(Radio Iowa) — Two felons listed on the U-S Marshall’s “Most Wanted” list were caught after a high-speed chase that started in Sergeant Bluff and ended nearly 30 miles later in Le Mars.  The two have been identified as Gabriel Verbeski and Chase Riessen. They were seen driving a pickup truck and was clocked at going over 100 mph as they entered Le Mars. Police officers gave chase as the two tried to elude officers by traveling through streets and across residents lawns. The two left the pickup and fled on foot and were chased by both Le Mars Police officers and Plymouth County Sheriff’s deputies. They were arrested a short time later, and taken to the Plymouth County Jail.

Verbeski had felony warrants for running away from the Sioux City Residential Treatment Facility for a third time. Chase Riessen is also wanted on felony warrants for running away from Sioux City’s Residential Treatment Facility after assaulting two staff members. A woman identified as Holly Vandehoef was with the two felons, and was also arrested at the scene. The three face multiple drug charges, plus eluding. Additional charges are pending.

(Radio Iowa) — Ancient, unusual and a tongue-twister — just a few of the words Iowa lawmakers are using to describe a pre-historic weapon that’s made its way onto the pages of proposed legislation. A three-member panel of senators took up a bill this week that would let people use what’s essentially a spear-thrower to hunt deer in Iowa. The name of this weapon is a little weird. Pronouncing it properly is a challenge. “No, we don’t seem to have an agreement on that.” That is Senator Tom Shipley. He admits there was a good bit of laughter as senators in a subcommittee took at shot at it. “Everybody seems to know what we’re talking about when we mumble through it,” Shipley says. It’s called an atlatl (at-LAT-ull). That is the preferred pronunciation from hunters who’ve posted videos about the weapon online.

Archaeologists believe the atlatl was first used in North America about 13-thousand years ago. The bow-and-arrow began replacing the atalt for hunting about three-thousand years ago. Senator Shipley, who is from Corning, says some hunters from his area asked if hunting deer in Iowa with an atlatl could be legalized. “I looked into it and realized that two of our neighboring states close to me — Nebraska and Missouri — allow it,” Shipley said. Alabama does, too. So, Shipley’s sponsoring a bill to do the same in Iowa. “These things have been used for thousands of years to hunt with, so it’s probably the oldest form out there,” Shipley says.

According to the World Atlatl Association, atlatls are one of humankind’s first mechanical inventions. The atlatl is “essentially a stick with a handle on one end.” There’s a socket at the other. The spear is placed in that socket and “the flipping motion of the atlatl propels the spear much faster and farther than it could be thrown by hand alone.” As for whether it’s an effective hunting weapon, Shipley offers this opinion: “It’s just like everything else. It depends on who’s on the other end of it.”

Atlatls have long been legal to use in Alaska for spearing fish and big game animals.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:48 a.m. CST

CORALVILLE/IOWA CITY – One person is dead, another was injured during a multi-vehicle collision on a 100% ice covered I-80 westbound Thursday afternoon, near Coralville. The Iowa State Patrol reports the collision involved seven passenger vehicles and four semi tractor-trailers. Diminished or reduced visibility was also a factor. The names of the victims has not yet been released. The accident, which happened at around 3:30-p.m. near the 242.5-mile marker, remains under investigation.

CHICAGO (AP) — The bitter cold that gripped the Midwest forced commuters to bundle up like polar explorers. But by early next week, many of those same people might be able to get by with a light jacket or even short sleeves. Forecasts say temperatures could climb by as much as 80 degrees over the next few days. Experts say the rapid thaw is unprecedented, and it could create problems of its own _ bursting pipes, flooding rivers and crumbling roads.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than half of the Republican-dominated Iowa Senate is backing a constitutional amendment aimed at weakening the state court system’s power to review abortion restrictions. The move comes just days after an Iowa judge overturned what would have been the nation’s broadest such limit, banning abortions when a “fetal heartbeat” is detected.” The amendment would expressly state that the state constitution “does not secure or protect a right to abortion.

CRESCO, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Sherrod Brown is making his first trip to Iowa as a presidential prospect. The three-term swing-state senator is visiting the leadoff caucus state in Cresco, in the one county in the nation both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Donald Trump won by at least 20 percentage points. Brown is testing a message aimed at reaching working-class voters who also lifted Trump to victory in 2016 in swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Joni Ernst is expressing frustration with Iowa Congressman Steve King’s comments about immigration and white supremacy. Ernst told Iowa reporters Thursday that she shouldn’t have to be “spending precious time talking about white supremacy and comments by a member of our delegation.” King claims his comments were taken out of context. The House rebuked him and he was denied any committee assignments.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A majority of legislators in the Iowa Senate, frustrated at repeated court rulings declaring anti-abortion laws unconstitutional, have introduced a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would declare it “does not secure or protect a right to abortion.”

The proposed amendment was introduced Jan. 24 by Republican Sen. Jake Chapman two days after a state court judge struck down yet another attempt by the Legislature to limit abortion. It has the backing of 29 senators.

Chapman says the court created a right that doesn’t exist in the constitution. The House must pass a similar resolution and the Legislature must pass it again next year before it would be placed on a statewide ballot. Voters in Alabama and West Virginia passed similar constitutional amendments in November.

LE MARS, Iowa (AP) — A woman who says she babysat an Iowa infant who was later left to die in a baby swing testified at the mother’s trial that the baby seemed underweight. The Courier reports that Jennifer Schriever, who had been a neighbor of 21-year-old Cheyanne Harris’, testified Thursday during the second day of Harris’ murder trial that she offered to babysit for Harris in July 2017.

Schriever said the first time she babysat, Harris left then-3-month-old Sterling Koehn and a 2-year-old girl with her for 17 hours. Schriever said the baby had a raw diaper rash and seemed underweight, but ate hungrily.

Schriever said she babysat one other time before the baby was found dead Aug. 30, 2017. An autopsy shows he died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper for up to two weeks.

The boy’s father, Zachary Koehn, already has been sentenced to life in prison.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republican Sen. Joni Ernst is expressing frustration with Iowa  Congressman Steve King’s comments about immigration and white supremacy. Ernst told Iowa reporters Thursday that she shouldn’t have to be “spending precious time talking about white supremacy and comments by a member of our delegation.”

Ernst says “we really do need to start focusing on our speech and watching our tone.” She says everyone would be better off focusing on the issues and not on religious or ethnic differences.

King, a nine-term House member, caused an uproar after he was quoted in the New York Times stating, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”

King, a Republican, claims his comments were taken out of context. The House rebuked him and Republicans stripped him of committee assignments.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds’ proposal to restore voting rights to felons after they’ve served their sentences has passed its first legislative hurdle with unusual bipartisan support and rare endorsement from a broad spectrum of victim rights, civil rights and religious groups.
The two Republicans and one Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to advance the governor’s bill to a full committee.

The bill calls for a constitutional amendment and must pass the House and Senate in consecutive, separately elected legislative sessions before going for a public vote. Among groups favoring the bill were the American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault and Family Leader Foundation.

The Iowa Organization for Victim Assistance wants to add the requirement of repayment of restitution before a felon gets voting rights restored, a sentiment also expressed by some senators.
Some supporters of the measure say that could delay restoration of voting rights for the poorest of felons by years.

MERCURY, Nev. (AP) — A person fatally shot by law enforcement officers during a confrontation at a U.S. nuclear security site in Nevada has been identified as an Iowa man. Nye County Sheriff Sharon Wehrly said Thursday that the man killed Monday was 27-year old Nekiylo Dawayne Graves, from Waterloo. Wehrly said in a video news release that a sheriff’s deputy and a security officer shot Graves when he refused commands and continued to approach them following a pursuit after Graves’ vehicle failed to stop at the security gate at the Nevada National Security Site.

The site is located 70 miles north of Las Vegas. Wehrly said the FBI and the Nevada Department of Public Safety are investigating the incident and that her agency is conducting an internal affairs investigation.

Three people died and two others were injured during an accident this (Thursday) morning south of Denison, in Crawford County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 1997 Ford Windstar van driven by 52-year old Penny Hulsebus, of Defiance, was traveling north on Highway 59 at around 5:10-a.m., at the same time a 2008 Nissan Rogue driven by 46-year old Saul Armando Guzman Orellana, of Denison, was traveling southbound. The van crossed the center line of the highway and struck the SUV head-on. Hulsebus, and two rear seat passengers in the SUV died at the scene. They were identified as 48-year old Maria Petra Garcia Hernandez, and 42-year old Ericka Leticia Dionicio, both of Denison.

Orellana and a third passenger in his SUV, 50-year old Herme Yaneth Guzman Hernandez, of Denison, were injured in the crash. They were transported by Crawford County Ambulance to the Crawford County Memorial Hospital, and later transferred to The UNMC in Omaha, by LifeNet and Midwest Air ambulance, respectively. All of the crash victims were wearing their seat belts. The accident remains under investigation.

The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Crawford County Sheriff’s Dept., Crawford County Rescue & Ambulance, Manilla Rescue, and the Denison Police Dept.

The dangerously cold weather was still setting low-temperature records in many Iowa communities Thursday morning. It was minus 30 in Cedar Rapids, shattering previous record -21 set Jan. 31, 1996. The low of -28 in Iowa City was 10 degrees colder than the previous record of -18 set Jan. 31, 1996. New lows for the date also were set in Dubuque and Waterloo. The bitter cold chilling the middle of the U.S. also broke records in several Iowa cities Wednesday, including Des Moines.

A meteorologist says parts of the northern U.S. are going to experience an “unprecedented” and “dramatic warm-up.” Weather Underground’s meteorology director Jeff Masters says places in Michigan and Illinois experiencing record or near-record cold this week are expected to be around 50 degrees Fahrenheit by Monday. He said Thursday that he hasn’t before seen a 70-degree shift in temperature during the winter. He says “past record-cold waves have not dissipated this quickly” and that the region seems headed for “spring-like temperatures.”

Masters says the polar vortex is “rotating up into Canada” and is not expected to return in the next couple of weeks. He says it might return in late February, but if it does, “it won’t be as intense.”