MORAVIA (IRN) – A mechanical malfunction is the likely cause of an exploding boat at Lake Rathbun Sunday. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported five people were burned when a boat engine exploded during start up at the Buck Creek Arm of the lake at 3 p.m. One of the individuals injured was flown by helicopter to the University of Iowa Hospital with severe burns.

SIOUX CITY (IRN) – A Woodbury County woman intends to go trial in a case involved more than 50 counts of voter fraud. KTIV-TV reports Kim Taylor, the wife of Woodbury County Supervisor Jeremy Taylor, was alleged to take part in a scheme to generate voters in the June 2020 primary election. Her husband ran for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, and failed, only to successfully land on the ballot for supervisor. Kim allegedly repeated the scheme in the 2020 general election. The trial is currently scheduled to start on July 31st.

DEWITT (IRN) – The Central DeWitt school board and administration violated Iowa code when they held a closed meeting in February 2022. The Iowa Capital Dispatch reports Judge Mark Lawson ruled in favor of The Observer, a DeWitt based newspaper that sued the district over the actual purpose of the meeting; the district held that it was for a review of Superintendent Dan Peterson, but the newspaper alleged there was discussion of controversial topics that would have been in the public’s interest. The schools will pay the court costs of the paper and release the meeting’s recording, and have also been placed under an order to comply with transparency laws, or face stiffer penalties.

Residents of Iowa will travel in record numbers for Independence Day. AAA forecasts more than 3.7 million travelers from the Midwest will take at least one trip of 50 miles or more since last Friday through Today. That’s 140,000 more holiday travelers than the previous record high, set in 2019 and 2022. Nationally, travel figures are also expected to set new records. An estimated 50.7 million Americans are forecast to travel for the holiday weekend.