(Radio Iowa) — An eastern Iowa state trooper is glad he’s kept a little used piece of equipment ready to go after it was needed to save the life of a rider on RAGBRAI, Wednesday. Trooper Bob Conrad told K-C-R-G- T-V he was doing traffic control when riders told him they saw someone who was struggling. “Myself and another trooper responded to that area. As I was just climbing into the car I heard someone saying ‘they are doing C-P-R,” Conrad says. Conrad pulled out his portable defibrillator (AED) that he always carries with him. “Started doing the shock with the A-E-D. Gave him one shock, continued on with C-P-R and then it advised for another shock,” according to Conrad.

Trooper Bob Conrad (Photo courtesy KCRG via Radio IA)

The man’s heart started beating again after the second shock and trooper Conrad says he was taken to the hospital. Conrad told K-C-R-G T-V that he ordered a special batter for the device last month. He says he wanted it to be fresh and ready to go. “I have that in my car for years and not had a need for it,” Conrad says.

Conrad said it’s great to be able to save a life rather than tell a family member someone has lost theirs. The rider has been identified as 62-year-old Greg Abbey from Washington state. He is currently hospitalized in serious condition.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. (AP) — An Iowa man police say came to Rhode Island with a backpack full of burglary tools to visit singer Taylor Swift has been held without bail pending a competency hearing. 32-year-old David Page Liddle was held at a court hearing Thursday, after authorities said there were concerns he was a flight risk and had previously been accused of stalking Swift. He had been held on $10,000 bail after his arrest July 19 not far from Swift’s beachfront mansion.

The Des Moines man is charged with possession of burglary tools and possession of a weapon other than a firearm. Police Chief Shawn Lacey says Liddle told officers he was looking to “catch up” with Swift and knew her personally. Liddle’s public defender had no comment.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man suspected in two 2007 Chicago slayings has been found near Des Moines. The U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release Friday that members of the Southern Iowa Fugitive Task Force spotted 33-year-old Conny Miles Jr. driving Thursday afternoon near what was believed to be his residence in West Des Moines. Officers followed him to a convenience store in Clive, where he was taken into custody without incident. Chicago police had obtained an arrest warrant for him in June.

Miles is being held at the Polk County Jail in Des Moines while awaiting extradition to Chicago.

A operator of a Moped was injured Thursday evening, when he was hit by a pickup truck, in Creston. Police in Creston say 31-year old Jesse Daniel Meggison, of Creston, was transported by EMS ambulance to the Greater Regional Medical Center, for treatment of suspected serious and/or incapacitating injuries. The accident happened at around 6:15-p.m. at the intersection of W. Union and S. Elm Streets.

Authorities say the Moped was stopped at the stop sign on Union Street, while a 2013 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 62-year old Rebecca Joanne Barrans, of Lenox, was traveling north on Elm.  Barrans noticed there was a line of cars that were stopped and waiting for the railroad crossing arms to raise, ahead of her. Meggison wanted to turn west onto Union Street. He proceeded to travel north on the opposite side of the road and attempted to turn left, onto Union Street.

Barrans said she did not see the Moped, and hit the left side of the machine with the left side of her pickup. Meggison told authorities he was thrown off his Moped, which sustained about $300 damage. The pickup sustained minor damage (amounting to about $50). No citations were issued.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office today (Friday), reports 36-year old Amanda Marie Vacanti, of Omaha, was served with a warrant Thursday afternoon, for being a Fugitive From Justice. Vacanti is an inmate at the Pott. County Jail. After being served with the Douglas County, NE. warrant, Vacanti was turned back over to Corrections Staff. A prisoner at the Douglas County, NE., jail. 36-year old Christina Dawn Short, of Carter Lake, was transported to the Pott. County Jail, Thursday, to address a warrant for Violation of Probation.

A man being held in the Washington County, NE., jail, was transported to the Pott. County Jail, Thursday afternoon. 22-year old Tyler James Moss, of Council Bluffs, was wanted on State of Iowa warrants for Escape from Custody and Violation of Parole. His bond on the escape warrant was set at $1,000. And, 32-year old Jeremy Shane Kuhl, of Wahoo, NE., was transported from the Lincoln, NE., Diagnostic & Evaluation Center to the Pottawattamie County Jail, Thursday morning. Kuhl was wanted on a Pott. County warrant for Violation of Probation.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The Creston Police Department reports three arrests took place, Thursday. 18-year old Jeramiah Lee Whitney, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, on a Union County warrant for Theft in the 5th Degree. Whitney was subsequently released on $300 bond. 30-year old Wesley Duvin Hedrick, of Creston, was arrested twice, Thursday. He was taken into custody at around 5:30-p.m. for Simple Assault and released on $1,000 bond. Hedrick was arrested again at around 8:30-p.m. for Domestic Assault. He was being held without bond, in the Union County Jail.

And, 31-year old Waymond Lee Foster, Sr., of Creston, was arrested on a Violation of Protective Order charge. He was also being held without bond at the Union County Law Enforcement Center.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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CRESCO, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa man who authorities say had vowed to kill his wife if she ever divorced him has been convicted of shooting her to death. Howard County District Court records say 35-year-old Brian Fullhart was found guilty Thursday of first-degree murder. He’ll be sentenced later to life in prison without the possibility of parole. A witness said Zoanne Fullhart took off her wedding ring one day weeks before the shooting and set it down in front of Brian. The witness said Brian told Zoanne that if she wanted a divorce, she was dead.

Court records say Fullhart shot her in the head Feb. 28 last year inside a mobile home in Cresco and later used a bow to twice fire arrows at officers who’d been sent to investigate gunshot reports. Fullhart peacefully surrendered to end a more than five-hour standoff.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says Customs and Border Patrol officers are doing their best — but there’s a very real humanitarian crisis on the southern border. Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, visited McAllen, Texas and the surrounding areas this past weekend. “It is uncomfortable for those migrants. They are receiving three hot meals a day. Many of those are being catered in from various restaurants — but still an uncomfortable situation to be in,” Ernst says.  She says the agents are doing what they can to take care of the migrants. “They’re very, very, attentive to the children. So the children, any time they want a juicebox or water, whatever it its, the peanut butter crackers….all those items, all the have to do is request them, and they get them,” according to Ernst.

Ernst says the migrants get medical attention when they are brought in. “They take on average 40 migrants to the hospital every day,” Ernst says, “so not only are they getting initial medical treatment at those facilities, but getting additional treatment at the hospital as necessary.” Ernst says the facilities are kept up, despite the number of people coming through. “Clean facilities there, it is very tight though. They did explain to us they are not used to the types of migrants coming,” Ernst says.

Ernst says one temporary facility costs 20 million dollars every month to run and they are overtaxed and more facilities are needed. She says they are seeing some 15-hundred people illegally crossing the border every day. Ernst says there needs to be changes — but a bill proposed by the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee to close the loopholes in the asylum process has been put off by Democrats. Ernst says she expects the chair to bring that bill forward. “Perhaps the Democrats will see we are going to mark up this bill without their input and maybe they will see we are serious about getting to work on the border situation and come to the table,” she says. “But so far they have just continually put him off.”

Ernst says the country can’t afford the continued cost of an open border and Democrats need to help make changes. “What they’re doing is they’re using the human beings, those migrants as pawns, and we can’t continue to do that,” Ernst says. Ernst made her comments during her weekly conference call with reporters.