DES MOINES, IA – A woman from Arizona woman was sentenced Thursday (today) in a Des Moines federal court, to six years in prison for Conspiracy to Damage an Energy Facility. According to the U-S Attorney’s Office, 32-year-old Ruby Katherine Montoya was ordered to serve three years of supervised release to follow her prison term and pay $3,198,512.70 in restitution.

According to court documents, Montoya, and co-defendant Jessica Reznicek, as early as November 8, 2016, and continuing until May 2, 2017, conspired with other individuals to damage the Dakota Access Pipeline at several locations within the Southern District of Iowa, Northern District of Iowa, and the District of South Dakota. Specifically, Montoya admitted to damaging and attempting to damage the pipeline by: (1) using an oxyacetylene cutting torch to burn holes in the pipeline, and (2) setting fire to pipeline instrumentation and equipment in Mahaska, Boone, and Wapello Counties within the Southern District of Iowa. Reznicek, was sentenced to 96 months imprisonment on June 30, 2021.

U.S. Attorney Richard D. Westphal said, “The sentence imposed today demonstrates that any crime of domestic terrorism will be aggressively investigated and prosecuted by the federal government. The seriousness of the defendant’s actions – that occurred multiple times, at different locations, resulting in over $3 million dollars in restitution – warranted the significant prison sentence imposed by the Court and should deter others who think of engaging in such criminal acts.”

Following the sentencing, FBI Omaha Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel said, “The sentence received by Ruby Montoya sends a clear message that those who commit violence through an act of domestic terrorism will be identified, investigated, and prosecuted. The FBI is committed to protecting the American people. We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to bring domestic terrorists to justice.”

The matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Iowa Department of Public Safety, Fusion Center; Iowa State Fire Marshall; Des Moines Police Department; Sheriff’s Departments in Mahaska, Boone, Buena Vista, Cherokee, Jasper, Polk, Sioux, and Wapello Counties in Iowa; Lincoln County in South Dakota; and Minnehaha County in Minnesota. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – A new exhibit at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art focuses on the fantastical dream world of surrealism with some very rare and familiar works now on display.

Museum curator Kate Kunau says surrealism encompassed writing, poetry, and theatre, not just the visual arts. She says the surrealist movement emerged in the wake of World War One and was a reaction to the monumental loss of life and the futility of war.

“Surreal comes from the French ‘sur’ or above, so they were looking for an ultimate super-reality,” Kunau says, “so they were very into dreams and the unconscious mind and searching for something beyond the reality of this world.” The exhibition is called, “Dreamscape: Surrealism from the Collection,” and it includes works dating back to the 1930s and running up through contemporary, modern artists who are still inspired by the genre.

Convex and Concave. (CR Museum of Art photo)

“Salvador Dali, who is perhaps the best known surrealist artist today, created these really wild dreamscapes, famously with the soft clocks representing memory,” Kunau says. “Rene Magritte really famously did the painting of the man with the apple in front of his face. There’s just a lot of different artists who interpreted it in different ways.”

The exhibit also features several works from M.C. Escher, who created intricately detailed works like “The Staircases to Nowhere” which defy gravity and reality. “They’re very classical Escher with his impossible figures, based off of actual mathematical principles,” Kunau says. “M.C. Escher is one of those really interesting artists that didn’t really fit in a genre and so he gets put in a lot of different ones. He’s in op art or optical art, obviously, because he does a lot with perspective and optical illusion. I find his work very surreal.”

Several lectures on the exhibit and on surrealism are scheduled over the coming weeks. “Dreamscapes” is on display through December 31st.

(Radio Iowa) – The state archeologist has determined a jawbone found in a remote area of the Iowa River likely belonged to a prehistoric man. Someone on the Marshall County Conservation Staff discovered the bone in early August while conducting a wildlife survey. The jawbone, which is the strongest bone on the human face, was sent to the State Medical Examiners Office. It was confirmed to be human, but with no modern significance. The bone was transferred to the Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa.

According to a news release from the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, experts have determined the bone likely belonged to a prehistoric Native American adult male.

The Iowa Archeology director says testing will be done to try to trace the bone to one of 26 tribes that lived in Iowa before Europeans settled in the area. If an ancestry link is found to a tribe, the bone will be returned over for burial. If not, it will be housed in the Office of the State Archeologist, a repository for bones that are 150 years old or older.

(Radio Iowa) – New Hampton police have arrested a 15-year-old student after the investigation into a threat against the school. Authorities say they were notified by administration of the threat Wednesday and began an investigation. Police say they arrested the 15-year-old juvenile male Thursday morning and charged him with threat of terrorism.

Authorities say they believe there is no credible evidence of an active threat to the school, students or staff.

(Radio Iowa) – The U-S-D-A has awarded a co-op in the southeast corner of Minnesota a five-point-six MILLION dollar grant to extend broadband access to farms and businesses in two counties in northeast Iowa. The project in Allamakee and Winneshiek Counties and a neighboring county in Minnesota will connect nearly a thousand people, 42 business and 122 farms to high-speed internet. U-S Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says applicants for this round of the agency’s “ReConnect” grants had to show they’ll meet certain thresholds.

“So that the download and upload speeds are significantly greater and there’s capacity to increase them even more,” Vilsack says.

The grant money comes from the infrastructure bill congress and the president approved last year. In this latest round of funding, a total of 502-million dollars in grants are going to projects in Iowa and 19 other states.