DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Layoff notices are going out to employees at a state mental health institution in Mount Pleasant that is slated for closure. Department of Human Services spokeswoman Amy McCoy says Thursday that notices had gone out to 36 workers. The layoffs will be effective April 6. There currently are about 74 people working at the facility.

Under Gov. Terry Branstad’s proposed budget, funding would be eliminated for mental health facilities in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant. Branstad says the hospitals are old and that people can seek mental health treatment from other providers, including two state mental health institutions in Cherokee and Independence.

Democratic lawmakers say the Republican governor is ignoring the fact that the Legislature appropriated money for the institutions. A Branstad spokesman says the change will lead to better care.

A bill that would double the size of the “buffer zone” between protesters and mourners at an Iowa soldier’s funeral is eligible for debate in the Iowa House. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, is the bill’s sponsor. “In my opinion, you don’t have a First Amendment right to disrupt a peaceful assembly of those that are gathering to mourn fallen loved ones who died for this country,” Kaufmann says. A 2006 Iowa law forbids protestors from being within 500 feet of a military funeral and Kaufmann’s bill would extend that zone to a thousand feet.

Iowa Department of Veterans Affairs executive director Robert King is also director of the Iowa Veterans Cemetery. “We’ve never dealt with this at the cemetery in the two years that I’ve been there,” King says. “However, I can’t imagine the anguish that a family would endure if we had a bunch of people show up to protest.” The Phelps family from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has staged dozens of anti-gay protests at military funerals. Representative Jake Highfill, a Republican from Johnston, says it’s a First Amendment right to protest, even though he’s no fan of the Phelps family.

“I believe there’s a special place in hell for people like this. These people are just the bottom of the barrel,” Highfill says. “But people did not die for this country to just protect the people that are popular. The First Amendment right is not here to protect the popular opinion. It’s there to protect the minority opinion.” Representative Zach Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant, was deployed three times when he was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force. He says burying a fallen soldier is a sacred act and this bill gets his support.  “When those who would perpetrate hate speech and attempt to cover it as a First Amendment right, it becomes difficult, then, to be able to support that level of intrusion…into a family suffering’s right to privacy.”

The bill cleared the Iowa House Judiciary Committee last night (Wednesday) by a 21-to-zero vote. The bill would give the families of fallen soldiers the right to sue protesters for “inflicting emotional distress” during a funeral or burial service. Such lawsuits could seek up to 10-thousand dollars for each family member if the bill becomes law. A member of the Phelps family told The Cedar Rapids Gazette “whiny, crybaby legislators” in Iowa were pushing this bill. Six Phelps family members staged a protest at the statehouse in January, but their chanting and singing was drowned out by the engine-revving Patriot Guard Riders. The group of motorcyclists travels the country to provide a buffer zone around the Westboro Baptist protesters wherever they go.

(Radio Iowa)

A judge in the case of Leatha Kay Slauson has rendered his decision on how restitution will be made to victims she scammed out funds associated with her child’s fake cancer scheme. Judge Greg Steensland determined the amount of total victim restitution at $32,964.06. Funds available to pay the victims amount to $15,900.82, and will be distributed as follows:

• Melanie and Darrin Petty, of Atlantic, $100
• Beta Sigma Phi, of Atlantic, $200
• Victoria Erickson, of Kimballton, $1,000
• Jeffrey & Katie Tibbles, of Ankeny, $93
• United Methodist Church, Atlantic, $3,050.25 (The funds returned to the UMC will not be returned to donors, but used for a comparable charitable donation to the one in this case. They shall then provide proof of that donation to the court.)
• Jennifer Nobles, of Nora Springs, $335
• Mercy Medical Center North, Mason City, $2,642.20
• Ronald McDonald House, Des Moines, $3,990.19
• Rainbow House, Omaha, NE, $3,990.19.

The $15,900 described above will be placed in the trust account of Slauson’s Attorney, Jay Mez, for distribution as prescribed. The remaining balance of victim restitution in the amount of $17, 063.24 is payable by Slauson. As funds are received from her, they will be sent in equal amounts to the Ronald McDonald House in Des Moines, and Rainbow House, in Omaha.

The 30-year old Slauson was sentenced to 5-years probation after pleading guilty to falsely claiming her 5-year-old daughter had cancer and raising money for her treatment. In November, 2014, Slauson pleaded guilty to two counts of child endangerment, one of administering harmful substances, one of theft and one of unlawful possession of a prescription drug.

Three people have been arrested on drug charges, in Creston. Authorities say 48-year old Michael Esslinger and 51-year old Ricky Kimball, both of Creston, were arrested Wednesday afternoon at their homes, on Union County warrants for Possession of a Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine.

And, 32-year old Andy Alden Hansen, of Creston, was arrested in the 800 block of West Adams Street early Wednesday morning, on charges that include Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, Possession with the Intent to Deliver/Meth, and Driving While Barred.

All three men were being held in the Union County Jail, where Hansen’s bond was set at $100,000.