(Radio Iowa) – The director of the Iowa D-O-T gave the state Transportation Commission an update on flood recovery efforts during their meeting Tuesday. Director Scott Marler says one of the big jobs was helping haul debris away. He says Spencer for example had five-thousand homes damaged by the flooding and needed to have the material pulled out of those homes hauled away. The D-O-T brought in its large dump trucks and other equipment to help move the Spencer material to a dump site. “In total we hauled over 28-hundred loads of removed material to this location,” he says.

Marler says the floodwater kept people away for some courthouses, so they couldn’t renew driver’s licenses. “We actually mobilized some of our remote issuance kits, and our staff in one example, went up to Clay County and they started issuing replacement licenses in Clay County with our forces temporarily operating in the Sheriff’s Department to issue those licenses,” Marler says.

Marler says they also help out with inspected flooded buildings.”Some of our engineering staff had gotten a brief training with the Department of Inspections and Appeals. We actually were able to assist them in evaluating structures,” Marler says. “We sent five of our staff up to do that over the Fourth of July holiday.”  They also worked on getting flooded roadways back open. D-O-T Chief Engineer Tony Gustafson says at the height of the flooding there were 49 highway closures. Some highways had multiple closings. “Rapid fire rundown here, Iowa 3, Iowa 4, Iowa 9, Iowa 10, Iowa 12, Iowa 15. U-S 18, U-S 20, Iowa 31, U-S 59, Iowa 60, U-S 71, U-S 75, and U-S 169, as well as Interstates 29 and 680 north of Council Bluffs,” he says.

Gustafson says there were three highways still closed as of Tuesday. They include U-S 18 west of Spencer. “Iowa 4 south of Emmetsburg, that is still under water. That bridge there at the Des Moines River. The Des Moines River is not going down as quickly as the the Little Sioux is,” he says. “We still don’t know what the damage is there on Iowa 4 south of Emmetsburg. And then they are working on U-S 75 south of Rock Rapids.”

He says they are still working on a culvert that was blown out on U-S 75.

(Radio Iowa) – The mother of the Algona man accused of shooting a policeman to death last year has testified at her son’s murder trial. Video from Algona Officer Kevin Cram’s police camera was played in the courtroom, showing the shooting happened just minutes after Cram arrived to arrest Kyle Ricke for a misdemeanor. The shooting happened at Irene Ricke’s house and the prosecutor asked her questions about the incident. “Was Officer Cram ever rude to your son?” the prosecutor asked. Irene Ricke replied: “Not at all and they were joking back and forth. Everything was fine. That’s why I know he snapped because that’s not in his character to do something like this.”

Dickinson County jurors also heard the interaction between Cram and Ricke from the officer’s body camera. It was only about 100 seconds before Ricke shot and killed Cram as he tried to serve the warrant.

Ricke left to put away a skid loader he was using to clear a trail. He returned from the garage with a gun, firing eight shots, hitting Cram three times in the head. The prosecution says after firing on Cram, Ricke tried to shoot himself, but there were no bullets left in the gun. Ricke fled to his sister’s home in Minnesota, where he was taken into custody four hours later.

His sister also took the stand, saying her brother admitted he did a “terrible thing” and he wanted to end his life. Algona Assistant Police Chief Mark Bacha testified that he was worried when Officer Cram did not signal dispatch or tell other officers the warrant had been served.

The trial was moved from Kossuth County to Dickinson County due to concerns about finding an impartial jury.

(Contributed by Sheila Brummer, Iowa Public Radio)

DES MOINES, Iowa [WHO-TV] — Drake University filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court on Monday against Des Moines Area Community College. WHO-TV in Des Moines reports, in the lawsuit Drake claims DMACC’s recent rebrand contains signature elements that have been a part of Drake’s brand identity for decades. DMACC’s rebrand includes a standalone ‘D’ in block-style lettering as part of their new logo, which Drake claims in the lawsuit looks similar to its standalone vintage-style ‘D’ logo that the university has used since at least 1902.

As part of the rebrand DMACC also changed its color scheme from navy blue and red orange to lighter blues and white. The lawsuit claims the new color scheme closely resembles Drake’s color scheme.

According to the lawsuit, officials at Drake contacted officials with DMACC to address concerns over the similarities and attempted to find a resolution. Drake claims in the lawsuit that in March DMACC assured the university that the college would only use the logo where the acronym ‘DMACC’ was under the standalone ‘D’. The lawsuit claims that when that email exchange occurred DMACC had already been selling merchandise with the standalone ‘D’ logo.

The lawsuit also claims that the similarity in the two logos and color schemes adds unnecessary confusion for future students and others. Drake is asking for the Court to deem DMACC’s rebrand an infringement on Drake’s trademarks and for an order directing DMACC to cease using the logo and other aspects of their rebrand that resembles Drake’s. The university is also asking for monetary relief and a jury trial.

DMACC released the following statement about the suit:

We’re disappointed that Drake University has chosen to protest DMACC’s new logo — the DMACC & D. Drake University has been a great partner throughout the years, including strong transfer options for our students. Both names for our outstanding institutions have always started with the letter D — you can’t say DMACC without it, and we both have always had blue as our primary color. Drake University simply does not own the letter D. In fact, multiple universities use the letter D in their branding and many own federal trademark registrations for the same. Our hope is that we can quickly resolve this issue amicably with a minimum of legal expense and move forward with our joint mission of providing students with a high-quality education.

(Greenfield, Iowa) – Adair County Auditor Mandy Berg has released the unofficial results of Special School elections held in the County, Tuesday, July 9th. In the West Central Valley (WCV) Community School District (CSD), Dustin Foster received 20 votes to fill a vacancy in Director District 6. Laura Weber garnered 10 votes. In Director District 7, Jeff Dudley won 29 votes in Adair County to fill a vacancy. There were two write-in votes, but no other declared candidates.

WCV CSD voters in Dallas and Guthrie Counties also elected Dustin Foster and Jeff Dudley to their respective seats in District 6 and 7.

In Dallas County, unofficial results show Foster with 13 votes, and Weber with 2. In Guthrie County, Foster received 73 votes, and Weber 33. Dudley – who as mentioned was unopposed – received 16 votes in Dallas County, and 103 votes in Guthrie County.

Adair County votes

Dallas County votes

Guthrie County votes

(Statewide News) – Three separate crashes Tuesday in Iowa claimed four lives. According to the Iowa State Patrol, one person died during a collision northeast of Carroll, between a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck Tuesday afternoon, in Carroll County. A 2014 International truck driven by 63-year-old Michael O’Keefe, of Kingsley, was traveling north on Noble Avenue at around  1:50-p.m., at the same time a 2019 Chevy Silverado pickup driven by 65-year-old Ronald Eischeid, of Carroll, was traveling east on 150th Street. When the International truck failed to stop at the posted intersection, it was struck by the pickup on the driver’s side trailer portion of the vehicle. Ronald Eischeid died at the scene. Michael O’Keefe was not injured.

An accident in eastern Iowa, near Blessing, Tuesday afternoon, resulted in the death of a person from Mondamin. The State Patrol says a Chevy pickup was traveling east on Tama Road at around 3:50-p.m., when the 20-year-old driver from Cedar Falls stopped at Highway 63, but then failed to yield to a southbound Kenworth tractor-trailer. The semi struck the pickup on the left front side, causing the semi to go out of control before it tipped-over and entered the west ditch.  The 37-year-old driver of the semi died from their injuries. No names were released.

And, at around 7:30-a.m. Tuesday, two-people died in a crash in eastern Iowa’s Wayne County. The State Patrol says 84-year-old Larry Gene McDaniel and 70-year-old Linda Darlene McDaniel, both of Exline, died, when a pickup driven by 19-year-old Adrian Cooper Boggs, of Humeston, crossed the center line of Highway 2 as it was traveling eastbound and rounding a curve. The pickup and a westbound Toyota Camry driven by Larry McDaniel collided head-on. Larry and Linda McDaniel died at the scene. Their bodies have been taken to the State Medical Examiner for autopsies. Boggs was flown by medical helicopter to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines for treatment of his injuries. All of the accident victims were wearing their seat belts. The crash remains under investigation.