WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Investigators have been looking for links between the fatal shooting of a man in Waterloo to two other shootings. Police say 33-year-old Gregory Walker died at a hospital after being shot at a home early Saturday morning. Police say two children were inside the home but weren’t injured. Police say three people were injured in the two other shootings, which occurred earlier Saturday.
No arrests have been reported.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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PLATTSMOUTH, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to jail for his role in a fatal traffic accident in eastern Nebraska. The Omaha World-Herald reports that Michael Bauman, of Rock Rapids, Iowa, was sentenced Thursday in Plattsmouth to 250 days in jail. He also was fined $1,000, and his driver’s license was revoked for a year. He’d pleaded no contest to misdemeanor vehicular homicide.

Authorities say he was driving south on Nebraska Highway 43 south of Eagle around 9 a.m. on July 14, 2017, when he turned his semitrailer left into the path of a northbound motorcycle. Forty-seven-year-old Chris Badman died in the collision. He lived in South Bend, Nebraska.

Officials with the Creston Police Department say 49-year old Brian Ward, of Creston, was arrested at around 8:10-p.m., Sunday. Ward was taken into custody for OWI/2nd offense, and Driving While [License] Suspended. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $3,000 bond. And, at around 9:40-a.m. Sunday, a Creston man who resides in the 700 block of W. Devoe, reported to police that his cell phone was taken from his porch sometime during the overnight hours of May 19th-20th. The loss was estimated at $50.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Firefighters and others have been searching for a man who was reported to have fallen into the Mississippi River in Davenport. Searchers combed the area near the Lake Davenport Sailing Club, where the man was working on a boat Saturday morning. Divers from the Big River Rescue and Recovery Dive Team joined the effort. The man’s name hasn’t been released.

Members of the CAM School District’s Board of Education will meet 6:30-p.m. today in the CAM High School Media Center. During their regular session, the Board will Discuss and/or act on: Approving salaries for classified staff for 2018-19, and Teacher Leadership position; the 2018-19 school calendar; contracts and/or resignations; a memorandum of understanding with Iowa Western Community College; approval of a sharing agreement with Atlantic School District, and other administrative matter.

Area law enforcement agencies and officials with the Governors Traffic Safety Bureau say that beginning today (May 21st) and until June 3rd, State and local law enforcement agencies across the United States will be stepping up enforcement with the Click It or Ticket campaign. This concentrated effort will be on the lookout for motorists who aren’t wearing their seat belts. Click It or Ticket is not just about writing traffic tickets; it’s about saving lives. In 2016, the last year in which the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has information, there were 10,428 unbuckled passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in the United States. That number is more than the population of Grimes, IA and of 99.5 percent of Iowa’s towns and cities.

According to NHTSA 48 percent of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes in 2016 were unrestrained. Almost twice as many males were killed in crashes and they had a lower seat belt use rate. It is even worse at night when 56 percent of the fatalities were unrestrained.

Patrick Hoye, Bureau Chief, Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau said, “If you have a friend or family member who does not buckle up when they drive, please encourage them to make it a habit. It is such a simple thing to do and it very well could save their life”.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety and the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau remind you that seat belts save lives, and everyone – front seat and back, child and adult – needs to remember to buckle up – every trip, every time!

A Davenport shooting victim has died. Davenport Police say 16-year-old Jovontia Jones died at University Hospitals in Iowa City. Officers were called to a report of shots fired in the central city Saturday night. They found shell casings and were investigating when a shooting victim, a young man, showed up in a private vehicle for treatment of life-threatening injuries at a Davenport hospital. He was transferred to Iowa City and police learned of his death on Sunday.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Economic Development Authority and Iowa Workforce Development have announced a plan where they will team up for a survey of the labor market in all 99 counties. Workforce Development’s Ryan Murphy oversees the labor market information division, and says it will be a study of what’s called the laborshed area.”I often compare it to a watershed area where you have lakes and streams that flow into a large bodies of water. People are more familiar with that,” Murphy says. “A laborshed area is more like a commuting pattern where we have people traveling in on two-lane highways, and walking to work and the interstate to a central employment area.”

He says it gives counties and idea of the source of workers. “Your employees come from much further away than your county right — it could be the next county over or two counties depending on if you are on an interstate or four-lane highway,” Murphy explains. “And it really shows the quantity, the size of your labor market area, your labor pool. So it better describes the area where your employer or perspective employers could be drawing their employees from.”  While it’s obvious in some counties where the workers are coming from — others aren’t as easy to figure out. “It’s very important for those border communities. We know we are not just getting people in Decorah for work from Winneshiek County. We know that there are people from Minnesota and Wisconsin that are also coming to that area for work. This helps employers identify where there could be pockets of available labor,” Murphy says.

The second phase of the laborshed study involves a phone survey of the potential labor pool. “Asking people about whether they are employed or not employed. Their wages, their benefits currently being offered, their occupations, their industry, their desired ages, their benefits, how far they are commuting,” Murphy explains. “One of the really unique data points that we have with the laborshed survey is where are people looking for jobs if they are looking. If they are likely to change employment or accept new employment — what resources are they using to do that?”  Iowa’s unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country. Murphy says the survey will hopefully help better match up employers with employees. “The laborshed study doesn’t create new people, so what we’re trying to do is really hone in on where there are pockets of available labor within the existing pool that we have,” according to Murphy.

With all the telemarketing and phone scams going on, it can be hard to get people to participate in the survey. Murphy says they try to let people know that this is a legitimate process. He says they send out news releases in the areas they are working in so people know if they are asked questions about their employment, they can know that it is a legitimate survey from Iowa Workforce Development.  They will begin the laborshed study in July and plan to complete 44 counties in the first year and the remaining 45 in the second year. Murphy says they are using state and federal funds for the survey and it will cost around 950-thousand dollars each year. The data from the surveys will be provided to local economic development organizations and partners for free.

(Radio Iowa)