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Tuesday is national H-I-V testing day

June 26, 2006 By

Some 23-hundred Iowans are known to have H-I-V yet several hundred more likely have the virus that causes AIDS but don’t know it. Tuesday is National H-I-V Testing Day and free AIDS and hepatitis tests are being offered in several cities, including Des Moines. Rhea Van Brocklin is prevention services coordinator at the AIDS Project of Central Iowa, which is sponsoring the free testing.

Van Brocklin says it’s a painless test, an oral swap is used in the person’s mouth to test for the H-I-V antibodies in their cheek and gum cells. Confidential results will be available in about two weeks. To promote the event, she says there will be an awareness walk, a tent with a D-J, and a drawing for 100-dollar gift certificates from a local mall for everyone who gets tested on Tuesday.

Van Brocklin explains just who should be tested for H-I-V. She says you should learn your H-I-V status if you’ve had unprotected sex or had multiple partners in the past year, or injected drugs or shared needles. Van Brocklin says AIDS is a non-discriminatory disease — it’s not who you are but what you do that puts you at risk. For more information, surf to “www.aidsprojectci.org”.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Firefighters honored in Coralville

June 26, 2006 By

A ceremony in Coralville Sunday paid tribute to firefighters all across the state. Ninety-three names were added to the firefighter memorial wall, including that of a Des Moines firefighter who died in the line of duty. Mary McAtee’s dad was a firefighter, and his name is on the memorial. She says, “It really kind of shows you that you’re not alone in your heartache… but that everyone is going through the same thing.”

Tears welled up in Glen Beauchamp eyes after seeing his dad’s name on the wall for the first time. “It hit me pretty hard really — realizing that we just lost him last August. So seeing his name on the wall was pretty hard,” Beauchamp said.

Organizers released one balloon for each name added to the wall this year. The memorial wall now has more than 16-hundred names carved into it.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Webster City man dies in car wreck

June 26, 2006 By

A 32-year-old north-central Iowa man was killed, two other people were hurt, in a single-vehicle crash Saturday afternoon near Stratford. The state patrol identifies the man killed as Mark Jon Havinga of Webster City.

The Chevy Blazer Havinga was driving went out of control and rolled into a ditch, hitting a tree. Two passengers, 22-year-old Johnathan Buesing of Stanhope and 25-year-old Joshua Tedrick of Stratford were hurt.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Waterloo man charged after chase

June 26, 2006 By

A brief chase yesterday (Sunday) in Black Hawk County ended with some “off-road” travel. Black Hawk County deputies say they spotted a Waterloo man who was wanted on an outstanding arrest warrant. They tried to pull him over a couple miles east of Waterloo but he took off and led them on a brief chase before wrecking his vehicle in a yard and taking off on foot.

Chased into a cornfield, he didn’t make it far before deputies caught up and arrested him. Deputies say in that car they found more than seven grams of methamphetamine. Twenty-five-year-old Matthew Wayne Sinclair faces charges of driving while barred and eluding as well as possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowan takes to the big screen as Superman

June 26, 2006 By

Iowa native Brandon Routh was the star attraction Sunday in West Des Moines for the Iowa premiere of the “Superman” movie in which he stars. “It’s fantastic to be able to share this with my home state,” Routh told on-lookers gathered outside the theater. About three-hundred of Routh’s guests filed into the theater on a red carpet. Others eager to see the star or get his autograph stood along the ropes.

Routh is a native of Norwalk and Scott Lorenzen, the city’s mayor, says there’s been a lot of talk in the town of eight-thousand about the kid who grew up to play a comic book hero. “Just a lot of excitement for a Norwalk native to get the opportunity to succeed in a very high-profile role,” Lorenzen says. “His career has taken off wonderfully.”

Some towns post signs in tribute to townsfolk who make the big leagues or city leaders pass resolutions and hold ceremonies to honor native sons and daughters who’ve become famous. “There has been some discussion of recognition for this neat event but there’s been nothing formalized,” Lorenzen says. Brandon’s older brother, Rhett, is a Des Moines policeman who was featured on the FOX show COPS a few years ago in the “bloody, naked guy” episode.

Officer Routh was helping in the arrest of a Des Moines man who was naked, bloody because he tried to rip through a wooden fence among other things — and strung out on drugs. Brandon Routh’s sister, Sara, is a singer and songwriter who wrote this song — called “Extra Buttered Popcorn” — about going to a movie. “Let’s go to a new flick,” the song begins. It was written before her brother landed the role of Superman.

Filed Under: Recreation & Entertainment

Study shows higher asthma rates in schools near confinement operations

June 26, 2006 By

A study by University of Iowa researchers shows that kids who go to school near large-scale livestock farms may be at higher risk for getting asthma. Doctor Joel Kline, a professor of internal medicine, says they monitored one school near a concentrated animal feeding operation or CAFO, and one school that was not. He says, “We found a significant difference in the rate of asthma between the two schools.”

Kline says the kids at the school near the CAFO were almost six times as likely to be diagnosed with asthma as the kids who went to the control school. Kline says they had questions about the impact on schools after seeing other CAFO studies. Kline says they’d previously seen that workers who work in confinement facilities had reductions in lung function more than other workers. He says they wanted to know if this would also affect students who went to school in the area of a CAFO.

Kline says the findings in the school study were a bit surprising. Kline says, “This was a very large difference, and certainly more of an effect than we would have anticipated.” Kline says while they can’t directly link the higher incidences of asthma to the confinement facility, the evidence is pointing that way. He says they didn’t find any other significant difference in the schools to explain the increase in asthma at the one school.

Kline says more of the parents at the school near the CAFO did smoke, but he says when they did controls for all factors, the location was the most significant predictor of asthma. Kline says the results show a need for more research on the issue. Kline says, “This is an association a study and should really be viewed as a preliminary, and indicating the need for further study.”

Kline says there should be more studies of kids going to school in difference environments, “I would just caution that, that we could not definitively link the location or the CAFO for these findings.” The study appears in the June issue of “Chest”, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians. You can read more at www.chestjournal.org.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Health & Medicine Tagged With: ,

"Nanny 9-1-1" puts out call to Iowans

June 26, 2006 By

Producers with the Fox TV show “Nanny 9-1-1″ are making their first trip to Iowa to recruit families to put on the reality program. Peter Huntley, the show’s casting producer in Hollywood, says the diverse and knowledgeable English nannies are ready to offer their sage advice to Iowa parents in need.

Huntley says it’s for families having a little difficulty controlling their young children and the nannies come in, specializing in certain tasks, to help the kids behave. Their areas of expertise range from proper etiquette to controlling temper tantrums. He says they’re looking for several Iowa families who want to volunteer to be a part of the show.

Anyone can call as long as they have some sort of issue with their kids, ideally between the ages of two and nine. Nanny 911 follows veteran head nanny Lillian and her team of specialist nannies – Deb, Stella and Yvonne – who are armed with the do’s and don’ts of child-rearing.

Huntley says each nanny is ready to help exhausted parents tackle the issues that are creating chaos in their homes and whip the families into tip-top shape. He says they’ll be interviewing potential families in Des Moines on July 7th through the 13th. He says to call first and they’ll do a phone interview before meeting folks in person for the full interview. Call (323) 636-3637 or email “Nanny911Casting@gmail.com”.

Filed Under: Politics & Government
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