Authorities say a stuck accelerator was apparently the blame for an accident Thursday afternoon. Creston Police report a 2000 GMC Sierra pickup driven by 37-year-old Brandi Lynn Atkins, of Creston, was traveling in the Creston Wal-Mart parking lot at around 2-p.m., Thursday, and exited to the Maurice’s parking lot, when the gas pedal became stuck. The pickup accelerated and hit a stop sign and dumpster before coming to rest. There were no injuries, and no citations were issued.

Damage to the pickup owned by Lloyd Garner II, of Osceola,  was estimated at $1,500.

The Anita City Council appointed Councilman and Mayor Pro-Tem John Knutson as Mayor. Their action came during Wednesday’s City Council meeting. Knutson had served as Mayor Pro-Tem under Tom Harris, who died in December.

The City Council had the option to fill the position by a special election or by appointment. The latter means they’ll have to fill a council seat. In accordance with Iowa election laws, a notice pertaining to the open City Council seat will be published in the paper. Persons interested in filling the position are asked to contact the Anita City Clerk.

The Council also hired Eric Steffensen as the City’s new Public Works Director on Wednesday, and they authorized the Mayor to sign a new five-year 28E agreement with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office. The Anita City Council approved the use of Local Option Sales Tax money to outfit ten volunteer firefighters with new equipment, as well.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa has slipped in an annual state-by-state report that tracks the level of our public health emergency preparedness. The Hawkeye State achieved a score of just four out of a possible ten measures of preparedness for diseases, disasters and bioterrorism. Dara Lieberman, director of government relations at Trust for America’s Health, says Iowa now ranks with 14 other states in the middle tier. “The year before, Iowa was in the high tier,” Lieberman says. “We didn’t find specific backsliding by the state this year but we did find that other states gained more ground. One area where the state could certainly improve is that Iowa cut its public health budget for the last several years.”

Funding for public health was either stable or increased in 43 states, while the report says Iowa cut that funding by three-percent between fiscal years 2019 and 2020. “We think it’s an important measure because we can’t just be funding public health after an outbreak begins,” Lieberman says, “but we need to have the workforce, system and tools in place ahead of time so that we can make the population healthier as well as both the preparedness and emergency response systems that we need for an event like this.”

While all 50 states have made improvements in their emergency preparedness, she they all have room for further strengthening of their public health response programs. “The one area where Iowa is a bit of an outlier is the number of hospitals that are participating in health care coalitions, they could certainly improve that,” Lieberman says. “We also found that only 16% of acute care hospitals in the state were achieving the highest patient safety grades.” There are a couple of categories where Iowa continues to excel on the national report.

“We found that the percent of workers who used paid time off was above average in the state, and that’s an indication that workers can stay home when they’re sick, we know there’s wide variation in given industries of how acceptable that is,” Lieberman says. “And Iowa was also above average in its seasonal flu vaccination rates.” To see the full report, called “Ready or Not: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters and Bioterrorism,” visit the Trust for America’s Health website: www.tfah.org

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to let dentists administer Covid vaccines AND give the shots their dental offices if they choose — but there is some push back from the medical community on that last part. Dennis Tibben, of the Iowa Medical Society, says the staff in dentists’ offices may not be properly trained to accurately and quickly record every shot that’s been given into the required database.

“We could set ourselves up for the potential here where we would have phantom doses that it shows on our federal reports, that we have more doses on the shelf than we actually do,” he says. “…That could impact the weekly supply of Covid-19 vaccines that we’re receiving from the federal government.” Dr. William McBride, a dentist from Dubuque, is chair of the state Dental Board. The board supports the entire bill — including the idea of letting dentists deliver Covid shots in their offices.

“I would note that this is voluntary. Certainly some dentists will opt not to participate, but I would also like to note that it could be an additional access point for patients, particularly in rural communities,” McBride says. “…The board believes that dentists are more than qualified to provide this service and that it would be good public health policy.” Sara Allen, a lobbyist for the Iowa Dental Association, which represents the state’s dentists, says with such a short supply of vaccine doses, now is not the time to distribute doses to dentist’s offices.

“Upsetting the apple cart right now is not really conducive to public health,” Allen says. “However I will say that we would love and would be great partners with the state if there were these vaccine clinics throughout the state where, you know, we could show up on a Saturday and help administer the vaccines.” Charlotte Eby, a lobbyist for the Association of Dental Support Organizations, says the group strongly supports giving dentists authority to give Covid shots in their offices if they wish.

“State officials are ramping up the effort to vaccinate as many Iowans as quickly and as safely as possible,” Eby says, “and as we deal with the challenges of the pandemic, Iowa dentists have a unique opportunity to lend their health care expertise and skills.” The bill passed the House last month on an 89-to-four vote. This week, the bill cleared a subcommittee in the SENATE, after one lawmaker described the disagreement among dentists as a “turf war.” At least 23 states have passed laws that give dentists authority to administer Covid vaccines and many also let dentists do so in their own offices.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa House has voted to ensure about 86-hundred police and firefighters who’re part of a statewide pension and disability system are covered for work-related injuries that developed over time. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, of Wilton, says the bill also requires coverage for mental disorders.

“This bill is about equity and fairness for our cops and firefighters,” Kaufmann says. Kaufmann says the Iowa Public Employee Retirement System has the same benefits in place for state workers, teachers and other public employees. About four-thousand full-time police officers and firefighters are covered by the so-called 4-1-1 system. Nearly 46-hundred others who’ve retired or are no longer working as a firefighter or police officer get 4-1-1 benefits.

Representative Dave Williams is from Waterloo, one of the 49 Iowa cities where public safety employees would be covered for physical and mental conditions that develop over time.  “So many times our public safety people go into these situations and then years later suffer the consequences,” Williams says. Representative Mary Mascher, of Iowa City, says the benefit changes for these employees were approved by the House a year ago, but the bill was tabled when the legislature went on hiatus due to the pandemic.

“Our firefighters and police officers have been front-line workers throughout this pandemic,” Mascher says, “and I think we owe them a debt of gratitude in terms of their willingness to put their own lives at risk to save the lives of others.” Just before the House voted on the bill, Representative Kaufmann acknowledged several firefighters and police officers covered by the 4-1-1 system who were in the House gallery, watching the debate. “Those are our police officers and our firefighters that not only during the pandemic but also during the duration of their career have had our backs and are going to continue to have our backs,” Kaufmann said, “and so this is our way of saying, ‘Thank you, we’ve got yours.'”

The bill passed the House unanimously. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. Here are the area/western Iowa cities which have police and firefighters covered by the 411 system: Camanche, Carroll (police only), Council Bluffs, Creston, LeMars (police only), Sioux City, Spencer, and Storm Lake.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa prosecutor is defending his unsuccessful pursuit of charges against a journalist who was arrested while covering a protest in a case that critics say amounted to an attack on the press. Polk County Attorney John Sarcone told The Associated Press on Thursday that the evidence against Des Moines Register reporter Andrea Sahouri was “more than sufficient” to take the case to trial and that dismissing it would have amounted to special treatment. A Des Moines police officer pepper-sprayed and arrested Sahouri last May while she was covering a Black Lives Matter protest. Sahouri was charged with disobeying police orders to disperse and interfering with the officer who arrested her. A jury acquitted her on Wednesday.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A judge gave a suspended sentence to an Iowa City man who used a recording device hidden in a pen to film an employee while she pumped breast milk. Robert Charles Carlson was sentenced Thursday after he pleaded guilty in November to nine counts of invasion of privacy. He was sentenced to six years in prison but the sentence was suspended. Prosecutors said he filmed Jessica Clark pumping breast milk at work in a conference room 22 times in 2018. Carlson was Clark’s boss at the architecture firm Carlson Design Team. He must serve two years of supervised release and register as a sex offender.

NEOLA, Iowa (AP) — Environmental officials are considering what actions to take against a southwestern Iowa feedlot after finding animal parts and the contents of slaughtered cattle stomachs strewn across two open fields. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says its staff discovered the gore Monday upon responding to several complaints against Feedlot Service Company, located about 3 miles southeast of Neola. DNR staff reported finding cattle hides, tails, hooves, bellies, hearts and other part spread on two fields totaling about 160 acres. Improper animal disposal can spread disease and endanger human and animal health.

JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman has been charged after officials say she kept three children locked in a blacked-out room in filthy conditions. Court records show 31-year-old Brittany Roozeboom, of Johnston, was charged last week with three counts of child endangerment and one count of child endangerment resulting in bodily injury. Police say the children were kept for extended periods in a room with black-painted cardboard covering the windows that locked from the outside and had no internal door knob. Police say the children in the room so long that they sometimes soiled their clothes. Police say there also was trash strewn across the kitchen with bugs crawling on the floor. Roozeboom is being held in the Polk County Jail.