A crash on Interstate 80 Thursday morning in Council Bluffs resulted in minor injuries to a woman, but she did not require transport to the hospital. According to a Bluffs Police report, 24-year old Taylor Wees, of Council Bluffs, was traveling west on I-80 near the southbound I-29 split, when traffic slowed in front of her. Wees was unable to slow down in-time and swerved to avoid hitting another vehicle, but in the process hit a guard rail.

Wees’ 2007 Mazda spun sideways before coming to rest across the westbound lanes of traffic. The wreck brought traffic to a dead stop for about 40-minutes, while the scene was investigated and cleaned-up. No citations were issued. Damage to the Wees’ car was estimated at $8,000. Damage to the guardrail was also estimated to be several thousand dollars.

A shooting last April at Iowa Western Community College was one of a 100 such incidents since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in late 2012, according to a national advocacy group.
The Daily NonPareil says “Everytown for Gun Safety,” a group backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released a report this week analyzing 100 cases where a firearm was discharged at a school or on a campus – as documented through press or law enforcement reports, excluding three instances of self-defense – since the Dec. 14, 2012, murders in Newtown, Conn.

One of those was a shooting on April 16th, 2014, at Iowa Western in Council Bluffs,  where a 19-year-old student was struck in the upper arm following what he described to police as a Craigslist deal gone wrong. According to police, the shooting took place near the Reiver Village dormitories when a student and his friend drove to meet someone to sell an item. Two men arrived and got into the back seat of the car, where one of them drew a gun and demanded their wallets. The student attempted to grab the gun, believing it was fake, causing a struggle for the gun. He was shot in the upper left arm and shoulder, and the two men fled and drove away. The victim, Dalton Crosser, was treated and released from an area hospital.

On May 5, Council Bluffs police arrested Richard L. Dawson, 19, of Omaha, in connection to the crime. Dawson was initially charged with attempted murder, first-degree robbery and willful injury causing serious injury. The Omaha man is currently in prison after pleading guilty.

The Everytown report also included a shooting at North High School in Des Moines on Jan. 31st, 2014, as well as a shooting at Algona High/Middle School on Nov. 1st, 2013, where a man died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The final analysis in the report said “Regardless of the individuals involved in a shooting or the circumstances that gave rise to it, gunfire in our schools shatters the sense of security that these institutions are meant to foster. Everyone should agree that even one school shooting is one too many.”

A copy of the report can be found at everytown.org/article/schoolshootings.

An informational meeting for persons interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter for the City of Shelby drew about 15 potential candidates, Thursday night.  The meeting was held at the Shelby City Hall. The Daily NonPareil reports Greg Martin, a former firefighter with the department was one of those who signed-up. Martin, who served on the department for six-years, said he had to quit because of his regular job. He said the work firefighters do to save property…including his own at one point in time… is one reason he wanted to come back to the force.

Before the meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Bob Richmond said he hopes the department can be rebuilt soon. He said he had talked to several people who expressed an interest in serving. The city is recruiting volunteers to fill the department’s needs because the Shelby City Council fired all 12 firefighters Monday evening, and Fire Chief Eric Wendt resigned Wednesday morning. The firings were the result of a dispute between the council and department over funds the department raises.

Iowa’s two Republican senators have voted for legislation that would authorize construction fo the Keystone X-L pipeline. Senator Joni Ernst says she was a “proud co-sponsor” of the bill. “My colleagues and I promised our folks back home that we would govern in a responsible way and that’s what we are doing,” Ernst says. “We are moving legislation that the American people have asked for.” The pipeline, which would carry tar sands crude oil from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, would not extend through Iowa.

A court ruling earlier this month cleared the way for its passage through neighboring Nebraska. The U.S. State Department estimates 42-thousand people would be employed during the two-year construction phase.  “This will help us create new jobs, invest billions of dollars into our economy and also (build) new energy infrastructure,” Ernst says.

The U.S. House has already passed its version of the bill and Republican leaders in the House have yet to decide whether to pass the slightly different Senate version of the bill or create a conference committee of House and Senate members to hammer out a final draft. The legislation will set up the first official clash with the new Republican-led congress, as President Obama has promised to veto the bill.

Senator Chuck Grassley says the pipeline is “a privately funded, shovel ready infrastructure project that would support a lot of good-paying jobs.” Grassley suggests President Obama is “stuck between the unions that want these jobs and the environmentalists who don’t want any more use of fossil fuels.”

(Radio Iowa)

A panel of legislators grilled the state official who was dispatched to defend Governor Branstad’s proposal to close the state-run Mental Health Institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. Rick Shults, the director of mental health and disability services for the Iowa Department of Human Services, testified before a budget subcommittee on Thursday. “We clearly are having difficulty in recruiting staff,” Shults says. “…The wards are outdated and they’re poorly configured. When I go to those facilities it causes me concern. There are nooks and crannies and they’re not as expansive and there are just some challenges there and there are high costs associated with these facilities.”

Representative Dave Heaton, a Republican from Mount Pleasant, counters the costs for caring for patients with acute mental illness are higher at the Cherokee and Independence Mental Health Institutes which will remain open. “I mean, it’s flying in the face of a lot of things here, Rick…you know?” Heaton said during the 90-minute question-and-answer session with Shults. “I just can’t quite understand,” Heaton says there aren’t enough “psych beds” in private facilities in southern Iowa and closing the two state-run facilities makes things worse.
“Iowa is ranked fourth-worst in the country as far as our mental health services are concerned. We’re at the bottom,” Heaton said, pounding his fist on the table. “…It’s a mess.” Senator Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat from Iowa City, says he doubts the agency’s claim that many patients who’re now being served in the state’s Mental Health Institutes can easily find care from private providers. “You’re painting this rosy picture about how we’re going to have all these crisis services at the same time we’re ripping money out of the system,” Bolkcom says. “It’s to meet the bean counters’ numbers in the basement, the Department of Management. They’ve got to cut money out of this budget to pay for this historic property tax cut.”

Other legislators say they’re fielding complaints from county sheriffs who are often responsible for transporting patients to the Mental Health Institutes. Representative John Forbes, a Democrat from Urbandale, says it will be a 500-mile round trip for some departments. “What’s the human cost to the families of these patients who are now going to be instead of 20-30 miles away, 250 miles away?” Forbes asked. “These patients need their families close by to help them get through these very difficult times in their lives.”

Shults, the D-H-S administrator, counters that many hospitals around the state provide in-patient treatment for severe mental illness, plus he says the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines will be able to take some patients who would have been sent to the state-run facilities. The D-H-S expects to shift the elderly sex offenders who’re in 24-hour nursing care in Clarinda to private nursing homes.

A court ruling is expected in late February on whether Governor Branstad had the authority to close the Iowa Juvenile Home in Toledo last year. If that ruling goes against Branstad, legislators say that will dramatically alter the discussion about closing the Mental Health Institutes.

(Radio Iowa)