(Ft. Madison, Iowa) – Officials in southeast Iowa report an arrest has occurred in connection with the fatal shooting Wednesday evening, of a 15-year-old male. Police in Fort Madison say 17-year-old Dimari D.J. Meredith, of Ft. Madison, faces a felony charge of Murder in the 1st Degree in the shooting of the unidentified victim, who died at the hospital, from a single gunshot wound.

Meredith was arrested at the scene of the incident at a residence in the 4200 block of Avenue L. He was questioned and later transferred to the Lee County Juvenile Detention Center, pending arraignment. Pursuant to a search warrant, a weapon was recovered from the victim’s home, along with other items of evidence. The Iowa DCI is now assisting with the investigation.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa office of the U-S Small Business Administration is reporting the just-ended fiscal year saw upturns in both the amount of money lent and the number of loans made. District director Jayne Armstrong says the Iowa S-B-A made 263-million dollars in loans, an increase of almost 30-million, while the number of loans rose to 476, a boost of 43 loans over the previous year.

“It’s a nice surprise to see the increase, especially the large number of startups and business acquisitions that we’re seeing,” Armstrong says. “It’s a sign that the economy is really rebounding.” The S-B-A loans created more than two-thousand Iowa jobs, she says, while retaining another 34-hundred. There were no trends as far as rural versus urban, Armstrong says, nor were there any particular business types that sprang up or expanded in the past fiscal year.

“We’ve been doing a lot of work in underserved markets where there were gaps before,” Armstrong says. “Working with immigrant entrepreneurs and minority-owned businesses and everything that we traditionally do, too, with veterans and women-owned businesses and across the board with every sector we work with.” Armstrong says she’s thrilled with the work of her staff in providing so many traditional business loans, while at the same time administering all of the federal pandemic programs, like P-P-P and the Economic Injury Disaster loans.

“That really helped a lot of businesses with their cash flow to get through the tough months of the pandemic,” Armstrong says. “It really helped them to keep the lights on and to make it through it. It may’ve been the worst year that they’ve ever had but they’re still standing.” Polk, Linn and Black Hawk counties had the most loans during the year, while Polk County also had the highest amount of loans at more than 53-million dollars, followed by Linn and Scott counties.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s once-a-decade redistricting process has officially concluded. Governor Kim Reynolds has signed the lengthy bill that explains which county borders, highways, streets and roads are the new boundaries for Iowa’s congressional and legislative districts. The legislature overwhelmingly approved the new maps a week ago and Reynolds quickly announced she’d do so, too, whenever the bill reached her desk.

Governor Reynolds signs the redistricting plans into law. (photo from Governor’s Twitter feed.)

“I think it’s an indication that the process worked,” Reynolds says. “Lots of fear-mongering about gerrymandering that certainly didn’t play out and never really could in the State of Iowa.” Reynolds made those general comments about redistricting during a news conference on Wednesday. The new maps for Iowa’s four congressional districts, 50 state senate districts and 100 Iowa House districts will be used for the 2022 election, all the way through the 2030 election.

The redistricting process will start all over again in 2031 after the next U.S. Census.

(Radio Iowa) – Two students have been accused of murdering a 66-year-old Fairfield high school teacher. On Tuesday, Nohema Graber was reported missing by family members. Her remains were discovered Wednesday in a local park. Authorities have charged Willard Miller, age 16, and Jeremy Goodale, age 16, with first degree homicide, a Class A felony. According to a news release from the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office, the case against Miller and Goodale will be handled in adult court.

Graber was a Spanish teacher at Fairfield high school, where the two teenagers accused of her murder were students.