SAC COUNTY, IA (IRN) – An employee for two hog confinement sites was arrested for livestock neglect after Sheriff’s deputies discovered over 1,000 dead pigs in Sac County on Thursday. Elana May Laber, 33, who was employed to take care of the animals, said she knew the pigs had been dead for a week but didn’t know what to do.

​​DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a longstanding precedent that allowed landowners to sue for damages when a neighboring hog farm causes water pollution or odor problems that affect quality of life. The reversal is a significant blow to property owners who live in rural areas who want to take legal action over expanding hog farms. Iowa is the nation’s leading pork producer with 23 million pigs.

NEW YORK, IA (IRN) Brownells, an Iowa gun distributor, was sued along with nine other gun distributors by the state of New York for their alleged role in “ghost gun” sales in the state on Wednesday. According to the lawsuit, the gun distributors allegedly sold gun parts called frames and receivers to residents of New York and did not follow state and federal laws while doing so. Frames and receivers are often used to build ‘ghost guns’ that are untraceable for law enforcement.

U.S.A. (IRN) – In a seismic shift in college athletics, the Big Ten voted Thursday to add Southern California and UCLA as conference members beginning in 2024. The expansion to 16 teams will make the Big Ten the first conference to stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.