Home News KLEM News PM Update May 7, 2010

KLEM News PM Update May 7, 2010

(LE MARS)–A Le Mars Police Senior Patrol Officer is seeing abuse of over the counter medicine by young people.

Le Mars Police D.A.R.E. officer Jay King gives motion sickness pills as one example.

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King and others also see an increase in the abuse of prescription drugs by young people who take pills, for example, from a family member’s medicine cabinet. Options to stop the abuse including locking up the medication.

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Le Mars Police and Le Mars D.A.R.E. are sponsoring “Project Safe Meds.” The program to collect unused prescription drugs for disposal by police began in Le Mars this week. Medication should be taken to the police department in the original container.

(SIOUX CITY)–National Law Enforcement Memorial Week will be observed in Sioux City Sunday through May 15th.

A Memorial Service to honor officers who have fallen in the line of duty is planned near the Sioux City Hall at the Public Safety Memorial Monday at noon.

The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office and the Sioux City Police Department will recognize the loss of nine officers between 1919 and 1996. The public is invited to attend and advised that Douglas Street, between Sixth and 8th Street, will close at 8 a-m to accommodate the ceremony.

Following the service, both police and sheriff’s departments with host an open house at the Law Enforcement Center and the Police Department. The Police Department will hold an award ceremony in the Council Chambers immediately following the Memorial Service.

(Sioux City)–The Iowa Dental Foundation will hold its third “Mission of Mercy” (MOM) free dental clinic in November in Cedar Rapids. Dentist Richard Hettinger of Sioux City is chair of the event and says they had looked at Cedar Rapids before the last MOM event in Newton two years ago.
He says things have improved and they will take the event to Cedar Rapids on November fifth and sixth.

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“Certainly the reconstruction is not finished, they are still working all over town, but a few more people can see the light of day and we can mount a very effective event here,” Hettinger says. Dental professionals from across the state donate their time during the two days to provide all kinds of free dental work to the people who attend the clinic. Hettinger says they also need some volunteer help to make the event run.

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 He says there are a lot of things that need to be done during the event, and they have more non-dental volunteers than they do professionals. Volunteer work includes feeding everyone, taking care of kids, cleaning up, sterilizing instruments, and a number of other things. Hettinger says the volunteers have provided an estimated one-point-four million dollars in free dental care to nearly three-thousand patients in the first two clinics.

For more details on the November clinic, go on-line at: www.IowaMOM.org. (News report by Radio Iowa)

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa gambling regulators say a vote is still set for next week on new casino licenses despite an investigation into political contributions to Gov. Chet Culver’s re-election campaign.

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission says it plans to proceed with the vote on Thursday, whether or not the investigation is finished.

Attorney General Tom Miller has asked for a special prosecutor to investigate a series of contributions from Fort Dodge casino backers to Culver’s campaign committee. The Iowa Executive Council plans to vote on Monday on Miller’s recommendation that Des Moines lawyer Lawrence Scalise be named special prosecutor.

The commission is to vote on casino licenses for Fort Dodge, Ottumwa and Lyon and Tama counties.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A new study shows that if Midwest farmers raised more of the fruits and vegetables eaten there, they could create thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in income.

The Iowa State University study found that if farmers in six Midwestern states raised enough of 28 crops to meet local demand, they could create $882 million in sales, more than 9,300 jobs and about $395 million in labor income.

Michelle Miller of the University of Wisconsin says other regions of the country could see similar benefits if they also grew food to meet local demand.

But the Iowa State economist who conducted the study, David Swenson, says changing food systems will take time because, for example, expertise in the Midwest focuses on livestock, corn and soybeans and not produce.

ELMA, Iowa (AP) The manager of a produce auction says Mitchell County’s ban on steel wheels on county roads could keep Mennonites from taking their flowers to market.

The county says the wheels damage the roads. Mennonite farmers say the use of conventional wheels would violate rules set by their governing bodies. A Mitchell County magistrate will hear debate about the constitutionality of the ordinance on Friday.

Ivan Martin of the Cedar Valley Produce Auction near Elma says 75 percent of his growers are affected by the ordinance.

He says growers, who helped to pump more than $1 million into the business last year, are having to find different ways to get to market. There are three auctions a week during the season.

Martin has 3,600 permanent buyers, including grocery, flower shop and nursery buyers.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A federal agency says a Texas company cheated its mentally disabled workers who worked at a turkey-processing plant in Iowa.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says Henry’s Turkey Service shortchanged the workers by at least $1 million and committed numerous major violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The company housed the men in an old bunkhouse in Atalissa and put them to work at a plant in West Liberty and paid them 41 cents an hour. An investigation was launched in 2009.

One of the company’s owners, Kenneth Henry of Proctor, Texas, declined to comment Thursday on the findings.

The EEOC plans to send a proposed settlement to Henry’s owners. If rejected, the EEOC can take the company to court.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Submit your news release, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm.net, by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.