CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A Cedar Rapids woman was arrested Tuesday on over 25 charges of identity theft from multiple victims, and a string of fraudulent purchases and financial accounts that resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in losses for the victims. Police say 44-year-old Jennifer Smith used the identity of at least four different people for her personal financial gain.

TAYLOR COUNTY, IA (IRN) – The beach at Lake of Three Fires in Taylor County is closed temporarily for swimming. The closure is because of Naegleria fowleri, also known as the “brain-eating amoeba.” A Missouri resident has a confirmed infection after they were potentially exposed while swimming at the lake. Authorities are conducting tests to confirm if the amoeba, which can cause rare life-threatening brain infections, is in the lake. Infections can only occur if the contaminated water gets up a swimmer’s nose, and cannot be spread from one person to another.

USA (IRN) – The nation’s largest food distributor has joined other businesses accusing the four largest meat processors of working together to inflate beef prices. Sysco recently filed a federal lawsuit accusing Tyson Foods, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef of price-fixing. The lawsuit says the companies have conspired to suppress the number of cattle slaughtered to help drive up the price of beef.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Wells Fargo announced another round of layoffs in the Des Moines metro, more than doubling the number of workers at the banking giant who have lost jobs in central Iowa so far this year. A total of 197 people have lost their jobs because of a downturn in the housing market.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Approximately 40% of Mediacom subscribers in Iowa were left without service Tuesday afternoon. Mediacom says the outage was caused by a software bug to a large router operated by a third-party. The company has installed software updates and rebooted its system since the outage.