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Iowa native touring state to promote her book ‘Homeless to the White House’

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An Iowa native’s newly-released book is at number 15 on Amazon’s list of “faith-based” book sales.

Tess Cacciatore lives in Los Angeles, but she’s back in her hometown of Des Moines this week to kick-off a tour promoting her memoir. It’s titled “Homeless to the White House.”

“It was written about my journey, through life, through six continents, to find the meaning of life for me and to find a place where I could reveal my shadow side and the atrocities and relationships that I had to recover from so that I could heal,” she said.

Cacciatore writes about being the victim of domestic abuse to singing on the White House lawn during the International Day of Prayer. She also using the book to promote her #Reveal2Heal campaign. Cacciatore says it connects with the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns.

“Every person has had that time in their life where they’ve had that dangled carrot in front of them and how we’ve been able to go past that dangled carrot and really be self-aware and have self-love,” Cacciatore says. “And the journey started for me a long time ago, but yet I know every day is a journey.” Cacciatore, who is 57 years old, is the co-founder and CEO of a group called “GWEN” which stands for the Global Women’s Empowerment Network. Cacciatore will be on the Iowa State Fairgrounds Saturday afternoon for the CultureALL event that’s part of ArtFest Midwest. She’s also signing copies of her memoir at Beaverdale Books in Des Moines Saturday morning.

 

Mystery man’s identity at Council Bluffs motel solved

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A mystery at a Council Bluffs hotel is solved. Police were called to the Super 8 Motel on Thursday on the report of a man with a mental disability who was unable to communicate his identity.

Council Bluffs Police posted the man’s photo online asking for help and it quickly spread on social media. Sergeant Ted Roberts says they finally heard from the family of the man, who’s 23-years-old and named Tyler. The family, from Texas, had stayed at the Super 8 and accidentally left Tyler behind as they traveled all day Thursday — in two vehicles — to Grand Forks, North Dakota.

“They ended up arriving in North Dakota about two hours apart from one another, one arrived at 8 p.m. and the other at 10 p.m., and that’s when they found out Tyler was not with them,” Roberts said. Council Bluffs Police are calling the situation an “unintentional oversight” and says no criminal charges will be filed.

“It was an error in communication with the family…each one of them thought that the other person was going to be transporting Tyler to where they were all headed and that isn’t what happened,” Roberts said.

 

Two given prison time for distributing synthetic marijuana in Pottawattamie County Jail

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Two people have been sentenced to time in federal prison for distributing drugs in the Pottawattamie County Jail.

A judge has sentenced 35-year-old Deandre Cooper to 100 months in federal prison, and 30-year-old Charles Beuterbaugh to eight months for possession of contraband by a federal prisoner.

Court information shows the two distributed the synthetic marijuana known as “K-2” while being held in the Pottawattamie County Jail in 2017. A drug dog found the synthetic marijuana hidden in another prisoner’s cell and the investigation found that Cooper and Beuterbaugh had distributed it to other inmates.

The two will serve these sentences after they serve time they already faced for other drug crimes.

 

Denison will pay thousands of dollars to settle lawsuit with former police officer

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Court records indicate a fired Denison policeman will be paid nearly $350,000 to settle his lawsuit against the city for wrongful termination.

Brad Wendt, who runs a gun shop in Denison, also worked as a policeman, but was fired in 2017. The City of Denison’s insurance company will pay the largest share of the settlement, about $232,000.

The City of Denison is paying Wendt $65,000 for “emotional distress” and another $50,000 for “lost wages.” Wendt’s attorney will be paid about a quarter of a million, dollars too.

(By Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic)

 

‘March for Our Lives’ tour stops in Sioux City

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Jaclyn Corin talks during stop in Sioux City.

The national gun control advocacy group “March for Our Lives” bus tour stopped in Sioux City today.

A student from Marjorie Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida Jaclyn Corin was the keynote speaker.

Seventeen people were killed during a February shooting at the high school and Corin talked about her advocacy to stop gun violence in the wake of the killings of her fellow students and teachers.

“I personally organized a protest to our state capital of Tallahassee less than a week after the shooting. And we amazingly did not stop advocating from the start — and here we are four months out and we are still not stopping,” Corin says. Corin says her group wants what she calls “morally just leaders” elected to political office.

The bus tour is stopping in three Iowa Congressional districts represented by strong gun rights supporters. Corin criticized the National Rifle Association and it’s support of those lawmakers such as 4th District Congressmen Steve King:

“Lobby groups like the National Rifle Association have such a stranglehold over our politicians and they bar these politicians from passing common sense gun laws to protect their own constituents — which is completely unAmerican,” Corin says.

Corin and a student from Chicago talked to a predominantly Democratic audience of 100 people that included King’s opponent for Congress, J.D. Scholten and numerous local party leaders and supporters. Corin’s group then met with local high school students to discuss how to get young people out to vote. They also made posters for a planned afternoon protest outside of Congressman Steve King’s Sioux City office.

She says they will hold a vigil at King’s office to honor all the lives that have been lost to gun violence. “because Steve King is not a morally just leader.”

King is in Washington, D.C. and not at his Sioux City office. The Congressman declined to respond to Corin’s remarks or the protest at his office.

(Photo and story by Woody Gottburg, KSCJ, Sioux City)

 

Mark Becker’s appeal of conviction in murder of Ed Thomas denied

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The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the conviction of the man convicted of killing Aplington-Parkersburg football coach Ed Thomas.

Mark Becker shot and killed Thomas in the high school weight room in front of several witnesses on June 24th of 2009. Becker’s lawyer used an insanity defense, but he was found guilty of murder. Becker appealed his conviction saying his lawyer was ineffective for failing to seek a change of venue and failing to present evidence of pre-trial publicity.

The Court of Appeals ruled the lawyer’s decision to forgo a change of venue was sound trial strategy given the available information. The ruling says pre-trial publicity was widespread but many accounts favored the defense’s claim of insanity. The ruling also says the positive interactions between the families and the Thomas family’s plea for understanding could have also positively influenced jurors toward the defense.

Becker is now 33-years-old and is being held at the Corrections Department Oakdale facility.

Here’s the courts decision: Mark-Becker-Appeal-PDF

Groups seeks to block abortion ban exceptions for rape, incest

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A group that opposes abortions for pregnant women who’ve been raped is asking Iowa courts to block the limited exceptions allowed under Iowa’s new ban on most abortions.

Iowa’s new “fetal heartbeat” law is on hold until a different legal challenge is settled that argues the abortion ban is too limited. A group called Save The 1 says the new law is too broad and does not protect children conceived in rape.

The group is asking the court to preserve the central focus of the new law and ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat may be detected, but then strike down exceptions for cases of rape, incest or fetal abnormality. Save The 1 argues those exceptions send the message that children conceived by rape or incest “are worth less” than others.

Citations to start going out once again from speed cameras in Des Moines

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Speed cameras in Cedar Rapids.

The city of Des Moines plans will start sending out tickets again next week for those caught on cameras going too fast along a section of Interstate 235.

The Iowa Supreme Court ruled on April 27th of this year that the Department of Transportation doesn’t have the authority to stop Des Moines and other cities from using traffic cameras along interstates. Des Moines Police Department spokesman, Sergeant Paul Parizek, says there was a lot of discussion before deciding to resume sending out tickets on June 25th.

“We know there is going to be some blow-back from the community and we needed to evaluate whether or not the impact on public safety and the value of those cameras is worth what we want to do,” Parizek says. Des Moines, Cedar Rapids and Muscatine sued the state after the DOT ordered some of the cameras to be shut down — saying they were not making the roadways safer. Parizek says the cameras were still recording speeds — even though they stopped sending out tickets back on April 26th of 2017.

“We saw a significant increase in the number of speeders that were above 71 miles-per-hour in that one-year period. I think it was close to well over a 100 percent increase. And top speeds of over 100 miles-an-hour,” Parizek says. “So that kind of answered the question for us — yeah these do have an impact on voluntary compliance.” He did not have the numbers on how many more accidents there were at that time.

“I guess we’re of the mindset that we don’t want to see that, so whatever we can do to change it or to prevent it we are gonna do….we don’t want to see people getting hurt or getting killed before we do something simple to prevent those things,” according to Parizek. The cities make millions of dollars from the cameras and that sparked the debate on whether they are there for safety or to bring in revenue.

“If people think it’s a money grab, the only thing we can say about that is. if you don’t want to give us your money, don’t speed,” Parizek says. “And these limits are set for a reason — and that reason is safety.” Parizek says they’ve learned something else from using the traffic cameras.

“People are pretty fickle when it comes to technology,” he says, “They love it if it helps them out, but if it cramps their style or slows them down in life, they are not big fans of it.” Parizek says the technology not only improves the safety of drivers — it also keeps officers safe when they don’t have to pull cars over on the busy interstate.

Parizek says the shoulders of the interstate are pretty narrow and not safe when two cars are pulled over. “So, this is a good way for us to do more with less.”

Numerous attempts by the legislature to ban the cameras have failed, but the sergeant doesn’t think that debate is over.

“I would bet my next paycheck that the Iowa State Legislature is going to address the speed camera issue one more time next year,” Parizek says. A spokesperson for the city of Cedar Rapids says the city has not made a decision on sending out speed camera tickets again. She says the city council will discuss it with the public first and them move forward.

The cameras in Des Moines go will start sending out violations at 12:01 a-m on the 25th. Anyone going more than 71 miles-an-hour in the 60 miles-an-hour speed zone, will be sent a citation. The fines remain the same; $65 for speed violations of one to 15 miles above the posted speed limit, $75 for violations 16-20 miles over the posted speed limit and $80 plus $2 for every mile-an-hour above 21 miles-an-hour over the posted speed limit.

 

 

Clermont man accused of abusing two girls

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Max Stone

A convicted sex offender is back in jail, accused of sexually abusing two girls in northeast Iowa.

Forty-three-old Max Stone, of Clermont, was arrested after a month long investigation, according to the Fayette County Sheriff’s office. He was initially charged one month ago with assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and providing a controlled substance to a minor.

Today, more charges of sex abuse and incest were filed against Stone over allegations that he abused two girls over the last several years. Stone was convicted in 1993 of two counts of lascivious acts with a child.

(Photo courtesy of Fayette County Sheriff)

 

Day long public safety forum underway at Mitchellville prison

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Iowa Department of Corrections director Jerry Bartruff.

Iowa Department of Corrections director Jerry Bartruff says the state is facing “new and, in some cases, daunting challenges” when it comes to public safety.

“The rise of the opioid crisis, rising violent crimes and arrests in rural areas, disparities in our criminal justice system and an ever-growing population of persons with mental illness and other behavioral health issues in our jails and prisons are just some of the troubling areas we really need to start to address collectively,” Bartruff says.

Bartruff made his comments early this morning at the opening of a day-long forum on public safety at the state women’s prison in Mitchellville. Iowa Department of Public Safety Commissioner Roxann Ryan said the forum is focused on problem solving.

Iowa Public Safety Commissioner Roxann Ryan makes a presentation with Governor Reynolds.

“Public safety has always been one of the foundations of every community,” Ryan said. “I hope that our discussions today will lead to many more discussions throughout the state. The ideas that we discuss today will be the policies and programs that we develop tomorrow.”

Governor Kim Reynolds gave a welcoming speech at the forum and touted some already launched policies, like apprenticeship programs in the state prisons for inmates who’ll eventually be paroled.

“We need to give hope to incarcerated Iowans so that they can make positive decisions,” she said, “and begin new lives upon release.”

Legislators, officials from several state agencies and mental health advocates and are among the dozens of people who stayed to participate in the forum.