DAVENPORT, Iowa (The Gazette) — Jurors have convicted a man of murder in the killing of an Iowa high school student more than 40 years ago. It took jurors about three hours to convict 66-year-old Jerry Burns of first-degree murder in the December 1979, stabbing death of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. Her body was found the next day inside her family’s car at a Cedar Rapids shopping mall.

Burns didn’t testify, and his defense called only one witness. The trial was moved to Scott County District Court in Davenport because of pretrial publicity in Cedar Rapids. In Iowa, first-degree murder carries a mandatory term of life in prison.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Newly released documents indicate a recently retired top official overseeing Iowa’s mental health and disability services programs knew of plans to perform sexual experiments at the Glenwood Resource Center, state-run institution, as far back as nearly two years ago. The Iowa Department of Human Services has released letters, emails, and other documents about the GRC indicating increasing concerns of staff members about sexual arousal experiments on patients.

An email written to Rick Shults on May 21, 2018, shows he approved of a research plan drawn up by Jerry Rea, the former superintendent at Glenwood who was fired in December. It detailed experiments on patients at Glenwood and a separate state facility that holds sexual offenders.

Officials with the SWIPCO (Southwest Iowa Planning Council) in Atlantic, said Monday that that three Southwest Iowa Housing Trust Fund (SWIHTF) grants were awarded for the demolition of dilapidated properties in Irwin, Logan, and Malvern. The awards were made at the February quarterly meeting of the organization. The grants, each of which is for a maximum of $15,000 per property, may be used for up to 50% of the actual asbestos removal and demolition cost for one dilapidated residential property in each community.

The communities applied in January during the annual grant cycle. In order to be eligible, the communities must have clear title to the property and demonstrated a plan for the removal of property. The applications are then scored, primarily based upon readiness and the positive impact that removal of the property would have on the neighborhood and community.

SWIHTF board chairman and Red Oak city administrator Brad Wright said “Everyone knows we need to increase the amount of housing stock in our area, but sometimes removing a blighted property can improve a community 10 fold, and there are few programs like this to help pay for that.”

The Southwest Iowa Housing Trust Fund was formed in 2005 and serves the counties of Harrison, Shelby, Cass, Montgomery, Fremont and Page. It is administered by SWIPCO, and provides down payment assistance, housing rehabilitation, and dilapidated property demolition services to its member communities.

Over the past 10 years, over 1,250 homes have been renovated through the work of SWIPCO and the Trust Fund.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The director of the Iowa Department of Administrative Services announced he would resign after less than a year in the position. Jim Kurtenbach said Monday his resignation would be effective March 6. Gov. Kim Reynolds named him to head the agency in June 2019.

In a written statement, Kurtenback said that during his tenure the department’s culture had improved and is now “customer-focused and outcome driven.” The Department of Administrative Services handles human resources, maintains the Capitol grounds and buildings, buys state vehicles and manages state payroll.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports three arrests dating back to late January. On Feb. 15th, 29-year old Cole Jacob Benton, of Hamlin, was arrested at around 12:10-a.m., for Burglary 3rd Degree and Trespass – 1st Offense. His arrest stems from an investigation into an incident that took place in Hamlin. Benton posted a $500 bond and was released.

On Feb. 9th, an Audubon County Deputy stopped a vehicle at the intersection of Highways 71 & 44 at around 12:30-a.m. 30-year old Amy Jo Swalin, of Eagle Grove, was arrested and charged with OWI – 1st Offense. Swalin appeared before the Magistrate the following morning and was released.

And, on Jan. 31st, 62-year old Cheryl Ann Harrelson, of Atlantic, was arrested in Audubon County, for Driving While Suspended. She appeared before the Magistrate and was subsequently released.

(Radio Iowa) — A bill pending in the Iowa House would set up a state grant program to cover the moving expenses for Puerto Ricans who’ve landed jobs in Iowa — outside of the largest Iowa cites. Republican Representative Joe Mitchell of Wayland is the bill’s sponsor.  “Help employers bring folks from Puerto Rico up to fill these workforce voids,” Mitchell says.

He says with the hurricanes and earthquakes rocking their communities, many Puerto Ricans — who are U.S. citizens — are looking to move to the mainland. “Right now for a family of four, it’s about $5000 to fly them up here, to move their belongings up here, to get them in good, quality, affordable housing,” Mitchell says. The bill sets up a “Grow Iowa’s Talent Pool Fund” to award grants for businesses that reimburse employees for moving expenses.

The grants would be limited to companies located in a city or township that has fewer than 50-thousand people. The Census Bureau estimated that in 2017, about 75-hundred people who were originally from Puerto Rico had moved to Iowa. “Obviously the biggest marketer of this program is going to be Puerto Ricans themselves who’ve already come up here and encourage family members to come up,” Mitchell says.

Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory in 1898 and people born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens. Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017. Earthquakes struck in January. Thousands remain without power.

(Radio Iowa) When you call 9-1-1 in parts of rural Iowa, there’s no guarantee an ambulance will be available, as emergency medical services aren’t considered essential, like fire or police. Mark Sachen, president of the Iowa Emergency Medical Services Association, says three-fourths of local departments are volunteer-run. Because the service isn’t guaranteed by local or state funding, many get their money from billing patients or bake sales.

Sachen says, “I think we’re to the point now where the demands on the system are far exceeding the available resources available to provide those services.” In the past five years, Iowa saw a four-percent decrease in the number of registered E-M-Ts. Fourteen counties are covered by just one ambulance service while Worth County has none for its 400 square miles. In Tripoli (Trip’OH-lah), director Kip Ladage has just a few E-M-Ts to cover 99 square miles in Bremer County. He notes staff shortages in neighboring areas create a domino effect.

“From six in the morning to six at night we probably have two, maybe three, if we’re lucky that are available,” Ladage says. “What if Tripoli can’t cover and Denver is already out and can’t cover. Then where do we go? Then that response time just gets that much longer.” Wright County supervisor Karl Helgevold says voters in 2018 overwhelmingly approved a property tax levy to make Wright County the first in the state to declare E-M-S services as essential. That raised a half million dollars a year for training, equipment and a countywide E-M-S coordinator.

Helgevold feels it’s something the state needs to ensure. “Would it be great if the state had a way to mandate it and fund it in a perfect world? Yeah, but we don’t live in that type of world right now,” Helgevold says. “So we need to do what we need to do and provide a good service to our citizens.” One proposal in the Iowa legislature would make it easier to follow Wright County’s example. It would allow counties to set up partnerships and use existing local taxes to fund E-M-S without voter approval.

Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, doesn’t think the service should be declared essential at the state level as it could impose a cookie cutter set of requirements. Kaufmann says, “I still think it should be done county-by-county because there are different mechanisms that work for different areas.” Kauffman is asking the state to appropriate about five-million dollars toward the state’s various E-M-S departments.

(Reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)