A suspected case of child abuse brought police to the emergency room at Central Iowa Healthcare in Marshalltown. When officers arrived, they were briefed by the medical staff and informed that the child, a two-month-old male, was being flown by air ambulance to Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines with serious injuries. Detectives were called in to continue the investigation. Based upon their investigation, they arrested the father of the child, 18-year-old Ryan Scott Nichols of Marshalltown.

Ryan Scott Nichols

Nichols is charged with the following offenses: willful injury, neglect or abandonment of a dependent person and child endangerment causing bodily injury. Nichols was transported to the Marshall County Jail where he remains pending his initial appearance in court.

The case remains under investigation by the Marshalltown Police Department and the Department of Human Services.

(Radio Iowa)

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa senator is optimistic the state Legislature will ban automated traffic cameras that he argues are primarily revenue sources for cities, but officials in Davenport say the devises have succeeded in reducing car speeds and preventing crashes. The Quad-City Times reports Republican Brad Zaun plans to push legislation to ban the cameras during the next legislative session. Zaun says many cameras often show inaccurate data because they’ve been improperly calibrated or checked.

Davenport traffic engineer Gary Statz says there’s been a large reduction in red light crashes at intersections with cameras though. He also cites a 34 percent decrease in vehicle trauma injuries as reported by Genesis Health System. Zaun says the bill will likely make it to the governor’s desk while Gov. Terry Brandstad is still in office.

The Harlan Police Department says an arrest has been made in association with several reports of packages that had been delivered to, and then stolen from, the front porch or steps of area residences. As a result of the investigation 50-year old Jeffrey Rowland, of Harlan, was found to have several of the stolen items in his possession.  Rowland was taken into custody last Friday (Dec. 9th) and transported to the Shelby County Jail, where he was charged with theft in the 3^rd degree.

That same day, 60-year old Cindy Jo Cassidy, of Harlan, was taken into custody after officers were called to Casey’s General Stores upon receiving a report of a possible shoplifter, Cassidy was transported to Shelby County Jail where she was charged with theft in the 5^th degree.

On Dec. 7th, Employees at the Harlan Do It Best Hardware store reported to police that 45-year old Cory Hess, of Dunlap, had allegedly removed an item and left the store without paying for it.  A complaint charging Hess with theft in the 5^th degree was filed with the Shelby County Clerk.

On Dec. 8th, Harlan Police arrested 32-year old Anthony Koester, of Harlan, on an active Shelby County warrant for theft 5^th degree.  Koester was taken to the Shelby County Jail.

Authorities in Harlan report also, on Dec. 10th, 55-year old Lee Jung Hoon Hansen, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant.  Hansen was transported to the Shelby County Jail.

And, on Dec. 5th, 19-year old Seth Strong, of Elk Horn, was taken into custody when he drove past the scene of a traffic stop on Highway 44 just east of Shelby County Road M-47.  Authorities say Strong allegedly did not slow down, and the vehicle he was driving made excessive noise as it passed.  Strong was taken to the Shelby County Jail where he was charged with failure to move over or slow for stationary emergency vehicles.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in ambush-style attacks that killed two police officers last month. Scott Michael Greene submitted his written plea in a court filing Wednesday in which he also asked for a speedy trial.

The 46-year-old has been jailed since he was charged last month in the Nov. 1 shootings of Urbandale officer Justin Martin and Des Moines Police Sgt. Anthony Beminio. He faces life in prison if convicted of either count of first-degree murder.

The shootings took place about two miles apart within minutes of each other as both officers were sitting in their patrol cars. Authorities have said that Greene turned himself in hours later, and that a police dog later recovered a high-powered rifle used in the attacks.

An accident Wednesday night in Council Bluffs resulted in the arrest of a man who had recently been released from the Mills County Jail after serving 23 days, for Driving while Barred. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says 78-year old Ronald Walter Klinker, of Hastings, was taken into custody for Driving While Barred, after the pickup he was driving struck the Casey’s General Store at 19900 Virginia Hills Road. The accident, which happened at around 8:15-p.m., Wednesday, caused minimal damage to the buildings’ gutter.

An on-duty Casey’s employee told a Sheriff’s Deputy as Klinker pulled into the parking lot, his pickup jumped the curb and hit the building. Klinker told the Deputy he experienced a coughing fit and accidentally hit the gas instead of the brake. He acknowledged his driving privileges were barred, and that he shouldn’t be driving, but Klinker said he couldn’t find anyone to take him into town to get groceries.

An annual report from a coalition of health care groups claims Iowa is shortchanging programs to help prevent people from taking up smoking and helping them to quit. John Schachter, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, says the Centers for Disease Control recommends Iowa spend about 30-million dollars a year on such programs, but falls far short. “Iowa is spending $5.2 million dollars on tobacco prevention which is only 17% of what the CDC recommends,” Schachter says. “That puts Iowa right in the middle of the pack, ranking 24th.”

Nationwide, tobacco companies spend more than nine-billion dollars a year to market their products, which doesn’t include another 100-million to market e-cigarettes. By underfunding prevention and cessation programs, Schachter says Iowa is missing a golden opportunity to save lives and cut tobacco-related health care costs.  “What’s most distressing is that Iowa receives over $300 million in tobacco revenue from the state’s settlement with the tobacco companies as well as state tobacco taxes,” Schachter says. “You’re seeing the state spend less than 2% of their revenue on prevention programs and that’s just a recipe for disaster.”

Studies have found Iowa could save five-dollars in tobacco-related medical costs for every dollar spent on tobacco prevention and cessation programs. “In Iowa, the youth smoking rate is incredibly high,” Schachter says. “It’s still over 18% and that’s a problem because that’s way above average. We’re seeing over 1,500 kids starting smoking every year in Iowa and over 5,000 people dying because of smoking-related illnesses.”

Iowa’s cigarette tax is a dollar-36 per pack, which is 33-cents below the national average. The cigarette tax in some states, like New York, is over four dollars a pack. “The single best way to bring down smoking, especially among youth, is to increase a state’s tobacco tax,” Schachter says. “When the price of tobacco and cigarettes go up, youth use especially comes down. We know it will work. It brings down youth use, it raises revenue and it saves health care costs, so it’s a win-win-win for everyone involved.”

Of all cancer deaths in Iowa, nearly 28-percent of them are attributable to smoking. Schachter says tobacco use is the number-one cause of preventable death in Iowa and nationwide.

(Radio Iowa)

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A group of Iowa casinos wants to make their annual audits confidential and stop releasing them to the public. The Des Moines Register reports 16 of the 19 state-regulated Iowa casinos have joined a lawsuit challenging the release of those financial records.

Wes Ehrecke, president of the Iowa Gaming Association, says the audits include trade secrets that shouldn’t be released publicly. But the reports have long been public in Iowa, and they are relied upon to gauge the health of the industry. Last year, Iowa’s casinos paid over $312 million in gambling taxes and contributed nearly $40 million to charities. The groups that rely on charitable contributions from casinos or gambling taxes have a particular interest in the financial reports.

Two of the top Republican leaders in the Iowa Legislature gave a few details Wednesday on the agenda they’ll pursue in January. Senator majority leader, Bill Dix a Republican from Shellrock, says he is one of the few legislators who were around the last time the Republicans controlled the House, Senate and governor’s office. “The message that I am taking from voters is that they expect us, for lack of a better term, to kick the door in. We don’t expect government to continue to do business the way that we have.”

Speaking at the West Side Conservative Club meeting in Clive, Dix says the state needs to not overspend and create policies that grow the state. He says education and education funding is key example of why the state needs to grow. “We can add additional dollars to the per pupil funding on an annual basis — and we almost always do — yet some districts because of declining enrollment will have less resources to work with. So the answer to many of our problems, including this one is growth,” Dix says. “There are a lot of lessons that we can learn. All across the country the last couple of decades — the state’s that are growing the fastest are the ones that are exercising fiscal discipline.”

Dix says tax reform is part of the solution to helping the state grow. “High income tax punishes people who want to work, save and make investments in our state. And we need to recognize that. And the states that have grown the fastest the last couple of decades across our country today are the ones that either lowered their rates, broadened their base, kept things simple, or moved to no income tax at all,” according to Dix.

Dix says another issue he expects to Senate to handle is requiring an I-D to vote. “Without question we need to continue to work to ensure higher levels of integrity in our voting system. And one of the best first steps we can do that is in voter identification. A voter I-D is clearly something we can do,” Dix says.

House majority leader Chris Hagenow, a Republican from Windsor Heights was also on the program. He says he is excited to have a Republican Senate to work with. Hagenow says House members have had some initial planning meetings, but haven’t gotten down to specifics just yet. “We have to still talk in terms of themes and top priorities, and then once we come around to January and work on that. But what I can say, is in the Republican majority in the House we did a lot of these things. Over the last six years some of the bills that we passed are going to be the starting point going forward,” Hagenow says.

He says many of those things were blocked when the Democrats controlled the Senate, but now things like water quality will be back on the table. He says tax reform is another important issue for the Iowa House. Hagenow says the changes to collecting bargaining laws, like other issues, were blocked by Democrats in the senate last session. He says there are a variety of other issues they plan to bring up again.

“The election law reforms that we talked about, we’ve done some of those things,” according to Hagenow. “Many of you care about the Second Amendment and making sure we protect Second Amendment rights. Year-after-year we have passed legislation to do that. Now we have a partner who is going to work with us on that.”

Hagenow says it looks like Governor Terry Branstad will be in the state for much of the legislative session and when the governor does leave to become Ambassador to China, he expects little to change in the working relationship Republican legislators while have with new Governor Kim Reynolds.

(Radio Iowa)