Mental Health Officials Appeal To Le Mars Community Schools To Change Current Policy
(Le Mars) — Area mental health officials are appealing to the Le Mars Community School District to consider changing its policy regarding mental health services. Don Kass, chairman of the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors sent a letter and appeared with other mental health officials Monday evening before the Le Mars Community Board of Education to request
their consideration of changing the existing policy.
Kass says the local school district has some objections with the suggested policy change.
Kass says the service will not cost the school any money. The school’s only obligation would be to provide a room or other designated location for the service.
The Plymouth County Supervisor says he hopes the issue can be included as an agenda item for an upcoming school board meeting in order to adequately address the mental health services for school children.
Sharon Niemann with the Plymouth County Social Services says all the other schools within the county have been contacted about this service. She says action needs to take place fairly quickly to be included in budgets.
Both Niemann and Kass say they hope to have a decision by mid-March.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Ask Legislators For More Money For The State’s Courts
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The head of the Iowa court system says technology and the need to ensure justice for everyone demands increased spending.
Speaking Wednesday in his annual speech to the Legislature, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady told lawmakers “we simply can no longer proceed into the future thinking it will be a modest linear extension from where we are today.”
The judicial branch is requesting nearly $185 million, a 4 percent
increase from the current year’s budget. Gov. Kim Reynolds is proposing nearly $183 million.
Among the new programs Cady proposes is a $1.6 million rural courts initiative to secure courthouses and upgrade services to ensure court services in all 99 counties.
He also proposes a $2.5 million digital upgrade that would allow
judges to send search warrants electronically to investigators, improve an internet-based telephone system and upgrade technology to allow for remote video appearances for witnesses, parties in cases and court reporters.
Cady also seeks $1.9 million to pay for a proposed 4 percent
increase in pay for judiciary officers.
Legislators Respond To “Condition of the Courts” Speech
(Des Moines) — Key legislators say it will be difficult to provide a sizable increase in the budget for Iowa’s court system. Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Cady delivered his budget request to legislators on Wednesday morning and it included a series of new initiatives, including a digital initiative with a nearly two-and-a-half million dollar price tag.
Representative Gary Worthan (WORTH-an), a Republican from Storm Lake, is co-chair of the panel that drafts the budget for the court.
Senator Rob Hogg (HOHG, rhymes with “vogue”), a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says the court system needs the cash infusion just to keep up with inflation.
The chief justice asked legislators for more money to provide a four percent pay raise for judges. Hogg is an attorney whose great grandfather was a member of the Iowa Supreme Court. Hogg says the court’s shrinking budget is
as much of a concern as pay.
Worthan says debates over raising judges’ salaries are “always contentious” in the legislature. He’s more concerned about ensuring rural Iowans have access to “speciality courts.”
Worthan says that’s not fair to rural Iowans.
Sgt Bluff Building Code Officer Fired
SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) – A former building inspector says in his lawsuit that he was fired for reporting code violations that the mayor and other officials in Sergeant Bluff told him to ignore.
David Christensen says in his lawsuit that Mayor Jon Winkel and others conspired to fire him for reporting code violations that endangered public safety. He is seeking a jury trial and an award of damages for back pay, loss of salary and benefits and additional punitive damages. The lawsuit was
filed last week in Woodbury County District Court.
Winkel told the Sioux City Journal that the city does not comment on pending litigation, but he did say, “Our story will be quite a bit different from what you’ve heard from the other side.”
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Former State Worker Loses Lawsuit Over Emails
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A former state of Iowa worker who’d used the words “In Christ” in his work emails has lost his lawsuit against the state.
The Sioux City Journal reports that a federal jury in Sioux City found Wednesday that the state Department of Human Services did not fail to accommodate Michael Mial’s religious practices. Mial sued the department and several individuals at the sex offender unit in Cherokee in January 2017, saying his firing violated his rights to free speech and religion.
The lawsuit said Mial, a psychiatric security specialist, was fired in April 2016 after a performance review in which supervisors told him his religious faith was beneficial to patients at the sex offender unit. But they asked him to keep his religion separate from his work because he’d been using “In Christ” in the personalized signature block that appeared in internal emails sent to other employees.
Democrats Ponder How To Respond To Trumps Comments
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Democrats weighing presidential campaigns in 2020 face a stark choice: how – and whether – to respond to President Donald Trump’s pugnacious and insensitive attacks on his political opponents.
If Democrats punch back too hard at Trump, they could be accused of playing his game. If they ignore him entirely, they risk appearing unprepared to take on a president who knows few boundaries.
Trump tested Elizabeth Warren on Sunday night with a tweet mocking her that made light of two massacres of Native Americans. Warren didn’t immediately engage but later called the tweet “disgusting” and suggested Trump was trying to distract from the partial government shutdown over his demand for a border wall.
Other Democratic presidential contenders indicate that they, too, plan to avoid responding to Trump’s more personal taunts.
Authorities Arrest Man They Believe Is Responsible For Multiple Sexual Assaults
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Investigators say they have arrested a 32-year-old Iowa man who is believed to be linked to several sexual assaults near the University of Iowa campus.
Carlos Hivento of Cedar Rapids was arrested last week and charged in the November sexual assault of a 19-year-old girl he allegedly met at an Iowa City bar. He’s being jailed pending trial.
Court records show that investigators have uncovered evidence that also links him to a 2017 sexual assault of another woman at a different Iowa City bar. And they are looking into whether he’s connected to at least three other reported assaults, including one days before his arrest.
Police say an examination of one of Hivento’s phones uncovered 1,475 videos of him having sex, using drugs or doing both since September. They’ve seized several other electronic devices.
The University of Iowa Police Department is asking anyone with information to come forward.
Marion Man Charged With Murder Of Woman Found Near Roadside
MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) – A Marion man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of a woman whose body was found last week on the side of an eastern Iowa highway.
The Muscatine Journal reports 35-year-old Douglas Joseph Foster was charged Tuesday in the Jan. 8 death of 20-year-old Lea Ponce, of Fairfield. Foster was ordered held Wednesday on $3 million cash-only bond.
Investigators say Ponce was last seen alive just after midnight Jan. 7 getting into a pickup truck Foster was believed to have been driving. Her body was found along Highway 38 less than an hour later. An autopsy report says she died of blunt force trauma and that her injuries were consistent with having been hit and dragged by a vehicle.
Foster’s preliminary hearing is set for Jan. 25.
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Suspect Pleas Guilty To Lesser Charges Of Death Of Man
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The last of three suspects in the January 2017 killing of a Des Moines man has pleaded guilty to reduced charges of willful injury causing serious injury and robbery.
The Des Moines Register reports that 27-year-old Monica Fagan pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charges and faces up to 35 years in prison when she sentenced Feb. 27. She had faced life in prison on a first-degree murder charge in the beating death of 31-year-old Michael Huckleberry.
Fagan admitted Wednesday to helping 26-year-old Sarah Saltz and 51-year-old Ricky Hascall tie-up, rob and beat Huckleberry in his Des Moines apartment.
Hascall died in jail last year awaiting trial. Saltz pleaded guilty to robbery and theft for her role and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
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