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Driver cited after school bus accident in Western Iowa

May 22, 2007 By

A bus driver was cited for failure to maintain control after his bus carrying about 20 students from a school in western Iowa’s Cass County collided with a tractor Monday evening in Guthrie County. Cumberland-Massena-Anita School District Superintendent Dan Crozier says the students from the CAM Middle School in Massena were enroute to a softball game in Coon Rapids, when the accident occurred at around 4:50 p.m.

At least three students suffered minor injuries. Crozier says he knows for certain two students were hurt. One of the girls suffered a concussion, while another had a pulled muscles in her shoulder and had to have her arm put in a sling. Guthrie County Sheriff’s Deputy Todd Thorne says the accident happened shortly after the bus driven by 54-year old Clifford Huff of Massena topped a hill on Frontier Road, about four-miles north of Adair.

Thorne says a tractor near the bottom of the hill was waiting for traffic so it could turn into a farm field. The bus couldn’t stop in time and ran into the rear of the tractor. The tractor operator was identified as 53-year old Donna Lehman, of Adair. Neither Huff nor Lehman were injured. Deputy Thorne said Huff was cited for failure to maintain control. Crozier says the bus stayed on the road during the crash.

Afterward, the shaken students, some of whom were fourth-graders, were allowed off the bus to calm their nerves. The superintendent says the damage to the bus and tractor was minor, and he’s just grateful the injuries weren’t more severe.

 

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Majority of doctors lost are leaving the state

May 22, 2007 By

A new report from a University of Iowa task force says while the rate of loss of doctors remains stable, relocation accounts for more than 60 percent of the physicians who leave the state each year. Retirements account for only about one-fourth of the annual loss of Iowa’s doctors.

 

Ted Townsend, the CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, served on the task force and he says strategies need to be developed to keep doctors from leaving.

"It allowed us to see that what looks like on a day-to-day basis sometimes to be a bit of a crisis to see that at a statewide level what we really have is a legitimate concern," Townsend says. "Clearly there are pockets of greater need. Clearly there are trends that are concerning to us."

According to Townsend, the low level of government payments for Medicaid patients and the low number of doctors practicing in rural parts of the state are top concerns. "Each of us who are dealing with this issue on a day-to-day basis in our communities really have a very real concern about how do we retain adequate and recruit adequate physicians to serve the communities we’re trying to serve," Townsend says.

The report calls for a state effort to figure out how to actively recruit doctors who’ve left Iowa and encourage them to come back. 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Grassley co-sponsors oil antitrust bill

May 22, 2007 By

As Iowans cope with record high gasoline prices, Congress is considering legislation today that would hold Middle Eastern oil-producing countries directly responsible for the bounding cost of fuel. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says previous investigations of individual oil companies and allegations of price-gouging and collusion went nowhere, so this new avenue of action is needed.

Grassley says, "It would bring OPEC into the courts under our anti-trust laws. Presently, a country can’t have the anti-trust laws applied to them and it seems to me that when a country is acting like a business, they ought to be effected by our anti-trust laws the same way companies do in colluding." Grassley is co-sponsoring the bill in the Senate.

Grassley says: "Without a doubt, the 12 countries in OPEC do collude. They made a decision last September to cut one-million barrels of production a day. I bet that one-million barrels of production a day would cut down on the price considerably." He says the U.S. uses about 86-million barrels of petroleum per day while OPEC nations generate about 87-million barrels per day, a margin that leaves little room for error.

Grassley says, "OPEC effects this supply and they ought to be held accountable for it. If that legislation passes the House today, and I think it will, it would bring great emphasis to bringing it up in the Senate." Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average for self-serve unleaded is $3.35 a gallon, the highest price ever in Iowa, a record that’s increased almost daily for several days running. That $3.35 a gallon is 15-cents a gallon higher than the national average. 

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Former McCausland city treasurer charged with theft

May 22, 2007 By

The former city treasurer of McCausland in eastern Iowa has been charged with first-degree theft after a report by the state auditor shows the misuse of several thousand dollars. State Auditor David Vaudt says they found about $188,000 worth of improper disbursements, undeposited collections, and unpaid personal utilities for former city treasurer Jeri Moore.

Vaudt’s audit found that city policy required Moore and the city clerk to both sign checks, but Moore got the clerk to sign blank checks. Vaudt says Moore then used those blank checks for her own gain. Vaudt says Moore wrote about $155,000 in checks to herself and another $22,000 worth to her husband. Vaudt says Moore would write the original check to herself, and then write a carbon copy that showed a city vendor had been paid.

Vaudt says the city clerk eventually discovered what was going on. Vaudt says it happened over a period of about eight years, at a rate of about 25-thousand dollars a year. He says it ended up being a large amount of money for a city that’s about 299 people. Vaudt says he turned his report over to the Scott County Sheriff’s Office, the Scott County Attorney’s Office, the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Attorney General’s Office. Vaudt says Moore was charged Monday.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Groups seeks healthcare pledge from Presidential candidates

May 22, 2007 By

Four health-related organizations and the AARP are joining forces to pressure presidential candidates to make promises to reform the nation’s health care system. Leaders of the American Cancer Society and the American Diabetes Association are in Iowa today, riding a bus to 12 presidential campaign offices in Des Moines to drop off their demands in writing.

Dr. John Seffrin, the CEO of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, says their message is that to be a serious candidate for the presidency, that candidate must offer a plan to “fix” the nation’s “broken” health care system. Seffrin says they want health care reform to be the number one domestic issue in the presidential campaign.

According to Seffrin, one in eight cancer patients in the U.S. is uninsured. “We not only have 47 million Americans with no health insurance, but we have millions more that have insurance but they’re underinsured,” Seffrin says. “So when they face one of the chronic diseases…they may not get the care they need.”

Michael Farley, the CEO of the American Diabetes Association, says the five groups involved represent 21 million Americans. “This is a great day because we have five organizations coming together to create and reinforce a presidential campaign agenda about quality health care, affordable health care coverage for every American,” Farley says.

In addition to affordability, red tape and lack of access are key issues for the groups, according to Farley. “We face different challenges as five different organizations, but we are united all of the same values…on health care reform,” Farley says. The plight of the underinsured is just as troublesome of the uninsured, according to Farley.

“Did you know, for example, that 50 percent of all personal bankruptcies are due to medical bills, but two-thirds of those are actually because they’ve had inappropriate health insurance to cover those needs?” Farley asks. Activists from the Cancer Society and the Diabetes Association as well as the American Heart Association and Alzheimer’s Association were along for the bus ride today, too.

Similar events were held in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada — the states which host the opening events of the 2008 presidential nominating season. 

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Two Eastern Iowa men face prison in drug cases

May 22, 2007 By

Two eastern Iowa men are facing prison time in separate drug cases. A Dubuque man has been sentenced to life in prison for selling cocaine close to a city park. Forty-seven-year-old Dennis Brown pleaded guilty in September to selling cocaine near a city park. Brown was accused of selling crack cocaine to another person in May of 2005 near Jackson Park in Dubuque. Brown has three prior felony drug convictions, which led to the life sentence.

And a member of a Waterloo gang has been sentenced to over 20 years in prison for drug and gun charges. Twenty-two-year-old Marlon Earsery was charged in November with conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and conspiracy to use, carry and possess firearms related to a drug trafficking crime. Earsery pleaded guilty to both charges in January.

During his plea hearing, Earsery admitted that he moved to Waterloo from Chicago in 2003 and had traveled back several times to obtain powdered cocaine to sell in Waterloo. During a search of Earsery’s home in Waterloo, officers discovered drugs, paraphernalia and firearms. Earsery was sentenced Monday to 250 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Griswold man says he’s on hunger strike in jail over "injustices"

May 22, 2007 By

A western Iowa man who was convicted of sexually exploiting his 17-year old stepdaughter is protesting what he calls "injustices" in his case. In his letter to a federal judge, Brian Street of Griswold says he has been on a "hunger strike" for the past couple of weeks and that he will continue to starve himself unless someone listens to his complaints and his request for compassion for his stepdaughter Tracey Dyess, whom he says he loves.

Dyess was convicted of arson in the March 2005 fire at her family’s home in Griswold. She’s serving a 45-year prison sentence at the state women’s prison in Mitchellville. Dyess said she started the fire in an attempt to kill Street for years of sexual abuse, but it was her sister and nephew who died in the blaze. On June First, Dyess will be honored in a ceremony for earning her high school equivalency diploma while in prison.

Street, who will be sentenced at nine A.M. Thursday in U.S. District Court in Des Moines, faces up to 30 years in prison. In letters he wrote to Chief District Judge Robert Pratt, Street says regardless of how society judges his relationship with Dyess, their "love affair" was mutual. Street also complained that his lawyer, Chad Primmer, of Council Bluffs has not been effective and he wants a new attorney to help him file motions and appeals before he is sentenced.

Primmer is the fourth attorney to have been appointed in the case. In March, Judge Pratt ruled Primmer has acted appropriately, and denied Street’s request. Street says he won’t attend his sentencing Thursday, because he doesn’t want to hear what he says are "lies" Dyess will likely read in her victim statement.

Audio: Ric Hanson report. :47 MP3

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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