(Radio Iowa) – The number of female officers in the U.S. military has quadrupled since the turn of the century. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst retired from the Iowa National Guard in 2015 at the rank of lieutenant colonel, but when she joined the military in the early 1990s, women were not allowed to serve in combat roles. “Through the Army Reserves and then later on in the Iowa Army National Guard there were very few women engaged in the military,” Ernst says.

By 2003, Ernst was the commander of a transportation unit that deployed to Kuwait and she says 12 percent of the unit’s soldiers were women. “That company that I commanded was originally an all-male unit,” Ernst says. “So when I was just coming into the armory where we were located in Red Oak, Iowa, quite literally the women didn’t even have their own locker room. Their bathroom was built into a broom closet underneath the stairs.”

Linda Upmeyer, Joni Ernst during forum.

The latest data shows about 16 percent of Iowa National Guard members are women. The senator’s daughter is enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy and Ernst says 25 percent of the West Point cadets are women. Ernst made her comments today (Monday) during an online forum hosted by the Iowa G-O-P to mark the end of women’s history month.

Officials with Cass Health in Atlantic have announced that Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC of the Cass Health Senior Life Solutions program, has received the 2021 Therapist of the Year award.

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solution program is managed by Psychiatric Medical Care (PMC), which partners with more than 100 facilities nationwide to provide behavioral healthcare management services. Top performing employees and Senior Life Solutions programs from around the country are recognized annually based on their excellence in demonstrating the program’s values of care, compliance, and community. Award recipients demonstrate outstanding patient care, excellent comprehension and execution of compliance regulations, and strong community engagement.

Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions program recipient, Kacey Peterson, MS, LMHC, said “It is such an honor to be recognized by PMC in this way, and the fact this award comes on the heels of being named the 2020 One Track Program of the Year makes it all the more incredible. Senior citizens remain one of the most vulnerable and underserved populations in our country today, and I am so grateful for the support of Cass Health and the amazing team I work with for the opportunity to serve in this capacity.”

Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions is a program designed to meet the unique needs of individuals typically 65 and older experiencing depression and/or anxiety related to life changes that are often associated with aging. Cass Health’s Senior Life Solutions program staff includes a board-certified psychiatrist, a licensed therapist, a registered nurse, and other trained professionals to ensure each patient receives the best possible care.

Families, friends, community members, physicians, self-referrals, or other health professionals can refer people to the program. For more information, education, or if you would like to discuss support, please call 712-250-8100.

(Radio Iowa) – A father and son from Iowa are back in the state after a medical mission to war-torn Ukraine. Charlie Becker, of Monticello, says he and his son Dr. Chad Becker, of Ankeny, took off a week ago with 200 pounds of medical supplies. “We came on Monday and we left on Thursday so it was a very short time because a couple of our objectives didn’t work out,” Becker says. “Our main thing is we got in with medical supplies and with food and other things — mission accomplished.”

Chad Becker works as an Emergency Room doctor in hospitals in Des Moines and Grinnell and he was in contact with a hospital official in Ukraine as to what items were most needed. Their first stop was in Poland and Charlie Becker offered praises for the Polish people for the way they’ve taken in Ukrainians fleeing the war. “They were able to absorb more than two-million people and you saw no signs of it whatsoever,” he says. “There were no people in the streets or people begging or people doing anything. They just absorbed these people and took them in like they were family.”

There is more information on how you can help those in Ukraine on Chad Becker’s Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/chad.becker.9022

(Guthrie Center, Iowa.) – Election officials in Guthrie County have released the names of candidates who have filed for the June 7th Primary Election….

Supervisor District 1

Clifford Carney – Republican

Jerome J.D. Kuster – Republican

Jack Lloyd – Republican

Jacki Sloss – Democrat

Supervisor District 2

Clinton Deardorff – Republican

Brian Johnson – Republican

Supervisor District 3

Maggie Armstrong – Republican

William Halling – Republican

Tom Flanery – Democrat

Supervisor District 4

JT Herron – Republican

Steve Smith – Republican

Michael Herbert – Democrat

Treasurer

Brenda Campbell – Republican

Recorder

Tristen Richard – Republican

Attorney

John A. Maschman – Democrat

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to forbid some of the secrecy surrounding agreements between school district officials and educators who are dismissed for inappropriate conduct with students. Representative Dustin Hite, a Republican from New Sharon, says he’s disappointed in the number of confidentiality agreements in Iowa that let a teacher or coach accused of grooming or abusing students resign — and the allegations aren’t disclosed to prospective employers.  “We don’t need people that are doing this to our kids going from school to school to school,” Hite says.

If the bill becomes law, administrators who fail to report suspicions of abuse could be fined five-thousand dollars. “All too often I think we’ve seen in the paper or we’ve heard stories from our own communities of administrators failing their students, not reporting what they need to report,” Hite says, “not holding their fellow educators accountable when that’s necessary.”

The bill also requires the state Board of Educational Examiners to keep records of all complaints about licensed educators, even allegations that don’t lead to sanctions. Hite says the board told him last fall it does not keep such records, but earlier this year board officials said they do.  “Quite frankly, I can’t trust whatever they tell me, so we’re going to make sure that they’re going to keep track of those complaints,” Hite says. “(The allegations) are not public, but if they have a bunch of complaints with the same allegations, we’re telling them that they have to go back and look because sometimes when there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

Hite and other lawmakers say the vast majority of Iowa teachers are good people and the few who are not give the profession a bad name. Representative Mary Mascher, a Democrat from Iowa City, is a retired teacher. “We need to get the bad actors out of the profession, whether they are an administrator or a teacher,” Mascher says, “and this is a step in the right direction.”

Republican Representative Garrett Gobble, a teacher in Ankeny, says this is probably one of the most consequential education-related bills of the year. “This makes sure that no amount of back alley dealing will allow those who would abuse children and betray trust to continue doing so,” Gobble said. “I stand with the good teachers and I won’t waste a single breath defending the bad.”

The bill, which passed the House unanimously, would also make every adult in a school a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse.

Police in Red Oak, Monday, said 30-year-old Jamie Gene Neville, of Red Oak, was arrested a little before 11-a.m. today (Monday), for (Felony) Domestic Abuse/3rd or subsequent offense. Neville was being held in the Montgomery County Jail without bond.

And, 31-year-old Jessica Lynn Hardman, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 10:40-a.m. Monday, on an active Douglas County, NE., warrant for Possession of Methamphetamine with the Intent to Deliver. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held pending extradition to Douglas County, NE.