It started when J.D. and I first partnered together in 2003, as we sometimes found it difficult because of busy schedules in the office to connect in a way that allowed us to be intentional about managing and growing our firm. We decided to schedule some time away from the office so we could devote more time and focus to the things that mattered. Typically we have golfed, biked, or attended a sporting event together – Denver Broncos games, and more recently, a Toronto Raptors game (head coach Nick Nurse is a friend who has been on previous trips to Colorado with us).

As this retreat approached, we talked about wanting to be more active and do more things outside together, since the weather in Colorado is so nice this time of year. I suggested a week before our trip that I have been wanting to hike a 14’er – one of the 58 mountains in Colorado whose elevation tops 14,000 feet – and J.D. ran with it, finding a mountain called Gray’s Peak that would offer a nice challenge. It was very cold in the morning, requiring many layers, pants, gloves, and hats, but as we as the day wore on and the sun hit us, we eventually were in short sleeves and shorts. The climb was made more difficult because it had snowed significantly five days earlier, and there was a lot of snow and ice that remained on the trail. Walking sticks, which we fashioned from a tree that had fallen, were a must. We made it through, though, enjoying about an hour at the top to simply take in the sights, snap a few pictures, and have a snack, following the three-hour ascent. It took about the same amount of time to come down.

This trip was also fun because we were additionally able to meet up that night with J.D.’s son, who lives and works in Arveda, Colorado, a western suburb of Denver. We also got up close and personal with a momma moose and her baby while on the bike trail in Steamboat Springs. She was very protective!

We were both a little tired that evening, and had a few sore muscles, but there were no major injuries. We both felt a great sense of accomplishment, and felt a little fresh perspective about our place in the world, and ability and desire to make it better through our work.

“It has been a long-held principle in election law that candidates should provide eligible electors with enough information to make an informed decision whether to sign a nominating petition,” Schroeder said. “That information should begin with whether the candidate is a member of a political party.”

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A school district in western Iowa has agreed to pay $4.8 million to the family of a 16-year-old girl who died when she could not escape a school bus fire. READ MORE.

Lundin’s suit is part of a larger strategy to create policy changes that would regulate and included non-state daycares and hold them to appropriate standards, so that what happened to her children won’t happen again.

Read more from the Des Moines Register HERE.

OAKLAND, Iowa — Call it foreshadowing or a premonition, 16-year-old Megan Klindt seemed to know she wasn’t safe on her school bus.

“She went to the principal’s office and complained about Donnie’s driving,” says her mother, Natalie Klindt. “She didn’t feels safe. She told me this.”

Megan Klindt died on that Riverside Community School District bus on December 12, 2017. So did the driver of the bus, Donnie Hendricks. The bus caught fire after Hendricks backed into a ditch across the road from the Klindt’s home.

Megan’s parents say she was everything they could want in a child. “She’d surprise us in so many ways,” says Natalie Klindt. “We’d get up in the morning and maybe she’d started breakfast.” “She loved being outdoors,” remembers Glen Klindt. “If you were having a bad day, she made sure she was making you smile before long.”

The Klindts chose her, fostering her at the age of seven and then adopting her seven years. later. “She was just one of us,” says Glen.

She is still a part of them, even though she was taken from them.

Natalie will never forget the call she received from the Riverside Community School District’s bus barn on December 12th. One of the workers told her Hendricks had called the bus barn to report a fire on the bus about 10 minutes after Megan boarded.

“He said would you just go out and look – see if you can see anything. So I took the phone out and I see the bus right in the driveway on fire,” says Natalie. “And I see the bus driver hanging out the window. And I said, ‘Where’s my daughter? Just throw her out the window. I’ll catch her.’ He said I can’t get out. How am I going to help get her out?”

Glen, a truck driver, was more than two hours away from home when he got a frantic call from his wife.

“I remember screaming back ‘Get her off.’ Then the phone went dead. Then a little bit later she called me again and told me Megan was gone. I just wish I could have been here. Somehow, I’d gotten into that bus. Maybe I’d been layin’ in there with them. But that’s what dad’s do. They do what they gotta do to save their children.”

Many wonder why Megan and Donnie couldn’t save themselves. “We did wonder,” says Bobbie Finley. “We still wonder.”

Finley is the Transportation Coordinator of the I-35 School District. She oversees 10 of Iowa’s 6,800 school bus drivers. The Riverside accident hit them hard.

“It’s tough when you’re in this line of work. These are the world’s most precious cargo. So, it kind of hits home.”

School districts are required to conduct school bus evacuation drills with their students twice a year. Finley ordered additional drills after the Riverside accident. “We’re gonna make sure every kid in our district knows how to open the windows, roof hatches, knows how to open the doors, front and back.”

We asked the Riverside School District for records, documenting their evacuation drills, but the District told us it doesn’t have them. That’s because state law doesn’t require documentation that the drills are completed.

Max Christensen, the Director of Transportation for the Iowa Department of Education, says that will soon change. “One of the things we have decided is that we’re going to ask school district to acknowledge to us that they are doing these twice a year. That will become part of our annual transportation report.”

Christensen says the State hopes to learn from the tragedy. So do safety officials on the national level. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the fire started in the engine compartment and spread to the rest of the bus, which had been the subject of three recalls, all of which investigators confirmed had been performed. We also know the bus received one of its two annual inspections six days prior to the fire. The most serious violations: Nonfunctional outside warning lights and an inoperable warning signal of the rear emergency exit. The bus was taken out of service until the necessary repairs were made and placed back on the road the same day.

Christensen says the inspection doesn’t raise any red flags. “It’s actually a fairly typical inspection.”

He adds that school bus fires are not that unusual. There is about one every day in the United States. “But deaths related to school bus fires are very unusual,” says Christensen.

The Klindts don’t believe the bus is to blame for their daughter’s death. They blame the bus driver, Donnie Hendricks.

“At the supper table, she said, ‘Donnie is gonna kill me yet,'” says Glen.

Natalie says Megan also told them about accidents while Hendricks was behind the wheel. “She told us how he’d backed into an electrical pole and parents had taken their children off the bus.”

The Klindts also blame the school district for allowing him to remain behind the wheel. They believe he was physically unfit to be a school bus driver. “We had seen Donnie with a walker,” says Natalie. He had already had back surgery before and he was getting another one.”

In Iowa, school bus drivers must be examined by a doctor every other year. Hendricks received his driver’s authorization from the Department of Education in August of last year, four months before the accident. It was scheduled to expire in August of 2018.

“Keep in mind that any doctor that is worried about a driver in Iowa, they can make them come in every year. The can make the come in every six months,” says Chris Darling, the Executive Director of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association.

He also points out that a superintendent or transportation director can also pull drivers off duty at any time.

“We watch each other like hawks,” says Darling. “And you can’t find better people than school bus drivers… school bus drivers need to manage 20 to 40 kids every day while they’re trying to focus on driving, focus on distracted drivers and the people that illegally run stop bars. I mean there is so much going on out there that a driver has to keep track of it’s amazing what they do and how successful they are at it.”

The Klindts say they understand, but they believe the standards should be even higher.

“I really think a bus driver ought to be held accountable, be able to drive the child and carry them off the bus,” says Glen Klindt. “A bus driver should be able to do that. I don’t think that’s asking too much.”

But there are no lifting requirements or age limits for school bus drivers. The average ages of a school bus driver in Iowa is a little more than 59-years-old, up from 58-years-old five years ago. Darling says there’s a reason for that. The pay, about $15 to $20 an hour, isn’t great and benefits are scarce.

“We need to get them health care. Right now your best bet is somebody who’s retired or has their own business because they have a flexible schedule.

The Klindts say increased wages would be a small price to pay to guarantee the safety of our State’s “most precious cargo.” “If we need to start paying our bus drivers more money then let’s do it,” says Glen. “I don’t want to ever read through anything like this ever again.”

The Klindts chose Megan, but Glen says he would not choose this for any other parent.

“Because if you haven’t been through it, I tell you what, it’s one of the worst things you can ever go through. And to have to walk outside your own door an see her cross where she gave her life… I don’t wish that on nobody.”

The family of Donnie Hendricks declined to comment on this story. The Riverside Community School District declined to answer our questions, but Superintendent, Tim Mitchell, did issue this statement: “The Riverside Community School District appreciates your invitation to participate in an interview regarding the school bus accident that occurred on December 12. However, we respectfully decline your request at this time. Please know that we think of Megan Klindt and Donnie Hendricks every day, and we are steadfast in our commitment to ensuring the safety of all students and staff.”

Most notably, Brad’s expertise in class action lawsuits was recognized in 2015, when the team he led won a $40 million verdict in the largest class action lawsuit ever levied against an Iowa municipality — a case that survived three appeals to the Iowa Supreme Court and a writ for certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Super Lawyer designation is a select listing of attorneys that serves as a resource for attorneys and consumers searching for legal counsel. The multiphase selection process involved peer nominations, evaluations, records of personal achievement and independent research. As a Super Lawyer, Brad is considered to be among the top 5% of attorneys in the state. Brad’s other recent honors include his selection as one of America’s Top 100 Attorneys.

An investigation into the accident is ongoing.

“We will share more information as our investigation moves forward, in the hope that no other family ever has to know the pain of losing a child in such a senseless and preventable tragedy,” said Brad Schroeder, counsel for the Klindts.

Brad’s selection to America’s Top 100 Attorneys was by invitation of the prestigious group. The Lifetime Achievement honor recognizes a lifetime of hard work, ethical standards, and community-enriching accomplishments and is only issued once in a lifetime. Less than one-half percent (0.5%) of active attorneys in the United States receive this honor. In addition to this honor, Brad recently was named a 2017 Great Plains Super Lawyer.

“Brad is a highly successful attorney who brings extreme devotion to his alma mater and tremendous talent to the Board of Trustees,” said BVU President Fred Moore. “Brad has served our President’s Advisory Council with distinction, and we know he will bring the same sage advice to the Board.”

Schroeder is a 1994 BVU graduate with a degree in English. He went on to attend law school at the University of Iowa, earning his Juris Doctorate in 1997. In 2003, he and J.D. Hartung established Hartung Schroeder, LLP.

“To be in a position to serve the institution that did so much for me is an honor I could neither imagine nor appreciate as a BVU student many years ago,” said Schroeder. “I thoroughly enjoyed my experience, and I’m thrilled to have the chance to help secure and enhance that opportunity for future generations of BVU students.”

The suit stems from an incident in which a security guard, whose firm is contracted by Water Works, allegedly fired three rounds from a 9mm handgun into Richardson’s 2013 Jeep Wrangler in an attempt to stop Richardson as he was leaving the park after hours.

Learn more at the Des Moines Register (click HERE).