Luft’s Bill Calling For Organ Donor Notification On Fishing and Hunting Licenses Now Signed Into Law By Governor Reynolds
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa outdoor enthusiasts will soon have an option to place an organ donor sticker on their hunting and fishing licenses under a new law signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds.
It’s called Logan’s Law after Logan Luft, of Charles City, who died at age 15 in 2017 after an all-terrain vehicle crash.
Luft, who enjoyed hunting and fishing, had decided to be an organ donor and his family says that decision saved the lives of five people who received his organs.
His father Leonard Luft and other relatives sought the bill in his
memory after seeing organ donor stickers on hunting and fishing licenses in Minnesota.
The bill passed unanimously.
It requires the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to include organ donor information in hunting safety courses and to provide the designation of organ donor on hunting and fishing license applications. Anyone at least age 14 may check an organ donor box with a parent’s signature.
Reynolds signed the bill Monday at Charles City Middle School.
Police Arrest Inmate Who Had Escaped Polk County Jail
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police have arrested a Polk County jail inmate who escaped by using another inmate’s identification bracelet.
Des Moines police arrested 27-year-old Rodney Clint Moore on Sunday morning in Des Moines, days after he had swapped bracelets with another inmate and been released from the jail about 1:45 a.m. Friday.
Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives learned where Moore was staying and police arrested him without incident.
He was returned to the jail, where he had been held since April 24 on charges of reckless driving and driving while barred.
Moore used the bracelet of 25-year-old inmate Zakary Arthur Titus, who has been charged with escape for allegedly helping Moore leave the jail.
Titus serving a 45-day sentence for probation violation and was set to be released.
Former First Lady Laura Bush To Speak At UNI
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Former first lady of the United States Laura Bush is set to speak at a lecture series at the University of Northern Iowa.
The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reports that Bush will speak Oct. 9 as part of the Joy Cole Corning Distinguished Leadership Lecture Series.
Bush is an advocate for literacy, education and women’s rights. As first lady from 2009 to 2009, she advanced literary education to support America’s youth. She now serves as chairwoman of the Women’s Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.
The lecture series was established in 2001 by UNI alumna and former Iowa Lt. Gov. Joy Cole Corning.
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IDOT Approves $16 Million Night Time Construction On Bridge Between Iowa and Illinois
BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) – Iowa transportation officials have approved $16 million to pay for nighttime work on the Interstate 74 bridge over the Mississippi River in the Quad Cities because of delays blamed on an icy winter followed by spring flooding.
The Quad-City Times reports the Iowa Department of Transportation allocated the money to fund overtime needed to ensure the westbound bridge is finished in the first half of 2020. Danielle Alvarez, the Iowa agency’s project manager, says the $16 million will pay for additional labor and second-shift work.
Alvarez says a cold winter followed by flooding have made it unsafe to use extra-high cranes needed to install basket-handle style arches on the bridge connecting Iowa and Illinois.
Despite the extra cost, the bridge is expected to cost less than the budgeted $1.2 billion.
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Indiana Man Sentenced For Robbing Pharmacies
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – An Indianapolis man has been sentenced to eight years in prison after admitting to five drug store robberies in Iowa.
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa says 19-year-old Rontel Nijae Mial was sentenced Friday after pleading guilty last September to five counts of robbery.
Mial was arrested the morning of Dec. 16, 2017, after displaying a gun in a Walgreens store in Davenport and demanding a pharmacist give him drugs. A car was waiting for Mial, and they then drove away but were tracked by a GPS device included among the pill bottles.
Mial and another man were arrested after crashing into a patrol car and trying to drive through a yard.
Mial acknowledged also robbing other Walgreens robberies in Davenport, Des Moines and Iowa City.
