The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 9

ft Question: Iowa Ouz LiYiG Here I I "Facts on Des Moines and Suburbs What crop's 1997 harvest of4SS mil- I ion bushels in Iowa was a record? I March 27: Edward D. Ahlf of Cedar Falls I won the drawing among people correctly i answering the question, "Where in Iowa can 1 you find the Fred Schwengel Memorial i Bridge?" The answer: Named for the i former congressman, it's the Interstate I Highway 80 bridge crossing the Mississippi I near Le Claire. i RANDY EVANS, Assistant Managing Editor, 515-284-8065 l)c Des ittoincs Jicgislcr FRIDAY April 1W8 1TJL ST Nurses take over in hepatitis battle Rob Borsellino talks with Gina Johnson, a Polk County public health nurse, who doled out shots Thursday. Page 2M 'We're going to cut taxes for a fourth year in a row7 The House to ready to approve a proposed assortment of tax cuts totaling about $86 million. Page 3M I IOWA QUIZ appears here daily.

Mail your answer on a I postcard with your name and address to: Iowa Quiz. P.O. Box 957. Des Moines, la. 50304.

Or send your I answer to mmillsdmreg.com. Today's answer will be published a week from today. Jj In 1988, a branch of the Urbandale public library opened in Johnston. Johnston became an independent library in 1992. it I Iowans' SSI appeals succeed But many By SHIRLEY SALEMY Rkcistkk Staff W'kitkr August," said Mary Miller of Des Moines, who learned about a week ago that her 9-year-old son's benefits will be restored.

But federal officials caution that the number of appeals is expected to increase substantially. It is too early to discern a clear trend from the reversal rate, they argue, because some of the clearest-cut reversals may have been determined first. The agency also said the reversals do not all indicate mistakes made during the SSI Turn to Vase 8M SSI cuts 76.8 percent of Iowa children who have been reviewed by the Social Security Administration are no longer eligible for Supplemental Security Income. That is the sixth-highest denial rate in the country. SOURCE: Social Security Administration DES MOINES Note: latest reviewed through Jan.

31, the most recent figures available and the sixth-highest initial termination rate in the country. Hundreds of Iowa families, however, have been given a second chance to appeal because Social Security officials found that some families did not receive full information about appeals and didn't understand their rights. So far, 96 of 163 Iowa appeals have ended with benefits restored, according to the federal agency's records. "They kept me on pins and needles since lowl'V 68.6 76,8 I ignres are lite available. I V.

tW- gy'UKTI Disability benefits for poor Iowa children have been terminated under tougher eligibility standards at one of the highest rates in the country: With initial reviews completed for the bulk of the state's cases, the Social Security Administration has determined that 1,271 Iowa children are no longer eligible for Supplemental Security Income. That is 76.8 percent of the Iowa children Alternative Housing DM. police fear missing woman may be dead 1 1 1 it S-v Boyfriend arrested in beating By SHUVA RAKIM Kkustf.r Staff Wkitkr Last fall, Bonnie Everetts watched as her boyfriend was sentenced to life in prison for beating to death her 3-year-old. After the girl's death in March 1996, Everetts moved from Hartley to Spirit Lake, found a new boyfriend, and had another child. Now the second man, Korey Lyn Klaasen, 29, of Spirit Lake, has been arrested for child en-dangerment.

And 4-month-old Kyler Klaasen is in a Sioux Falls, S.D., hospital with severe head injuries. Spirit Lake Police Chief Don Thomsen said Everetts, 30, was at work when the 911 call came in at 4 p.m. March 20. Klaasen was arrested March 26 and is being held at the Dickinson County Jail on a $10,000 bond. Last September, Everetts' ex-boyfriend, Matthew Earl Bourgoyne, 39, of Hartley, was convicted in O'Brien County District Court of first-degree murder in the beating of Ciara Dawn Everetts, 3.

Bonnie Everetts also was working during the time of that incident, officials said. Autopsy results concluded that Ciara Everetts died of head trauma after a series of heavy blows. Bourgoyne had been convicted of sexually abusing minors. He served eight months of a two-year sentence for indecent contact with a child before being paroled. Bourgoyne moved in with Bonnie Everetts, who also has three other children, the day he was released from prison.

Thomsen said Thursday that Korey Klaasen has no previous criminal record. Reporter Shuva Rahim can be reached at (515) 699-7043 or rahimsnews.dmreg.com MAKY KI.I.KN KKI.I.KY Tilt. KhiilSTKR Ricketts shortly before she left on a Christmas shopping trip Dec. 22. "She'd bought a dress for New Year's Eve," he said.

"She'd bought Christmas presents for the kids. That's why I don't think she took off. I think she left against her will." Des Moines Det. Dennis O'Donnell said police need help filling in the blanks in the investigation. But here's what is known: The 120-pound Ricketts, who is 5 feet 8 inches tall and has blonde, shoulder-length hair and blue eyes, left her residence on the morning of Dec.

22 in her gold 199-1 Geo Prizm. At 2:10 p.m., a fire broke out in a bedroom at the duplex where she was staying, causing some $7,500. Firefighters listed the cause as unknown. The next day, friends caring for Ricketts' children reported her missing. At 6 p.m.

on Dec. 21 all three television stations aired a story of her disappearance and the newspaper followed with an article on Christmas Day. But Des Moines police said that about 7:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Beth Ann Ricketts' boyfriend, William Halterman, told officers that Ricketts had contacted him via cellular telephone and she didn't want to be found and added that she was with friends. Halterman could not be reached for comment on Thursday.

Police said he had declined to talk to them and had hired an attorney. Despite getting a report that Ricketts was alive, police reopened the missing persons case on Jan. 7, Police Lt. Randy Dawson said. Bouquet I i 'A itis fells 3 more at school Many students stay home as D.M.

officials search for the source of the outbreak. By SHIRLEY SALEMY IUustkr Staff Writhi Des Moines parents remained wary Thursday of the hepatitis A outbreak at Park Avenue Elementary School, as nearly one-quarter of students stayed away from class and county officials confirmed three new cases. The new cases brought the total sick at Park Avenue to 39 students and two staff members. Meanwhile Thursday, county officials administered 555 vaccines at the school amid youngsters' tears of fear and butterflies of anxiety. "I think we've been safe so far with the hand-washing.

We enforce that, don't we?" Pat Drottz, 33, asked his first-grade stepson, Tyler Neilsen. Tyler, 6, nodded yes. Like many other children in the school, Tyler has been absent. "We figured with my wife being in the food services, we should keep him home and get the shots," Drottz said. Lots of Absences Absences at the red-brick school on Des Moines' south side have run as high as 200 students, the number absent on Monday, said Principal Gene Stephany.

Enrollment is 565, and typically 25 children are absent each day, up to about 50 during flu season. But Stephany said he expected the high absences will abate. "Every day there have been more children coming back," he said. Des Moines Superintendent Qary Wegenke said the district will add hepatitis A to its list of health conditions for which parents are immediately notified. The list already includes head lice and chicken pox.

Wegenke called a report of "schools being without soap "false." Yet he said it is "quite 'possible" that soap dispensers 1 may have been out of soap. The district also is eneour- aging schools to stop distribution of home-iiatle food. District officials will re-evaluate the measure in ihelfall. Looking for Source Investigators have examined the' health and attendance records of food-service workers, he said, and have not found any patterns of excessive absences or "anything unusual," he said. Investigators also are beginning to follow the food trail, examining outside vendors who supply food to the school, said Polk County spokesman Phil Roeder.

the request of county officials, the Iowa Department of Public Health is now involved in the investigation. The state agency has been flooded with calls from concerned parents, and officials there plan to discuss the issue publicly today, So far, officials said, they do not need the on-site help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate what appears to be a food-borne outbreak in the school. "Right now, I'm not convinced we need their technical assistance," said Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, the state epidemiologist. Roeder said the vaccines administered Thursday at the school, plus a subsequent booster shot in October, will Icost $25,000 to $30,000.

The bounty will pick up the tab. 'Reporter Shirley Salemy can be reached at salemysnews. dmreg.com or (515)284-8131. Hepat 'I think she may have been says one officer. By TOM ALEX KrcisriR St.mi Wkitir Just before Christmas, friends reported Des Moines resident Beth Ann Ricketts missing.

A day later, her boyfriend called police to say that the 31-year-old Ricketts wasn't missing after all. This week, however, police questioned whether she had ever been "found" and said they believe she "quite possibly may be dead." Deepening the 3-month-old mystery for detectives is a fire that broke out and heavily damaged a bedroom in Ricketts' residence at 1000 Dubuque Ave. on the same day that friends say she disappeared. Ricketts has not spoken with friends and relatives nor tried to contact a son, 3, or daughter, 10, since December, police said Thursday. "I think she has been murdered," Assistant Des Moines Police Chief Kayne Robinson said.

"But I would love to be proven wrong." Paul Christian said he and wife Regina are close friends of Ricketts. "Personally, I think she is dead," Christian said Thursday. "I don't know how or anything. I just think that because she never got far away from her kids. If she was still alive, she would be with them.

It's been way too long." Christian, of Prairie City, said he and his wife saw DAVID I'KTKKSONTin. Km.imkr Jacklyn Maher, 5, checks out a neon birdhouse at an exhibit and silent auction of birdhouses, bird feeders, birdbaths and sculptures held at the Des Moines Civic Center Thursday. The event, which began Wednesday and ends Saturday, benefits Orchard Place-Child Guidance Center with funds used to provide program scholarships for children with emotional problems. Now That's a Birthday a ti it Scott prosecutor says he'll charge baby's Idler '( I vff vh I -Li 'V" A. -K.

r-- i prove that child took a full breath into her lungs and had blood circulation independent of her mother," he said. Davis said state officials mistakenly destroyed all of the biological evidence gathered by Bennett, including tissue samples and slides with tissue on them. If he had that evidence, Davis said, he could submit it to another forensic pathologist and get a second opinion, which he could use in court to support Bennett's conclusion. But the lack of that evidence is not an insurmountable impediment, said Davis. "I am very confident that I can prove a case," he said.

By CHARLES BULLARD Tut Km. isti City lino Despite the improper destruction of key autopsy evidence by the stale, Scott County Attorney Bill Davis said Thursday that he still will be able to charge and prosecute the killer of a newborn girl whose body was found last April in Le Claire. "I'm confident that we will be making an arrest, and we will proceed with charges," Davis said in an interview. The parents of the unnamed newborn, who have never been identified publicly, are suspects, he said. Davis declined to disclose their names.

"I don't intend to identify them unless I bring an arrest warrant," lie said. The Scott County homicide is one of nine cases in which all the biological evidence was mistakenly destroyed and one of 35 in which at least some autopsy evidence was destroyed. Davis said the destruction of autopsy evidence at the state crime laboratory in Des Moines makes his job more difficult but not impossible. Even though autopsy evidence was destroyed, Dr. Thomas Bennett, former state medical examiner, still can testify in court about his ings, Davis said.

Bennett, who performed the autopsy on the newborn, concluded she died of exposure and denial of critical care at birth. The defining legal issue, said Davis, is whether the baby breathed on her own or whether she was stillborn. "Under Iowa law, I have to a 0 Is S-' i mr it fiiinrni- -to -m it ii Asmn.I.MH) l'HKs For the past 13 years, Don Grcll has given Pearl Madson roses for her birthday one rose for each year she has lived. On Wednesday, Grcll sent Madson 103 roses. "Every year she scolds me for spending too much money on her," he says.

The two, both from Fort Dodge, have been friends since Grell was a child. Reporter Charles Bullard can be reached at bullardc8news dmreg.com or (319) 351-6527..