DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – An Iowa couple whose adopted baby was killed after his birth parents regained custody has won a $3.25 million judgment in a lawsuit against their adoption lawyer. The Des Moines Register reports their attorney allowed them to believe he’d gotten the baby’s birth mother to sign a critical release-of-custody document when he had not done so. The 3-month-old baby was returned to his birth mother. The child’s father, then 17, murdered the baby. He is serving a 50 year prison sentence.
LOUISA COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A teenager riding a bicycle died when hit by a car in Louisa County Wednesday evening just after sunset. KCII-TV reports a Ford Taurus driven by 26-year-old Alexander Cortes-Wolfe of Wapello was westbound and struck and killed 14-year-old Raeanna Reynolds of Muscatine.
WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – A Waterloo woman died weeks after receiving serious burns in a bonfire accident July 15. The Courier reports that 43-year-old Mary Ann Blow was burned when she poured a flammable liquid on a fire behind a relative’s home.
ALGONA, IA (IRN) – A Kossuth County auto dealer has been accused of theft. 56-year-old Scott Alan Krause is the owner and operator of the McGregor & Dodge car dealership in Algona. Krause allegedly overcharged customers by nearly $19,000 in tax, title and license fees, and illegally sold seven vehicles with liens on them.
AMES, IA (IRN) – Governor Kim Reynolds is asking the Board of Regents to find another way to deal with budget problems instead of raising tuition. WHO-TV reports school presidents say a lack of state funding is forcing their hands. They blame the state’s declining interest in funding higher education. In 1971 Iowa State University got nearly three-quarters of its budget from state funding. In 2016 just 26% of the school’s funding came from state dollars.
HIAWATHA, IA (IRN) – A new program in eastern Iowa is using music to help those with Down syndrome, according to KCRG-TV. The Hawkeye Area Down Syndrome Association hosts music therapy classes called Do Re Mi at the Hiawatha Library. One mother says music helps the children become better at speech, and that her daughter, “really comes alive when we incorporate the ABC song and other music” into the program.