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Supreme Court orders new trial in maternity case

August 28, 2009 By

The Iowa Supreme Court says a Linn County woman who was fired after returning to work from maternity leave should get a new trial. Elizabeth DeBoom worked as marketing director for a company called Raining Rose when she was fired in 2004 eight days after returning to full-time work from maternity leave.

Officials with the company told her she hadn’t caught up enough after returning to work. DeBoom filed suit saying the company fired her because of her sex and pregnancy. The company said DeBoom was not protected because she wasn’t pregnant when she was fired, and that she did not present enough evidence to show her firing was based on discrimination.

A jury ruled in favor of the company, but DeBoom appealed based on the jury instructions that she says prejudiced her claim of discrimination. The Iowa Supreme Court ruled the jury instruction provided by the district court required DeBoom to prove her sex or pregnancy was a “determining” factor in her termination and made it tougher to prove. Download PDF

The high court said that although Iowa has yet to determined whether the prohibition against firing someone “disabled by pregnancy” includes women who have recently given birth or taken maternity leave — the federal courts have interpreted that it does. So the court ordered that DeBloom be given a new trial.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Mason City man found guilty of murder

August 28, 2009 By

It took a jury about two hours Thursday to find a north-central Iowa man guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery in the death of a man last August. A Hardin County Jury has found 18-year-old Damion Seats of Mason City guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree robbery.

Seats was accused of shooting Isidoro Erreguin five times at Erreguin’s home on Mason City’s north side last August. Seats was one of three people charged in the murder. Andre Wells Junior is scheduled to have his trial start on December 1st.

Jamie McFarland, who testified for the prosecution in the Seats trial that he drove Seats and Wells away from the crime scene, is expected to enter into a plea agreement with prosecutors to have the first-degree murder charge dropped. When sentenced at a later date,

Seats faces the mandatory sentence of life in prison without the opportunity for parole.

Story by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Coon Rapids remembers Khruschev visit

August 28, 2009 By

Khrushchev_GarstNikita Krushchev visits the Garst farm.Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev never could have envisioned the impact his visit to Roswell Garst’s Iowa farm 50 years ago had — and is still having.

The town of Coon Rapids is holding a host of activities through the weekend, including a Khrushchev-Garst look-alike contest. Rachel Garst, Roswell’s granddaughter, is helping organize it all.

“We’re going to have a ceremony at the Garst farm which was just placed on the National Register of Historic Places,” Garst says. “In the afternoon, we’re going to have an agricultural progress parade.” Garst doesn’t remember any of the original visit as she was only one-year-old at the time, but visitors to the west-central Iowa community on Saturday will be treated to something of a repeat, in addition to seeing all sorts of agricultural advancements. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Human Interest

Mosquitoes still pose a threat

August 28, 2009 By

State Health Department officials issued an advisory this week that mosquitoes are still active across the state and tests from Black Hawk County have confirmed the dangers those mosquitoes pose.

Three state laboratories have confirmed encephalitis and West Nile virus in mosquitoes in the county. Black Hawk County environmental health program director, John McNamee, says the viruses were found in a flock of sentinel chickens.

The beauty of this is the chickens themselves do not get the disease, they don’t transmit the disease, but what they do do is create antibodies to the disease that we can find, so what we’re basically doing is seeing if there are mosquitoes in the area that are capable of transmitting any of these viruses,” McNamee says. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Health & Medicine

King uncertain how Kennedy’s death will impact health care progress

August 28, 2009 By

Some Democrats are hoping the death of Senator Edward Kennedy might serve as a rallying point to help push ahead action on health care legislation. Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican from Kiron has been critical of the health care bill, and says he’s not sure what impact Kennedy’s death will have.

King says Democrats obviously think it will make a difference, or they wouldn’t be talking about possibly naming the health care bill in honor of Kennedy, but he doesn’t know how it will play out in the long run. King says even though he was on the other side of the aisle from Kennedy, he respects the commitment, effort and deep conviction Kennedy brought to the job.

King says the loss of Kennedy will leave a void in the Democratic effort to push the health care issue. King says Kennedy could give a speech that was prepared or extemporaneously, that was compelling and many times emotional.

“I’ve often wished we had people that had that ability that are on our side of this argument,” King says, “but if they use his name to try to advance something that I fear will become socialized medicine, I think it may leave a legacy for Teddy Kennedy that they don’t want to leave and I’d caution against that if I were inside the doors making the decisions where they are.”

King said Thursday he would not run for governor so he can continue to focus on national issues like health care

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government

DNR launching household hazardous materials campaign

August 28, 2009 By

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is preparing to launch a statewide Household Hazardous Materials (HHM) education campaign. Tom Anderson, with the D.N.R.’s Land Quality Bureau, says the effort will focus on four key messages.

“We’re going to begin with proper disposal and then reading the label, proper storage and proper use would be future pushes for the education campaign as a whole,” Anderson said. The campaign, which will begin in the spring of 2010, is being financed by the Groundwater Protection Fund.

The D.N.R. has partnered with a Cedar Falls based advertising and consulting company (ME&V) to develop the campaign. The contract is not to exceed $120,000. Anderson says H-H-Ms are obviously useful and beneficial for use around a home or business, but they’re potentially dangerous if disposed of improperly.

“Throwing the materials into the trash puts the sanitation worker at risk as well as his or her equipment,” Anderson said. “Pouring them down a storm sewer…most storm sewers lead directly to the local river or lake, which then impacts the aquatic life.” Anderson says Iowans can find out where they can properly dispose of H-H-Ms by calling their local solid waste agency.

“There are currently 88 or 89 counties in Iowa that have some level of HHM collection and disposal support,” Anderson said. Most counties in the state also schedule cleanup dates once or twice a year so residents can dispose of HHMs at little or no cost.

Filed Under: Environment & Conservation

U.S. Supreme Court hearing arguments in Iowa murder case

August 28, 2009 By

Oral arguments have been set before the U.S. Supreme Court for a case out of western Iowa. Two men, whose murder convictions were overturned after they served more than two decades in prison, are suing former Pottawattamie County prosecutors. Curtis McGhee and Terry Harrington served 25 years in prison for the killing of a retired police officer.

Evidence came to light that the prosecution knowingly used false testimony coerced from a 16-year-old witness and the Iowa Supreme Court set aside the convictions. University of Iowa law professor Todd Pettys says the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether the men can seek damages. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crime & Courts
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