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Pilot program designed to reduce mentally-ill jail inmates

August 14, 2008 By

About 40 percent of the more than 8,600 prison inmates in Iowa’s correction system have a diagnosed mental illness. Advocates for the mentally ill believe more needs to be done to make sure non-violent inmates with mental disorders receive the treatment and support they need to get out of jail and to stay out.

In central Iowa, the Polk County Board of Supervisors has agreed to begin a two-year pilot project aimed at reducing the number of people with mental illness who are serving jail time. The case manager for the Mental Health Diversion Program, Tim Larson, says most of them shouldn’t be behind bars in the first place. "A lot of people simply don’t belong there," Larson says, "and with adequate mental health services and adequate medication, they can become functioning members of society again."

The program is funded with money received by the Polk County Jail for holding federal inmates. Larson says its goals are simple. "Get them out as quick as possible, make sure they have adequate services in the community, and ultimately lessen the time in jail and hopefully keep them from coming back," Larson said. Project organizers say inmates who have committed violent crimes won’t be eligible for the program. Roughly 13 percent of Polk County’s jail population has been diagnosed with a mental illness.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

UI expert questions study telling older men to skip prostate screenings

August 14, 2008 By

A new study finds men over 75 shouldn’t bother getting prostate cancer screenings, but one Iowa expert disagrees. Dr. Richard Williams, head of urology at University Hospitals in Iowa City, says you can’t make a blanket statement about all patients and they should all be treated individually.

Dr. Williams says, "If they come in and they have multiple co-morbidities like heart disease, other cancers, etcetera, then the likelihood of living five to ten years is not very (good) to begin with and to try to determine whether they have prostate cancer may not be useful to them." By the same token, he says an otherwise healthy older man may benefit greatly from a screening.

Williams says, "A 75-year-old comes in who has no other illnesses, his parents lived to 95, he has a good chance of surviving and it might be useful to be sure he doesn’t have prostate cancer." The study from the U-S Preventive Services Task Force found that screening can detect some cases of prostate cancer, but the benefits of treatment in men over 75 are small to none, while treatment often causes moderate-to-substantial harm.

Williams says prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and it’s the number-two cancer killer of men. "Men who are 70 or older tend to have prostate cancer about 70-percent of the time," Williams says. "If you were to take out everybody’s prostate and look at it, that’s what you’d find, but, importantly, a very low percentage of those patients who have prostate cancer will actually progress, so we don’t need to know whether they have it in every patient."

He emphasizes that every man is different and every case is different. "Every patient is an individual," Williams says. "You deal with them and their specifics and you discuss with them the need, or not need, to look for prostate cancer in them." He says men should start getting screened for prostate cancer between 45 and 50, earlier if there’s a family history of the disease.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Des Moines gunman wounded in standoff, two women found dead nearby

August 14, 2008 By

A hostage situation that unfolded this morning in Des Moines is over. At least two people are dead with a third wounded.

Des Moines police were called to what was thought to be a drive-by shooting incident about 6:30 this morning. The bodies of two women were found, one inside a car that had crashed into a utility pole, the other was in the street. Police say both women were the victims of homicide.

Before police could even reach the bodies, a hostage situation developed in a house nearby. A man had apparently taken his three children at gunpoint inside. Police summoned an interpreter as the man was reportedly Laotian.

After about two hours, a police squad smashed in the front door as flash-grenedes exploded. The officers quickly rushed back out, carrying the children, who appeared unhurt. The man was bought out on a stretcher — still alive.

It’s still unclear if or how the deaths of the two women are related to the gunman.

 

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Ruling on school fees gets mixed review

August 14, 2008 By

The Iowa Department of Education recently issued a ruling on the types of fees districts can charge parents. The attorney for the Iowa Association of School Boards, Mary Gannon, says the fees that are allowed and those that aren’t allowed, will likely balance out.

Gannon says that’s because there were some areas where the schools weren’t sure they had the authority to charge fees, such as for parking cars on school grounds. The ruling allows schools to charge for parking. Gannon says there are some areas where schools can’t charge fees where they had been. One part of the ruling says schools can’t charge a fee for buses to athletic events or for field trips.

Gannon doesn’t think districts will seek changes from the legislature based on the Education Department’s ruling. She says they won’t likely go after any more "fee authority," they will instead seek full funding of programs. She says funding was cut back in the 90′s and never restored, and with that funding, they wouldn’t have to charge fees.

Gannon says more state money for schools would make things easier for everyone. "We would rather get the money from the state, rather than have to nickel and dime parents, and also especially in the area of transportation, we’re trying to find some solution to the increase in transportation costs," Gannon says. She says the transportation funding comes out of the general budget, so when fuel costs go up, they money has to come from somewhere else in the budget.

The Department of Education ruling on fees came at the request of the Ames School District which sought to clarify the fees it could and could not charge.

Filed Under: Education, Politics & Government

Biofuels industry leaders meet in Omaha/Council Bluffs

August 14, 2008 By

This is the final day of a conference that’s drawn leaders in the biofuels industry from around the world to Omaha/Council Bluffs. Ron Lamberty, vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, says one of the big topics of conversation is — who’s attacking ethanol now? Lamberty says: "We just got done with the E-P-A going over the facts and making a judgment that a waiver wasn’t warranted that the Texas governor suggested. We’re going to have those kinds of attacks as we go on. There’s always some discussion about what the folks are saying about ethanol out there and how we can get the information out to correct some of the misinformation."

The American Coalition for Ethanol, or ACE, is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Lamberty says there are a lot of things to look forward to for people who are involved in the ethanol industry. He says: "Gas prices are pretty high still, even though they’ve come down and corn prices have come down a little bit and I think things are a lot better right now than they were even a couple of months ago. Looking at the future, things like cellulosic ethanol, blender pumps at gas stations with blends of E-20, E-30, E-40, looking toward the future, so a lot of things about the future of ethanol, some the immediate future and some in the more distant future."

While gas prices have fallen about 40-cents a gallon in recent weeks, diesel prices remain quite high. Diesel is the main fuel used by farmers and coupled with the high price of fertilizer, some farmers are having a difficult time making ends meet, especially with corn prices falling. Lamberty says this is where soybeans can come to the rescue with soy-based fuels.

"What we really need to do is get biodiesel ramped up so we have a bigger, viable replacement for diesel so those prices go down," Lamberty says. "The competition for ethanol is keeping gas prices quite a bit lower than the prices for diesel. We have to grow that part of the industry too so we can get some relieve for those guys out there trying to grow corn for us." He says that would also help ease the high cost of food since diesel fuel is used to transport items from manufacturer to store.

The 21st annual American Coalition for Ethanol Conference opened Monday at the Qwest Center in Omaha and wraps up today.

Filed Under: Agriculture Tagged With: ,

Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens in LeMars today

August 14, 2008 By

Eighty-year-old Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens is scheduled to visit LeMars this afternoon to promote his ideas on wind energy. "If you do the wind corridor, that would revitalize rural America," Pickens says.

Pickens is calling for government investment in transmission lines to carry the electricity generated by wind turbines from the Midwest to the east and west coasts. Pickens has purchased ad time on television and radio to push for this and other changes in U.S. energy policy. "You’re going to have to replace foreign oil with domestic natural gas," Pickens says. "It’s cleaner, it’s cheaper and it’s ours."

Pickens, who is America’s number one owner of natural gas fueling stations, would like to see federal mandates, such as new requirements that government-owned vehicles run on natural gas rather than gasoline and diesel fuel. "All the new vehicles for the government would be on natural gas," Pickens says. "That would send a message to the car manufacturers that the government was behind this and then I would like to see the government mandate that the trucks — 18-wheelers and all — would be on natural gas."

Pickens is scheduled to speak in LeMars at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, part of a nationwide campaign to build a network of supporters who will pester congress on the issue. "We’ve gotten over four million come in on ThePickensPlan.com website and we’ve had 250,000 of them sign up for what we call our army," Pickens says. "I’ll have a million people signed within two months."

Pickens, who says America can’t drill its way out of its energy woes, was last on the national political stage in 2004 as the major financier of the "Swift Boat" attacks on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. He’s currently building what will be the world’s largest wind turbine farm in Texas.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation, Politics & Government Tagged With: , ,
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