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Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:55 a.m. CST
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Linn County’s top prosecutor is calling for a grand jury investigation into the police shooting of a man earlier this month. Television station KCRG reports that County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden said Friday in a news release that “it would be in the public interest” for a grand jury to determine whether criminal charges are warranted. Officer Lucas Jones shot and seriously injured Jerime Mitchell on Nov. 1 near Coe College.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As many as 150 juveniles in Iowa prisons for felonies including kidnapping and attempted murder will get their sentences shortened by years as a result of an Iowa Supreme Court decision. The court ruled Friday that juveniles convicted of forcible felonies who had been resentenced from mandatory minimum terms to a set period of years should be given credit for good behavior at a much faster pace.
DALLAS (AP) — Gov. Jack Dalrymple says he’s asking the Army Corps of Engineers to speed up a decision on whether to grant an easement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline to cross the Missouri River in southern North Dakota. Dalrymple says increasingly frequent protests against the pipeline have created “a tremendously challenging, tremendously difficult situation.” Numerous protests have been held at sites in the capital city this week, including the state Capitol and the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.
ROCK ISLAND, Ill. (AP) — A former Deere and Company employee from Iowa has admitted to defrauding the Illinois company out of at least $250,000 over a nine-year period. The Quad-City Times reports that 63-year-old Harvey Ulfers of Cedar Falls, Iowa pleaded guilty Thursday to various wire fraud and money laundering charges. A co-defendant, 46-year-old Patrick W. Williams of Cedar Falls, pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy charge in April.
The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said today (Friday), a western Iowa man was sentenced Thursday to prison for Possession of Child Pornography. 33-year old Steven Robert Hill, a a former Missouri Valley resident, was sentenced by Chief United States District Court Judge John A. Jarvey, to 54 months (4 1/2 years) in prison to be followed by fifteen years of supervised release for possession of child pornography.
Hill entered a guilty plea to the charge on June 9th, 2016. The investigation began with a report of a domestic assault involving Hill as a victim. During the investigation, law enforcement learned Hill was in possession of child pornography. A search of Hill’s residence located data storage devices that contained child pornography images. Shortly after law enforcement obtained the images, Hill moved to the State of Washington.
The investigation was conducted by the Missouri Valley Police Department, the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force — Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.
Red Oak Police are asking for your help in finding a vehicle that struck a legally parked car earlier this week. Officials say Shelley Ann Walston, of Red Oak, had legally parked her 2002 Jaguar XTY alongside the alleyway in the 400 block of Hammond Street, Tuesday night. When she came out to go to work the next morning, she discovered an unknown vehicle had side-swiped her Jag, causing about $2,600 damage to the passenger side of the vehicle. Anyone with information pertaining to the incident, is encouraged to contact Red Oak Police at 712-623-6500.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – As many as 150 juveniles in Iowa prisons for felonies including kidnapping and attempted murder will get their sentences shortened by years as a result of an Iowa Supreme Court decision. The court ruled Friday that juveniles convicted of forcible felonies who had been resentenced from mandatory minimum terms to sentences with a set period of years should be given credit for good behavior at a much faster pace.
It’s tied to a 2014 decision in which the court struck down as unconstitutional mandatory minimum sentences for juveniles. Inmates serving mandatory minimum sentences for forcible felonies must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence even when time is credited for good behavior. The court’s ruling means juveniles who can’t serve mandatory sentences get accelerated time for good behavior and can get out after serving 45 percent of their original sentence. For example, a juvenile sentenced to 10 years for robbery could be released after 4 1/2 years, while an adult must serve 8 1/2 years.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly in October to 4.1 percent but an official warns the decline could be temporary. Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend says the unemployment rate drop announced Friday came despite layoffs in construction and manufacturing companies. She says that could make the decline “only a temporary reprieve.”
Townsend notes, however, that Iowa has jobs available so those affected by layoffs should be able to find other work. During October, the number of unemployed residents dropped to 70,300. The total number of Iowa workers climbed to 1,655,200. Iowa’s unemployment rate compares to a national rate of 4.9 percent. A year ago, Iowa’s unemployment rate was 3.5 percent.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) – Health officials are puzzled by an outbreak of the mumps among Dubuque County students that has now climbed to 30 cases, which is more than one-third of all cases statewide. According to Dubuque County Health Department executive director Patrice Lambert, the source of the outbreak has not yet been determined. Lambert says this is the worst outbreak in 10 years in the county.
Dubuque Community School District’ health services coordinator, Rhonda Ramler, says officials haven’t seen a pattern to the students who have been affected. The Telegraph Herald reports that precautions are being taken to try and halt the spread of the disease, which can cause fever, headaches and swollen salivary glands.
The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Clarke County man was arrested Thursday night on three Union County warrants for: Leaving the scene of an accident, reckless driving, and no valid drivers license. 44-year old Michael Dean Craig, of Murray, was arrested at the Union County Law Enforcement Center and later released on $300 bond.
The Iowa Utilities Board heard an update on the progress of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the state and complaints from those who oppose it at their meeting Thursday. I-U-B attorney David Lynch gave the latest progress report from the company. “It indicates that 99 percent of the pipeline in Iowa has been lowered into the trench — and 96 percent of that trench has been backfilled. Only Buena Vista and Cherokee Counties are not yet complete to that stage,” Lynch says.
Work is more than halfway done in finishing up construction. “The report also indicates that 52 percent of the clean up and land restoration has been complete, while 61 percent of the pipeline in Iowa…has been hydrostatically tested,” according to Lynch.
Lynch told the three board members information from the board has been filed in the lawsuit against the pipeline. He says those who filed the lawsuit have until next Monday November 21st to file their reply briefs, and the oral arguments before the district court at still set for December 15th. He says they received three more complaints about the pipeline since the last meeting. “This gives us a total of 23 inquiries or complaints that have been filed since the first one on March 31st 2016. Fifteen of those 23 have been closed and eight of them are still in process. Most of those are in a state of a proposed resolution being drafted,” Lynch says.
The board heard from two representatives of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. Mark Edwards talked about concerns that the pipeline workers did not drain water away from the areas where they worked. He told the board it was difficult to get complaints addressed and says the county board of supervisors did not want to take action because they were afraid of being sued. “I could go on with further examples of going down this rabbit hole of this public plunder for private gain. But it has been clear from the beginning that this is a rigged game,” according to Edwards. “Three politically appointed people have been given the power to risk the public waters, land and navigate private landowners’s rights. These proceedings have been quite the education and clearly illustrate we have little hope in our government to protect our rights and our land and our water.”
Carolyn Raffensburger also spoke about what she says are violations by the construction company, including continuing construction on land that was inundated with water. “What we have seen is that they have violated the largest commitments that they made and down to the smallest ones,” Raffesnburger says. “What we now know is that this is the rule of money rather than the rule of law. If there is not monitoring and no enforcement of your regulation — of the rules that you put in place — then it has no meaning whatsoever.”
Raffensburger made another plea for the construction to stop. “What we’re asking you today is to put on hold the rest of the construction. They are not done with construction in two counties. They have not complete the boring under the Des Moines River. That is not complete. We ask you put that on hold, that you stop construction until your rules have been followed,” Raffensburger says.
The I-U-B also heard from people about the pipeline during their public comment period. They listened for around 30 minutes to comments of those who are opposed to the pipeline. The board did not give any response to the comments.
(Radio Iowa)
The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission plans to do another market survey on the gambling conditions in the state. Commission administrator Brian Ohorilko says the new study is prompted by the plans of a Cedar Rapids group to file an application for a new casino license. “There was a motion made to direct staff to initiate an R-F-P (Request For Proposal) process so that a vendor or vendors would be selected to conduct a statewide market analysis,” Ohorilko says.
The Racing and Gaming Commission voted 4-1 in April of 2014 to deny a license for a proposed 164-million dollar casino project in Cedar Rapids after approving a gambling license for a casino in Jefferson County. Ohorilko says the last market study was done prior to that decision. “It was a statewide market study to determine if there were any underserved or overserved markets in the state,” Ohorilko says. “In addition to that, The study called for a target analysis for two particular counties — and those were the counties were referendums had passed at that point in time and there were applications in — and that was Linn County and Jefferson County.”
Ohorilko says a new study would be key for the commission to decide if they would be willing to approve a new request for a license in Cedar Rapids. “There’s a whole host of criteria that goes into determining whether or not an application for a license should be grants. A couple of those factors are related to market impact: Is there new money coming into the area, was it just a shift of revenue, how much it would impact other licensees.”
Wild Rose Casinos and Resorts which already operates three casinos in the state is proposing what it calls a “boutique” casino that would be smaller than traditional casinos and located in the downtown area. They also say a smaller casino would have less an impact on existing casinos. The developers say they should have a plan ready to request a license in January. Ohorilko says the new statewide study would be started in mid-February.
“The way this would work with applications being due on February 13th, by the time the vendors are selected to do a market analysis, they’ll be able to look at the scope of any potential applications,” according to Ohorilko. “If it’s a small project or a different type of project, that information will be known and the vendors be able to consider that when doing their market analysis.”
Wild Rose operates casinos in Emmettsburg and Clinton along with the Greene County casino in Jefferson.
(Radio Iowa)
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a truck carrying more than 150 pigs tipped over after jumping a curb in western Iowa. The Sioux City Journal reports that the more than two dozen of the pigs were dumped out of the truck in the accident around 9 p.m. Thursday in Sioux City.
Authorities contained the pigs to a grassy area, where they grazed until animal control officials arrived with an empty livestock trailer and gates to corral them. More than 100 pigs were still trapped inside the trailer. Sioux City Police Sgt. Jim Cunningham says he suspects that many of those inside were not going to survive the crash.
The driver was uninjured. The pigs were from Ireton, Iowa, and were being taken to Missouri.