(Des Moines, IA) – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Health report on Monday (today), the FDA authorized full approval for one COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, will now be marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older.

“The FDA’s full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine offers Iowans and Americans who’ve not yet been vaccinated the assurance they need to do so now,” stated Governor Reynolds. “The vaccine is the best defense against the virus, and it’s been proven highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death, even against variants. Vaccine is widely available in the state, and I encourage all eligible Iowans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.”

The Comirnaty vaccine continues to be available under emergency use authorization (EUA), for individuals 12 through 15 years of age and for the administration of a third dose in certain immunocompromised individuals.

Vaccine supply in the state is stable and vaccine appointments are readily available statewide. We encourage anyone with questions to reach out to their health care provider.

More than 3 million doses of vaccine have been administered in Iowa and more than 1.5 million Iowans are fully vaccinated. For more information about vaccination in Iowa or to find a vaccine provider near you, visit vaccinateiowa.gov.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Monday afternoon, said the 4th Judicial District Correctional Officer who was involved in a shooting with parole violators Brandon Hines and Kelsey Hanna in Council Bluffs on Friday, August 20, 2021, is identified as Officer Mike Brown. Officer Brown is on paid administrative leave pending the completion of the investigation. Officer Brown had eight years of prior law enforcement experience before joining the Department of Correction in July 2021. Officer Brown was released from the hospital on Friday evening and is recovering at home from his injuries.

This is an on-going criminal investigation by the Council Bluffs Police Department and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI). Once the DCI completes its investigation, a report will be submitted to the Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office for review.

Brandon Hines has been released from the hospital and taken into custody by Nebraska authorities on a parole violation warrant issued by the State of Nebraska. Hines will be extradited to Iowa at a later date to face the following criminal charges in Iowa.

• Assault on a Police Officer with a dangerous weapon  (Class D Felony)
• Assault on a Police Officer while attempting to inflict serious injury (Class D Felony)
• Theft 2nd Degree (Class D Felony)

Original story (from the IDPS Press Release) dated Friday, 8/20/21:

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – On Friday, August 20, officers with the Iowa Department of Corrections’ 4th Judicial District’s High-Risk Unit were searching for Kelsey Hanna and Brandon Hines pursuant to parole warrants.

Shortly after 1:00 p.m., officers with the High-Risk Unit observed Hines and Hanna leaving a house and entering a black Ford SUV near 27th Street and Avenue G in Council Bluffs. The officers attempted to stop Hines and Hanna from leaving the area.

As the officers with the High-Risk Unit approached the black SUV, the driver (Hines) put the car in reverse and backed into a secondary officer’s vehicle. Hines then put the black SUV in drive and drove towards and struck one of the officers. One officer fired his service weapon striking Hines.

Hines fled, but was apprehended a short time later by the Nebraska State Patrol in Omaha. Hines was transported to the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) where he is being treated for non-life threatening injuries. Hanna was arrested without incident.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa police dog named Pepper tracked down a missing child. Pepper, a nearly 15-month-old Dutch Shepherd, completed a certification process earlier this month and works as a K9 officer for Estherville Police.

Sergeant Matt Reineke, Pepper’s handler, says the training paid off last Monday during a search for a missing child in a neighboring community. “By the time we arrived on scene, they had been looking for over two hours for this missing child,” Reineke says. “…Was brought to the house where the child was last seen and talked to the parent and I obtained an article of clothing that was just the child’s a no one else had tampered with and I went to where the child was last seen in the yard playing and let Pepper smell that article of clothing for about 20 seconds and gave her the command basically to track.”

Reserve Officer Krause and Part-time Officer Staples, Sgt Reineke and Pepper, Mayor Joseph May. (Estherville PD photo).

Reineke says it took Pepper about five minutes to find the boy. “She went around the yard. Eventually she put her nose to the ground and picked up scent and took off down the road a little bit and then crossed the road toward a corn field,” Reineke says. “We went through the corn for a short time and then back out of the corn and continued down a fence line into a real thick wooded fence line — tall grass — where we tracked that for a while and then she went into the deep part of the fence line and stopped…so I went to investigate and, sure enough, it was the missing child.”

The Estherville Police Department has had trained K-9 officers for about 20 years. Pepper replaces a police dog named Max who died unexpectedly after 18 months of service with the department.

(Radio Iowa) – Carroll County has become the sixth so-called “Second Amendment Sanctuary County” in Iowa. The Board of Supervisors took the vote this morning. Supervisor Rich Ruggles said he listened to a lot of people on both sides of the argument. “I believe that the Constitution has been bent a lot lately and I’m quite concerned and I don’t want to give any traction or footing on this issue,” he said. “As I also read this is kind of symbolic that we do this. It really has no teeth. It has not much bearing, but I also think it’s a clear message that we send this to legislative people from a local level.”

Carroll County Attorney John Werden said he reviewed several drafts of similar policies adopted by counties in Iowa and Missouri. “I think the only thing that is really political about this is it uses the word ‘sanctuary’ in the right way,” Werden said, “Sanctuary cities and counties — that has been code word for those who want to disobey the law, for those who want to want to ignore federal law in other areas, so I think it’s great that we’ve co-opted their word and used it for the law abiding citizens of this county.”

Rich Ruggles, Carroll County Supervisor

Members of the public attended today’s meeting and some spoke before the vote was taken. Dick Searle said the resolution is “purely propaganda” and a scare tactic. “The people who are sponsoring this thing have tried to scare you into believing that the guns are going to be taken away and they talk about their constitutional rights. The state supreme court or the federal supreme court is going to knock down any law that takes away your constitutional rights,” Searle said. “This thing is unnecessary.”

The resolution passed on a 4-1 vote. Supervisor Dean Schettler was the lone no vote. “I own guns. I don’t want my guns to be taken away because then I can’t shoot rabbits and pheasants. Everybody else is probably in the same boat,” he said, “but I guess I don’t want this to be construed by the bad guys as a place where they can come and build an arsenal of guns.”

The boards of supervisors in Adams, Cedar, Hardin, Jasper and Madison Counties have also adopted second amendment resolutions this summer.

A van and pickup sustained damage in an accident on Monday morning near Red Oak. A utility contractor that was working on placing underground fiber was parked along side the road of 208th Street. At approximately 11:27 a.m. a 2004 Chrysler Town and Country van being driven by 73-year-old James Lawrence Bredberg of Clarinda backed out of a private drive on 208th street. In the process he didn’t see the contractor’s 2020 Dodge Ram 1500 pickup and backed the left rear bumper of the van into the left rear cab corner and front left portion of the truck box.

The van sustained approximately $1,000 damage and the pickup sustained an estimated $7,000 damage. No injuries were reported and no citations were issued at the scene.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports two arrests took place over the weekend: 49-year-old Bret Phillip Samuelson, of Nebraska City, NE., was arrested at I-29/Bunge Avenue, for Driving While Barred. His bond was set at $2,000. And, at around 2:50-a.m. Sunday, 18-year-old Kyrell Deshawn Wells, of Omaha, was arrested at 195th & Eastman Road in Mills County. He faces charges that include A Controlled Substance Violation, and Dangerous Weapon used in a crime. Bond was set at $5,000.

Authorities said also, a 2021 BMW motorcycle driven by 62-year-old James Petersen, of Glenwood, was traveling south on 221st Street in Mills County Saturday afternoon, when the cycle left the road, entered a yard, and broke through a barbed wire fence. Petersen was found a short distance from the motorcycle, which was laying on its side. He was transported by EMS to the high school in Glenwood, before being flown by medical helicopter to an undisclosed hospital. A report on his injuries was not provided.