(Atlantic, Iowa) – Atlantic Speech and Debate Team Co-Coach Patricia Nicewanger, Monday evening, reported that the Atlantic Speech and Debate Team brought home the Sweepstakes Trophy at last Saturday’s 51st Annual Walnut Hills Invitational held at CAM High School.

Niceswanger said with regard to District Results,  “We took 33 entries, more than I have ever had participate. 28 of those received a Division 1 rating and advance to State at ADM on March 12th. We had a great showing by Freshmen and I’m very excited to see the potential for the future of our program! These results show the outcome of many hours of rehearsal. Some students took pieces and cut them together, some wrote their own pieces. They take critiques very well to learn and grow as performers.

Walnut Hill awards a traveling Sweepstakes trophy to the school with the highest number of total points. Niceswanger said “Atlantic was thrilled to be notified today that we won the Sweepstakes trophy as well! What a great honor to celebrate our kids’ success!”

Back row L to R: Josie Handlos, Faith Nath, Alexiya Moore, Keira Olson, Charlotte Saluk
Front row L to R: Alex Garcia, Nolan Perez, Nick Bennett

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Sheriff Jeff Vandewater, Monday evening, released a report on recent arrests. Saturday night, March 5th, 44-year-old Lisa Marie Overton, of Menlo, was pulled-over in Stuart by Stuart Police, for having an expired registration plate. Overton admitted to not having a driver’s license or insurance. She was arrested for Driving While Barred, and then released from the scene with a citation.

At around 2:25-a.m., Saturday, 35-year-old Jonathan Paul Calhoun, of Adair, was pulled over by Adair Police for running a stop sign, in Adair. He was subsequently arrested for OWI, with a BAC of .140.  Calhoun was cited for OWI/1st offense and later released with the citation.

Friday morning (March 4th), 38-year-old Christopher Anthony Ford, of Greenfield, was arrested by Greenfield Police, for Violation of a No Contact/Protective Order – Contempt of Court. Ford was released that same afternoon on a $300 cash/surety bond.

And, on March 1st, 35-year-old David Spencer Reeves, of Des Moines, was arrested in Greenfield on Adair County warrants charging him with Tampering with a Witness/Juror, and Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense. Reeves was being held without bond in the Adair County Jail, pending an appearance in District Court.

(Radio Iowa) – A 15-year-old boy has died and two young women — a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old — were critically injured in a shooting outside a Des Moines high school. Des Moines Police say potential suspects have been detained for questioning. The shooting happened just before 3 p.m. Monday and investigators say the gunshots came from a vehicle passing by the East High School campus. The Iowa Capitol is less than a mile to the southwest of the school.

Representative Ruth Ann Gaines led the Iowa House in a moment of silence shortly after the shooting. “Not only was East High School my home for 40 years, I look at school students as all of our students,” Gaines said. Gaines, a Des Moines native, was a drama teacher at the school. “I would like this moment of silence for all of those students,” Gaines said. “Even though you may not know them and they may not be related to you, they are all God’s children.”

In a written statement, Gaines said the shooting has to be a wake up call for every single lawmaker and the governor. The president of the state teachers’ union said violence of any kind against our precious children is unacceptable. The high school will be closed today (Tuesday), and grief counselors will be available to students and staff all week.

Des Moines Police say the 15-year-old boy who was killed was not a student at the high school, but the two other shooting victims were students at Des Moines East. Governor Reynolds issued a statement, saying she is praying for the victims of this senseless act of violence and is heartbroken for the families and the pain felt across the entire community.”

(Radio Iowa) – Thirty-seven states license midwives and, if a bill that cleared the Iowa House becomes law, Iowa would join that group. Bethany Gates of Vinton is a certified professional midwife, one of about a dozen working in Iowa. “Midwives are leaving the state because there are a lot more states that offer licensure, which allows us to practice within our full scope, which makes births safer,” she says. The maternal mortality rate in Iowa has nearly doubled in the past 20 years and Gates says the time has come for Iowa to start licensing midwives.

“We rank 49th in the nation in terms of the number of maternity care providers to the number of women in the state,” she says. A recent study found mothers and babies in states which have integrated midwives into the health care system had better outcomes compared to the states that have the most restrictions on midwives. Without a state license, Gates and other midwives cannot administer certain medications while assisting in a birth, and in most instances midwives cannot order an ultrasound or lab work for a client.

“There’s about five that I can send those orders into without a license,” Gates says, “so this will allow our clients access to those screening procedures that are standard of care in Iowa.” Representative Ras Smith, a Democrat from Waterloo, says the bill responds to the need for access to health care. “Iowa is ranked as the third worst state for people of color, specifically African American people, in the nation. One of the reasons is there’s a six-to-one ratio for black women who die in childbirth compared to their white counterparts,” Smith said. “I think this bill goes a long way in solving those problems.”

Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, says the bill helps bring an established profession out of the shadows. “This bill does serve as the single-most diverse bill in terms of the levels of support — from the far left to the far right — that I have personally worked on,” Kaufmann says.

The bill passed with 93 yes votes and only two House members voted against it. The bill to license midwives now goes to the Senate for consideration. Iowa’s major medical groups have opposed similar legislation in the past.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s a fierce debate between appraisers and the insurance industry over a bill that would adjust some rules for the evaluation of damaged property in Iowa. The Iowa House has unanimously approved the changes, but the bill is in limbo in the Senate. Republican Senator Zach Nunn of Bondurant says he and others want to review the arguments before deciding whether to advance the bill.

“This past weekend we had horrific disasters across our state,” Nunn says. “…I want to make sure that we have a bill that really takes care of the property owner first, specifically those who have been impacted by catastrophic loss.” Iowa Insurance Institute lobbyist Brittany Lumley says the bill is necessary because a 2018 Iowa Supreme Court ruling gave appraisers too much leeway.

“It’s just making sure the appraisers stick to the loss and the cost of the damage as opposed to the coverage causation disputes, which are best left to the courts,” she says. Tim Johnson is the Cedar Rapids attorney who handled the court case that’s at the center of this dispute. He says it the bill becomes law, lawyers like him will make a lot of money taking insurance companies to court.

“The citizens of Iowa cannot afford to not have a cheap resolution process that gets these claims resolved without needing somebody like me,” Johnson says. Johnson is urging lawmakers to preserve the current process that lets a property owner ask a neutral umpire to resolve a dispute over insurance claims when appraisers for the insurance company and the property owner do not agree. The insurance industry’s lobbyist says that option will remain, but appraisers will no longer be able to judge what caused the damage if the bill becomes law.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Monday (Today), was the first day candidates for the June Primary Election could begin filing their nomination papers. On the first day of filing, the Cass County Auditor’s Office reports Mary Ward has filed for re-election as County Recorder.

The filing deadline is March 25^th, 2022. If you have any questions about the nomination and/or filing process, contact the Cass County Auditor’s Office or see the Iowa Secretary of State’s website .