(LE MARS)–Floyd Valley Hospital is joining a national effort to highlight the importance of advance healthcare decision-making. National Healthcare Decisions Day is April 16th.
According to written information from Floyd Valley Hospital, the Le Mars healthcare provider will offer information and tools for the public to talk about their wishes with family, friends and healthcare providers. This includes information about written advance directives such as healthcare power of attorney and living will.
On April 16th, Floyd Valley Hospital welcomes the public to learn at lunch with information about advance care planning and advance directive forms. The program is in room one of the hospital’s lower level conference center. Dr. Steve Meis of Family Medicine Clinic-Le Mars and Linda Todd of Hospice of Siouxland will present information on the importance of advance directives.
As a result of National Health Care Decisions day, Hospital Education Coordinator Marlys Van Otterloo says many more people in the area can be expected to have thoughtful conversations about their healthcare decisions and complete reliable advance directives to make their wishes known.
For more information https://www.nationalhealthcaredecisionsday.org
(ROCK RAPIDS)–A George man faces drug charges after the Lyon County Sheriff’s office searched a house he rents in George Thursday.
Authorities say they seized about 11 ounces of marijuana and numerous prescription pills during the search.
According to the sheriff’s office, 39-year-old Troy Esser was charged with possession of prescription pills; possession of marijuana with intent to distribute the drug; failing to have a drug tax stamp; and possession of drug paraphernalia.
He is being held in the Lyon County Jail.
(SIOUX CITY)–A Sioux City man has been indicted in federal court in Sioux City on a charge of accessing child pornography.
According to the U-S Attorney’s office, 36-year-old Juan Pizano is accused of accessing depictions of child pornography with the intent to view them between April and May of last year.
He was indicted Tuesday and is free on bond. A June 7th trial date is set.
Pizano was charged as part of the Project Safe Childhood nationwide initiative begin four years ago to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
(SIOUX CITY)—A Spencer man has entered a guilty plea to a drug charge in federal court in Sioux City.
According to information from the U-S Attorney’s office, 55-year-old Gary Lee Brooks of Spencer was convicted of conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Brooks was convicted of the drug conspiracy within 1000 feet of a public playground.
Brooks had been accused of conspiring to bring meth from Las Vegas to the Storm Lake area in April of 2008 and meeting with co-conspirators in the parking lot of Awaysis Park in Storm Lake. A date for Brooks to be sentenced has not been set yet.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke is visiting Iowa City to discuss the flood recovery efforts on the University of Iowa campus.
Locke was scheduled to meet with Democratic U.S. Rep. Dave Loebsack, Gov. Chet Culver and Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek Friday to tour flood recovery projects at the university and discuss flood recovery grants awarded to assist in the projects.
The grants are administered through the commerce department’s Economic Development Administration, and are part of a $2.65 billion bill approved by Congress to help with recovery from the 2008 Midwest floods.
RALSTON, Neb. (AP) American Red Cross chapters in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa are preparing to respond to storms and flooding this spring.
A drill scheduled in Ralston will test their plans to open and operate a shelter during a storm. The simulation begins at 5 p.m. Friday and continues overnight, ending before noon Saturday.
Staff from the Heartland, Northeast Nebraska and Loess Hills chapters are expected to participate. They’ll practice plans to feed and shelter storm victims and provide counseling, among other things.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A 12-year-old girl has been arrested for trespassing after she allegedly refused to leave U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin’s office in Des Moines while protesting the war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Frankie Hughes was arrested late Wednesday. Her mother, Renee Espeland, who was standing outside the Iowa Democrat’s office, was ticketed for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Police were called after another woman, Christine Gaunt, allegedly refused to leave Harkin’s office when it closed. Police found Gaunt and Hughes in the office, and both were arrested.
Sally Frank, a law professor at Drake University, says she will probably defend the protesters. She says she thinks police were “trying to put a scare into the peace movement.”
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) A Grundy Center woman has pleaded guilty to theft charges after allegations she took about $164,000 from clients.
Thirty-year-old Mindy Sue Greany worked as an administrative assistant at a credit counseling business in Waterloo. She has been terminated from the job and was arrested in August.
Greany entered the pleas Wednesday in Black Hawk County District Court to six counts of first-degree theft, eight counts of second-degree theft and one count of third-degree theft. Sentencing for Greany is to be at a later date.
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) Railroad officials say a mudslide apparently knocked three empty coal cars off the tracks near Burlington.
Burlington Northern-Santa Fe spokeswoman Amy McBeth says a locomotive pulling the cars was coming from Missouri on its way to Wyoming when the derailment happened about 9 p.m. on Wednesday.
No one was hurt.
McBeth says the mudslide was “relatively small,” and crews were able to put two of the cars back on the tracks, which was opened Thursday. The other car was left at the site.
WEST BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) West Burlington police say a man accidentally shot himself in the leg with a rifle while helping a neighbor move.
Police say 27-year-old James Brauers was helping his neighbor move some items inside an apartment on Monday when a loaded black-powder, .45-caliber rifle went off, hitting him in the leg.
Brauers underwent surgery, but hospital officials would not disclose his condition or whether he has been released.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) New Iowa men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery is bringing one of his assistants from his old job at Siena to the Hawkeyes.
Andrew Francis, an assistant to McCaffery the past three seasons, interviewed for the job on Wednesday. Francis assisted in all aspects of the Siena program, including recruiting, player development and scouting.
Mitch Buonaguro, an assistant to McCaffery the past five seasons at Siena, was named McCaffery’s successor on Thursday.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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