SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Another trial starting date has been set for a 19-year-old in northwest Iowa accused of stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend and another young man. Woodbury Country District Court records say a judge cited scheduling and other problems in setting a new date to begin the trial of Tran Walker. The trial had been set to begin this coming Tuesday. The new starting date is May 2.

Walker’s pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He’s accused of killing 17-year-old Paiten Sullivan and 18-year-old Felipe Negron Jr., who both lived in Sioux City. Police say Walker was in a car with the other two on Jan. 28 last year when he began to stab Sullivan because he was upset that she had broken up with him. Police say that when Negron tried to intervene, Walker stabbed him, too.

The Creston Police Department says a woman residing in the 400 block of N. Oak Street, in Creston, reported Wednesday that sometime between 1-and 9-a.m. Wednesday, someone cut the driver’s side rear tire on her vehicle, while the vehicle was parked outside her residence. The loss was estimated at $120. And, a Creston man reported Wednesday evening, that sometime over the course of the past five-to seven-months, someone had attempted to gain entry to his residence in the 500 block of W. Townline Street. Damage to the front and back doors of the home was estimated at $500. It’s not clear if entry into the residence was made.

(Radio Iowa) — Figures from the Iowa Association of Realtors show sale prices rose in March while the number of homes sold dropped a little more than 11 percent compared to last year. Association president John Goede says those who sell homes don’t have a lot to complain about. “If you look at our figures this last six years here — we’ve had a little drop in inventory and a little drop in sales made — but actually the last three years, 2016, 2017, 2018, have been like rock stars,” Goede says.  The median sale price for Iowa homes sold in March was up six-point-seven percent compared to last year at 160-thousand dollars. Goede says you have to look at the larger view. “This year’s rate that we have right now — the ten years previous to 2016 — that would have been the high point. So, we have a very, very good year, it’s just coming off an unbelievably stellar year,” Goede says.

Goede, who sells real estate in Spencer, says Iowa’s wage rate has gone up and that has helped the Affordability Index for home buyers. He says to buy a median home you need a median income, and Iowa’s median income is 100 percent more than needed to qualify for a median house. He says our median income is so good that it could actually buy twice the cost of a median priced home. Goede says interest rates remain low too — and that also helps home buyers. He says the drop in sales is also something that has to be seen in the bigger picture. “You know the sales are down….statewide they’re down about 280 homes in total,” Goede says. “That’s less than three a county — so it’s really not a big number — it’s just how statistics can play.”

The number of days a home was on the market before selling dropped by 14 days compared to last year in March. Homes sold in March were on the market for an average of 75 days compared to 89 days last year.

(Radio Iowa) — Republicans in the Iowa legislature have developed a plan they say will bring “transparency” to property taxes. Iowans could check new notices online and in newspapers after the value of local homes, businesses and farms are assessed that show what property tax RATE would be charged if city and county budgets stay the same. Property tax hikes that are greater than two percent would have to be approved by two-thirds of the members of a city council or county board of supervisors. Republicans like Representative Dustin Hite say it means local officials wouldn’t be able to let sizable tax increases automatically go into effect when property VALUES go up.

“When somebody’s property taxes go up — the check to they write to the county treasurer goes up — somebody should have had to vote for that and take responsibility for that,” Hite says. Hite, the former mayor of New Sharon, says this shouldn’t “hamstring” local governments. “What I think it’s going to do is make cities and counties think about what they are doing and think about it in a hard way to make sure that they are only raising those taxes that they think are necessary,” Hite says.

Senator Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, spoke early Wednesday evening just before Republican senators approved the plan. “The bill is all about truth in taxation,” he said. Democrats like Representative Timi Brown-Powers of Waterloo say the bill has changed significantly from its original version and the public has had little chance to examine the final product.  “We went from — in my opinion — a really, really bad bill to, now, a bad bill,” Brown-Powers said.

Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque, says the bill will make it harder for communities to grow. “I can tell you that in the state of Wisconsin they did something similar a few years ago and listen up rural Iowa, the little towns and villages in Wisconsin are hollowing out,” Jochum said.

If Governor Kim Reynolds signs the bill into law, it would go into effect July 1st of 2020 — impacting the next round of budgeting by Iowa cities and counties.