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Lisa Marie Presley died from small bowel obstruction caused by bariatric surgery, coroner says

Posted on by Sam Parsons

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lisa Marie Presley died from complications from bariatric surgery she had several years ago, authorities said Thursday.

The January 12 death at age 54 of the singer, songwriter and heir of Elvis Presley was ruled as being from natural causes due to effects of a small bowel obstruction.

Additional details about what caused Presley’s death were included in an autopsy report released Thursday afternoon by the office of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner.

The report says the complication that Presley experienced is a common complication from bariatric surgery, which is a weight loss procedure. The Mayo Clinic says it is often done when other weight loss methods haven’t worked or if a person has a serious medical condition.

Presley died at a Los Angeles hospital, where she had been rushed by paramedics responding to a 911 call of a woman in cardiac arrest at her home. No indication was made public at the time of what may have caused the medical issue.

The autopsy report said she had been complaining of stomach pain earlier in the day.

She was buried at a Jan. 22 funeral at Graceland, the home where she lived with her father as a child that has become a museum, tourist attraction and shrine for Elvis fans.

Presley left behind three daughters, 34-year-old “Daisy Jones & the Six” actor Riley Keough and 15-year-old twins Harper and Finley Lockwood. A son, Benjamin Keough, died in 2020.

In the immediate aftermath of her death, it appeared that a major legal fight would ensue over Presley’s estate. Four days after her funeral, her mother, Priscilla Presley, filed court documents disputing a 2016 amendment to Lisa Marie Presley’s living trust that removed Priscilla Presley and a former business manager as trustees and replaced them with her two eldest children.

But Priscilla Presley and Riley Keough – who is now acting as sole trustee – agreed to a settlement in May.

Riley Keough was nominated for her first Emmy on Wednesday, for best actress in a limited series or TV movie for “Daisy Jones & the Six.”

Governor plans to sign bill banning most abortions today

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

Governor Kim Reynolds plans to sign a bill into law at 2:15 this afternoon that will ban most abortions in Iowa. There’ll be a court hearing less than an hour before that for a lawsuit that seeks to at least temporarily block the law from taking effect.

A very similar law, signed by Governor Reynolds on May 4, 2018, never went in effect due to a court injunction. The governor’s request that the Iowa Supreme Court lift that injunction failed on a three-to-three tie among the justices. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver said the state’s highest court has never ruled on whether a six week abortion ban is constitutional and that’s why the legislature passed the same proposal, again, on Tuesday.

“They have ruled on procedural matters and other bills that we have passed. They have never answered this question,” Whitver said. “…I would expect it will go back to the Supreme Court and we will get a final answer on where the Supreme Court stands.”

It’s unclear when the district court judge may rule on the request for an injunction to block the law from taking effect. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst said if the law goes into effect this afternoon, even for a few hours or a few days, it will create chaos.

“Doctors won’t know what to do, patients won’t know what to do,” Konfrst said. “There will be questions and — most importantly — there will be inconsistent care across the state because different doctors will interpret it differently.”

Konfrst and other Democrats say the bill fails to provide clear guidance to doctors about when they may and may not perform an abortion in medical emergencies.

Summer heat causes fish kill on the lower Des Moines River near Ottumwa

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OTTUMWA — The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) was notified on July 10 of a fish kill on the lower Des Moines River.

DNR staff from the Fisheries Bureau investigated and found an estimated 20,000 dead shovelnose sturgeon in a 60 mile river stretch from near Ottumwa to Farmington in southeast Iowa. Freshly dead fish collected on July 11 were submitted to Iowa State University for testing.

The investigation began with determining the start and end of the fish kill. DNR fisheries staff collected water temperatures and dissolved oxygen levels at nine locations along the fish kill path and sampled for ammonia. Using the American Fisheries Society (AFS) guidelines, staff started counting dead fish at bridge accesses and then expanded their count to free-flowing areas.

“We didn’t find low levels of dissolved oxygen or high levels of ammonia which is usually indicative of some sort of spill, so it comes down to high water temperatures coupled with the low flows that we are experiencing at present.  Water temperatures are in the upper 80s and exceed levels known to cause shovelnose sturgeon mortality,” said Mark Flammang, Iowa DNR fisheries biologist. “It was also limited to shovelnose sturgeon; no other species were impacted.”

Shovelnose sturgeon are relatively abundant below Ottumwa, as many of these fish move from the Mississippi River into this section of the Des Moines River during the spring and summer. “Ottumwa has one of the largest populations of shovelnose sturgeon in the world,” explains Flammang.

The shovelnose sturgeon population is a unique resource in the Des Moines River. “Many of these fish are over 40 years old. It will take several years to repopulate this long-living fish,” Flammang said.

This section of the Des Moines River has had sizable fish kills over the years caused by low water levels and high water temperatures, with the most recent in 2012.  DNR fisheries staff partnered with Missouri Conservation to research the cause of that kill and learn more about the effects to shovelnose sturgeon populations.

If you see dead or stressed fish at a lake or river, call the DNR’s 24-hour spill line at 515-725-8694 as soon as possible. Quick reporting can help DNR staff identify the cause of a fish kill and potentially stop a fish kill in progress.

Oskaloosa High School FFA Hosting Annual Pie Social Next Week

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OSKALOOSA — Oskaloosa High School’s FFA Chapter announced that they’ll be hosting their annual pie social next week. This year, the event spans three nights filled with delicious pies and treats.

  • Monday, July 17: Oskaloosa FFA will be serving their famous pie slices in front of the FFA building from 6-8pm. Free-will donations will be accepted. The FFA building is located at the back of the administration building, right in the center of the fairgrounds.
  • On Tuesday and Wednesday night (July 18 and 19), the Oskaloosa FFA has teamed up with the Garfield Boosters 4-H club to offer you homemade pies and the 4-H club’s ice cream! Head over to the antique tractor area from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. both nights.

More information is available at the Oskaloosa High School Facebook Page.

Chinese hackers breached State Dept., other government email on eve of Blinken visit, officials say

Posted on by Sam Parsons

WASHINGTON (AP) — State-backed Chinese hackers foiled Microsoft’s cloud-based security in hacking the email accounts of officials at multiple U.S. agencies that deal with China ahead of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing last month, officials said Wednesday.

The surgical, targeted espionage accessed the email of a small number of individuals at an unspecified number of U.S. agencies and was discovered in mid-June by the State Department, U.S. officials said. They said none of the breached systems were classified, nor was any of the stolen data.

The hacked officials included Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, The Washington Post reported, citing anonymous U.S. officials. Export controls imposed by her agency have stung multiple Chinese companies.

One person familiar with the investigation said U.S. military and intelligence agencies were not among the agencies impacted in the monthlong spying campaign, which also affected unnamed foreign governments.

The officials spoke on condition they not be further identified.

In a technical advisory Wednesday and a call with reporters, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI said Microsoft determined the hackers gained access by impersonating authorized users.

Officials did not specify the nature of the stolen data. But one U.S. official said the intrusion was “directly targeted” at diplomats and others who deal with the China portfolio at the State Department and other agencies. The official added that it was not yet clear if there had been any significant compromise of information.

The Blinken trip went ahead as planned, although with customary information security procedures in place, which required his delegation to use “burner” phones and computers in China.

The hack was disclosed late Tuesday by Microsoft in a blog post. It said it was alerted to the breach, which it blamed on a state-backed, espionage-focused Chinese hacking group “known to target government agencies in Western Europe,” on June 16. Microsoft said the group, which it calls Storm-0558, had gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organizations, including government agencies, since mid-May as well as to consumer accounts of individuals likely associated with those agencies.

Neither Microsoft nor U.S. officials would identify the agencies or governments impacted. A senior CISA official told reporters in a press call that the number of affected organizations in the United States is in the single digits.

While the official declined to say whether U.S. officials are displeased with Microsoft over the breach, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Adam Hodge noted that it was “government safeguards” that detected the intrusion and added, “We continue to hold the procurement providers of the U.S. Government to a high security threshold.”

In fact, those safeguards consist of a data-logging feature for which Microsoft charges a premium. The CISA official noted that some of the victims lacked the data-logging feature and, unable to detect the breach, learned of it from Microsoft.

But of greater concern to cybersecurity experts is that The Storm-0558 hackers broke in using forged authentication tokens — which are used to verify the identity of a user. Microsoft’s executive vice president for security, Charlie Bell, said on the company’s website that the hackers had done that by acquiring a “consumer signing key.”

Cybersecurity researcher Jake Williams, a former National Security Agency offensive hacker, said it remains unclear how the hackers accomplished that. Microsoft did not immediately respond to emailed questions, including whether it was breached by the hackers to obtain the signing key.

Williams was concerned the hackers could have forged tokens for wide use to hack any number of non-enterprise Microsoft users. “I can’t imagine China didn’t also use this access to target dissidents on personal subscriptions, too.”

The head of intelligence for the cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike, Adam Meyers, said in a statement that the incident highlights the systemic risk of relying on a single technology provider in Microsoft. He said “having one monolithic vendor that is responsible for all of your technology, products, services and security – can end in disaster.”

A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, called the U.S. accusation of hacking “disinformation” aimed at diverting attention from U.S. cyberespionage against China.

“No matter which agency issued this information, it will never change the fact that the United States is the world’s largest hacker empire conducting the most cyber theft,” Wang said in a routine briefing.

U.S. intelligence agencies also use hacking as a critical espionage tool and it is not a violation of international law.

Last month, Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant said suspected state-backed Chinese hackers broke into the networks of hundreds of public and private sector organizations globally exploiting a vulnerability in a popular email security tool.

Earlier this year, Microsoft said state-backed Chinese hackers were targeting U.S. critical infrastructure and could be laying the technical groundwork to disrupt critical communications between the U.S. and Asia during future crises.

Caitlin Clark, Jack Trice, Kurt Warner to join the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

Athletes from the three state colleges in Iowa will be the companion sculptures to the Iowa State Fair butter cow this year.

Fair spokesperson Mindy Williamson says the three have each forged a legacy at their schools. “Nothing could be butter — we’re using the pun there — then creating these iconic Iowa athletes in butter,” Williamson says. “We have Jack Trice, from Iowa State, Kurt Warner from UNI, and then Caitlin Clark, from the University of Iowa.”

Putting Caitlin Clark in with the butter cow may be the only way to cool her off — as she has become one of the hottest draws in Iowa, and a national figure as well,  after leading the Hawkeye women to the runner-up finish in the national championship game. “We did reach out to her family and they are Iowans through and through. And, you know, Iowans love their Iowa State Fair. And so we could not be more proud to showcase her likeness and butter at the fair and, and she was also pretty excited about it,” she says. Jack Trice was the first African-American athlete at Iowa State, and he died from injuries he received during a football game in 1923.

“The message and his legacy is just an inspiration, not only to us in Iowa, but just athletics overall, you know, in the changes that we’ve made in the better people that we’ve become, because of what unfortunately happened to him,” Williamson says. “And this is 100-year commemoration by Iowa State, and they have a bunch of different programs going on, to honor his legacy.”

Kurt Warner is another Iowan who gained national fame after going from sacking butter and other groceries to become an NFL Hall of Famer. “A story of unbreakable spirit and drive in. That’s basically what Iowans are all about. And so he has lots of accolades to his name as well. We know he’s out broadcasting sports, but I don’t know that he’s ever been in butter before,” Williamson says.

Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines took over sculpting the butter cow in 2006 after serving as an apprentice to Norma Lyons for 15 years. Williams says visitors to the State Fair in August will get to see the athlete’s sculptures. “She typically does, the people that she does likenesses of, she’ll do them to size,” she says. Williamson says they always look for an Iowa connection for companion sculptures, and then can branch out to famous events. The 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon for example, was the companion sculpture in 2009. “Then we also sort of defer to Sarah as far as the armature that she can make. So we don’t want to make anything that won’t fit in a cooler or anything. That would take way too long to sort of put together. Believe it or not, not everything can be sculpted in butter, although Sarah makes it look pretty easy,” Williamson says.

The athletes and butter cow will be on display when the 2023 Iowa State Fair opens on August 10th.

Nurse keeps license after allegations of neglect and evicting a disabled man to the street

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Clark Kauffman (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

An Iowa nursing home administrator who was the subject of a criminal investigation for allegedly evicting a man to the street in a wheelchair and neglecting a seriously ill resident of the same facility will not face any restrictions on her nurse’s license, state regulators have ruled.

After recently charging Aimee Crow of Hedrick with one count of failing to assess or evaluate a patient, the Iowa Board of Nursing agreed to settle the case by ordering Crow to complete 14.5 hours of continuing education on professional accountability and medical documentation. If she fails to complete the ordered educational courses, she risks a license suspension or other restrictions on her practice.

According to state inspection records, Crow was working as a nurse and as the administrator of Sigourney’s Windsor Place Senior Living Campus last November when a female resident complained of a headache. The woman’s condition allegedly worsened throughout the day and, according to inspectors, several residents and workers at the home told Crow the woman was screaming in pain and was asking to be taken to a hospital.

Two employees allegedly told Crow the woman was yelling, “I was a nurse, I know they can help me … This is not normal.” Crow, who was the charge nurse on duty at that time, allegedly failed to assess the woman or take any other action, even when the woman was showing symptoms of a stroke.

The next day, the woman was unresponsive, unable to talk, couldn’t see out of her right eye and couldn’t move her right side.

One of the aides later told inspectors of the woman’s condition that morning. “There was nothing in her eyes, she was like a vegetable,” the aide reported. Two days before, on a Monday, the aide said, the woman “was up, independent and in the dining room talking, and normal – and by Wednesday, she was vegetable.”

The state reports don’t indicate whether the woman survived the incident or was transferred elsewhere. The reports indicate the woman most likely suffered a stroke.

When interviewed by inspectors, Crow reportedly acknowledged that staff members had come to her about the resident having a “headache,” but said no one ever told her the woman wanted to go to the hospital. She allegedly told state inspectors she never assessed the woman’s condition, consulted a physician or notified the resident’s family of the situation.

In a separate incident dating back to August 2022 at Windsor Place, a male resident objected to Crow’s insistence that he share a room with another resident. The home’s social worker told inspectors that Crow yelled at the man, wouldn’t let him speak, and kept saying, “You are getting a roommate, or you are leaving against medical advice. What’s it going to be?”

A sheriff’s deputy was summoned to help escort the man outside after a maintenance worker stacked the man’s belongings outside the door in trash bags.

The man, who was insulin dependent, told inspectors he wasn’t given any medications and had nowhere to go. He said he called his nephew and got a ride to his ex-wife’s home, where he fell down the steps and was taken by ambulance to a local hospital.

Crow reportedly told state inspectors she was the man’s niece. Asked why she felt it was necessary for the man to share a room when there were vacant rooms at the facility, she allegedly said she couldn’t recall as it was “a long time ago.”

Crow, who has also served as the administrator at Keota Health Care Center, declined to comment when asked about the state’s findings earlier this year. Her nursing home administrator’s license remains in good standing with no public record of any discipline.

The Iowa Board of Nursing recently charged Crow with one count of failing to assess or evaluate a patient – a charge that relates to the November 2022 incident with the female resident of Windsor Place, although board documents don’t name the facility.

According to the board, Crow said she checked on the woman three or four times during her shift, contradicting staffs claims to the contrary and the state inspectors’ assertion that Crow admitted not having checked on the woman. Crow allegedly acknowledged she did not document any findings from her checks on the resident or notify the woman’s family or physician of any concerns, according to the board.

Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing spokeswoman Stefanie Bond said in January that the agency’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit – which investigates allegations of dependent-adult abuse as well as fraud – was then conducting a criminal investigation related to the inspectors’ findings at Windsor Place.

It appears from court records that no criminal charges were ever filed in the case.

City of Ottumwa Extends Blocks to Neighborhoods Program Deadline to July 26, 2023

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OTTUMWA — The City of Ottumwa is extending the deadline for the Blocks to Neighborhoods Grant Program. The Blocks to Neighborhoods program will reimburse property owners up to $2,500 for exterior property upgrades. In addition, the program hopes to strengthen neighborhoods by bringing at least three neighbors together to complete the improvement projects.

Applications will be reviewed through a competitive grant process, with weight given to the location of properties, number of neighbors participating, and overall impact of exterior upgrades. If selected, residents will receive a 2-to-1 reimbursement for approved exterior upgrades to their property. Reimbursement will be provided to property owners after completing their project.

Applications for the program are now due July 26, 2023.

No winner in Monday Powerball drawing; jackpot now $725 million

Posted on by Sam Parsons

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — No winning ticket drawn Monday means the Powerball jackpot is an estimated $725 million ahead of Wednesday’s drawing.

No ticket matched the Monday drawing of white balls 7, 23, 24, 32, 43 and red Powerball 18.

The new jackpot for Wednesday’s drawing is the seventh-highest in the history of the game. Ticket buyers have a chance at either $725 million paid out in yearly increments or a $366 million one-time lump sum before taxes.

The game’s abysmal odds of 1 in 292.2 million are designed to build big prizes that draw more players. The all-time largest Powerball jackpot was $2.04 billion Powerball last November.

The last time someone won the Powerball jackpot was April 19 for a $253 million prize. Since then, no one has won the grand prize in the past 35 consecutive drawings.

Powerball is played in 45 states, as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Iowa legislature passes ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban, governor to sign it Friday

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

After a 15 hour “special session” at the statehouse, the Republican-led legislature has passed a ban on most abortions in Iowa.

The bill is almost identical to one Governor Reynolds approved five years ago. There are exceptions for certain medical conditions and for victims of rape and incest, but most abortions would be banned when cardiac activity can be detected, around the sixth week of a pregnancy. The Iowa Supreme Court recently deadlocked on the governor’s request to lift an injunction that’s kept the 2018 law from going into effect.

Senate President Amy Sinclair, a Republican from Allerton said the law has been in limbo because of “judicial overreach…needlessly forcing the legislature to re-pass a law that is already been enacted, in an effort to protect the lives of every single individual across our state who has a beating heart.”

All Democrats present voted against the bill. House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights said the bill is a return to “era of big government.”

“Women will be less free in a few hours than they are right now,” Konfrst said. “…If the state can tell you you have to have a baby, what else can the state tell you? That you can’t?”

Governor Reynolds issued a written statement late Tuesday, saying the bill provides “a clear answer” to the Iowa Supreme Court about the legislature’s intent and she plans to sign the bill into law Friday.

Republican Representative Shannon Lundgren of Peosta was the bill’s floor manager in 2018 and again yesterday. “There was nothing hypotheca about it then and there is nothing about that now,” Lundgren said. “This bill sets a clear standard where the state has an interest in the life of the child…When there is a heartbeat, there is life.”

Senator Molly Donahue, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, said the bill will force women to make difficult choices. “This abortion ban is not preventing abortion,” Donahue said. “but rather just a cause of a heavier burden of women having to leave the state to access care or to decide to self abort in an unsafe way.”

Representative Brad Sherman, a Republican from Williamsburg, said government’s job is to protect the rights of every person, including the unborn. “If they’re not prepared to have a baby, they shouldn’t have sex if they’re that concerned about it,” Sherman said. “I will stand for everyone’s right to practice abstinence.”

Representative Heather Matson, a Democrat from Ankeny, said every pregnancy is unique and sometimes dangerous. “What you are dictating to women and doctors with this bill today is that their own well being or their own extensive medical training simply doesn’t matter,” Matson said.

Representative Luana Stoltenberg, a Republican from Davenport who backed the bill, said as a young woman she had three abortions. “I was told that it was just a blob of tissue,” Stolenberg said. “…Every day I live with the reality that I killed the only children I would ever have.”

Senator Zach Wahls, a Democrat from Coralville, said the bill is a “radical overreach” by Republicans. “Poll after poll shows that Iowans want to protect the freedom to make this personal decision for our own families,” Wahls said

After 11 p.m., some opponents of the bill who’d been in the Senate gallery watching the debate started booing when the bill passed on a 32-to-17 vote. Senator Brad Zaun, the Republican who was presiding over the senate, said the disruption “would not be tolerated” and he asked state troopers to remove the protesters.

The bill passed the House a couple of hours earlier on a 56 to 34 vote. Two House Republicans who support a ban on all abortions voted against the bill and one Republican senator voted no. All other Republicans present voted for it.

Planned Parenthood officials have said they intend to challenge the law in court, so there may be another drawn out legal battle before the fate of the law is known.

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