DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court restored a Des Moines vicious dog ordinance on Friday that an appeals court had found to be unconstitutionally vague. The justices voted 3-3, upholding an initial, district court ruling that went in favor of the city.

The case involved a mixed breed dog named Pinky and a neighbor’s cat named Rebel, which were both allowed outside without restraints and fought. Both animals survived.
City officials blamed Pinky and she was taken away from her owner in March 2016 after the city’s chief humane officer concluded she exhibited “vicious propensities” under the city’s dangerous animal ordinance.

She was initially to be quarantined for a week but a day before release the city chose to declare her a dangerous dog and notified owner Dianna Helmers of plans keep her. She remained held without access to visits from her family for nearly two years. Pinky was released to Helmers last April when the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled 3-2 that the city’s definition of a dangerous dog was too vague.

The state Supreme Court’s order offered no details of the court’s deliberation. It simply stated that three justices would affirm the district court ruling and three would reverse it and pointing out that in such cases, the district court’s ruling stands. Pinky has been living at Helmers’ pet rescue facility near Reinbeck, about 90 miles northeast of Des Moines.

Helmers’ attorney, Jamie Hunter said the city can seek custody of Pinky again, although the dog is now 11 years old and at the upper end of her life expectancy.
City officials said in a statement Friday they were talking with Helmers about allowing Pinky to remain with her if terms can be reached “that protect the dog and the public.”

City Manager Scott Sanders said in the statement that he never intended to euthanize the dog and if an agreement cannot be reached to keep her with Helmers, the city will pay to have Pinky adopted out of state. Hunter, who has other court challenges to the city’s animal ordinance pending in court, said it continues to be an ongoing issue for dog owners. “The best way to address that is the city can amend its ordinance to make it clear and fairer for its residents so we’re not constantly litigating it,” she said.

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have identified three people killed in an eastern Iowa house fire as a mother and her two daughters. The Quad-City Times reports that the Muscatine County Medical Examiner’s Office issued a news release Friday identifying those killed as 35-year-old Amy Wentz and her daughters, 17-year-old Andreah Schroeder and 6-year-old Lily Wentz.

The three died in the Monday night fire that destroyed their Muscatine home and critically injured another person, who has not been named. Officials say the injured person, who was found by firefighters outside the home, is in a coma at an Iowa City hospital.

Authorities say the cause of the fire is currently listed as undetermined. The investigation into the fire and deaths continues.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) officials have used the state’s safe haven procedures for the 33rd time since the law went into effect. Officials say a boy was born February 2, 2019, at an Iowa hospital and the infant was released to the custody of DHS. A court hearing to terminate parental rights is held within a month. Specific details are withheld in order to protect the identity of the parents and the child.

Through Iowa’s safe haven law, parents have the option to safely hand over custody of babies age 30 days or younger without fear of prosecution for abandonment. The parent, or their authorized representative, can leave the newborn at a hospital or health care facility, and can remain anonymous.

The safe haven law was approved in the wake of a high-profile case in 2001 involving a teen mother in eastern Iowa who killed her home-delivered newborn. Infants who are safe haven babies are placed with currently-approved foster or adoptive families.

If you are interested in becoming a foster or adoptive parent, please visit www.iowafosterandadoption.org. For more information on the safe haven procedure: http://dhs.iowa.gov/safe-haven

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is planning to attend events in the Des Moines area next week. The State Department announced Friday that Pompeo would be in the Des Moines area on Sunday and Monday to discuss agriculture issue and about how the agency serves U.S. interests by promoting American exports. Pompeo plans to speak at a Future Farmers of America event, tour an agriculture research center and attend an event at the World Food Prize headquarters in Des Moines. He also will meet with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The State Department says former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, now the ambassador to China, will accompany Pompeo. The department is expected to provide more details about the visit later.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa grandmother will stand trial Monday in the 1992 killing of her former boyfriend in a case built largely on an alleged confession heard by a child. The trial will test prosecutors’ ability to get a conviction in a case in which they have no physical evidence against Annette Cahill. Instead, the outcome may hinge on whether jurors believe a woman who says she was 9 when she overheard Cahill confess to killing bartender Corey Wieneke weeks after the slaying. Cahill has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Wieneke, 22, whose body was found in his West Liberty home in October 1992. If convicted, she faces life in prison.

Cahill, 56, is an unusual defendant. She has no criminal history and has continued her longtime job with the Police Law Institute, an Iowa-based company that helps train police officers nationwide, while awaiting trial. She has said that Wieneke was her best friend and that she wasn’t involved in his death, which devastated her. Many of her friends and relatives, who praise her cooking and quilting skills, say she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice. But the prosecution is expected to argue that, decades ago, Cahill was a different person and part of a hard-partying group in the small town with a lifestyle that included sexual affairs, drugs and alcohol. They’re expected to claim that she killed Wieneke in a rage about the former high school football player’s engagement to another woman, Jody Hotz.

“He was a great young man,” said father James Wieneke, who intends to be at the trial in Muscatine. Cahill was a divorced mother of two who had been in a sexual relationship with Wieneke, who tended bar at the tavern owned by his grandmother. Investigators say the pair argued early Oct. 13, 1992 about their relationship and his engagement. Hotz has told police that Wieneke came home and was sleeping when she left for work that morning. She called 911 to report finding his cold, bloody body on the bedroom floor after she returned that evening. Investigators later recovered a baseball bat from a nearby road that they believe is the murder weapon. But they have not found DNA or fingerprint evidence against Cahill from the bat or otherwise.

Cahill was a suspect because she was among the last people to see Wieneke alive. Her attorneys say she has always cooperated and was voluntarily questioned numerous times. After the case went cold, Cahill moved to the nearby town of Tipton, remarried and had another child and grandchildren. In 2009, she began working in customer service at the Police Law Institute, which provides continuing education for 10,000 officers monthly. Her boss David Oliver says she’s passionate about proper policing and “very pro-law enforcement.”

The Division of Criminal Investigation reopened the Wieneke case after an agent received a tip from a woman while working an unrelated case in 2017. The woman, 36, has told police that she was 9 in 1992 and visiting a childhood friend who is Cahill’s niece. One evening, she says she saw Cahill pacing around, lighting candles and making incriminating statements about killing Wieneke. The woman’s mother is expected to testify that her daughter told her about the confession then. Cahill’s lawyers are expected to attack their claims as tainted by animosity. Cahill had an affair in 1991 with the girl’s stepfather, which contributed to the end of her mother’s marriage, they say. A childhood memory expert hired by the defense has called the testimony “extremely questionable.”

Cahill was arrested last May and jailed for months on a $1 million bond. A judge let her out on electronic monitoring in September. Authorities have since disavowed a key claim they made in the criminal complaint: That Cahill knew Wieneke was killed by a bat before that information was public. That claim was mistaken, they say. Defense lawyer Clemens Erdahl said he was disturbed that allegation was made publicly without evidence. He has argued that the prosecution’s case is weak. “This has been very difficult for her and her family, in terms of costs associated with contesting a case of this magnitude,” he said of Cahill.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa Senate subcommittee has advanced a measure that would use public education money for private schools and home schooling. The Des Moines Register reports the committee voted 2-1 for the measure Wednesday, with the two Republicans in support and Democratic member opposed. Sen. Jerry Behn, a Boone Republican who sponsored the bill, says the measure would provide parents opportunities for more involvement in their children’s education. He also says it would encourage competition among schools and lead to improvement.

West Des Moines Democratic Sen. Claire Celsi says schools aren’t businesses and don’t compete with one another. The bill would provide students in grades K-12 “education savings grants” to pay for a nonpublic school or “competent private instruction,” more commonly known as home schooling. The grant would equal the average per-student amount the state pays each year for students at public schools.

(Radio Iowa) — Mother Nature set a new record for Iowa in February. State Climatologist Justin Glisan says “The preliminary numbers have us at 22.5 inches of snow averaging across the State, which would break the record set in 1962. Glisan says having nearly two feet of snow fall in Iowa in February is NOT normal. “In a given February, we typically get 6.8 inches over the 30-year average, so yes, that’s a lot more snow than what we tend to get.” The accumulation of snow during this winter SEASON is setting records, too. Glisan says that’s remarkable because December temperatures were five degrees ABOVE average and the majority of precipitation that fell before the turn of the year was rain. “It wasn’t until we got into January and, especially February, when we started getting record snowfall,” Glisan says.

A “snow pack” was established early in the season with the blizzard after Thanksgiving in southern Iowa, according to Glisan. His data shows from southwest Iowa up through northeast Iowa there’s been between 30 and 40 inches of snow so far this winter. Glisan says “And in [the] very central portion of the border between Minnesota and Iowa, 50 to 60 inches , so some pretty big accumulation.” As for what’s causing this snow cycle, Glisan points to what he calls the “arctic intrusion” in late January. That’s when temperatures dipped to the negative 30 and negative 40 range.

“We’ve been stuck after that in a very active Polar Jet pattern, where we have, every four or five days, systems moving through the State, dumping anywhere from three-to six-inches at a given time, and that pattern has just stuck on into the State for the last month,” according to Glisan. There’s a chance of light snow this weekend, but Glisan says the weather should be “relatively calm” across the state. A batch of arctic air will cause temperatures to dip at the beginning of next week, but Glisan predicts a “gradual warm-up” after that.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of setting his stepson aflame in Des Moines has taken a plea deal and avoided a murder trial. The Des Moines Register reports that 42-year-old Randy Miles Jr. pleaded guilty Friday to involuntary manslaughter and fleeing the state to avoid prosecution. Prosecutors dropped charges of arson and first-degree murder in return for Miles’ pleas. Prosecutors say he’ll be sentenced later this month to up to 30 years in prison.

Authorities say Miles fled to Grand Forks , North Dakota, following his confrontation with 26-year-old Christopher Lenhart on Aug. 25, 2017. Witnesses told police that Miles had argued with Lenhart and then threw gas on him while Lenhart was inside a vehicle. The gas then ignited. Lenhart died two days later at an Iowa City hospital.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Institute for Supply Management, formerly the Purchasing Management Association, began formally surveying its membership in 1931 to gauge business conditions. The Creighton Economic Forecasting Group uses the same methodology as the national survey to consult supply managers and business leaders. Creighton University economics professor Ernie Goss oversees the report.
The overall index ranges between 0 and 100. Growth neutral is 50, and a figure greater than 50 indicates growth in that factor over the next three to six months.

• In Iowa: The state’s overall index climbed to 56.9 in February from 54.8 in January. Index components were new orders at 55.5, production or sales at 52.2, delivery lead time at 50.9, employment at 58.9 and inventories at 56.3. It’s estimated that Iowa exported $561.8 million in goods to China last year and that those exports supported about 5,600 jobs in Iowa, Goss said.
• In Nebraska: The state’s overall index climbed to 52.4 in February from January’s 50.5. Index components were new orders at 50.9, production or sales at 48.3, delivery lead time at 57.1, inventories at 52.1 and employment at 53.5. Nebraska is estimated to have exported $462 million in goods to China for 2018. Those exports supported about 4,600 Nebraska jobs, according to Goss.

Here’s a look at some other, neighboring States’ economic indices:

• Kansas: Kansas’ overall index hit 55.2 in February, compared with 53.3 in January. Index components were new orders at 53.1, production or sales at 51.2, delivery lead time at 60.5, employment at 56.2 and inventories at 55.2. Kansas is estimated to have exported $674.9 million in goods to China for 2018. Those exports supported about 6,800 Kansas jobs, Goss said.
• Minnesota: The state’s overall index dropped to 53.4 in February from 54.5 in January. Index components were new orders at 51.7, production or sales at 49.4, delivery lead time at 58.4, inventories at 53.2 and employment at 54.5. The state is estimated to have exported $1.9 billion in goods to China last year, and those exports supported about 19,000 jobs in Minnesota, he said.
• Missouri: Missouri’s overall index rose to 57.0 last month from 55.0 in January. Index components were new orders at 54.5, production or sales at 53.0, delivery lead time at 62.6, inventories at 57.1 and employment at 58.0. Missouri is estimated to have exported $888.7 million in goods to China last year, supporting about 8,900 Missouri jobs, according to Goss.
• South Dakota: The South Dakota overall index rose to a regional high of 68.7 last month from 66.2 in January. Index components were new orders at 63.7, production or sales at 64.6, delivery lead time at 76.3, inventories at 69.7 and employment at 69.2. South Dakota is estimated to have exported $60.8 million in goods to China last year, which supported about 600 South Dakota jobs, Goss said

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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