(Radio Iowa) – Officials say more than 100 people have been displaced by a massive fire that raced through an extended stay hotel in West Des Moines early Tuesday. According to The Des Moines Register, about 130 rooms at the Valley West Inn were occupied when the fire started late Monday night. West Des Moines officials say residents were crawling and jumping out of windows to escape the blaze.

Online records indicate the hotel was built about 50 years ago. The facility was heavily damaged by the fire.

(Radio Iowa) – A 19-year-old and a teenager face charges after an incident that authorities say started at a central Iowa school. The principal at Saydel High School placed the school on lockdown at about 7:40 a.m. yesterday after a student reported someone in the parking lot had a gun. According to a news release from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, deputies tried to stop the vehicle after it left the school, the car crashed into a yard, the occupants ran, but were caught. Officials say drugs, a 22 caliber rifle and three guns that shoot non-lethal, plastic pellets were found in the vehicle.

A 19-year-old woman has been charged with carrying weapons and interference with official acts. The 16-year-old boy is accused of possession with intent to deliver meth and marijuana, carrying a weapon on school grounds and a variety of driving-related infractions, including driving without a license and without the owner’s consent.

There was also a 15 year old boy in the car, but no charged were filed against him and he was released to his parents.

(Radio Iowa) – Des Moines Police say an officer shot a woman armed with a knife who had reportedly threatened a man in downtown Des Moines. According to a news release from Des Moines Police, a man called 9-1-1 just before 6:30 p.m. to say a white woman armed with a knife tried to stab him as he was walking and was still following him.

An officer was dispatched to the area and police say the women turned her attention to the officer, started advancing and ignored his commands. The news release indicates the officer shot the woman less than a minute after he arrived on the scene.

The woman was taken to a nearby Des Moines hospital for treatment. The officer was not injured.

(Audubon, Iowa) – Audubon Democrats have announced two special guests will be attending their annual fall fundraiser Sunday October 17th “after church” between 11 and 2 at Albert the Bull Park.

Ross Wilburn is an Iowan politician and social worker serving as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives elected in November 2018 from House District 46. Wilburn has served as chair of the Iowa Democratic Party since January 2021. Sunday he will address issues critical to western Iowa farmers and their rural main street communities.

Ross Wilburn

Dr. Glenn Hurst, US Senator candidate, chairs the Iowa Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus and the party’s 3rd District Central Committee. He was involved in founding a branch of Indivisible, a progressive activist organization, in western Iowa. He operates a private medical practice in Minden, where he sits on the city council.

Dr. Glen Hurst

Abby Finkenauer, Glenn Hurst, and Dave Muhlbauer are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate Iowa on June 7, 2022. The general election against Grassley will occur on November 8, 2022.

The public is invited to meet Dr. Hurst and Chairman Wilburn on Sunday the 17th at Albert the Bull Park after church from 11-2.

Mason City, Iowa – On October 3rd, 2021, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was requested by the Mason City Police Department to investigate a homicide, followed by an officer-involved shooting that occurred in Mason City.

On October 3, 2021 at about 1:13 AM,  the Mason City Police Department responded to a 911 call at the Happy Donkey Bar located at 5 South Federal Avenue in Mason City, Iowa for a report of shots fired.  At about the same time, Mason City Police Officer Noah Friese was on foot nearby and heard the shots fired.

Officer Friese identified two male subjects running toward him as approached the area. Friese ordered the subjects, later identified as Jelani Faulk, age 25, of Chicago, Illinois and Kristopher Keys, age 24, of Dubuque, Iowa to the ground.  Keys complied with the officers’ orders.  Faulk pointed a handgun towards Friese.  Friese shot at Faulk, striking him.   Faulk was transported to the MercyOne North Iowa for medical treatment.  Friese was uninjured.

Officers then located a shooting victim from the original shots fired call near the Happy Donkey Bar.  That subject was identified as Christopher Tucker, age 35, of Garner, Iowa.  Tucker was airlifted to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, with multiple gunshot wounds. Tucker died from those injures on October 4th, 2021.

Jelani Faulk is in custody at the Cerro Gordo County Jail.  He is charged with Interference with Official Acts, a class D felony, and a federal probation violation.  Charges are currently being filed against Faulk charging him with one count of Murder in the First Degree, a class A felony.

This incident remains under investigation by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.  Anyone with information is encouraged to call Special Agent in Charge Mike Krapfl at 563-599-4239.

Upon completion of this investigation, the results will be forwarded to the Cerro Gordo County Attorney’s Office for review.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in Iowa Senate have rejected the first plan for redrawing the boundaries for Iowa’s four congressional districts, 100 Iowa House districts and 50 Iowa Senate districts. The bill came up for debate in the Iowa Senate early this (Tuesday) afternoon. Senator Roby Smith of Davenport was the only Republican to speak.

“In assessing this plan there are clear indications that Plan 1 can be improved by a second iteration addressing compactness and population deviation,” he said. Once the bill failed in the Senate, there was no need for House members to take a vote. All 32 Republicans in the Senate voted against the plan. The 18 Democrats voted for it. Senator Pam Jochum, a Democrat from Dubuque.

The current map is on top, and the proposed (rejected) map is on the bottom.

“The maps before us satisfy the Iowa law and the Iowa Constitution,” Jochum said. Senator Tony Bisignano, a Democrat from Des Moines, suggests the ultimate goal of Republicans is to get to a third plan which, by law, can be amended by legislators. “We’re going to get trapped into a scenario that’s going to make Iowa look like some of the worst gerrymandering states in the United States,” Bisignano said. “…You move to the third plan, it will destroy this institution. It will destroy your majority. It will destroy your party also.” Smith, speaking on behalf of Republicans in the senate, says Iowa stipulates that districts resemble, as much as possible, squares, rectangles or hexagons.

“This map includes a triangle, a pyramid, a figure eight and a district that is so irregular it looks like the 1800s salamander known for gerrymandering,” Smith said. Republicans have passed a resolution outlining some of their specific objections to the first plan for redistricting. “One House seat, House District 18, which is nested within a senate district, is over 300 miles in perimeter. Its Senate District — Senate District 9 — is 307 miles in perimeter,” Smith said. “…In terms of population…the state senate map has a range of nearly 500 people above and below the ideal population. These deviations, along with compactness, should improve.”

By state law, the non-partisan Legislative Committee now has up to 35 days — in the second week of November — to submit a second plan to legislators. Plan 2 for redistricting cannot be amended either. The state constitution requires the new plan for redistricting to be approved by mid-September, but the U.S. Census population data for Iowa didn’t arrive until mid-August — five months late. The Iowa Supreme Court has given the legislature until December 1 to approve a redistricting plan, following the steps outlined in state law for the process.

(Radio Iowa) – Cedar Rapids police say their cold case unit has closed the unsolved murder of a 17-year-old 50 years ago. Maureen Brubaker-Farley disappeared on September 20th of 1971 and her body was found four days later on the trunk of an abandoned car in a wooded ravine on the southwest side of Cedar Rapids. Police investigator, Matt Denlinger, says they have determined that George M. Smith is the man who killed Brubaker-Farley.

“He was pretty high on their radar back in 1971 along with a few other people. He was a suspect identified early on in the investigation — but there hadn’t been any definitive evidence to really attach him to this crime until 2005 when the D-N-A was developed from some of the evidence in the case,” Denlinger says. The investigation determined Brubaker-Farley had been taken to the location after she died from a head injury — and had also been sexually assaulted. Smith died in 2013 — but Denlinger says they were eventually able to get D-N-A from a relative of Smith in 2021 — and had it checked against D-N-A recovered at the crime scene.

Maureen Brubaker-Farley. (photo from Iowa Cold Cases website)

Denlinger says that match determined that the D-N-A matched the D-N-A of Smith. Denlinger says he had mixed emotions knowing the case was solved — but the man responsible was dead. “It was a little bittersweet — but in the end, our focus is to bring resolution to these cases — and answers to the families,” according to Denlinger. “As long as we keep focused on that, we just keep pushing forward on these cases.” Denlinger says  “In my experience, that answer is really important to the families. It was in this case. Their reaction and their appreciation to the C-R-P-D and the generation of investigators who worked on this case, they were extremely appreciative,” he says. “And so, I am rewarded in that I did get to tell them and see how much that meant to them.”

Maureen’s mother Mary Brubaker is 86 and lives in Sioux City. Her father David died in 2002, and she has four surviving siblings and one who has died. The murder happened before Denlinger was born, and he says the work that he finished was based on solid work done at the time. “The unfortunate thing is that although the clock is ticking — you can’t rush your investigation. You want to make sure that you get it right and you get the answer right,” Denlinger says. “In 1971 that was their goal — is to get it right and not cut corners. And because they did things right back then, that preserved enough evidence that we solved it now.”

The Cedar Rapids police chief recognized the contributions of Denlinger, retired D-C-I Special Agent J.D. Smith, and retired Cedar Rapids Police Lieutenant Ken Washburn for their work to close the case.