CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A major financial rating agency has lowered its bond ratings for an Iowa town because of how it is financing a $70 million arena. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that S&P Global Ratings pointed to Coralville’s bank loans with variable interest rates to pay for the planned 5,700-seat arena set to open in 2020. The arena would host the University of Iowa’s home volleyball games and concerts.
City leaders say they remain confident the project does not threaten Coralville’s finances.

S&P this month lowered its rating for Coralville’s general obligation bonds from BBB+ to BB+, making it “non-investment grade.” The rating for bonds back by annual appropriations dropped from BBB to BB. An S&P report said the city has a “heightened debt burden” and exposure to high interest rates.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman whose son died from a drug overdose has had a chance to hear his heart beat again in the chest of an Ohio man who received it as an organ donation. The Quad City Times reports that Lisa Bragg met Friday in Davenport with Kenneth Vogelsong, of Sherwood, Ohio. She and family members put a stethoscope to Vogelsong’s chest to listen.

Bragg’s 27-year-old son, Markus Abbott, died in January, and his heart was transplanted in Vogelsong. With the help of donor networks, Bragg and Vogelsong exchanged letters, emails, and texts and agreed by phone to meet.

Vogelsong is a is a 45-year-old father of four who was close to death because he had an enlarged heart that couldn’t efficiently pump blood to other organs.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (6.6MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Iowa State Patrol says four people were injured during two separate eastern Iowa accidents. Just after 2-a.m. today (Saturday), three people were hurt during during a rear-end collision in Bremer County. Authorities say a 1995 Chrysler Cirrus driven by 48-year old Donald F. Fairholm, of Charles City, was traveling north on Highway 218. A 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup driven by 57-year old Bambi K. Teska, of Charles City was behind the car traveling at a slow speed, when it was struck by a northbound 2015 Ford van, driven by 49-year old James E. Garner, of Dunlap. The van was traveling at a high rate of speed when it struck the pickup. The impact caused the pickup to hit the rear of the Chrysler. All three drivers were hurt. They were transported to the Charles City Hospital by Chickasaw County Ambulance. The accident remains under investigation.

And, at around 3:10-p.m. Friday, a two-vehicle accident in Black Hawk County injured a passenger in one of the vehicles. The State Patrol says a 2011 Chevy Equinox driven by 27-year old Justina Brown, of Waverly, had pulled to a stop in the gore of the ramp at U-S Highway 218 northbound and U-S Highway 58 southbound, in the untraveled portion, when it was hit from behind by a 2003 Dodge Durango, driven by 16-year old Joshua Michael, of Charles City. The accident happened when the Durango went out of control and hit a concrete bridge rail before striking the rear of the Chevy. The road surface was ice-covered at the time of the crash. A passenger, 19-year old Zaria Middleton, of Charles City,  was injured and transported to Satori Hospital, in Cedar Falls.

Authorities cited Joshua Michael for Failure to Maintain Control.

HOLY CROSS, Iowa (AP) — Bob Hayes picked up the phone Dec. 21 and gave the usual greeting. “Holy Cross Locker, Bob speaking,” he said. A few seconds pass. Suddenly, Hayes chimes in again. “All right, 30 packages, that’s 60 pounds, all smoked, got it.” He jotted down the order on a piece of paper and pinned it to a wall already smothered with similarly sized notes. Thirty packages. Sixty pounds. It was a larger-than-usual order for the Holy Cross Locker. But practically every order for the past few weeks has been of a similar size. “People are in panic mode,” Hayes told the Telegraph Herald . “We got a guy coming up from Minnesota who ordered 100 pounds.”

Those massive orders started coming in November, shortly after Hayes announced that after 72 years in business, the Holy Cross Locker will permanently close Dec. 29. Founded in 1946 by Vic Brecht and Louie Hayes, who was Bob’s father, Holy Cross Locker has been one of the cornerstone meat processors in the tri-state area for generations. Much of the business remains the same as it did more than 70 years ago. A chipped wood countertop sits at the entrance. Ink-stained meat-labeling stamps dangle from the wall. Family photos hang on the massive freezer door. Hayes can’t remember when he started working at the locker with his father. He’s pretty sure by middle school he was slicing up cuts. But what he is certain of is that the locker has been a second home for his entire life.

Now, at 67 years old, he’s hanging up the smock. It’s not that he is tired of meat processing, he said. It’s just time to move on. The locker’s closing will hit meat enthusiasts throughout the tri-state area and beyond. Holy Cross Locker is known for producing some of the finest smoked sausage, with many farmers claiming it has no equal. While he enjoys working with meat, Hayes said he mostly is going to miss the people, whether it be his customers or his longtime employees who he now considers family. Still, he’s looking forward to his retirement. All that stands in the way now is a few thousand pounds of meat.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Des Moines man with murder in the deaths of his mother and uncle. Detectives on Friday night charged 30-year-old Joshua Lee Adams with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, 49-year-old Tracy Linn Adams, and his uncle, 54-year-old Gaylord George Jolly Jr. Police say both of the victims died of “sharp-force injuries.” Adams was charged hours after officers were called to a home in northeast Des Moines to check a report of an assault. They found the bodies inside. Both of the victims were residents of Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) — A volunteer firefighter from northwest Iowa was the first person on the scene after a small plane crashed in a Sioux Falls, South Dakota neighborhood Thursday. Amy Niewohner, of Lawton, was visiting relatives two houses away when the small plane hit the ground and burst into flames. “It was like very movie show plane crash you’ve ever seen — it was the big whir of the engine and a large crash — it shook the entire house. My first instinct was a motorcycle or car had crashed and blown up. So we rushed to the door, and as we were peering out the door we could see a plume of smoke coming out of the house,” Niewohner says.

Her firefighter instincts kicked in and she went to the scene of the crash. “There is debris everywhere, junks of flaming debris, parts of it were up in a tree on fire,” Niewohner says. “I ran up to the back fence to see if there was anybody out, if anything could be done, but there were too many flames. Immediately, everything was engulfed.” Niewohner was worried the people in nearby homes might be injured. She says she went and pounded on the door of the house that was hit and a neighbor came up and said they were not home. There was no one in the other house either.

Niewohner says it is something she will never forget. “It was one of the most surreal things I have ever experienced. I mean that’s one thing you hope you never witness,” according to Niewohner. “We were so, so fortunate, as were all the other neighboring families… somebody was watching over that entire neighborhood.” Niewohner says she thought of the pilot and passenger who died in the crash. Vaughn and JoAnn Meyer were killed in the crash.

Red Oak Police, early this (Saturday) morning, arrested a man for Public Intoxication. Authorities say 24-year old Richard Charles Golden, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 400 block of E. Grimes Street, at around 12:50-a.m. He was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

Police in Red Oak say a man arrested Thursday night for Public Intoxication, was arrested Friday night, on a charge of Simple Assault. 45-year old James Reed Mitroff, II was arrested at around 8:50-p.m in the 100 block of W. Reed Street, on the simple misdemeanor charge. Mitroff was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 cash bond.

Police in Council Bluffs say three teens were taken into custody late Friday night following the armed robbery of a convenience store. Authorities say officers were called to the White Oak Station located at 154 Bennett Avenue, just after 10-p.m., where three male subjects wearing masks entered the business and one brandished a handgun. They soon left the store with an undisclosed amount of cash and cigarettes.

Officers quickly arrived on location and set up a perimeter. A police service dog was able to track the path of the suspects. Officers soon located all three suspects, the loaded handgun, and the stolen property. No shots were fired and no one was injured. The three suspects were juvenile males. Two were 16-years old, the third was 15. Their names were withheld by Police.

The Council Bluffs Police Department was assisted during the incident by the Pottawattamie and Mills County Sheriff’s Offices, and the Iowa State Patrol.