Officials with MidAmerican Energy Company have announced the company is participating in several educational training meetings throughout Iowa to help prepare emergency responders and public officials on pipeline safety and damage prevention tactics. The 2014 Pipeline Awareness and Education Meetings are hosted by the Iowa Pipeline Association and are free to the public. All emergency responders and public officials are encouraged to attend.

During the meetings, the Iowa Pipeline Association will conduct interactive scenarios, allowing attendees to practice and apply their emergency response knowledge to specific incidents, such as leak recognition, hazard awareness, damage prevention and basic pipeline safety strategies. Events will be held from January through March, beginning at 5:30 p.m. A free dinner will be provided at each event.

Those interested can register for any one of the meetings at www.iowapipelinesafety.com. In western Iowa, meetings will be held: In Guthrie Center at the Farm Bureau Hall on March 11th; In Denison at the Boulders Conference Center on March 13th;In Creston at Iowa Southwestern Community College on March 25th; In Clarinda at Heritage Hall on March 26th, and in Atlantic at the Cass County Community Center on March 27th.

Firefighters from Massena were called to the scene of a fully engulfed machine shed fire early this (Friday) afternoon. The call about the blaze on the Ron Schafer farm at 73646 Victoria Road, about 3-miles south of Massena, came in at around 12:50-p.m. Crews were reportedly on the scene for about an hour, dousing the flames that damaged the small, wooden building. A cause for the blaze has not yet been determined.

Clarinda Police Chief Keith Brothers reports an accident early Friday morning resulted in the arrest of a woman on alcohol-related charges. The Chief says shortly after 12- a.m., officers arrested 32-year old Megan Renee Warrick, of Clarinda for operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

Her arrest stems from an investigation to the crash of a 2007 Ford Mustang into the garage attached to a residence at 1101 S. 22^nd St. , in Clarinda. The vehicle caused extensive structural damage to the residence, owned and occupied by Mike and Renee Williams. There were no injuries reported.

Warrick posted bail and was released pending initial appearance before the Page County Magistrate Court. Her case has been referred to the Page County Attorney’s Office for review and the filing of formal charges. Brothers says the investigation is continuing and additional charges being filed are anticipated.

(12-p.m. News)

A petition urging the D-N-R to no longer accept deer killed with lead bullets as donations to its food program that helps feed the needy was denied Thursday by the Natural Resource Commission. The D-N-R works with the Food Bank of Iowa in the Help us Stop Hunger or Hush program, which allows hunters to shoot a deer then donate it to be processed and fed to the needy. The N-R-C voted to reject the petition because commission members said there was not enough evidence to show the bullets caused lead poisoning. Cynthia Hansen, the manager of the “Lead Is Poison Coalition” testified that people eating venison are at risk when a deer is shot with lead.

“Many of the fragments are too small to see with the naked eye or to feel when the meat is being processed. But the lead is there as shown in the x-ray and CAT scans during the research studies,” Hansen says. Hansen cleaning the wounds won’t prevent lead poisoning. “So when deer is shot with lead the fragments are scattered beyond the wound channel,” according to Hansen. “And that lead can be dispersed anywhere from two inches to eighteen inches outside the wound channel based on research. “ While the commission recognized people are poisoned by lead in Iowa, the secretary of the N-R-C, Kim Francisco , says this lead often comes from other sources.

Francisco made the motion to deny the petition, saying there is no strong proof that the venison donated to HUSH contained toxic lead.  “There are some legitimate concerns, and we heard it today, the presenters did a really nice job, about sub-lethal levels. Certainly understand that but 800,000 meals a year and we haven’t had any public health issues come up, “ Francisco says. The D-N-R reports five-thousand-281 deer were donated to the program in the 2012-2013 season. Kim Francisco, says HUSH serves a couple of purposes.

“The value of the program both to the people who are utilizing the meat and discussing the deer management problem in the state. And so providing an outlet for that meat that way,” Francisco says. The commission also made the point that it was not the right venue to address the problem — instead it should be taken to the legislature. The D-N-R says just over 56-thousand deer have been processed in the program from 2003 to 2012, which resulted in 10 million meals being provided.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Atlantic report the arrest on Thursday of 26-year old Lacey Dorris, of Atlantic. Dorris was charged with OWI/1st offense and three-counts of Child Endangerment. She was brought to the Cass County Jail and held pending an appearance before the magistrate.

Iowa’s hospital emergency rooms rank just short of the top ten nationwide, according to a new study which finds support for hospitals and emergency room patients is ailing. Dr. Jon Mark Hirshon, spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, says the report gave the country’s E-Rs a grade of D-plus overall, and Iowa was just a little better.  “Iowa actually did relatively well, they got a C overall and they were 11th in the nation,” Dr. Hirshon says. “They’re about average or a little above average.”

While the state has moved up in the rankings to 11th from 19th in the last study, conducted in 2009, Hirshon says Iowa has actually seen declines in a few key categories. “They did best in public health and injury prevention and in access to emergency care,” Hirshon says. “But having said that, there are significant medical workforce shortages that threaten people’s access to emergency care in Iowa. This has declined quite a lot since 2009.”

Overall, he says the quality of care in emergency rooms nationwide is deteriorating and while Iowa is rising in the rankings, he says state’s performance in some categories is still very poor. Hirshon says, “They’ve got the lowest per capita rate of emergency physicians, and near last for having specialists such as neurosurgeons, plastic surgeons, orthopedists, hand surgeons and they’ve had a declining Medicaid C level since 2007.” He says Iowa’s rankings on the study should be red flags to residents.

“This really looks to be an alarming issue related to workforce and the ability to access physicians when you need them,” he says. The study ranked E-Rs in Washington D-C tops, followed by Massachusetts and Maine. The bottom-ranked states are: New Mexico, Arkansas and last, Wyoming. See the full report at www.emreportcard.org.

(Radio Iowa)

In an update to our story Thursday morning about a rollover accident just north of Interstate 80 near the Cass/Audubon County line, sheriff’s officials in Cass County report a Red Oak man faces numerous charges associated with the incident. Authorities say the driver of a Dodge van, 36-year old Timothy Welch, of Red Oak, was charged with Driving while Barred, 3^rd offense OWI, three-counts of Child endangerment, Possession of a Controlled Substance, failure to maintain control, and failure to obey a stop sign. He was also cited for having no proof of insurance.

The accident happened at around 4:10 a.m., as Welch, an adult female, and three children, ages 3, 4 & 5, were traveling on 710 Street. The van went out of control and rolled onto its side. The children and one adult were taken by Anita Rescue to the Cass County Memorial Hospital in Atlantic. Welch was transported to the Cass County Jail, where he was being held pending an appearance in front of a magistrate.

w/ Ric Hanson

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