been placed on paid administrative leave, per department policy, while an investigation into the shooting is conducted.

Police say the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation will conduct that investigation.
The officers’ names have not been released.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa farm and its managers have been given probation in a water pollution case. Federal prosecutors for Iowa said in a news release Thursday that Etcher Family Farms, near New London in southeastern Iowa, has agreed to five years of organizational probation and a $50,000 fine.

Farm owner Scott Allen Etcher was sentenced Tuesday to five years of probation. Farm manager, 29-year-old Benjamin Allen McFarland, was sentenced to two years of probation.

Etcher and McFarland pleaded guilty in October to violating the Clean Water Act. Officials say that in July 2015 at the Etcher Family Farms facility, McFarland discharged agricultural waste that went directly into an unnamed tributary to Big Creek. Officials say the discharge was committed under the direct supervision of Etcher.

EARLVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say the husband of a woman killed in what was initially believed to be a fatal fall at a northeastern Iowa farm has been charged with her murder.

The Delaware County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release Thursday that 42-year-old Todd Michael Mullis had been arrested on a warrant charging him with first-degree murder in the Nov. 10 death of 39-year-old Amy Lynn Mullis.

The department says an autopsy showed that Amy Mullis died after receiving injuries that included multiple stab wounds to her back with a corn rake. Mullis was arrested without incident on Thursday and remains jailed without bail.

(Radio Iowa) — U-S Senator Joni Ernst doesn’t put much faith in gun control legislation which passed the U-S House on Wednesday ever seeing the light of day in the Senate. The bill would require background checks for virtually all sales of firearms nationwide. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, questions the intent of the legislation, which was pushed through the Democratic-majority House.

“I don’t know that that one will be coming up,” Ernst says. “We should go back and, of course, scrutinize the text of the language and what we are trying to accomplish.” Under current law, background checks only have to be done by licensed gun dealers, not those who are unlicensed.

The House bill would require background checks by both. Ernst served in the Iowa Army National Guard for 22 years and is the first female combat veteran elected to the U-S Senate. Ernst remains skeptical of the first gun control legislation to pass the House in more than two decades. “We certainly want to make sure that we are protecting our Second Amendment rights,” Ernst says. “I’ll be honest, it’s a House bill right now. I have not had the time to go back and read the text.”

Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican, voted against what he called “a resolution that seeks to place unconstitutional restrictions on the God-given, 2nd Amendment Right to Bear Arms enshrined for all Americans in our Constitution.”

King urged President Trump to veto the bill, should it reach his desk. Iowa Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, a Democrat, voted for the Background Checks Act of 2019. In a statement, Finkenauer said: “It’s long past time Congress came together to pass a bipartisan bill addressing gun violence.”

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley criticized the Pentagon last year for spending ten-thousand dollars on a toilet seat. Now, Iowa’s other U-S senator is sponsoring legislation she says targets scores of other incidents of excessively wasteful spending. Senator Joni Ernst is blasting California’s “bullet train” project, which Ernst says is 13 years behind schedule and 44-billion dollars over its original price tag.

“Hard-working Iowans should not be footing the bill for this out-of-control spending,” Ernst says. “That’s why I’ve introduced the Billion-Dollar Boondoggle Act which would require an annual report to taxpayers listing every government-funded project that is one-billion dollars or more over budget, or five years or more behind schedule.” Ernst calls the bullet train project “infamous,” and says her legislation is vital to ending such cases where federal funds are being wasted on a massive scale.

“My bill will bring about needed accountability and transparency,” Ernst says. “It will allow us to identify train wrecks, like the disastrous California rail project, before they become bottomless pits of taxpayer dollars.” Planners say the high-speed train project will eventually carry passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in about two-and-a-half hours. The original cost was estimated at 35-billion dollars. The latest projections by the High-Speed Rail Authority show it in excess of 77-billion.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa legislators may get involved in a dispute over how long an Iowa high school student may be suspended from extracurricular activities for academic reasons. Senator Jake Chapman of Adel says one central Iowa student was barred from athletics for 30 days, then had to sit out of drama for the NEXT 30 days.

“Really, the student was double penalized,” Chapman says. Chapman says a suspension because a student is failing in the classroom should last 30 days — for all activities. “It’s not just one case. There’s been several cases of this occurring,” Chapman says. “Obviously we want our students to excel in academics, but we also want them to excel in extracurricular activities and because there’s no clarity, they’re getting double-penalized.”

Chapman says the bill directs the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and the Iowa High School Association, which oversees boys sports, to develop a policy that does NOT impose “multiple periods of ineligibility.”

“We’ve met with the different stakeholder groups and they thought this language was appropriate to sit down together and come up with that policy,” Chapman says. The School Administrators of Iowa is the only group registered as opposed to the bill. A spokesman for the group says local school boards and administrators should make the call on what suspension policies should be in their districts.