The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) reports Audubon County was among 23 counties in Iowa, selected to participate in a $10.5 million federal grant to reduce binge drinking and underage drinking, and the problems associated with both. Ringgold, Monona, Sac and Woodbury Counties in western Iowa were included on the list as being identified as “highest need,” with regard to underage alcohol use, and youth and adult binge drinking.

In February, 2011, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) approved Iowa’s plan for the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF SIG), allowing IDPH to implement a county selection process.

Julie Hibben, the project director for the Iowa SPF SIG, says “The counties chosen to participate in this initiative will serve at least 30,000 Iowans and the state as a whole will benefit from the increased health and safety of all Iowans.”

According to data from IDPH, nearly 28 percent of Iowans 12 years of age and older had consumed more than five drinks of alcohol in one sitting during the past month. This is significantly higher than the national rate of 23 percent.

In addition, 36 percent of Iowans felt that five or more drinks of alcohol once or twice a week was a great risk.

The Iowa State Patrol reports two-people were injured following a single-vehicle accident early Thursday morning, in Harrison County. 49-year old Phillip G. Berten, of Omaha, and a passenger in his car, 21-year old Dakota J. Beadle, suffered “possible” injuries, and were taken to a hospital in Missouri Valley by Mondamin Rescue, after the car they were in went out of control and hit a bridge guard rail, several times.

Officials say Berten’s 2006 Hyundai Sonata was traveling south on Interstate 29 about two-miles north of Modale, when the accident occurred at around 4:30-a.m., Thursday. Berten was cited for Failure to Maintain Control. The patrol said driver fatigue may have played a role in the crash.

Berten’s car sustained $8,000 damage during the accident.

The Iowa State Patrol says a South Sioux City, Nebraska man was taken to the hospital following a high speed chase that ended in a crash Thursday morning, in western Iowa’s Monona County. 21-year old Bee Vang suffered “non-incapacitating” injuries, after the 2005 Acura he was driving went out of control and drove through several residential yards in Blencoe, before hitting a parked pickup and a tree.

A Trooper clocked Vang’s car at 93-miles per hour in a 70-mile per hour zone on Interstate 29, at around 1:40-a.m., Thursday. After the car left the interstate at the Blencoe exit, Vang turned-off his vehicle’s lights and continued east toward Blencoe.

The Trooper lost sight of the car but eventually attained visual contact in town, on Main Street. Shortly thereafter, Vang lost control of the car. During the crash, his vehicle, and one that was struck were totaled, and a residence was damaged by flying debris from the parked car.

Vang was brought to Burgess Hospital in Onawa by Burgess Rescue. He was released from the facility suffering from a broken nose, and subsequently taken into custody. Vang was charged with Speeding, failure to use headlamps when required and reckless driving.

The Democratic mayor of Council Bluffs has sent a letter to the Iowa Senate, urging senators to pass a law similar to Nebraska’s that would ban abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. After that Nebraska law took effect October 15th, a doctor in Bellevue, Nebraska who performs so-called “late term” abortions announced he intended to open a clinic across the border in Council Bluffs. 

Jon Jacobsen, a lawyer from Treynor, read the mayor’s letter at a news conference Thursday morning in Council Bluffs. “People of good will, from both sides of the aisle, are absolute in their solidarity together on this issue,” Jacobsen said. “This is not a partisan issue. This is a bipartisan issue.” In the letter, Council Bluffs Mayor Tom Hanafan encouraged the state senate to “take action” so Council Bluffs won’t become the home of a clinic that “specializes in later term abortions.”

“Now Mayor Hanafan is a Democrat and this is just emblematic of the bipartisan nature of what’s going on here in southwest Iowa and all throughout Iowa on this issue,” Jacobsen said at Thursday morning’s news conference. The Iowa House has passed a bill that would ban abortions in Iowa after the 20th week of a pregnancy, but the bill has stalled in a Senate committee.

 Senator Tom Courtney, a Democrat from Burlington, says it’s too late in the legislative session to give the bill adequate review before a vote is taken. Courtney is chairman of the Government Oversight Committee where the bill is stuck. The 110th day of the 2011 Iowa Legislative session is April 29th and that’s the day legislators’ daily expense money runs out. But it’s not clear whether lawmakers can wrap up work on the state budget by then and adjourn for the year.

Two Iowa National Guard soldiers killed while on active duty will be laid to rest today and tomorrow. Thirty-one-year old Sergeant Brent Maher (May-er) of Honey Creek died April 11th when the vehicle he was riding in was struck by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. Twenty-one-year-old Specialist Donald Nichols of Shell Rock died two days later when a bomb exploded under his vehicle on another patrol in Afghanistan. Mayer’s funeral is today (Friday) at 10 a-m at Council Bluffs High School. Burial will follow the service at the Garner Township Cemetery in Council Bluffs. The funeral for Nichols is 10 a-m Saturday at the Waverly-Shell Rock High School. Burial will follow at the Greenwood Cemetery in Cedar Falls. Iowa Guard spokesman, Colonel Greg Hapgood, expects a larger turnout to honor both soldiers.

“Certainly when it comes to supporting service members in Iowa…there’s no comparison to other states, Iowa just does it so well,” Hapgood says. He says the expect a significant amount of people to attend the services for both Maher and Nicols. The bodies of the fallen soldiers are returned home and Hapgood says their relatives determine how the services will be handled.

Hapgood says everything is driven by the family’s wishes and they do everything in their power to do whatever it is the family wants and to honor that soldier for them. Hapgood says any Iowan can show their respect for the soldiers. He says simple things like simply standing as the funeral procession passes by or holding a flag are important to the families. “Just simply to show your respect some visual way really is fantastic,” Hapgood says, “the families never forget that the day of the funeral when they see home many people come to show that they’re grateful to that family for what they’ve sacrificed.” 

Maher and Nichols were part of a group of 28-hundred Iowa National Guard soldiers deployed to Afghanistan in November of last year.

The Iowa State Patol says a Fremont, Nebraska, man was seriously injured Thursday afternoon, when the pickup truck he was driving rolled over and came to rest on top of him. 68-year old Edgar Leu was leaving the eastbound lanes of Interstate 680 onto southbound Interstate 29 about 2:15 p.m., when his 2002 Dodge Dakota picKup went off a ramp.

Leu over-corrected and lost control of the vehicle, which slid across the ramp and into a ditch, where it rolled several times. Even though he was wearing a seatbelt, Leu was partially out of the driver’s side window when the truck came to rest on his head.

The Patrol says passing motorists who saw the wreck stopped and lifted the truck off of Leu, and held it off of his body until rescue crews arrived on the scene. Officials say the samaritan’s efforts may have saved his life.

He was taken by helicopter to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. A report on his condition is currently not available.