(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has given final approval to a bill that immediately removes the time limit for filing criminal charges against people accused of sexually abusing a child. During House debate, Friday, Representative Cherielynn Westrich of Ottumwa spoke publicly for the first time about the abuse she suffered as a child.

“It was only as an adult that I was finally able to come to terms and to talk openly about this. I even had to write down my statement because it’s emotional and it’s hard to face,” Westrich says. “…I think we need to support those victims who find the courage to speak out, who find the courage to come forward no matter how long it takes them.” Westrich says this law change gives victims a chance to get justice.

Cherielynn Westrich

“As a small child, I was sexually abused by a babysitter. It was something that I felt a lot of shame for. I was very confused. I was afraid to speak out, but I told my parents, but I wasn’t believed — at that time,” Westrich says. “They’ve since come back and apologized. My mother has cried many nights that she didn’t believe me.” Westrich says as a teenager, she was part of a group who were supporting a friend who had been sexually abused and the memories of her own abuse returned. And her siblings remembered being the babysitter locking them out of the house so he could be alone with her.

Westrich asked her colleagues to think about all the victims of child sex abuse. “One in five girls and one in 20 little boys are sexually abused,” she said. “How many perpetrators is that, that get away with it? That’s a lot of perpetrators. That’s a lot of children that are being hurt.” The legislator who spoke next thanked Westrich for having the courage to tell her story in a public forum and then expressed the hope it would inspire other victims to come forward and press charges.

Under current state law, child sex abuse victims must contact authorities before their 33rd birthday to file criminal charges or sue their abuser. The bill only deals with the statute of limitations for criminal charges. While the bill passed on an 84-to-two vote, critics argued it’s time to lift the time limit on civil lawsuits as well, so victims can sue institutions that knew about child sex abusers, but did not act to prevent them from targeting other children.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report the arrest Friday evening, of 29-year-old Kaleb Christie, of Clarinda. He was taken into custody following a traffic stop on Highway 48 at 270^th Street, and charged with Driving Under Suspension. Christie was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

The driver of a semi tractor-trailer complained of shoulder pain, after the rig he was driving rolled over into the north ditch, off Interstate 80, early this (Saturday) morning. Dispatch reports had Anita Rescue called to the scene at the westbound 66-mile marker, at around 1:55-a.m.  A Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy was the first to arrive at the crash site.

No other details are currently available.

(Radio Iowa) – You may have heard the buzz about the mass return of the insect known as the cicada (suh-kay-duh) after 17 years in the ground. Iowa State Entomologist, Donald Lewis, says the emergence will be from Indiana to the east coast. Iowa has to wait until 2031 for the periodical cicada to return.”Back in 2014, the periodical cicadas emerged in the southeast portion of the state of Iowa, from about Ledges State Park southeastward toward corner of the state. So they have been in the ground for only seven years — and we have another decade to wait,” Lewis says.

Thousand of periodical cicadas emerge at one time and cover trees and other objects. Lewis says there is an annual cicada that we will soon see here. “It’s the one that appears about the middle of July and is present until frost. It makes the familiar Zuh-zuh-zuh-zuh sound up in the trees, and then disappears in the fall of the year,” he explains. He says you may also find the old shell of the cicada around the yard. “When the nymphs come out of the ground after feeding on tree sap for their prescribed period, they cling to tree bark, or the side of the shed or a fence post and they shed their skin. They shed their exoskeleton and a crack forms down their back. And the insect pulls itself out of its own shell,” Lewis says.

They then fly around until it is time to go back underground. There are not as many of the annual cicadas. Lewis says the purpose of the insects isn’t exactly known. “Cicadas are probably a link in the food chain, but it’s not a terribly obvious one to us,” according to Lewis. “We are talking about big insects. The annual cicadas are at least an inch in length and about as big around as your thumb.” He says the periodical cicadas are about three-quarters of an inch long. Lewis says a raccoon or bear or some other animal may eat cicadas — but they are too big for most predators to eat. While they may seem imposing — Lewis says cicadas are harmless to humans.

“They’re not a pest to crops, they don’t feed on the garden vegetables and the fruits in the back yard. They can’t bite and they don’t sting — so their impact on people is fairly minimal,” Lewis says. If you want to see the mass emergence of the 17-year cicada, you’ll have to head east to Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and some coastal states. The nymphs surface during late May and June.

(Radio Iowa) – A flower garden at the Anamosa State Penitentiary was dedicated on Thursday in memory of nurse Lorena Schulte (SHULL-tee) and corrections officer Robert McFarland. They were brutally murdered during an escape attempt at the eastern Iowa prison on March 23rd. Beth Skinner, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, addressed the Board of Corrections this (Friday) morning via Zoom for the first time since the killings. “These two individuals will never be forgotten, and neither will their families,” Skinner says. “Additionally, I want to thank all DOC staff who have stepped up in a very difficult time.”

Two inmates are charged in the murders of Schulte and McFarland. Skinner says donations of cash and items are pouring in from all over the country to honor the two slain staffers, and emails and letters are arriving daily. “I believe I have read over 500 letters from individuals, from agencies across the country,” Skinner says. “The support has been extraordinary. I want to thank everyone for the ongoing support, for the families, for our staff. Words can’t convey the level of gratitude we have.”

The killings caused “a major ripple effect” across the prison system, Skinner says, and a variety of changes are being implemented to prevent it from happening again. A new position is being created, a security operations director, who will oversee all nine Iowa prisons. Skinner says she’s hired Brian Foster for the position and he will start May 24th. “He works for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections,” Skinner says. “He has been a warden in three different prisons and he is currently the security chief for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, which basically is doing the job that we want to do here in Iowa.”

An independent team of investigators is doing an assessment of the Anamosa prison while all nine prisons are subject of a thorough external review. Skinner says she’s also been leading what she calls feedback forums. “I spent about two weeks on the road. I went to every single prison, all nine prisons, in order for staff to voice their concerns to me directly,” Skinner says. “Next week, I have scheduled calls with every single warden and their administration to talk about the feedback that I have received and how we can work together and be more solution-focused.”

In addition to new equipment, including fixed and body-worn cameras, she says suggestions are being made for better ways to communicate “from the bottom up and from the top down.” Skinner says she’ll be visiting all nine prisons every three months to gauge the progress.