Two people were injured Tuesday evening, after a van rear-ended a tractor about three-miles northwest of Clarinda. The Page County Sheriff’s Office reports a van driven by 61-year old Karla Morrison, of Clarinda, was traveling south on O Avenue, just south of the intersection with 170th Street, when she failed to notice a dual axle farm tractor, driven by 47-year old Terry Hughes, of rural Clarinda.

The 2000 Chrysler Grand Voyager hit the rear of the tractor, causing the 2007 John Deere Model 6430  to toll twice into the east ditch. Both drivers were transported to the Clarinda Regional Health Center by Clarinda E-M-S. Both vehicles were totaled in the crash, which happened just before 5-p.m.  Officials cited Morrison for Following too close.

A 2010 Glenwood High School graduate hired as a part-time district-wide audio-visual support technician has been charged with sexually abusing a female student inside a high school closet. 19-year old Andrew Schoening, of Glenwood, faces up to 10-years in prison if he’s convicted on a charge of statutory rape. He would also be required to register as a sex offender. 

According to court documents filed in Mills County, a 15-year old female told Glenwood police Schoening forced her to have sex in a closet at the high school. Schoening was hired by the Glenwood school district’s technology team in September. He oversaw audio-visual equipment at high school athletic contests. The alleged incident happened during the school day on December 20^th. The student reported the alleged incident to high school staff, and school officials promptly notified local law enforcement. Schoening resigned after the incident came to light last week. 

Mills County Attorney Eric Hansen told the Omaha World-Herald that Schoening, who turns 20 next month, faces a charge of third-degree sexual abuse, which requires the prosecutor to prove only a sex act with a person who was 15 when the defendant was 19 or older. Hansen said regardless of consent, any sexual contact involving Schoening and the minor would constitute a crime because of the age difference.

Council Bluffs defense attorney Mike Murphy said he intends to prove the sexual contact was “consensual.” Murphy hopes proving the encounter was consensual might result in a less severe penalty or exoneration. He said Schoening and the girl were acquaintances who often crossed paths in the high school.  Schoening has admitted to having sex with the teen. He also admitted to police that he knew the girl was under age.

Schoening remains free after posting bail last week. A Mills County magistrate has ordered him not to have any contact with the girl or her family.

A new report ranks Iowa’s K-through-12 education system 31st in the nation. The report comes from the American Legislative Exchange Council. It gave Iowa an overall grade of C-minus. Iowa had very low marks in college programs that prepare teachers and in keeping effective teachers in the classroom. Iowa got a D-plus for failing to do enough to get rid of ineffective teachers. Republican Governor Branstad suggests the report should be a “wake-up call” for state policymakers who’re reviewing his education reform plan. Democrats suggest the report from the Republican-leaning group is skewed. They point to other reports indicating, for example, that Iowa high schoolers who took the A-C-T had an average score that ranked second in the nation.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

A three-member panel has given initial approval to a proposal that would broaden the definition of “justifiable force” for Iowans who believe they face a threat from an attacker and shoot a gun in defense. Representative Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, says it’s about protecting law-abiding Iowans from frivolous lawsuits.  “What we’re trying to address is Iowans’ individual right to protect themselves and their neighbors from any kind of threat or harm without having to face any kind of civil liability,” he says.

The three-member House subcommittee that considered the bill held a sort of public hearing yesterday that drew critics of the plan. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone suggested the proposed change would give defense attorneys another tool to try to justify the criminal conduct of gang members or those accused of domestic abuse.  “We’d allow people to get off because someone made a comment or looked at somebody the wrong way,” Sarcone said. This same “justifiable force” proposal was introduced in the Iowa legislature last year, too, but never cleared a committee in the House or Senate.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

Iowa’s congressional delegation is split along party lines over a key proposal President Obama highlighted in his “State of the Union” speech. Obama has proposed raising the tax rate to at least 30 percent for Americans who make more than a million dollars, an idea Omaha billionaire Warren Buffett advocates. Obama invited Buffett’s secretary to last night’s speech in D.C., as Buffett often says he pays a much lower tax rate than his secretary does. That does not sway Steve King, a Republican Congressman from western Iowa. “Warren Buffett has shielded a lot of income,” King says. “We can’t look at Warren Buffett’s tax rate and his secretary’s tax rate and draw any calculation…so it looks to me like it’s a political ploy more than anything else.”

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says “under-taxing” millionaires and billionaires isn’t the problem. “But the most important thing is the intellectual dishonesty of saying that Buffett’s paying 15 percent and that’s less than what his secretary pays. He pays 15 percent on capital gains, but you’ve got to remember that same money was taxed at 35 percent at the corporate level,” Grassley says. “You could figure that dollars taxed at 50 percent, not 15 percent.” Republican Congressman Tom Latham of Clive doesn’t directly accuse President Obama of engaging in “class warfare,” but Latham’s no fan of raising the tax rate on the wealthy. “I think it’s important that we try to unite the country and not divide the citizens economically or wherever,” Latham says, “because we’ve got a lot of problems in this country.” Iowa’s three Democratic Congressmen all support the higher tax rate for people who make more than a million dollars

Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, says he’s been a “long-time” supporter of raising the tax rate on top wage earners. “Maybe amnesia set in how we got to where we are, but there’s no point in lamenting on it. We’re there,” Boswell says. “How do we get out of it? And if everybody participates and I mean everybody — all — we can do this.” Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, says the Republican Party’s “trickle down” economics doesn’t work and Harkin argues Obama’s tax proposals “promote a better, more fair tax structure.”

President Obama is due in Iowa over the noon-hour today (Wednesday). He’ll give a speech at a manufacturing plant in Cedar Rapids, a stop through five “battleground states” in the November election and a backdrop to highlight the president’s proposals to boost the manufacturing industry.

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)