(Cedar Rapids, Iowa) – A police pursuit in Cedar Rapids early this (Monday) morning, resulted in a fatal crash. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2003 Chevy Tahoe was actively fleeing from Cedar Rapids Police when the vehicle went out of control while entering a ramp from I-380 southbound to westbound Highway 30. The SUV entered the gore area and rolled several times, causing fatal injuries to the driver, whose name was withheld, pending notification of family. The driver died at the scene of the crash, that happened at around 2:20-a.m. (Monday).

The accident remains under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol. Linn County Sheriff’s deputies, Cedar Rapids Fire and Police assisted at the scene.

(Radio Iowa) – You may have noticed some retailers began their holiday sales pitches well before Halloween, making October the start of the holiday shopping period. With inflation pumping up prices on everything from gas to groceries Anne Villamil, an economics professor at the University of Iowa, says many retailers are worried that increased costs will force consumers to limit their gift-giving. Villamil says, “If consumers do choose to cut back, Christmas holidays — people tend to spend more money, so they might say, ‘This year, we’ve just got to cut back,’ and that could leave retailers with inventory, which could end up lowering prices after the holidays, or even in the run-up to the holidays.”

In terms of holiday spending, Halloween is usually second only to Christmas, but candy prices were up 13-percent from a year ago, forcing some Iowans to leave their porch lights off, a sign for trick-or-treaters to stay away. Stores across Iowa will quickly replace the orange-and-black aisles with red-and-green, but Villamil can’t predict how merchants may fare in the holiday ahead. “There’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty about what’s going to happen and it all depends on what consumers can and are willing to spend,” Villamil says. “With an inflation rate on average of 8.2%, that’s high, that’s a 40-year high, so it very much depends on what consumers choose to do and we don’t know that yet.”

Inflation rates will fall in the long run, she says, but the Federal Reserve will likely continue nudging rates up in the short-term to prod people into spending less, prompting prices to eventually fall. “Gas prices are very volatile and they’re affected by things like the war, they’re affected by things like the weather,” Villamil says. “So it’s very difficult to know what those price increases are going to look like. Clearly, things like mortgages are going up because the Fed is tightening monetary policy.”

National reports indicate Americans plan to spend about the same amount of money on holiday shopping this year as they did last year, but recognize that with inflation, it’ll mean fewer gifts under the tree.

(Radio Iowa) – The bodies of two people were found in an apartment in Fort Dodge on Saturday morning. When Fort Dodge Police officers and the Fort Dodge Fire Department arrived, it was determined that both subjects were deceased. The cause of death remains under investigation. Names of the individuals have not been released.

The bodies have been transported to the State Medical Examiners office to determine the cause of death. The Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation is assisting Fort Dodge Police in their investigation.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak report the arrest at around 5-p.m. Sunday, of a woman from Red Oak. 25-year-old Destiny Jill Anderson was taken into custody for Driving While Barred, following a traffic stop in the 100 block of W. Elm Street, in Red Oak. Anderson was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Both political parties have been listing Iowa’s third congressional district race as among the three dozen that could decide which party wins a majority in the U.S. House. Congresswoman Cindy Axne of West Des Moines narrowly won her previous races in 2018 and 2020 and she’s been telling her fellow Democrats 2022 will be the same. “We win these votes in Iowa on the margins, folks,” Axne said earlier this month. Challenger Zach Nunn has been telling his fellow Republicans the race has national implications. “It is about holding Biden and Pelosi accountable,” Nunn said.

Nunn has emphasized the state budgets and the tax cuts he’s voted for as a member of the Iowa legislature.”We’re going to change the course of the tax-and-spend Washington, D.C., starting right here in Iowa,” Nunn says. Axne has emphasized the votes she’s taken in congress, like her support of increased spending on infrastructure, including broadband and computer chip factories. “Put us in a new trajectory in this country,” Axne says, “bringing new jobs back to this country.”

3rd Congressional District highlighted in pink/mauve

The two candidates have had a sharp disagreement over abortion. Axne has been criticizing Nunn’s response during a debate in May with his Republican Primary competitors, when Nunn raised his hand in support of banning all abortions, without exceptions. “Women’s reproductive health decisions should be made between themselves, their family and their doctor,” Axne said.

Nunn has emphasized his votes in the state legislature for abortion restrictions that included exceptions. And Nunn has suggested the U.S. Supreme Court has left the issue to the states, not congress, to decide. “This is unfortunately one of the only things the Democrats in D.C. are trying to run on,” Nunn said.

Iowa’s new third congressional district covers 21 counties. It includes the cities of Jefferson and Des Moines at the top. It stairsteps down to Atlantic and Clarinda on the southwest, then goes all the way over to Ottumwa on the district’s southeast side.

(Radio Iowa)  – A Sioux City man is in custody, facing murder charges after a shooting early Saturday morning on the west side of Sioux City. Nineteen-year-old Joseph Cruz is charged with two counts of second degree murder, intimidating with a dangerous weapon causing serious injury and willful injury causing serious injury.

Sioux City Police were dispatched to a home around 2:15 a.m. Saturday. They found two shooting victims. one was dead at the scene. The other was pronounced dead at a local hospital. Cruz was later arrested and booked into the Woodbury County Jail where he’s being held pending a bond hearing.

(Radio Iowa) – State officials say a 24-year-old man running for from law enforcement in Davenport early Sunday was shot to death after shooting at police. According to a news release from the Iowa Department of Public Safety, several law enforcement agencies were patrolling an area near a strip club in Davenport. Officers tried to stop a vehicle shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, but the driver sped away and the vehicle crashed at a nearby intersection.

The occupants of the vehicle then ran and the state agency says officers in pursuit exchanged gun fire with 24-year-old Kenneth Jamal Carrol of Davenport, an occupant of the vehicle. He was hit and pronounced dead at the scene. None of the officers were injured.

The news release does not mention how many shots were fired, but it does say two state troopers, three Davenport police officers and one Bettendorf police officer fired their guns.

The Red Oak Police Department and the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 2 people were arrested on warrants during a joint operation on Sunday. At 5:50 a.m. law enforcement conducted a search of a residence in the 1500 block of Forest Avenue in Red Oak that led to the arrests of 27-year-old Angel Nichole Knowles of Council Bluffs on five Pottawattamie County bench warrants for Forgery and 4 counts of absence from custody. Also arrested was 30-year-old Johnathan Tyler Mcalpin of Red Oak on a Pottawattamie County bench warrant for Violation of Parole. Both were held on no bond.

(Johnson County, Iowa) – A collision between a car and a trailer of a semi tractor-trailer in eastern Iowa, resulted in the death of a man from Iowa City, Saturday morning. The Iowa State Patrol reports 22-year-old Riley Joseph Reynolds died, when the 2005 Ford Taurus he was driving, struck the trailer of a semi that was making a U-turn. The accident happened at around 2:15-a.m. on Highway 1 near 280th Street.

The Patrol says Riley Reynolds was traveling southbound, while the 2019 Freightliner semi, driven by 38-year-old Parvinder Kaur, of Elk Grove, CA, was completing a U-turn. The trailer was blocking the southbound lane when it was struck by the car. The Taurus entered the ditch  following the collision. Reynolds died at the scene. He was not wearing a seat belt.

The crash remains under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University engineers have received a grant from the E-P-A for research to help small rural communities reclaim wastewater and rainwater for other purposes like irrigation, firefighting, and drinking. Project leader Kaoru Ikuma says they are searching for options.

“When it comes to rural small communities, like many in Iowa, really it’s a struggle to find more than one type of water that they can use, and have the plan B if something goes wrong,” she says. She’ll work with researchers from the University of Rhode Island and the University of California-Berkeley for the next four years.

“What we want to do in this project is to help these smaller rural communities that do not have the resources to broaden their view in how they think about water and treating water, using water,” Ikuma says.

She says the researchers will look at different technologies to treat water, and they’ll also be testing the treated water for contaminants such as forever chemicals that are harder to remove. They’ve received three million dollars for the research.