CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – April 9, 2024 – Today, the Iowa Transportation Commission approved $9,869,044 in total funding for ten statewide Transportation Alternatives Set-aside Program projects.

This program supports projects that will have a statewide or multi-regional impact, expand the state’s multi-modal transportation system, enhance tourism, and provides safe routes to school. The majority of Transportation Alternatives Set-aside program funding is distributed to Iowa’s metropolitan planning organizations and regional planning affiliations for the selection of local projects. The Commission awards Transportation Alternatives Set-aside projects annually. Approximately 20 percent of funding is targeted to safe routes to school projects. Funding is available to cities, counties, school districts, or other eligible organizations through an annual application-based program.

The projects and approved funding amounts are listed below.

Safe routes to school project awards:

• Iowa Safe Routes Partnership (Iowa Northland Regional Council of Governments) – $258,108
• Safe Routes to School & Recreational Trails Phase I (Logan) – $652,212
• 3rd Street Sidewalk Extension Project (Anamosa) – $650,000
• Washington Avenue Safe Routes to School (Grinnell) – $581,891

All other project awards:

• Bentonsport Pedestrian Bridge Rehabilitation (Van Buren County Conservation Board) – $1,612,000
• Clear Creek Trail (Johnson County Conservation Board) – $1,800,000
• Grant Street South Realignment (Bondurant) – $500,000
• Hickman Interchange Bicycle/Pedestrian Facilities (Clive) – $800,000
• Iowa River’s Edge Trail Surfacing and South Fork Bridge Replacement (Hardin County Conservation Board) – $2,000,000
• Mississippi River Trail Eagle Ridge Road to May Street (LeClaire) – $1,014,833

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — [KCCI] Police say two teenagers stole expensive bottles of cologne and then triggered a high-speed police chase. That chase ended on a busy Des Moines freeway exit ramp. It started Sunday night at Jordan Creek Town Center Von Maur department store. And it didn’t stop until West Des Moines police, Des Moines police, and the Iowa State Patrol chased and arrested the teens.

The call came into West Des Moines police at about 5:20 p.m. Sunday. Two 17-year-olds ran off with two bottles of Versace and Coach cologne worth about $200. But police say the report of a fight with Von Maur security staff put them on alert. A short time later, an off-duty police officer spotted the suspects’ car near the Mid-American Rec Plex, and the chase began.

It ran through West Des Moines and then headed to the freeway and into Des Moines at speeds as high as 95 mph. Eventually, the Iowa State Patrol boxed the car in on the 42nd Street off-ramp. It was closed for several hours Sunday night. Police say they later learned the teens did not fight with the Van Maur security staff. And they can’t understand why the suspects would run.

Police say the two 17-year-olds were charged with theft and were taken to juvenile detention.

Algna, Iowa — One person died in a large, northern Iowa fire Sunday morning. According to the Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office, the fire was reported just before 4:30 a.m. at an acreage in rural Titonka. A female caller told dispatch she was woken up by the power going out in her house, and she could see the glow of fire at their workshop outbuilding west of the house. The woman also told dispatch she didn’t know where her husband was and that he had been out in the workshop earlier in the night.

The workshop building was fully engulfed in flames when crews from Titonka, Kossuth County and Bancroft arrived. 45-year-old Brian Leroy Janssen was found dead inside the building.

Janssen’s remains will be taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny for autopsy to determine the cause of death. The State Fire Marshall’s Office is assisting in the investigation to determine the cause of the fire.

Kossuth County Sheriff’s Office press release

DES MOINES, Iowa — [KCCI] A Waukee man accused in a wire fraud and money laundering scheme is now in custody. The FBI had been looking for 51-year-old William Jack Berg, since late March. Investigators say he used his position as a financial adviser to defraud more than a dozen clients, using more than $1.5 million of his clients’ money for his own personal benefit.

The FBI received a tip on Berg’s location and he was arrested without incident by the Shawnee, Kansas, Police Department on April 4.

Original post on March 30th:

OMAHA, Neb.  – The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Omaha field office is seeking the public’s help in locating an Iowa man wanted for alleged money laundering and wire fraud. The office says William Jack “Bill” Berg, 51, is wanted for allegedly defrauding over a dozen client investors in a scheme that resulted in the loss of over $1.5 million. It’s alleged that the victim investors provided Berg, a financial advisor in the Des Moines metro area, with funds for investment — only for Berg to use those funds for his own benefit. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Berg on March 19. He most recently lived in the Waukee and Adel areas and is suspected to have been in the Des Moines area as recently as Monday (March 25th).

William Jack Berg, (AKA Bill Berg) – FBI Photo

Berg is described as 5′11″, 195 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Anyone with information is asked to call the FBI’s Omaha field office at (402) 493-8688.

(Walnut, Iowa) – Two barns and their contents were destroyed in a fire, Monday afternoon, north of Walnut. The structures were lost when a grass fire near mile marker 48 along Interstate 80, spread north to a farm. The fire was reported at around 2:10-p.m., and was brought under control about an hour later.

Firefighters were able to prevent the flames from spreading to the home. The cause of the fire was not known. No injuries were reported.

A local farmer helped in the effort to contain the blaze, using a tractor and disk. Walnut Fire was assisted at the scene by crews from the Atlantic, Avoca, Elk Horn, Harlan, and Marne fire departments.

(Radio Iowa)- Some people from Iowa were out of state and got to see more of an impact from the solar eclipse than we saw here. Tim Loecke of Manchester, was in Indianapolis Monday to visit a friend and went to a watch party at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “I didn’t expect it to kind of be overwhelmed by it, but really was, the whole totality thing,” he says. This was his third eclipse and it was much different from the first one.

“I guess it was 1979, I think I was in fourth grade or something like that,” Loecke says. “And that was kind of a nice experience. That was back in the day, we had like a popsicle stick, and looked down on the paper. For people old enough, I’m 53, you might remember something like that.” The second eclipse he saw was in 2017 and the sun was and 85 to 90 percent covered. He says seeing an eclipse with the full coverage was the best of the three. “No photograph is going to really explain what you see. It’s super cool. It’s unique,” he says. “And even though for me, it wasn’t a primary purpose to come down, I really wanted to hang out with some close friends, it was awesome.” Loecke says you could feel the excitement of everyone there.

“The weather cooled off, you’re starting to notice it’s getting really dark, and then all of a sudden, it’s like it’s there. And we had like four minutes here, which is a long time to have it,” Loecke says. “But just the vision of you can’t really describe it’s one of those things that you’re like holy cow. That’s just absolutely beautiful. And it does make you feel small in a big world.” Loecke says it’s also amazing that people are so educated about what goes on to be able to predict when the eclipses will happen.

(Radio Iowa) – A federal study finds instances of violence in healthcare settings are five times more likely than in other industries, and a clinic in northeast Iowa that was built in 1950 is planning to put up security cameras for the first time. Tom Eachus, executive director of the Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Clinic in Waterloo, says the plan to implement cameras is more preventative, designed to help everyone feel safe.

Eachus says, “We wanted to make sure that patients who come here for services, and staff who provide those services, family members who come with patients, are in an environment they feel safe and secure in.” Eachus says violence in the clinic hasn’t been a problem in his 35 years on the job. He adds, the cameras will be in place for long-term patient safety.

“So many of our patients have been with us 10, 20, 30, 40 years, and I think they feel comfortable here,” Eachus says, “but helping them feel safer in the event of a bad situation I think is just going to be more reassuring to them that it’s very welcoming.” Eachus says he’s only seen one or two instances of violence during his long tenure.

The clinic has spent the last several years partnering with local and county law enforcement to reevaluate what a safe mental health space looks like. The clinic serves about six-thousand patients in the region.