(Radio Iowa) – Officials with the GoServ Global humanitarian organization say their frustration level is growing over the situation in Haiti. The organization was co-founded in 2011 by missionary Terry Baxter and Iowa farmer Ken DeYoung following a devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010. DeYoung says they support operations in the southwestern part of Haiti. “We’ve been able to keep the school going, our hospital, birthing center, those kinds of things going fairly well,” DeYoung says. “But the biggest thing for us and the orphanage we support is the availability of food and fuel and that king of thing.” He says it has been hard to get all the supplies they need.

“The gangs have shut the road off going from Port-au-Prince to Le Cayes and so we haven’t been able to get many supplies. There is some food available, but it is at a ten-X price of what it was six months ago,” he says. DeYoung says the unstable nature of the country makes it difficult to try to help.

“You get to the point of desperation where it’s next to impossible. I’ve got a container of food sitting in Port-au-Price right now, been there for several weeks, that we can’t get up there,” DeYound says. “And even for me to fly in supplies to La Cayes, and I haven’t been able to get clearance to go in there since this whole shutdown happened. Even if I can, the desperation sets in to the point that you don’t hardly show up with plane load of food, everybody will know what it is.”

GoServe Global is in the process of moving from Eagle Grove to Ankeny.

This is Donate Life Month, when you are encouraged to sign up on your driver’s licenses to donate organs, eyes and tissue. Heather Butterfield, spokeswoman for the Iowa Donor Network, says it’s a time to highlight the critical need for donors, to shine a light on those who are on waiting lists, to honor those who’ve donated in the past, and to celebrate those who’ve received organs through transplants. She says last year was a record-breaking year in terms of the number of donors saying ‘yes’ to donation.

You can go online to IowaDonorNetwork.org to register.

(Clarinda, Iowa) – Officials with the Page County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, said a man from Imogene was arrested after he turned himself-in on a warrant. 41-year-old Vincent Michael Martin was wanted on a Page County Warrant issued on March 4th.

The warrant charged Martin with Assault on Persons of Certain Occupations – Intent of Injury, Disarming a Peace Officer, Interference with Official Acts – Inflicting Serious Injury, and Assault on Persons in Certain Occupations.

Martin’s bond was set at $16,000, but the court allowed 10% to be paid. Martin posted $1,600 bond and was released from custody pending additional court proceedings.

A charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa now has a law modeled after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Governor Kim Reynolds signed the bill into law last (Tuesday) night at an event sponsored by The Family Leader, a Christian conservative group.

In a written statement, Reynolds said religious rights have increasingly come under attack and this law uphold ideals that are the very foundation of our country. Critics say the law will let some Iowans weaponize and misuse religion to
discriminate against others.

The federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act was approved in 1993. According to the governor’s office, 26 other states have adopted similar laws in the past three dec

(Radio Iowa) – Some elements of Governor Kim Reynolds’ plan to improve Iowa students’ reading scores have won approval in the Iowa House. Under the bill, schools must notify parents if their child isn’t reading at grade level in kindergarten through sixth grade — and teachers would have to chart a plan for each of those students falling behind in reading. Representative Thomas Moore, a Republican from Griswold, says most teachers are doing that already.

“I don’t want to say, ‘all teachers,’ because obviously we wouldn’t be in the middle of the pack nationally, reading wise, if all of our teachers were doing some of these things,” Moore says. The bill also says college students in teacher prep programs would have to take an exam to test their knowledge of research-based reading instruction, but a passing grade wouldn’t be required for graduation. The governor recommended that current teachers take the test, too, but that’s not in the House bill.

“I also want to thank the governor’s office for their willingness to accept my toning down what their original bill was and to come up with what I feel was a good compromise,” Moore says. The bill passed on a 92-to-three vote. Representative Sharon Steckman, a Democrat from Mason City, supported it, but she says the bill could have gone farther in addressing the needs of students with dyslexia.

“Dyslexia is estimated to affect 20% of our kids in school and the intervention to help those kids with dyslexia is very specific,” Steckman said. “…It’s very important that we get our universities that are teaching our teachers to understand the importance of knowing how to teach a child with dyslexia.”

The chairman of the Senate Education Committee says he’s working on legislation to improve the reading skills of Iowa students and it’s not yet clear what a final bill that gets approval from the Senate, House and the governor may look like.