Compensation Board Offers Salary Recommendations To Supervisors
(Le Mars) — Representatives of The Plymouth County Compensation Board offered their suggestions for wage increases for county elected officials during this morning’s Plymouth County Board of Supervisors meeting. Larry Peterson of the Compensation Board says the volunteer board used the same format this year as was utilized last year with determining the salary increases for county elected officials.
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Petersen says the Compensation Board realizes Plymouth County has excellent government employees, and he says it would be difficult to replace the people.
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The County Supervisors took the information under advisement, but they will not act on the Compensation Board’s suggestions until they work on the budget.
Judge Refuses To Allow Missing Girl’s Mother Time Away To Arrange Funeral
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A judge is refusing to allow the mother of one of two slain Iowa girls out of a halfway house so she can plan her daughter’s funeral.
U.S. District Judge Linda Reade declined Monday to end Misty Morrissey’s supervised release 45 days early or allow her to live with her mother.
Morrissey is mother of Lyric Cook, who disappeared with cousin Elizabeth Collins in Evansdale in July. The bodies of the girls were found this month by hunters.
Morrissey has lived at the Residential Reentry Center in Waterloo since August, and is allowed to leave for work and scheduled events. Morrissey’s attorney says she is unable to devote
enough time and attention to planning Lyric’s Dec. 29 memorial service while at the center.
Airport Authorities Remind Travelers What’s Not Allowed On Planes
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Authorities at Des Moines’ airport are reminding holiday travelers to keep any replica grenades at home.
Transportation Security Administration at Des Moines International Airport is telling travelers to keep certain things away. They showed items Tuesday that were confiscated at security checkpoints.
Included on the list was a replica grenade brought by a five-year-old boy and an assortment of ninja throwing stars. Police batons and a crow bar also were on the list.
But TSA officials say a major holdup at the airport is still removing certain liquids from luggage during security.
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Pella Man Shoots Himself After Standoff
PELLA, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say an Iowa man who shot himself during a police standoff near a small private college has died.
The Pella Police Department says officers responded around 8:30 a.m. Monday to reports of an armed man chasing another man through a Pella neighborhood and firing shots. Within minutes, responding officers say they intercepted 49-year-old William Shaw, of Fremont,
fleeing the scene in a car.
Police say there was a brief standoff between officers and Shaw before Shaw shot himself. Shaw was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Central College, a small private college in Pella, was put on lockdown. Many students are gone for winter break, although some staff and faculty were on campus.
Judge Orders Death Certificates To Change For Same-sex Couples
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A Polk County judge has ordered the state to change the way it handles child death certificates for same-sex parents.
District Judge Robert Hutchison issued the ruling on Friday. The ruling came in a lawsuit brought a same-sex couple suing state health officials for omitting the name of one parent on the death
certificate for their child.
The judge found that “a mother’s wife is identical to a mother’s husband in every common and ordinary sense except for biology.” He also said the Iowa Department of Public Health’s
policy of refusing to register a mother’s wife on a death certificate violates the state’s equal-protection laws.
The gay rights group Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on behalf of Jenny and Jessica Buntemeyer of Davenport.
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Korean Metal Company Donates To Harkin’s Public Policy Building
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A South Korean businessman and his Iowa metals subsidiary have given $500,000 to support a university institute for Sen. Tom Harkin, who is pushing for a one-dollar coin
that would bring the company business.
The donations to the Harkin Institute of Public Policy at Iowa State University come from PMX Industries and CEO of its Seoul-based parent, Jin Roy Ryu.
Harkin is sponsoring a bill that would eliminate the paper dollar in favor of a dollar coin, for which PMX supplies the materials. PMX is a member of the Dollar Coin Alliance lobbying for the change.
PMX says ISU’s foundation asked for its donations and it agreed. Yet they are an example of possible ethical concerns that Republicans warned could result from naming a university institute
after a sitting lawmaker.
