DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials are investigating possible abuse at a troubled state-run institution for people with intellectual disabilities.  Kelly Garcia, director of the Iowa Department of Human Services, said in an interview Thursday that there is a “visible marking” on a resident at the Glenwood Resource Center, which has been rocked by scandals twice in the past four years, the Des Moines Register reports.

She said the injury couldn’t have been inflicted by another resident, because everyone who lives in the person’s house is immobile. Garcia said she asked the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation to help determine what happened.  “We’re still very much sorting through the facts,” she said.

The institution is home to about 190 adults with severe intellectual disabilities, such as autism or seizure disorders. The residents live in ranch-style homes spread around the campus.  Although no staff members had been suspended and no criminal charges had been filed, supervision has been increased, Garcia said.

She said her agency also reported the situation to a state entity that regulates health care facilities and the U.S. Department of Justice, which already is investigating the Glenwood Resource Center over allegations of poor medical care and unethical research into sexual arousal.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A majority of bankers surveyed in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states are showing more enthusiasm for the state of their local economies than they have since the coronavirus pandemic began. The Rural Mainstreet Survey’s overall index surged to 53.2 in October, up from 46.9. in September and well ahead of the 35.5 reading in March, when the index bottomed out as the outbreak began. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 suggests a shrinking economy.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

Sheriff’s Deputies in Page County, Wednesday, arrested a Shenandoah man wanted on a warrant. Sheriff Lyle Palmer says 31-year-old Nicholas Lee Steinhoff was arrested on a Page County warrant for failure to appear on an original charge of Operating a vehicle without owner’s consent. Steinhoff was arrested in Shenandoah and transported to the Page County Jail, where he was being held on a $2,000 cash-only bond, pending further court proceedings

(Radio Iowa) – A man who sold a fatal cocktail of illegal drugs to a woman in Dubuque last year has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. Court documents show 30-year-old Carl Ravon Watkins admitted he told the woman he was selling her heroin. Watkins actually sold the woman a mixture of fentanyl AND acetyl fentanyl, which is 15 times more potent than morphine.

The woman took the drugs later that night in her home. A few hours later, her boyfriend found her dead. Dubuque Police set up a sting a day later and, as Watson was arrested, prosecutors say he dropped a baggie containing the same mixture of drugs.