FORT DODGE, Iowa — Fort Dodge police are working to figure out if a threat made at Walmart is credible. Police confirm a picture was posted on social media, showing a threat written on a bathroom stall. The threat says they will “shoot it up tomorrow” (with Tuesday’s date). It also said “good luck” and included vulgarity. Investigators are working to find out who wrote the message. They have extra patrols at the store.

SANTA ANA, California (KCRG) – A John Doe homicide victim who was discovered 49 years ago in southern California has finally been identified. KCRG reports the victim was from eastern Iowa.  Authorities in California, say that on September 14th, 1974, a deceased teenage male was located near an off-road. Authorities at the time determined his death to be accidental, due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication in his system. They also determined he died 3 to 5 days before his body was found. At the time, officials were unable to establish his identity. Then, in 1980, Orange County, California, Homicide investigators noted that there were other young male deaths in 1978 due to alcohol and diazepam intoxication in that same area. The deaths were classified as homicides.

In 1983, Randy Steven Kraft, later known as the “Scorecard Killer” was arrested for murder after a highway patrol officer conducted a traffic stop on Kraft and located a deceased male in the front passenger seat. In the trunk of Kraft’s vehicle was a coded list believed to be upwards of 67 victims. John Doe was believed to be an early victim of his. Kraft was eventually convicted of 16 murders and sentenced to death. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.

In November 2022, Orange County investigators submitted tissue samples for John Doe to a private forensic biotechnology company to develop a DNA profile. In October 2023, after months of work building the genealogy database, investigators identified the possible grandparents of John Doe. After obtaining a DNA sample from a woman believed to be the mother of John Doe, investigators were able to positively identify John Doe as Michael Ray Schlicht, of Cedar Rapids, IA.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department says that family members have been notified and are in the process of having a headstone installed to mark his final resting place. Investigators are continuing to work on Michael’s case. Anyone with information related to this case is encouraged to contact Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS or crimestoppers.org.

(Radio Iowa) – The husband of a Sioux City woman convicted of voter fraud says he intends to complete his term on the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. Jeremy Taylor’s term ends next year. His wife was convicted last week of illegally collecting votes in Sioux City’s Vietnamese community for her husband when he was running for office in 2020. Mathew Ung, chairman of the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors, is among those who’ve called on Taylor to resign.

“Three of us have made public comment on this matter,” Ung says, “which is as good as a proclamation at a board meeting.” During Tuesday’s Woodbury County Board of Supervisors meeting, Ung again questioned whether Taylor was unaware of his wife’s election-related activities. “It’s hard to imagine a world where what actions and steps that were taken by one were not known by the other and that is where there’s a lot of public heartburn,” Ung says. Taylor has agreed to step down from his role as vice chair of the county board.

“But I will work hard to continue to complete my term and then I will focus on my family, because this has been very hard on them,” Taylor said. Taylor and his wife are the parents of six children. Woodbury County Auditor Pat Gill is calling on the board to ask Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to investigate both Jeremy and Kim Taylor’s activities during the primary and general elections in 2020.

Taylor, who is a Republican, has accused Gill, who is a Democrat, of trying to get him fired from his job in the Sioux City school district while he was deployed to Iraq. Taylor is an Iowa National Guard chaplain. Taylor did resign from the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors in early 2020 after the address listed on his voter registration was successfully challenged. Taylor lost a bid for congress in the June Primary that year, then was reelected to the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors in November of 2020.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says the government should not grant carbon pipeline developers authority to seize land from Iowans who do not want the pipeline on their property.  “You have a lot of other Republicans that have been trained to behave like circus monkeys on this issue. You’re supposed to dance to the tune of certain puppet masters. I refuse to do that,” Ramaswamy says. “Eminent domain should not be an option for anything to do with a carbon dioxide pipeline because it is not necessary.”

On Friday in Des Moines, Ramaswamy will appear at an event with a group of carbon pipeline opponents called the Free Soil Coalition. “Eminent domain is legally inappropriate,” Ramaswamy says. “I believe it is illegal and unconstitutional and I would like for at least Republicans to have the spine to stand up and at least speak that obvious truth.” Ramaswamy says his competitors for the G-O-P presidential nomination should clearly state their views on the issue. He’s also challenging Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who has endorsed rival Ron DeSantis, to say whether she’s on the side of eminent domain or not.

“Anybody who is implicitly or explicitly supporting the use of eminent domain for this carbon dioxide capture pipeline is on the wrong side of this issue,” Ramaswamy says. “I don’t care if they have an R after their name. I don’t care if they’re a governor you’re supposed to otherwise bow down to in the state of Iowa.” Ramaswamy says the issue exposes what he describes as the broken and corrupt state of the Republican Party establishment.  “And I’m frankly ashamed of a Republican Party that hasn’t had the spine to speak up about an issue that matters to this many constituents,” Ramaswamy says.

Ramaswamy says he’s met with influential Republican donor Bruce Rastetter, who owns Summit Carbon Solutions — the Iowa company seeking a state permit to construct and operate a pipeline to ship carbon out of ethanol plants to underground storage in North Dakota. Ramaswamy says pipeline backers are welcome to show up at Friday’s event to have a civil, open debate about the Summit and Wolf pipelines. Ramaswamy says the projects make no sense and the risks of running liquid carbon through an underground pipeline do not match the purported benefits.