MT. PLEASANT, IA (IRN) – A Romanian man has been identified as the suspect in last week’s robbery at US Bank in Mount Pleasant. KCII-radio reports 19-year-old Ionel Niculescu has been identified as the male subject that robbed the US Bank September 14th. Niculescu had fled the scene possibly in a white Dodge Ram truck with an undisclosed amount of money. He is currently wanted out of Canada and another country and is part of a traveling Romanian band that targets coin shops, banks, jewelry stores, and large department stores.
IOWA (IRN) – Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 2.5 percent in August, giving the state the second-lowest rate in the country. Iowa Workforce Development reported today that the unemployment rate dropped from 2.6 percent in July and was down from 3 percent a year ago. Iowa was only behind Hawaii, which has the nation’s lowest rate of 2.1 percent.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – 20-year-old Magai Anai-Kur will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing a Des Moines man during a robbery. WHO-TV reports Anai-Kur assaulted 77 year old Robert Howe during a home invasion in September 2017. Howe later died of his injuries.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Wells Fargo plans to cut its workforce by as much as 10 percent within the next three years, according to the Des Moines Register. The company is Des Moines’ largest employer with 14,500 employees. Wells Fargo has been rocked by scandal and regulatory issues, including revelations the bank opened millions of fake accounts and charged thousands of customers for auto insurance they didn’t need.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A state ethics board says Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds did nothing wrong in accepting nine rides on private jets in the last 14 months. The Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board on Thursday considered two complaints about a December trip to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis when Reynolds, her husband and two children flew on a private jet owned by the chief executive of Sedgwick. The company was paid $1 million last year to administer workers’ compensation claims for state employees.
DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Ground was broken Thursday on a new $8 million FedEx cargo building at the Des Moines Airport. KCCI-TV reports the project is a decade long effort that will move several airport business around and create a new $434 million airport terminal. The FedEx cargo project should be finished by the end of 2019, and the new Des Moines Airport terminal should be complete by 2026.