More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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Jim Field visits with Atlantic School Superintendent Steve Barber about what might come next for education as officials ponder possibly re-starting the school year.
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WATERLOO, Iowa (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier) — Police in northeastern Iowa say a one-time boxer and suspect in a deadly, botched armored car heist last month is now charged in a fire that destroyed a well-known Waterloo restaurant. The Courier reports that 29-year-old Kevin Cruz Soliveras was arrested Monday on arson and burglary charges in the March 5 fire that gutted the Wishbone Restaurant and Bar.
Police say security video shows Cruz and another person breaking into the restaurant and coin-operated machines there before setting fires in the restaurant. Days later, police say, Cruz was part of a group that hatched plan to rob an armored car outside a Waterloo bank. The robbery failed when guards opened fire, wounding Cruz and another man and killing Bryce Miller.
The 7:20-a.m. Sportscast with Jim Field.
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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.
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Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report the arrest at around 6:30-a.m. today (Tuesday), of 48-year old Darold Eugene Bredberg, of Emerson. He was taken into custody in Red Oak on three warrants: A Bench warrant from Montgomery County for 2 counts Delivery of Methamphetamine (cash bond set at $100,000), and two Mills County warrants for Criminal Mischief in the 4th Degree, and Driving While License Denied (Total bond on those charges, $2,600). Bredberg was being held in the Montgomery County Jail.
WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (The Des Moines Register) — Officials say high winds hampered firefighters’ efforts to extinguish a fire in a huge assisted living complex under construction in West Des Moines, Monday. The Des Moines Register reports that the four-alarm fire was reported around 6 p.m. Fire officials say about a dozen construction workers were in the 200,000-square-foot at the time of the fire, but all were able to escape safely.
The facility, west of Jordan Creek Town Center, had been set to open in the fall. City Fire Marshal Mike Whitsell says winds gusting up to 45 mph, Monday, drove the fire and put neighboring buildings in the area at risk.
(Radio Iowa) — Former Iowa standout Jeff Horner won a conference championship and defeated cancer this past season as the coach at Truman State. Horner underwent several months of chemotherapy as the Bulldogs improved from 14-15 his first season at the helm to 23-8 this past season.
After struggling out of the gate to a 6-5 record Truman State turned it on to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship.
Horner announced in late August he was battling testicular cancer and he was proud of the way his players handled it.
With his treatment behind him Horner says he gets regular scans to make sure he is cancer free.
(Radio Iowa) — With coronavirus forcing the closings of the Tyson Foods pork plant at Columbus Junction and the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, additional pressure is being placed on pork producers. Lee Schulz is an agricultural economist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach with a focus on livestock marketing. Due to the plant closings, Schulz says pork producers may see a drop in their prices. “A 1% decrease in capacity decreases hog prices by about 1.8% and that’s using the historical data,” Schulz says. “Obviously, we’re out of the historical realm, but if you look at roughly a 10% decline in that capacity, that’s about an 18% decrease in price.”
Schulz says the nation had already been operating above the processing level from a year ago, while cold storage has also been at a surplus. He says consumers may not see much change in the price of pork, however, grocery stores and butcher shops may not be featuring any specials on pork products heading into the spring, just to maintain supply. “Retail pork prices have been really close to a year ago levels,” Schulz says. “We’ll expect to see that at retail, with maybe a little less featuring than we typically see in the spring when we’re ramping up to the summer grilling season.”
Schulz says with many restaurants having been forced to close, that’s also impacting the pork demand. “Product can’t be quickly diverted from food service into the retail market, and that’s really the kink in the supply chain,” Schulz says. “Really, the impact here is the slowdown in slaughter is going to have an impact on the availability at the retail level.” Schulz says pork producers will soon find themselves without much capacity as they are forced to hang on to their hogs that are ready for market, while newborn piglets recently weaned will be coming to finishing barns with no space available.
(Radio Iowa) — Sioux City’s police chief has confirmed he has tested positive for coronavirus. Police Chief Rex Mueller says he is one of the members of his department who has tested positive. The chief says he is in self-quarantine at home and his symptoms are very mild and he is doing well. It was revealed last week that several members of the Sioux City Police Department had tested positive for COVID-19. The chief is the only one to publicly come forward to say that he has tested positive.