DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – A Dubuque Police Officer was arrested late last week on assault and harassment charges. KCRG reports 27-year-old Tyler Breitbach was arrested on multiple domestic abuse charges on Friday morning. Breitbach, of Peosta, is facing two counts of domestic assault and one count of third-degree harassment.

Court documents show a woman Breitbach had dated and lived with reported that he assaulted her twice in the summer of 2023. In the first incident, the woman described that in June 2023, the two were driving home on Swiss Valley Road, when Breitbach had “gotten upset and swung his arm out at her, striking her in the face with an open hand causing pain and leaving injury.”

In a second incident, documents say the woman was visiting an ex-boyfriend in July 2023. The woman says Breitbach arrived, and when she opened the door, he “used an extended arm to push her to the side and into the wall as he barged his way past her,” which she says forced her back into the wall, causing pain.

According to a report from the Telegraph Herald, City of Dubuque Public Information Officer Randy Gehl said the report came to light during the city’s annual review of harassment and reporting policies. The documents show Breitbach was interviewed in April 2024, and denied any physical contact with the woman, saying the relationship was “toxic but never physical.”

DUBUQUE COUNTY, Iowa (KCRG) – The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a man was found dead underneath a tractor Sunday evening. The sheriff’s office says emergency crews responded to the area of Wente Road and Pape Road north of Dyersville at 8:14 p.m. for a report of a tractor rollover with a person trapped. When crews arrived, they found a 61-year-old man dead underneath the tractor. The man has not been identified.

The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office says more information will be released after family members are notified. The Dubuque County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa State Patrol, Dyersville Police Department, New Vienna-Luxemburg Fire Department, and Bi-County EMS responded to the scene.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police Chief Justin Rhamy reports his officers are teaming-up with Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB), to ensure drivers are buckled-up as they travel roads in Montgomery County. The “Click It or Ticket” traffic safety campaign is underway now through June 1st.

Authorities note, that as of May 18th, there had been 56 fatalities on Iowa’s roads that involved a vehicle with seat belts. HALF of the motorists in those accidents were NOT wearing their seat belts. The Red Oak Police Department wants to remind everyone of these simple things:

• Distracted driving is one of the fastest growing safety issues on the roadway today. Be attentive and put the phone down.
• When you wear your seat belt, as a front-seat passenger in a vehicle, your risk of fatal injury is reduced by 45-percent. Seat belts save lives!

Chief Rhamy and the Red Oak P-D would like to remind you to “Click It or Ticket” during this public safety campaign and each time you get behind the wheel.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s spring turkey hunting season wrapped up with a record harvest of just more than 16-thousand birds, topping the record set last season by around 12-hundred. D-N-R Wildlife Research Biologist Jim Coffey says the records are one good thing to come from the dry weather. “We’ve had three good years of back to back hatches, and then just some exceptional weather that just made for good turkey hunting conditions,” he says. The weather allowed more young turkeys to survive after hatching. “Typically cold wet weather is not good for ground nesting birds so drought conditions we tend to see a bump up in production,” Coffey says. “It can be too dry as you get farther west that can have an impact, but we kind of hit the sweet spot the last few years.”

He says more hunters chase the elusive wild turkeys. “So success rate right now will probably be about the same and that 25 percent category, but we did see an increase in license sales as well. And that’s usually an indication of people noticing more birds on the landscape or more game to chase,” he says. “And so we always usually see a little bit of an uptick in hunter numbers when we see an uptick in populations.” Coffey says bagging a wild turkey is one of the tougher challenges. “They can be very difficult, they’re very weary they’ve got great eyesight and great hearing and they don’t give you a lot of room for error if you’re a new inexperienced hunter and even a seasoned hunter that Turkey is a difficult query to get after,” Coffey says.

Coffey says the turkey numbers could be strong again next season. “This year with extreme rain we’re having will probably you know speculating see a downturn in the population. But we have to remember that it’s usually the two year old birds are what carry the numbers,” he says. “And so next year is birds will really be the ones that were hatched last year and 2023. So we should have good turkey numbers for another year or two depending on how the weather lays out the next couple of years.”

Coffey says wild turkeys won’t be the same as the ones you buy at the grocery store. “They’re a little drier because they don’t have the fat that a domestic bird does. And of course domestic birds are bred for that delicious taste and that moist moisture content,” Coffey says. “We have to remember that most domestic birds are less than six months old. And most of the males that we’re harvesting in the field of the wild, they’re probably two years old. So kind of think of a fit athlete. The muscle is a little tighter, a little more structure to it, and not as much fat in it.”

Hunters report taking turkeys in all 99 counties — with a high of 649 birds bagged in Clayton County to a low of three in Osceola County.

(Radio Iowa) – We’re just past the halfway point for Iowa’s tornado season, and while twisters can strike during any month of the year, April, May and June are considered the three prime months for tornadic activity. Meteorologist Mike Fowle, at the National Weather Service in Johnston, says it’s been a very active season so far.  “Our preliminary numbers suggest we have seen 43 tornadoes,” Fowle says. “Interestingly enough, all of those have occurred in the month of April. We are still investigating some reports back from our previous events, say from April 26th, we’re still investigating so it’s possible we could still add a tornado or two from some of these events.” While the tornado tally doesn’t set an Iowa record, Fowle says it -is- an impressive number.

“For 43 tornadoes for a month, that’s pretty darn high,” Fowle says. “We go back generally to about 1950 and forward as our more accurate trend of record, so that would have been the fourth highest number of tornadoes we’ve seen in any month, the highest being May of 2004 with 57.” We do live in tornado alley and some years they’re plentiful, while we’re spared in others. “In 2023, we had a total for the whole year in the state of Iowa of 72, while in 2022, we only had 42 for the entire year, so we obviously surpassed that in one month this year,” Fowle says, “and then if we go back even just one more year to 2021, we had a total of 114 tornadoes.”

The bulk of the 2021 tornadoes occurred on December 15th of that year, in a highly unusual late year outbreak. There were 63 tornadoes in Iowa that day, along with the first-ever December derecho anywhere in the U-S.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report two arrests. At around 5:30-p.m. Saturday, deputies arrested 45-year-old Joseph Earl Smith, of Red Oak, for Driving while barred. His bond was set at $2,000. And, at around 3:20-a.m., Sunday, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies arrested 38-year-old Tony Lee King, of Red Oak, for Interference with official acts. King was being held in the jail on a $300 bond.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report two men were arrested Sunday evening in the 300 block of E. Nuckols Street. 38-year-old Jacob Wayne Dykes-Vargas, and 28-year-old Dylan Elwood Taylor, of Red Oak, were taken into custody at around 5:40-p.m., for Accessory after the fact – a Simple Misdemeanor. Both men were transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Eighty-three state boards and commissions are being eliminated or consolidated. Governor Kim Reynolds recommended even more for elimination, but legislators pared down her list and she has approved the final plan. Iowa-Nebraska N-double-A-C-P president Betty Andrews is raising concerns about shifting power away from the Iowa Civil Rights Commission to a director appointed by the governor. The plan also eliminates several commissions in the Iowa Department of Human Rights.

“It sends a sad, unwelcoming message to communities of color, to people with disabilities and women,” Andrews says, “that civil rights and their interests are not a priority at the highest level of state government.” Reynolds says have the Iowa Civil Rights Commission be an advisory group rather than a decision-making board makes sense.

“We had a part-time board that was really managing things and it’s just too hard to do that. You need somebody that’s there full time,” Reynolds said. “…It’s just a better way for us to really manage the organization.” Reynolds says there’s never been a comprehensive review of all state boards and commissions and it’s a continuation of her efforts to make state government more efficient. A year ago, the legislature approved the governor’s plan to reduce the number of state agencies from 36 to 16.

(Iowa News Service) – The latest state tax cuts are expected to cost Iowa more than 2-billion dollars over the next two years. Advocates for tax fairness argue lawmakers are not considering the long-term consequences of those cuts on schools, workers, and livability. In the face of a dwindling population and shrinking tax base, Iowa lawmakers doubled down on tax cuts this year, and also passed a measure calling for a constitutional amendment to require any state income tax to be a single rate. Anne Discher with Common Good Iowa says lawmakers chose to cut taxes despite the state’s growing economic demands – like funding Educational Savings Accounts, which allow parents to use public education dollars to pay for private school.

Lawmakers also passed a cluster of bills that will accelerate cuts in the state income tax rate, from 3-point-9 to 3-point-8 percent, which Discher argues will have long-term economic impacts. Supporters of the tax-cut measures, including Governor Kim Reynolds, have promised more fiscal austerity.

The deeper tax cuts mean an average reduction of about 6-dollars to someone in the bottom 20-percent of the income bracket, 402-dollars for the middle 20-percent, and more than 20-thousand dollars for someone making over a million-and-a-half dollars a year. Lawmakers say they plan to cover the tax cuts with Iowa’s budget surplus, which Discher calls shortsighted.

Discher argues implementing a flat-rate income tax would be regressive and hurt lower-income Iowans most. Supporters say it would be more fair and efficient.

(Massena, Iowa) – Volunteer Firefighter Levi Lank captured video of a tornado located three-miles southwest of Massena off of Victoria Road, this (Sunday) evening. The twister touched down at around 7:58-p.m.  There were no reports of damage or injuries. (Still frame images from the video, Photo credit: Levi Lank). While the National Weather Service had issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for southeastern Cass and southwestern Adair Counties just before 8-p.m., there was NO TORNADO WARNING issued. The Cass County Communications Center set-off the sirens in Cumberland and Massena when spotters observed the twister.

The Weather Service one quarter-size hail (1″ diameter) was observed by emergency management at around 8:46-p.m., south of Stuart, and five-miles southeast of Greenfield, at around 8:36-p.m. The NWS in Omaha reports thunderstorm winds of 53-mph were recorded at 10:15-p.m. two-miles S/SE of Clarinda. Thunderstorm wind damage was reported five-miles East of Hepburn, in Page County, at around 8:05-p.m., along with golf ball-size hail (1.75″).

Shelf cloud near Elliott (3 photos) – Submitted to KJAN by Megan Glasgo.

58-mph winds were recorded in Villisca at 7:41-p.m., Sunday. Ping-pong ball size hail fell one-mile SE of Clarinda at 7:55-p.m.  Half-dollar size hail (1.25″) fell in Clarinda at 7:49-p.m.

Tornado dissipating

Tornado on the ground