Looking in at Iowa

Iowa Department of Corrections release about North Central Correctional Facility inmate Shane Michael Olcott:

At 9:03 P.M. during a scheduled inmate count, Olcott was discovered in his room hanging from the upper bunk bed post by the dog leash of a Leader Dog assigned to Olcott.  …

Olcott was 31 years old and serving a forty year sentence for four counts of Third Degree Sexual Abuse from Polk County. This sentence began on January 16, 2003. … more >>

A few recent Gazette articles about inmate suicide or inmate suicide attempts:

• Cedar Rapids murder suspect Kowalsky dies (Sept.22)

• Sheriff says jail suicides rare (Sept. 23)

• Sheriff: Inmate used sheet to hang self (Sept. 25)

• Inmate back in jail after suicide attempt (Sept. 2

The Avionics Magazine page is here, but original Rockwell Collins release page can be found at this link.

Rockwell Collins is offering two new iPod integration solutions that allow business jet passengers to fully utilize their iPods and iPhones for entertainment onboard business jets.

The new iPod Solo Station and the iPod Quad Station both offer flexible designs that allow passengers to charge their iPod and access their music and video libraries through the cabin audio visual system. …

See photo of the iPod Quad here.

From today’s Wall Street Journal, page D1:

… St. Luke’s Hospital, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa, institution that’s affiliated with the Iowa Health System, collaborated with IHI on a program called Ideal Transition Home for Patients with Heart Failure, working with local doctors and an affiliated home-care group to coordinate follow-up care. … the program helped the hospital cut unplanned-readmission rates in half, to 6%, as of last January.

David Dunn, a 69-year-old retired golf-course manager suffering from congestive heart failure, diabetes and kidney disease, was admitted to St. Luke’s earlier this year to have three stents placed in blocked arteries; with a history of repeated hospitalizations, he was signed up for the home transition program, which included follow-up visits by home-care nurses and special instructions to help his family monitor his condition. … [read full article here >>]

From Sunday’s [Bloomington, Illinois] Pantagraph:

… Mike and Kathleen Tupker were heading home from Champaign to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when they saw the accident. They said they were about 50 feet behind the truck when the accident occurred, and they waited to talk to police at the scene. Salt trucks were present in the area.

“We were a minute away from being hit,” Kathleen Tupker said. “We were just lucky.” … [more >>]

More details about today’s Rasmussen poll results at this page:

Survey of 1,106 Likely Dem Caucus Participants
December 10, 2007

Iowa Caucus
Hillary Clinton	29%
Barack Obama	26%
John Edwards	22%
Bill Richardson	7%
Joe Biden	5%
Other	3%

Poll has a three-percentage point margin of sampling error.