The Harlan Police Department responded to call for a possible shooting on Sunday, August 17th at 12:30pm at 1401 19th Street.  When officers arrived at the location, which is the Harlan Community Intermediate School, they discovered a white male on the outside of the building with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The man was then determined by Medivac ambulance to have perished from the wound.

The Shelby County Medical examiner was called to the scene to pronounce the man dead and an autopsy was ordered with the body being taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny.

School was not in session at the time and no students were in the school at the time.  No danger was posed to anyone else and there was no entrance or attempted entrance to the building.

The investigation is ongoing.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Several price records fell as the livestock auctions at the Iowa State Fair raised $327,000 for scholarships this year. The Des Moines Register reports hundreds watched the auctions Saturday. The livestock was raised by students involved in 4-H and FFA groups, and the proceeds help provide scholarships for people interested in agriculture.

Seventeen-year-old Alexis Delaney says she had no idea her prized hog would sell for $50,000. Iowa Select Farms paid nearly double the previous record price. Delaney says she raised her hog, Frankie, in DeWitt since he was a piglet and fed him marshmallows as a treat.

Seventeen-year-old Truman Chamness of Blairsburg says he spent many long days taking care of his champion red heifer. His dedication paid off when Casey’s General Store paid $36,500 for the heifer.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa conservatives are continuing to fight the Common Core education standards, but it isn’t clear that the program will go away at the state level any time soon. The Common Core is a set of english and math standards that spell out what students should know and when. The standards have been attacked by conservatives, who say the federal government is overreaching into classrooms.

Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has not said he wants to eradicate Common Core here, though last year he signed an executive order clarifying that the state would continue to maintain control over education standards and testing. And earlier this month Branstad removed Iowa from an organization created to develop an assessment system for the Common Core standards.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — No one was injured after a homeowner using a small excavator tore open a residential natural gas line in Dubuque. The Telegraph Herald reports that the accident and resulting gas leak occurred around 10 a.m. Saturday. Officials say the gas leak was contained within an hour.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Davenport residents upset over a cellphone tower placed in the middle of a city park say they believe city officials did not follow local laws and regulations in approving the structure. The Quad-City Times reports that 180-foot tower is being built by AT and T in Emeis Park. The newspaper says that despite a city ordinance requiring new cell towers to go through a zoning board for a special-use permit, the city legal department deemed the permitting unnecessary.

ATLANTIC, Iowa (AP) — A motorcyclist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania died in a freak accident on Interstate 80 near Atlantic in western Iowa. The Council Bluffs Nonpareil reports that a wheel from a trailer being pulled by a westbound pickup came loose and struck 39-year-old Andrew Engle Thursday afternoon.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A delegation from Sioux City’s Japanese sister city has arrived in the northwest Iowa city. The Sioux City Journal reports that local officials met with the delegation Thursday as the group arrived for a five-day visit to the United States. Over the rest of their stay, the Japanese group will tour local schools and take in a minor league baseball game.