Two men from Nebraska were arrested Saturday night on drug charges, in Walnut. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office reports 21-year old Aaron Mark Dye, of Hastings, NE, and 18-year old Martin Peyton Hord, of Harvard, NE., were arrested with the help of Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Shiels and his K9 partner. Dye and Hord were charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, after deputies were called to the Cenex gas station on Antique City Drive in Walnut, for a report of Vice activity. Authorities recovered from the suspects’ 4 syringes (1 loaded with an unknown content, 1 empty), the bottom half of a burned aluminum pop can, a baggie containing a clear plastic stamp with bags of unknown quantity and Q-Tips. The suspects’ 1997 Nissen Sentra was impounded following their arrest.

The Pott. County Sheriff’s Office said also, 36-year old Randy Lee Nixon, of Crescent, was arrested Saturday night for OWI/1st Offense, after the vehicle he was driving was pulled over for a malfunctioning headlight on Old Lincoln Highway.

And, 40-year old Thomas Dwight Keyser, of Underwood, was arrested late Friday morning following a disturbance in Underwood. Keyser, who has a Protection Order issued against him, is alleged to have taken the phone from his ex-girlfriend and left the area prior to his arrest at the Underwood gas station. He was charged with Violating a Protection Order and Obstruction of Emergency Communications.

Officials with Iowa Public Television today (Monday) announced they have cancelled the Iowa Press debate for the U.S. Senate race scheduled for October 20th, 2016. Senator Grassley (R-New Hartford) rescinded his acceptance of IPTV’s invitation, leaving former Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge (D-Albia) as the sole participant. Judge accepted IPTV’s invitation on September 23, 2016. Grassley’s campaign issued a press release on August 5, 2016, announcing his participation in IPTV’s debate.

The hour-long debate had been scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in front of a live audience in the Maytag Auditorium at IPTV’s studios in Johnston. The program would have aired live on statewide IPTV and been live streamed on Iptv.org. The candidates had previously agreed to answer questions and discuss their platforms, concerns and future plans for the state of Iowa.

IPTV Executive Director and General Manager Molly Phillips said “Iowa Public Television has a longstanding tradition of candidate debates through Iowa Press, the longest-running statewide public affairs program. We are disappointed the debate will not be available to all Iowans on our air, online or in our studio.”

Officials at Cass County Health System announced today (Monday), that Brett Altman, Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT), Master of Business Administration (MBA), and Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), will be the new Chief Executive Officer for the organization.  The Board of Trustees approved the contract for Altman during a special meeting this (Monday) morning. In a Press Release, Cass County Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees Chairman Ned Brown said  “After a thorough search and interview process, it became apparent that Mr. Altman has the vision, leadership skills and industry expertise to continue to move our organization forward.”

The Creston Police Department says three people were arrested over the past few days, two incidents of theft and one incident of vandalism was reported. On Saturday, 26-year old Alex Cunningham, of Creston, was arrested at his home on a Union County warrant for Violation of Probation on an original charge of OWI/1st offense. Cunningham was being held in the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond. That same day, 35-year old John Morse, of Afton, was arrested on a charge of Disorderly Conduct. Morse was later released on a $300 bond. And on Friday, 57-year old Marlene Ploessel, of Creston, was arrested for Theft in the 5th degree. She was released on a Promise to Appear later in court.

Creston Police said also, a resident of the 500 block of W. Montgomery Street reported on Friday someone stole several guns, ammo, pieces of jewelry and various other antique items from his home, following a break-in. A complete list of the items and their value was not available. On Saturday, a man residing in the 1000 block of W. Adams Street in Creston told police someone stole two chainsaws from his home. The loss was estimated at $450.

And, on Sunday, a resident in the 800 block of N. Cherry Street in Creston reported someone drove a vehicle onto his yard and damaged a wood railing leading to the steps of his house. The damage was estimated at $150.

Researchers at Grinnell College say they’ve found that using a copper mix for all types of metal materials in hospital rooms can cut down on dangerous bacteria. Shannon Hinsa-Leasure led the research that studied materials made with a copper alloy at the Grinnell Regional Medical Center. “What we found was that on average, copper surfaces had 98 percent fewer bacteria than control surfaces,” Hinsa-Leasure says.

She says the use of copper to fight bacteria has been studied before, but they took it a step further. “What separates our study from some previous work that had been done in I-C-U’s — we were looking in medical surgical suite rooms — these are rooms where patients are up and moving around,” Hinsa-Leasure explains.  “We look at  surfaces around the patients, but we also looked in the bathrooms. We had copper alloy sinks and grab bars and toilet flushes in the bathroom that we were testing in this study.”

Hinsa-Leasure is an associate professor of biology at the college, and says they were also able to get a good comparison of rooms that were in use and those that weren’t. She says the unoccupied and occupied rooms that served as controls had relatively the same levels of bacteria, while the rooms with copper has significantly lower levels of bacteria, with the unoccupied room having much less bacteria than the occupied rooms. “So what this means is that even when you terminally clean a room, the number of bacteria build up in that room. Even though the room may look clean and ready for a patient, there’s a lot of bacteria there. So the copper really help maintain these terminal cleaning levels in vacant or empty rooms.”

Bacteria can lead to infections and that can lead to more problems for the patients and hospitals. “If you consider that one in 25 patients could get a hospital-acquired infection and roughly 10 percent of those patients died in 2011 who got a hospital-acquired infection, there’s a dramatic cost,” Hinsa-Leasure says, “not only in the patients that get sick, but for the hospitals. Hospitals are now starting to  get scored and not get as much money back if they are getting hospital acquired infections.”

Copper alloy material does cost more than other metal products, but she says there’s a savings in the long run.  “If you look at the minimal increase in cost to put in a copper alloy, it pales in comparison to what you are saving. Not only lives, but also money to keep hospital running,” according to Hinsa-Leasure.  Hinsa-Leasure says copper has the right properties to prevent the bacteria from thriving.

“There have been some studies that have been done that show the mechanism of action — so it’s the copper ions themselves that get into the cells. And they are able to damage the D-N-A, cause some oxygen radicals and really do a lot of damage to the cells,” she explains.  Hinsa-Leasure says hospitals should consider using the copper alloy material to cut infections. But she says they don’t have to make every room in the hospital look like a penny. “We don’t need copper everywhere — but it should be strategically placed in environments where people are immune compromised,” according to Hinsa-Leasure.  “So especially if hospitals are looking at doing renovations or restructuring, that’s the time to put it in. Also, you might want to put it into some areas you already have in your hospital, your I-C-U’s and  different areas of the hospital where it could be important.”

Hinsa-Leasure led the research team that included undergraduate students Queenster Nartey and Justin Vaverka. They  published their results in the American Journal of Infection Control.

(Radio Iowa)