The Des Moines Register from Des Moines, Iowa • Page 5

The Dks Moixks Hkuistkk Monday, March 23, V.B2 5A Sljc Ken Jlloinw JSrgtatcr RANDY EVANS, Metro Editor, 5 15-284-8065 'Every Kid Is a Star' All ofUrbandale Middle School's 708 students participate in a community service project Page7A Mi Abuse Investigation A Des Moines school bus aide is under investigation for allegedly abusing a mentally retarded girl. Page 9A 1 And Iowa News Lingering Effects Dateline Iowa Welsh case takes its toll Senate Weather-related crash ends Brandon man's life Rowley, la. (AP) A Brandon man died west of here Saturday in a weather-related accident. Clifford Priebe, 67, was killed on a Buchanan County road, according to the Buchanan County Sheriffs Department. Priebe was driving east when William Weber, 45, of Rowley lost control of his westbound pickup, skidded and crossed the center line into the path of Priebe's pickup.

The trucks collided in the eastbound lane, killing Priebe and seriously injur ing his granddaughter, who was his passenger, and Weber, officials said. Elsewhere: Jeffrey Westemeier, 27, of Dyers- ville died Saturday night after losing control of his car and colliding with a semitrailer truck about two miles north of Luxemburg. Westemeier was driving a 1978 Pontiac south on U.S. Highway 52 about 9:15 p.m. when he collided with the truck, which was headed north and driven by Gregory Snitker, 36, of Waukon, the Iowa State Patrol said.

No other information was available. The accident remains under investigation. Elderly man dies in fire at his Northwood home The Register's Iowa News Service Northwood, la. A 79-year-old man was killed in a house fire here Sunday morning, according to a Worth County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman. Raymond Hanson was found in the living room of his home, where the fire began about 9:20 a.m.

Sunday, the spokeswoman said. The cause of the fire and the cause of Hanson's death were not known Sunday night, she said. The fire is under investigation. I fit. t- ty -'si 1 jr i bill neibergauThe Register Louise Clayton of rural Redfield.

Friedmann works under the supervision of a physician. Ed Friedmann, a physician assistant at the Redfield Medical Clinic, works with patient on the The reprimanded senator's unchastened demeanor rankles some. By THOMAS A. F0GARTY Register Staff Writer It's a line repeated often around the tradition-steeped Iowa Senate: "The Senate is family." Lately, its 50 members have struggled fitfully to come to terms with what most view as the latest family tragedy the unprecedented vote March 6 to reprimand former Senate President Joseph Welsh, D-Dubuque. In the two weeks since, the strain has been evident.

Tempers are short. Partisan sniping is virtually coastant. "There's an undercurrent. The decorum has gone downhill," said Sen. George Kinley of Des Moines, former Democratic leader and a 20-year Senate veteran.

Harsh Treatment The Senate reprimanded Welsh for his involvement with the Iowa Trust scandal and for his subsequent efforts to impede the Ethics Committee investigation. Although the vote was unanimous, Welsh has friends among Senate colleagues who say privately his treatment has been overly harsh. Also continuing to fuel tensions in the Senate these days is the unsuccessful gambit by Welsh to save himself during the committee investigation by drawing up his own complaints against six colleagues, including Kinley. The Ethics Committee eventually dismissed all the complaints filed by Welsh, calling them baseless. "I think it was blackmail," said Kinley.

"It upset a lot of people in here. It certainly upset me." By virtue of the Senate repri mand, adopted 45-0, Welsh lost his remaining positions of influence the vice-chairmanship of the Appropriations Committee and membership on the investment board of the Iowa Public Employee Retirement System. Welsh, who as Senate president was third in the line of succession to the governorship, has been attempting to adjust to legislative life without his office with the high ceiling or the reserved parking spot at the foot of the Capitol steps. Welsh's paycheck will be about $10,000 thinner this year due to his demotion, and his personal staff has been reduced to a session-only clerk. Once eagerly accessible, Welsh has stopped talking to Statehouse reporters.

He specifically declined to be interviewed for this story. Active Participant But it is apparent from his behavior since the reprimand that Welsh is not about to don sackcloth in an act of public contrition for misdeeds. Welsh participates actively in committee and floor debates, offering amendments and managing bills. A week after his reprimand, Welsh scolded Sen. Ray Taylor, R-Steamboat Rock, for obstructing progress on a bill by offering a series of amendments.

Typically, Welsh strolls the Senate chamber during floor sessions, chatting with Democratic colleagues, or slipping into the Senate Physician assistants lounge to consult with lobbyists. Welsh's unchastened demeanor rankles some, including Sen. Mark Hagerla, R-West Burlington. "If I had been through what Joe Welsh has been through, I'd be a little more humble about things," said Hagerla, who advocated Welsh's expulsion during the reprimand debate. "He's conducted himself in a manner as if nothing happened." "Business As Usual" Senate Minority Leader Jack Rife, R-Durant, who filed the ethics complaint that led to the reprimand, agrees that Welsh seems unaffected by the reprimand.

"It seems like it's business as usual," said Rife. Ethics Committee Chairwoman Jean-Lloyd Jones, D-Iowa City, said she's unconcerned that Welsh continues unbowed by the punishment recommended by her panel. "Short of putting him in a cage, -I really don't know what can be done about that," she said. Senate Majority Leader Bill Hutchins, D-Audubon, has avoided any public criticism of Welsh's activity as a handsomely paid, part-time salesman for Institutional Treasury Management the California-based investment firm for the failed Iowa Trust. Hutchins argues that Welsh is largely a victim of unscrupulous behavior of his boss, former ITM President Steven Wymer, who has been charged in federal court with' theft and fraud.

Hutchins has been harsh is his criticism of what he calls Rife's partisan motivations in filing the complaint against Welsh. He also is critical of what he considers unfair press coverage of the Welsh case. Hutchins was part of he unanimous vote to reprimand Welsh. But like other friends of Welsh's in the Senate, Hutchins says his vote was meant primarily as an endorsement of the Ethics Committee process, not as judgment on Welsh's behavior. Hutchins became irritated last week when asked to assess lingering effects of the Welsh case on the Iowa Senate.

"Why would you keep writing about Joe?" he asked. "It's not interfering with the Senate. We're just wondering how long you're going to drag this horse by the neck." Focus on Future Senate President Michael Gron-stal, D-Council Bluffs, agrees that no good comes from a continuing public discussion by lawmakers of the Welsh case. "The Senate settled the Joe Welsh battle," Gronstal said. "You can argue about the fairness, but it's over.

Let's talk about the future." Welsh, whose four-year term is half complete, will be eligible for appointment or election to legislative posts again in the 1993 session. Sen. Richard Drake, R-Musca-tine, an Ethics Committee member, said he believes the institution has weathered the Welsh case, and now the memory is fading. Lawmakers, despite some lingering ill will, should now be able to focus on the state budget and other pressing problems, Drake said: "Time cures all in politics." health-care gap of the work of a doctor First Indian casino set to open within a month Sloan, la. (AP) Iowa's first Indian casino will open within a month in temporary quarters, but operators hope you won't notice.

"Even though it's temporary, it's by no means small," said Jerry Nygaard, president of a South Dakota company formed specifically to handle gambling for the Winnebago Indians of Nebraska "It's a Las Vegas atmosphere. We want you to think you have just walked into a casino at Las Vegas. That's our goal," he said. The Winna Vegas casino is on Indian land just west of Sloan, which is about 20 miles south of Sioux City. The Indians hope their permanent casino, being built nearby, will be ready later this year.

Until then, the casino will be in three mobile units with 8,000 square feet tied together by an entry way and placed in the shape of a The top of the letter is the entrance. There will be 240 slot machines, 12 blackjack tables, two poker tables and a craps table. The casino will be open 24 hours a day and will employ about 150 people, with Indians getting a preference for hiring "if the applicants are otherwise equal," Nygaard said. It's not certain how many Indians will be employed. The casino is not particularly convenient for Indians living on a reservation just west of Missouri River.

"As the crow flies, it's only about six miles to Sloan," said tribal chairman Louis LaRose. But the nearest bridge is in Sioux City, meaning it's a 40-mile trip one way to the casino. help fill They can do 80 By TOM CARNEY Register Staff Writer Redfield, la. It's no wonder residents affectionately call him "Doctor Ed." Slim, with salt-and-pep-per hair and beard, Ed Friedmann is I Rdfl.ld I DES MOINES) 0 Mii ado as distinguished looking as the stereotype of the country doctor. Soft-spoken and polite, he enters and exits the examination rooms of his clinic here with an air of authority.

Friedmann, 46, owns and runs the clinic, but he's not a doctor. He's one of an estimated 39 physician assistants who, under the supervision of doctors, practice in small-town Iowa. If it weren't for people like Friedmann, said his supervisor, Des Moines surgeon Narong Jaras- viroj, towns like Redfield wouldn't have local health care. "They don't have a physician," said Jarasviroj. "They need someone to be out there." Prescribes Medications Much like a family practice phy sician, rnedmann examines pa tients whose maladies range from the flu to back injuries to diabetes, orders tests and prescribes medications.

He refers complicated cases to a primary-care doctor or special ist. Friedmann estimates he does about 80 percent of what a family practitioner would do. Among the few differences is that Friedmann must do it under the supervision of a licensed physician. Redfield, a town of nearly 1,000 residents a half hour west of Des Moines, is hardly the only Iowa community without a family practice physician. About 172 Iowa towns are currently recruiting them, according to the Office of Community Programs at the University of Iowa College of Medicine, which helps towns find doctors.

Net Loss Taking into account doctors who were beginning their practices or moving into the state, according to tants provide, the Iowa Legislature in recent years boosted the careers of physician assistants by passing two important laws. One was the creation of the Iowa Board of Physician Assistant Examiners in 1988; the other was a law passed last year that allows physician assistants to prescribe medicines. The authority to prescribe is what many believe will allow physician assistants to fill the gaps left by family practitioners in rural Iowa. And if some worry that that relegates rural residents to second-class medical care, it doesn't appear to be the opinion of Friedmann patients. "I don't approve of driving to Des Moines to a doctor when Ed can do as much," said Dorothy Clayton, 76, who sees Friedmann for her diabetes and a mending broken hip.

"This town has a lot of elderly people. It depends on him." Broken Wrist Added Carrol Cotten, 70, a patient who had broken his wrist in a fall: "I'm really glad he's here. For normal care, you can't beat him." Debbie Light, who works at a bank down the street from his clinic, said Friedmann is great with her children. "He always has time," she said. Friedmann, who rents the clinic building from the osteopathic school in Des Moines, downplays his ownership of the practice.

He took it over by default, he said, when the college gave it up a few years ago. In the delivery of medical care, he said, he works under the supervision of its medical director, Jarasviroj. "Extraordinary" Jarasviroj, who reviews Friedmann's patient charts three times a week, believes Friedmann is "extraordinary" in competence and willingness to serve his patients. He sees the arrangement as a benefit for towns such as Redfield, despite the responsibility a physician takes in supervising physician assistants at remote sites. "As a supervisor," he said, "you have to trust physician assistants, once you're sure they're qualified and know what they're doing.

Your license is on the line." a paper by a state public policy group, Iowa had a net loss of 68 family practitioners from 1987 through 1990. That's why Susan Bredman, a Waterloo physician assistant and president of the Iowa Physician Assistant Society, believes more and more rural clinics and satellite offices will be run by physician assistants. David Asprey, assistant director of the physician assistant program at the University of Iowa, said there were only a couple of situations in the state where a physician assistant owned a clinic, as in Friedmann's case. "And in those situations, it works out great," he said. Military Medics Physician assistants made their debut in American health care in the mid 1960s when, because of the shortage of family practice physicians, Duke University in Durham, N.C., started a program The of I and the University off Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines turn out about 35 physician assistants annually.

that drew many former military medics. Similar programs at medical schools across the country multiplied rapidly. There are now 55 such programs, said Asprey, graduating about 1,300 physician assistants each year. Together, the of I and the University of Osteopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Des Moines turn out about 35 physician assistants annually. Currently, about 185 physician assistants work in Iowa.

The demand for graduates is "unbelievable," said Asprey, with nearly eight jobs available for each graduate. Two Laws Recognizing the need for the primary medical care physician assis of I law school again named one of top 25 The Renter's Iowa Newsservice Iowa City, la. For the second consecutive year, the University of Iowa College of Law was named one of the nation's top 25 law schools and one of the top 1 0 public law schools by U.S. News World Report magazine. Each year the magazine rates graduate schools in law, medicine, business, engineering and liberal arts.

The University of Iowa College of Law is rated 25th of the 175 schools accredited by the American Bar Association. The rankings, which appear in today's issue of the magazine, rated all 175 schools according to academic quality. "The people who are most knowledgeable about today's law schools rated Iowa among the top schools in the country," said N. William Hines, dean of the college. The University of Iowa also is one of the best bargains in law education.

Only one of the top 25 schools the University of Texas has lower nonresident tuition than the of I. Yale University was named the best law school in the nation. The University of Michigan was the top-rated public school, placing sixth overall. 1 1.. iV RIB NANPUT HE RR.LM IT.

Sn. Joseph Welsh, D-Dubuque, catches up on some reading during a quiet moment on the Iowa Senate floor. i.