DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A former Des Moines lawyer and current assistant attorney general for the state is suing the Des Moines Police Department. Paxton Williams, who is Black, claims he was tackled, pepper-sprayed, and handcuffed for no reason during a 2020 racial justice protest in Des Moines. He said that police caused the violence that erupted that day.

IOWA (IRN) – The Iowa DCI’s Criminalistics Laboratory analyzed over 17,000 fentanyl pills disguised as prescription drugs in the state in 2021. In the first six months of 2022, the number has already quadrupled to over 70,000 fentanyl pills disguised as prescription drugs. Governor Kim Reynolds says it’s President Biden’s fault for not securing the border.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Dozens of protestors drove laps around Terrace Hill Tuesday asking Governor Reynolds to step in and stop a carbon capture pipeline from being built. Earlier Tuesday morning, the same protesters filled the Iowa Utilities Board meeting — asking the voting members to deny three companies permits to build carbon capture pipelines through hundreds of miles of Iowa farmland. Some say the pipelines will contribute to the climate crisis, ruin topsoil, pose a danger to the small Iowa communities and won’t save the ethanol industry.

AMES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has dispatched wildland firefighters to Alaska, Texas, and Colorado as wildfires continue to scorch areas out west. The fire program has been sending Iowa wildland firefighters to national incidents since 2006.