DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Senate wants all school employees to undergo training to recognize when a student is suffering from trauma or contemplating suicide. The bill, prompted by the recent suicides of two students in Johnston, unanimously passed Wednesday. School boards would be required to select a program to train school personnel on recognizing the symptoms of students contemplating suicide. It also would train them on how to intervene.

Democrat Sen. Tod Bowman of Maquoketa, an educator, says teachers are well-positioned in a child’s life to recognize suicidal behavior. He told the senate Wednesday that the suicide of a former student 24 years ago still scars his memory.  Statistics show there are about 30 teenage suicides in Iowa each year.     The measure now moves to the House.

The Atlantic Police Department reports the arrest Thursday of 20-year old Scott Jackson. Jackson,who’s from Atlantic, was arrested on four Cass County warrants, including two for Possession of a Controlled Substance and two for Failure to Affix a drug Tax Stamp. Jackson was booked into the Cass County Jail.

(9-a.m. News)

Drought conditions persist across the Midwest and Great Plains regions which translates to a lower runoff forecast for the Missouri River basin. Kevin Stom, with the water control bureau of the U-S Army Corps of Engineers, says the river’s runoff remains low, but there’s been a small pick-up in recent weeks. “We are forecasting 20-million acre feet of runoff above Sioux City, which is 81-percent of normal,” Stom says. “This is a slight increase of 0.1-million acre feet from the February forecast.”

Jody Farhat, chief of the water bureau in Omaha, says the Corps will continue with water conservation measures this spring. Farhat says, “We’re beginning this runoff season with the reservoirs drawn down significantly due to the drought and as a result, we’re implementing measures to conserve water in the reservoir system, including reduced service to navigation this year.” If the drought continues as feared, Farhat said they may have to look at even more water-savings steps in future months.

Farhat says, “Other potential conservation measures that may be implemented this summer include not supporting navigation targets in reaches without commercial navigation, use of the Kansas basin reservoirs for navigation support and cycling Gavins Point releases during the endangered species nesting season.”

Missouri River levels were very low all of last year due to the drought, which followed a full year of record flooding on the waterway in 2011.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Ric Hanson

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Police in Red Oak report the arrest Thursday night of a sexual assault suspect. Officials say 29-year old James Ray Gilvin, of Red Oak, was taken into custody a little after 10-p.m. at a residence on West Coolbaugh Street. He was charged with felony Sexual Abuse in the 3rd degree, and brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center, where he was being held on $10,000 cash bond.

Time is running out for Iowans who’ve yet to purchase Girl Scout cookies this year. The annual sale wraps up this Sunday. Antoinette Bernich, spokeswoman for the Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa, believes it’s been a solid year for sales. Girl Scouts in Iowa sold more than 1.8 million boxes of cookies in 2012 — which marked the first year of “direct” sales. “The direct sale format is a little bit different. Traditionally, girls would take orders for cookies. So, there would be a few weeks from the time that you ordered and paid for your cookies to the time that those cookies were delivered,” Bernich says. “Starting last year, we moved to a ‘cookies now’ format, which means a little more instant gratification for our consumers and I think overall it’s been very well received.”

Iowans can find locations where Girl Scouts are selling cookies by using the “booth locator” at www.girlscoutsiowa.org. Bernich says the top selling Girl Scouts cookie in Iowa is the Thin Mint. That’s also the best seller across the country. “In Iowa, we have a couple of areas where there are cookies that trend a little bit better. In Sioux City, for instance, the Peanut Butter Patty is the number one cookie,” Bernich says. There are eight cookie varieties available for sale from the Girl Scouts. That includes a new offering this year: Mango Cremes.

The annual Girl Scout Cookie Sale is designed to raise money for the organization and charities of each troop’s choosing. Bernich says the sale also teaches girls about financial literacy. “Girls are learning goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills and business ethics from each box of cookies that someone buys,” Bernich said. More than 15,000 girls and 4,000 adult volunteers are part of The Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa — which covers 67 counties in central and western Iowa, plus one county in northeast Nebraska and two counties in southeast South Dakota.

(Radio Iowa)

A bill that passed the Senate this week more than triples the charge for getting a duplicate Iowa driver’s license. It now costs just three-dollars to replace a lost or destroyed Iowa driver’s license. Senator Rich Taylor, a Democrat from Mount Pleasant, says the bill would raise the fee to 10-dollars. “The purpose is to recover actual state costs to produce the I.D.,” Taylor says. Senator Mark Chelgren, a Republican from Ottumwa, voted against the bill.

“I do not wish to stick it to the people of Iowa,” Chelgren said. “…We should not be putting additional fees, financial burdens on the hard-working people of Iowa.” Senator Taylor responded. “This bill does not raise the fee of obtaining your license,” Taylor said. “It raises the fee on replacing your license.”The bill passed the Senate by a 37 to 11 vote.

The proposal now goes to the House for consideration.

(Radio Iowa)