LINCOLN, NE (IRN) – The body of a missing Nebraska woman has been found, and two Iowans are in custody. KETV reports Sydney Loofe, the Lincoln woman who went missing in mid-November, has been found dead in Nebraska. 51-year-old Aubrey Trail and 23-year-old and Bailey Boswell, both from Iowa, are in custody and being questioned by officials. Trail and Boswell were booked into jail in Missouri on November 3.
ALEDO, IL (IRN) – A Burlington man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for beating an elderly man and leaving him for dead. WQAD-TV reports it happened at a farmhouse in Joy, Illinois last May. 56-year-old Brian Tully admitted robbing and beating 83-year-old Fred Rooth in the head with a metal lamp. Rooth is still recovering after several surgeries. Rooth was implicated in other burglaries in several different counties when he was arrested in the May attack.
DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – A woman is dead and a man has been charged with her murder in Dubuque, according to KWQC-TV. 42-year-old Beverly Puccio met 36-year-old Michael Piantieri at a bar December 3. The two left and went to her home, where they fought and she was killed. He’s in jail.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is defending GOP efforts to reduce the hit to the wealthy from the federal estate tax because it helps those who invest rather than people who spend their money on “booze or women or movies.” Grassley says his comments were taken out of context by the Des Moines Register.
EAGLE GROVE, IA (IRN) – A long-time Forest City radio host for KIOW-FM who was fired Monday for making racist comments towards the Eagle Grove High School basketball team has apologized. Some members of the community aren’t accepting the apology, saying he meant what he said, and his remarks were ‘filled with hate.” Eagle Grove School District superintendent Jess Tolliver says a quarter of the district is Hispanic and that number is growing. He says, “If it wasn’t for diversity, we wouldn’t be here…diversity has kept our schools alive and has brought more than 1,000 jobs to our community.”
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Navy will give a posthumous combat medal to the family of a Dubuque sailor on the 76th anniversary of his death on the battleship USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Father Aloysius Schmitt has been awarded the Silver Star. Schmitt helped shipmates escape to safety as the Oklahoma was capsizing during the attack on Dec. 7, 1941, giving his own life to save others. More than 400 sailors on the ship died.