DES MOINES (IRN) – A woman accused of abusing three young children she was watching in her Pleasant Hill home has pled guilty to two counts of child endangerment. WOI-TV reports in May, 28-year-old Christina Williamson was arrested and charged with five counts of child endangerment. Williamson’s husband recorded her abusing children under her care at her in-home daycare and turned the video over to police.

DES MOINES (IRN) – The teen birth rate is down, according to the Des Moines Register. Teen pregnancy continues to much rarer than it used to be, mainly because many young people are more careful about sex than their parents and grandparents were, experts say. The rate has dropped by more than half in two decades, and by more than two-thirds since its peak in the late 1950s.

WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Waterloo police have arrested a man after he allegedly attempted to abduct a man Monday morning. The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reports the assailant also beat a woman with a revolver, which discharged when he struck her, and then shot at her when she fled in her vehicle. The man then put the gun to the head of the woman’s friend, and forced him into a car and drove away. Tyray Dantrell Smith, 33, was arrested for kidnapping among other charges.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The emerald ash borer has been confirmed in Cedar Rapids in Linn County. There are now twenty-nine counties in Iowa confirmed positive with this invasive pest. EAB has spread to 25 states destroying tens of millions of ash trees

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA (IRN) – A 9-year-old girl is in the hospital after being struck by a train Sunday afternoon in Council Bluffs. KETV reports witnesses heard the girl scream. Officers found her conscious and alert, lying between two sets of train tracks. She is in “stable” condition with a skull fracture. It appears the girl attempted to cross the tracks after a train had passed and was struck by a second train she didn’t know was coming.

NEWTON, IA (IRN) – A fire broke out in a restaurant’s kitchen in Newton Sunday evening, causing smoke damage to nearby businesses. KCCI-TV reports the fire broke out at Panda Garden while customers and employees were inside the restaurant. The fire likely started on the stove and spread up to the ceiling. At least six other businesses suffered smoke damage, including a mortgage company, dress shop and a county building. No one was injured.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – A Floyd County man who’s been fighting the life sentence he received on federal firearms charges is now trying to take his case to the Supreme Court. KIMT-TV reports 43-year-old Randy Lee Patrie pled guilty in 2014 to a charge of felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of sawed-off shotguns.  He received a longer sentence than usual because of prior convictions and the judge considered him an “armed career criminal.”

NORWALK, IA (IRN) – A fire early this morning has forced a family from its Norwalk home. WHO-TV reports when crews arrived, flames were rising from the back porch. Authorities say the fire started on a grill that sparked, then quickly spread to the entire porch area. Everyone was able to get out of the house safely.