(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau and the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit conducted a joint investigation regarding Sioux City Mental Health Counselor Amy Hecht.  It is alleged that Hecht provided false medical codes on patient’s bills to provide additional reimbursement to which she was not entitled.

Hecht has been charged with twelve counts of Fraudulent Submission (Class D Felony), one count of Theft 2nd (Class D Felony), Fraudulent Practice in the 3rd degree (Aggravated Misdemeanor), and tampering with records. Hecht was arrested on September 9, 2024 and was released on bond.

Iowans with information about insurance fraud are encouraged to contact the Iowa Insurance Division’s Fraud Bureau at 515-654-6556.

Note: A criminal charge is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Sheriff’s Office today (Friday), released a report on arrests that took place between August 22nd and Sept. 10th. Beginning with the most recent arrests:

On September 10th: Cass County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 39-year-old Jennifer Ponder, of Atlantic, on warrants for Burglary 3rd Degree and Interference with Official Acts, along with a charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance and a later warrant of Violation of Probation.  Ponder was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held; And, 50-year-old Jeffery Etter, of Atlantic, was arrested on warrants for Burglary 3rd Degree, Driving while Barred and Felon in Control of a Firearm.  Etter was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.

On September 8th:  50-year-old Jeffery Etter, of Atlantic, was arrested on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance 3rd Offense, Driving while Barred and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.  Etter was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond.

On September 4th: Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 53-year-old Aaron Latus, of Massena, on the charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance.  Latus was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release on bond; And, 67-year-old Jeanette Latus, of Massena, was arrested on a charge of Possession of a Controlled Substance.  Latus was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release on bond.

On September 3rd, 18-year-old Miranda Jennings, of Atlantic, was arrested for Operating While Intoxicated/1st Offense.  Jennings was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release on her own recognizance.

On September 2nd, 23-year-old K-Son Seker, of Atlantic, was arrested by Cass County Sheriff’s deputies for Public Intoxication.  Seker was transported to the Cass County Jail where he was booked and held until his later release after time served.

On August 26th, 44-year-old Crystal Branch, of Griswold, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault.  Branch was transported to the Cass County Jail where she was booked and held pending her later release after time served.

And, on August 22nd, Cass County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 53-year-old Lynn Frohlich, of Atlantic, on a warrant for Violation of Probation.  Frohlich was transported to the Cass Count Jail where he was booked and held pending his later release.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – A Michigan man was sentenced yesterday to five years (60 months) in federal prison for possessing a firearm as a felon.

According to public court documents, Michael Anthony McBride, 30, was stopped for speeding by the Iowa State Patrol in Adair County on July 21, 2023. A search of McBride’s vehicle led to the discovery of user quantities of marijuana and cocaine, a digital scale, and two firearms: a loaded nine-millimeter pistol and a semi-automatic “ghost gun.” McBride admitted to purchasing the firearms for protection. The nine-millimeter pistol had been reported stolen from a residence in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan in June 2023. McBride had been convicted of a felony drug crime in Michigan and was therefore prohibited from possessing firearms.

After completing his term of imprisonment, McBride will be required to serve a three-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results. For more information about Project Safe Neighborhoods, please visit Justice.gov/PSN.

Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department, this (Friday) morning, said in a social media post, that over the last three days, the Council Bluffs Police Department and schools within the city have been made aware screenshots indicating threats of school violence on social media.

Authorities said “We have investigated all these images thoroughly, and we have learned they are being shared all over the Midwest with no specific origin. There is no evidence that these images came from or specifically target Council Bluffs, yet they continue to be shared and re-posted within our community.

“Social media makes it incredibly easy to share information without verifying its source,” the police department says, “which can be disruptive and dangerous. [They asked] If you come across anything that looks like a school threat, do not share or repost across social media. Please report it to your local law enforcement agency, the school, or through https://safeandsoundiowa.gov/.

“We take all threats of school violence incredibly seriously and will continue to do so. The public is reminded that it is a crime for any individual to create and share electronic communications with the intent to intimidate or alarm others.”

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak say a man was arrested this (Friday) morning, on a Theft charge. 22-year-old Yovani Martin Ramirez, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 8:20-a.m., in the 400 block of E. Linden Street. Ramirez was charged with Theft in the 5th Degree and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where his bond was set at $300.

(Radio Iowa) – A group of Iowa State University researchers has made a discovery that could lead to a new treatment for patients with blood disorders like leukemia. Clyde Campbell, a professor of genetics, development and cell biology at Iowa State, is on the research team. “I think we are definitely on the verge of making a huge advancement in the use of cell transplants to help cure blood cancers,” Campbell said during a Radio Iowa interview.

Blood cancers account for about 10% of all diagnosed cancers in adults each year and about 25% of all cancers in children. Treatment is often a transplant of bone marrow from a live donor, to respond to the way cancer disrupts the body’s production of blood stem cells. Campbell is the ISU researcher who first observed the switch inside a zebrafish stem cell that triggered production of blood stem cells. “There are very few moments in a scientist’s life where you see something that just kind of blows you away,” Campbell said.

Iowa State University researchers Raquel Espin Palazon (center), Karin Dorman and Clyde Campbell in ISU’s Advanced Teaching and Research Building. (Photo by Christopher Gannon/Iowa State University)

What Campbell saw through his microscope was a 100-fold increase in the number of blood stem cells produced after a certain protein was added. “It really almost knocked me out of my seat,” Campbell said, “because what we were able to produce has never been observed.”

Campbell explains scientists were already able to take non-vital cells from a patient’s skin, add a mixture of key components in a laboratory dish and produce stem cells. “Now where we’re at is trying to drive those cells to become specifically blood stem cells,” Campbell told Radio Iowa. “That way we’d have the ability to introduce the patient’s own cells into their body.”

That would eliminate the need for a bone marrow transplant, as well as the powerful prescription drugs patients have to take long after the transplant. The I-S-U research has been published in Nature Communications, a scientific journal.

It will “definitely take some time” to develop and ensure the process of producing blood stem cells in a lab and putting them back in the patient’s body is safe, according to Campbell. Campbell and others on the ISU research team are working with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to do more testing on the production of blood stem cells in a lab. Part of a $2 million federal grant is being used to build a new lab on the Ames campus to continue the research team’s work.