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Booker taking 2020 campaign, call for social justice to Iowa

News

February 8th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is taking his call for social justice to Iowa, where he plans to visit with black leaders this weekend on his first trip to the early 2020 caucus state as a Democratic presidential candidate. Booker is using rhetoric reminiscent of the civil rights movement to distinguish himself early in the race. And although Iowa is a vastly white state, the sentiment echoes within the state’s Democratic base.

“I think more and more people are seeing that social justice doesn’t just apply to race,” said Nancy Bobo, a white Des Moines Democrat who likes Booker. “When I think of social justice, I think of all the different laws and structures that impede opportunities for people for a whole range of reasons.”

Race is shaping up to be central to the 2020 Democratic presidential campaign. Democratic prospects have called President Donald Trump’s portrayal of immigrants racist and roundly condemned his reaction to the deadly 2017 demonstration in Virginia as being sympathetic toward white supremacists.

Booker would conspicuously be the first presidential candidate this year to visit Black Hawk County, where the black population — at 9 percent — is three times that of vastly white Iowa. He plans to meet Friday (today) with black leaders in Waterloo, Iowa’s most African-American city per capita.

Before visiting Waterloo, Booker plans to campaign today (Friday) at a church in Mason City that has been active in officiating same-sex marriages in a state where they were legal before the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court decision granted the right nationally. Booker could appeal to that segment of Iowa voters who sent Democrat Tom Harkin, an outspoken advocate for worker and civil rights, to the Senate for 30 years until his retirement in 2014.

Booker is also scheduled to hold events in Cedar Rapids and Iowa City today (Friday) and to campaign in Marshalltown and Des Moines on Saturday.

Posted in News |

Iowa early News Headlines: Friday, Feb. 8th 2019

News

February 8th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:55 a.m. CST

ELDORA, Iowa (AP) — A 9-year-old boy clutched a stuffed animal as he told a judge that his father’s girlfriend often withheld food and helped lock him under a staircase in the basement of their Iowa home. The boy wept at times as he testified Wednesday against 40-year-old Traci Tyler. She is on trial separately from her boyfriend, Alex Shadlow. Both are charged with kidnapping. Investigators say the couple locked the boy in the basement space for at least nine hours a day in 2017.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is taking his call for social justice to Iowa, where he plans to visit with African-American leaders on his first trip to the early 2020 caucus state as a Democratic presidential candidate. Booker is using rhetoric reminiscent of the civil rights movement to distinguish himself early in the 2020 race. And although Iowa is a vastly white state, the sentiment echoes within the state’s Democratic base. Booker’s two-day trip begins Friday.

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — A Poweshiek County farmer has been injured in a suspected gas explosion that leveled his home. The Des Moines Register reports the explosion happened just before 10 a.m. Thursday on the 70-acre farm of Wayne Cheney that sits about 13 miles southeast of Brooklyn in east-central Iowa. Poweshiek County Sheriff Tom Kriegel says Cheney, who is expected to survive, was trying to light a space heater when the explosion happened.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A bill to ban the use of cellphones while driving in Iowa has advanced out of a Senate subcommittee. The bill prohibits a driver from using a cellphone or similar electronic device unless it’s in hands-free mode. It expands current Iowa law that bans texting while driving.

Posted in News |

Onawa sees improvement in water color

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) — A western Iowa city that has been dealing with brown water for almost a year says it has finally found a fix. Onawa’s water has been a brownish reddish color due to moderately high levels of iron and another metal called manganese. State environmental officials say the main impact of the manganese is it makes the water look bad. Sarah Haptonstall says that’s exactly whey she avoids drinking her tap water.

“Some days I have clear water and some days it looks like someone got shot in my bathtub,” Haptonstall says. The city started treating its water with a chemical compound called sodium permanganate about one week ago. Onawa’s Water Treatment Plant Operator David Richardson says they’ve seen immediate improvements.

He says the manganese levels in their tanks dropped the very next day and it has gotten better every day since. But he says it could take a while to clear all the manganese out of some of the water lines. “We’ve had some people comment that their water is clearing up. Keep in mind we have over 50 dead end water mains that have a lot of sediment in them,” he says, “so it will take extra time to get the sediment out of those pipes.”

Onawa has a population around three-thousand and bills itself on the city website as having the widest main street in the United States.

(Thanks to Kaite Piekes, Iowa Public Radio)

Posted in News |

Panel OKs Senate bill to ban cellphone use while driving

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A bill to ban the use of cellphones while driving has advanced out of an Iowa Senate subcommittee. The bill would prohibit drivers from using cellphones or similar electronic devices unless they are in hands-free mode. It expands current Iowa law that bans texting while driving. Public safety and health care professionals on the job are exempted.

If approved, drivers could be fined $100. Those using a device who cause serious crashes would face much higher potential fines and driver’s license suspensions.

House Speaker Linda Upmeyer says she wants more information before committing to supporting a bill but acknowledged lawmakers have heard from a lot of people frustrated by distracted driving.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says 17 states have approved hands-free only laws for all drivers.

Posted in News |

East-central Iowa farmer hurt, house leveled in explosion

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — A Poweshiek County farmer has been injured in a suspected gas  explosion that leveled his home. The Des Moines Register reports the explosion happened just before 10 a.m. Thursday on the 70-acre farm of Wayne Cheney that sits about 13 miles southeast of Brooklyn in east-central Iowa.

Cheney was among a number of people interviewed by police in the disappearance last summer of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts from her hometown of Brooklyn. Her body was later found in a cornfield, and former farmhand Cristhian Bahena Rivera has been charged with first-degree murder in her stabbing death.

Poweshiek County Sheriff Tom Kriegel says Cheney was sent to an Iowa City hospital with burns and was conscious when first responders reached him. He is expected to survive. Kriegel says Cheney told firefighters he was trying to light a space heater when the home exploded.  Investigators believe gas had filled the house.

Posted in News |

Car-vs-snow plow in Fremont County: woman & child hurt

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

A woman and her child were injured in Fremont County, Thursday morning, when the car they were in struck a snow plow, about a mile north of Shenandoah. The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened on Highway 59 at around 9:46-a.m.

Photo’s courtesy the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials say a 1997 Chevrolet Lumina driven by Tory Stalder, of Shenandoah, was traveling northbound on Highway 59, when the vehicle went out of control on the slick road. Stalder over-corrected, and in doing so her vehicle entered the southbound lane, where it collided with a an Iowa Dept. of Transportation snowplow driven by Zachary Dailey, of Essex.

Stalder and her minor child were transported by Shenandoah Rescue to Shenandoah Memorial Hospital as a precaution. A report on their injuries was not immediately available. Daily was uninjured in the crash.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Shenandoah Fire and Rescue and Shenandoah Police Department

Posted in News |

Page County Sheriff’s report (2/7)

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

Page County Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports the arrest on Wednesday, of a Shenandoah woman. 19-year old Athea Makenna Ruth Hamilton was taken into custody on a Page County Warrant for Violation of Probation.

Hamilton was arrested at the Page County Sheriff’s Office. She posted immediately posted a $2,500 bond and was released pending future court proceedings. The woman was not booked into the jail.

Posted in News |

Fire causes Wells Fargo customers to lose access to accounts

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo customers are experiencing issues today (Thursday) with accessing online or mobile banking as well as other banking services, after a fire happened at one of the bank’s data centers. Wells Fargo on Thursday blamed the technical issues on smoke, which was “detected following routine maintenance.”

It is unknown how many Wells Fargo customers have been impacted, but the fire at the unspecified location has caused reported outages to Wells Fargo’s mobile banking app as well as its online banking portal.

Posted in News |

Boy tells judge he was locked under basement stairs

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

ELDORA, Iowa (AP) — A 9-year-old boy clutched a stuffed animal as he told a judge that his father’s girlfriend often withheld food and helped lock him under a staircase in the basement at their Iowa home. The boy wept at times as he testified Wednesday against 40-year-old Traci Tyler. She is being tried separately from her boyfriend, Alex Shadlow. Both are charged with kidnapping. The couple is accused of locking the boy in the basement for at least nine hours a day during the summer of 2017. Investigators say the boy was forced to sleep on the concrete and use a tin cup as a toilet.

The boy says Tyler also made him carry a backpack filled with rocks. The Des Moines Register reports the boy said the basement was “supercold” and that he couldn’t get out of the enclosure.

Posted in News |

Murder trial begins for man accused of killing Iowa hunter

News

February 7th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

CENTERVILLE, Iowa (AP) — The first-degree murder trial has begun for a man accused of killing a hunter in south-central Iowa. Appanoose County Attorney Susan Scieszinski said in her opening statements Wednesday that there is no known motive for the November 2017 killing of 31-year-old Curtis Ross. The Daily Iowegian reports that Ross was shot 10 times with a high-powered rifle, stabbed more than 26 times and his neck, abdomen and legs gashed open. A sheriff’s deputy found Ross’ naked body in a creek on public hunting grounds.

Scieszinski said the evidence will show Davis perched from a hilltop, using an AR-15 to shoot Ross. Officials say Davis’ finger and palm prints found on ammunition in the area connected him to the killing, and a search of his family farm turned up a hidden AR-15 that forensics determined was used in the shooting.

Posted in News |