ROCK VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have arrested a grandson of an 84-year-old man whose body was found by firefighters in northwest Iowa. The Rock Valley Police Department said in a news release Friday that 19-year-old Santos Rodriguez Jr. is charged with first-degree murder and arson in the slaying of Luis Luevanos. The older man’s body was found Oct. 29 after firefighters extinguished the blaze at the home he shared with Rodriguez. Investigators have since learned that Luevanos had been stabbed several times.

Police say Rodriguez left for Utah after the fire and was taken into custody there. Iowa investigators went to Utah to interview him, and police say Rodriguez admitted stabbing his grandfather and setting the fire. Court records don’t list an attorney who could comment for Rodriguez, who remains for now in Utah.

Events are taking place today (Friday) across the state in advance of Veteran’s Day, which in tomorrow (Saturday). In Sioux City, sailors from the soon to be commissioned U-S-S Sioux City are spending the weekend in the town for which their combat ship is named. This marks the second straight year that Command Master Chief Timothy Hardin has spent Veteran’s Day weekend in Sioux City. “This year, we wanted to do it again but bring different people. So, me and the commanding officer and the executive officer brought seven different people here so they visit and kind of connect the link between the ship Sioux City and the City of Sioux City,” Hardin said. The crew members, on Thursday, set up flags at Graceland Cemetery and along Lakeport Avenue. This morning (Friday-11am), they took part in a Veteran’s Day ceremony at the Sioux City Public Museum. On Saturday, the crew will attend two Veterans Day breakfasts, serve lunch at the Gospel Mission and attend a Sioux City Musketeers hockey game Saturday night. Hardin, who has served in the Navy for 25 years, said this weekend will be a great experience for his crew.

USS Sioux City Crew in SXC 11-9-17

“You get to meet the people and learn the history of the town named for the ship,” Hardin said. The crew’s training is wrapping up at the U-S-S Sioux City’s current port of Marinette (mair-uh-net), Wisconsin. The ship will be launched in the summer of 2018 with a week-long celebration in Maryland. Nearly 100 sailors are expected to be assigned to the ship. The U-S-S Sioux City is part of a class of vessels that will be deployed close to shore for combat and security missions.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s Deputies in Audubon County, Wednesday, arrested a Guthrie County man wanted on an outstanding Audubon County warrant. 35-year old Jason Dean Smits, of Jamaica, was picked up from the Greene County Jail and transported to the Audubon County Jail, were he was charged with Failure to Appear for an Order to Show Cause for Child Support. Smits posted a $1,000 bond and was released. He’s scheduled to appear in court on Monday, Nov. 13th.

And, 27-year old Cole Jacob Benton, of Hamlin, was arrested Thursday afternoon on a Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, charge. The charge was the result of an investigation into an incident at Benton’s residence. He was brought to the Audubon County Jail and later posted a $300 cash bond before being released. His court date was also set for Monday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal inspectors have repeatedly ordered a southeast Iowa fur farm to improve the living conditions for ferrets, foxes, raccoons and skunks it sells to government laboratories and pet stores. U.S. Department of Agriculture inspection reports say animals lived in sweltering heat or maggot-infested filth, sometimes with decomposing corpses in their cages at Ruby Fur Farm, located 65 miles (105 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.

Owner Randy Ruby declined to discuss the reports. But a spokeswoman at an animal business advocacy group says some of the inspectors’ claims were exaggerated and when there were problems Ruby addressed them. No enforcement action has been taken, but animal rights groups want the farm’s animal dealer license revoked and animals removed. A USDA spokesman has declined to say whether enforcement action is under consideration.

Clarinda Police Officers investigating a reported, possible burglary in progress, arrested a man on drug charges this (Friday) morning. Police Chief Keith Brothers says 29-year old Nathan Andrew Wilcoxen, of Coin, was arrested at around 6:30-p.m. for possession of methamphetamine and possession of Oxycontin without a prescription, as well as possession of drug paraphernalia. Wilcoxson was arrested while officers were investigating in the 300 block of N. 13th Street. He was being held at the Page County Jail on $2,300 bail.

Police reports have been submitted to the offices of Page County Attorney Carl M. Sonksen for review regarding the filing of formal charges.

A University of Iowa scientist says he and others who’ve served as advisers to the U-S Environmental Protection Agency are finding out in news stories they’ve been removed or demoted. Many of the scientists come from academia and say they’re being replaced by scientists from industries regulated by the E-P-A. Professor Peter Thorne heads the U-I’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health and says until recently, he chaired the E-P-A’s Science Advisory Board, the agency’s most prominent advising body. “I was term limited, but I was nominated to continue and I found out from the media that someone else had been asked to chair that going forward,” Thorne says. “So I have not gotten official word, but my name disappeared from the website this week, so that’s confirmation.”

Thorne says he’s worried changes at the E-P-A will limit the agency’s ability to protect public health and the environment. He says scientists from academic institutions serving as advisers are being “marginalized” by the agency’s new leadership. “The scientists are being replaced by industry scientists,” Thorne says, “people who have worked for industry, people who have worked for law firms that have sued the EPA.”

Thorne says scientists who get E-P-A funding for research are now blocked from serving as advisers to the agency. He made his comments on Iowa Public Radio’s program “River to River.”

(Radio Iowa)

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — MidAmerican Energy says it plans to spend $1 billion updating more than 700 older wind turbines across Iowa. The turbines will be retrofitted with newer, more efficient components, including longer blades, to extend their lifespans an estimated 20 years. The company says each upgraded turbine will annually net between 19 and 28 percent more energy.

The project is beginning with MidAmerican’s first three wind farms, built in 2004 in northern Iowa. Construction crews often work overnight, when winds die down. Work stops when the wind exceeds 20 mph.

One of the sounds of the Yuletide season will soon be heard in Iowa. The ringing of bells on street corners and outside of stores will mark the start of the Salvation Army’s annual fundraising campaign. Susan Eustice, spokeswoman for the charity’s Omaha-Council Bluffs chapter, says their tree-lighting celebration will be held tonight (Friday) and the tree itself is spectacular. “It is 75 feet tall, has 80,000 LED lights and 600 snowflakes,” Eustice says. “It’ll all light up as a signal that the Tree of Lights and the Red Kettle campaign will begin.”

The Salvation Army is putting out an urgent call for help. “We are in serious need of volunteer bell ringers in Omaha and Council Bluffs,” Eustice says. “To volunteer, it’s easy. Go online to RegisterToRing.com or call our volunteer office at 402-898-6000 and sign up.” Chapters across Iowa are seeking volunteers and that same website can be used. In Omaha-Council Bluffs, hundreds of helpers are needed to station themselves beside the red kettles. “We have over 130 sites and we have seven weeks, and that’s six days a week, to ring that bell,” Eustice says. “We need families, we need business groups, church groups to come out, adopt a kettle for a day or two and help us reach our goal.”

The tree-lighting event starts at 6-p.m. at 90th and Dodge Street in Omaha. There will be food, live entertainment, Santa and his reindeer. The kettles will remain out through December 23rd.

(Radio Iowa)