EARLY, Iowa (AP) — A court is refusing a new trial for an Iowa man convicted of killing his mother and kidnapping a woman. The Iowa Court of Appeals said Wednesday that Kirk Levin’s statement about wanting a lawyer wasn’t enough to force officers to stop their interrogation. Levin’s serving life in the 2013 choking and stabbing death of his mother, Marilyn Schmitt, at her Early farmhouse.

After the slaying, Levin lured a 21-year-old woman to a barn on the property, tied her up and drove off. She escaped when Levin’s car skidded into a ditch. The crimes came just hours after Levin was released from prison.

Levin waived his Miranda rights, but later told made a statement about wanting a lawyer. The court says the vague statement wasn’t “an unambiguous request for counsel.”

Some Iowa high schools offer only Spanish, German or French as foreign language courses, but in recent years, other options are beginning to make a stronghold in the curricula. Dan Carolin teaches Japanese and is co-chair of World Languages at Cedar Rapids Kennedy High School. Carolin is among seven teachers in Iowa high schools who exclusively teach Japanese. “It’s important for students to really learn about any foreign culture they have an interest in,” Carolin says. “That’s what I think is terrific about having the program here. We’re not limited to European languages as many schools are, that our students do have other options to explore.”

Some 25 years ago, there was a renewed interest in Japanese language thanks to the island nation’s growth as an economic power, but Carolin says that’s shifted in this age of the Internet. “These days it’s really sort of more Japanese pop culture which is very often driving an interest in the study of Japanese,” Carolin says. “Video games, anime, manga, Japanese pop music are very often some of the interests my students have and what motivates them to study Japanese.” While Japanese is also offered at high schools in Des Moines and Davenport, he say the Cedar Rapids school district is very dedicated to offering a host of foreign language options.

“Kennedy has Spanish, French, German, Japanese and Chinese,” Carolin says. “I’ve been here for 11 years and I have a steady stream of students and that’s true at the other schools as well. Both Jefferson and Washington have full-time Japanese programs. Washington also has Arabic and Russian programs as well.” Carolin is a New York native who got hooked on the Asian culture in the late 1980s after taking a job as teacher of English in Japan.

(Radio Iowa)

Atlantic Police Chief Steve Green has provided an update on the annual “Shop with a Cop” and “Family Dream Christmas” programs that took place recently. Green says on Sunday December 21st, officials with the Atlantic Police Department held their annual “Shop with a Cop” program at the Atlantic Wal-Mart. This year the APD decided to try and bring more children shopping than ever before. In total 34 children from around Cass County went shopping with A-PD officers.

All photo’s from the Atlantic Police Dept.’s Facebook page.

Green says knowing that it would take more manpower than originally planned, they “called for backup,” from the Cass County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa State Patrol. The APD, APD Reserves, CCSO, and ISP representatives arrived around 1:00 PM in full uniform to be matched up with children. Once everyone was paired up, the children were taken shopping through the store and allowed to pick out many of the items they were in need of such as shoes, clothes, coats, boots, and snow pants. The children were also allowed to pick out a few toys that they wanted.

A resident in Creston reported to Police on Monday that someone had broken into his some and taken several antiques. According to Creston Police, Mike Burton told authorities the incident at his residence at 504 S. Mulberry Street happened sometime between 3-p.m. Sunday and 2-p.m., Monday.

Burton said he was missing several antique lamps, oil lamps, a Bunn coffee pot and two jars of antique buttons, along with a box of antique knickknacks. The loss was estimated at $500.

(7-a.m. News)

Iowa State University’s president says enrollment at the Ames school has been growing at a “record pace” and that’s why he’s on a hiring spree. Last year, I-S-U president Steven Leath approved hiring 105 new faculty members. “We’re going to do 130 this year,” Leath says. “I think we’re the only university in the country that’s hiring that many faculty in the two-year period.”

According to the American Institutes for Research. Iowa State is the only university in the country to have reduced administrative costs while increasing the number of faculty hired over the past eight years. That trend started with former I-S-U president Gregory Geoffrey and continued with Leath when he took over as I-S-U’s president nearly three years ago.

“This is really about making sure we can teach the students,” Leath says. “And it’s also about doing research in some critical areas and so these are very targeted recruitments.” Nearly 70 percent of all I-S-U classes have fewer than 20 students and to accommodate both record enrollment and more faculty, Leath ordered some administrative offices that had been on the central campus to move off campus.

(Radio Iowa)