CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Cedar Rapids says an Iowa man has pled guilty to a scheme that targeted elderly people across the country. 37-year-old Carlos Rodriguez of Dubuque pled guilty to wire fraud. Rodriguez says a fellow schemer would call an elderly person and tell him or her that a relative was in jail. The caller would then ask for money to be wired so the relative could be released. Rodriguez was among those who picked up the wired money.
OMAHA, NE (IRN) – A former Winnebago Tribal Council member has pled guilty to his role in stealing from the tribe’s casino in Iowa. The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Lawrence Payer is one of nine former council members accused of a conspiracy to siphon more than $327,000 from the WinneVegas Casino in Sloan, Iowa.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Florida police have arrested a Florida man on charges of threatening to kill Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds, and other public officials. KCCI-TV reports 59-year-old Richard Gillow posted on Facebook that he would kill the public officials, all of whom he believed to be involved in the removal of his daughter’s children by DHS. Gillow says the government kidnapped his grandchildren.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines police are investigating two shootings yesterday. WHO-TV reports a driver reported his car was hit by gunfire, and moments later a man arrived at Broadlawns Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. In the second shooting, a man was shot twice in the arm by another man passing in a car. The injured man then returned fire, but police aren’t sure if anyone else was hit.
DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – A similar name to a massage parlor is hurting a Dubuque flower shop, according to KCRG-TV. The owner of Neighborhood Floral, Cards, and More says people aren’t coming to her shop because they are confusing it with a massage parlor in the same strip mall. The name of the massage parlor is the Flower Garden, and it’s at the center of a police investigation into prostitution.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – U.S. Rep. Rod Blum walked out of a television interview in front of a group of schoolchildren in Dubuque on Monday when pressed by a KCRG-TV reporter about not allowing people from out of his district into his town halls. Blum said he didn’t want non-district attendees at the meetings because he doesn’t represent them. When asked by the reporter if he took contributions from people outside of the district, Blum walked out.