RED OAK, IA (IRN) – A child has died after a crash in Red Oak involving a patrol car. The Iowa State Patrol said it happened around 7 p.m. Monday. Red Oak officers were responding to an apartment fire when a patrol car hit a child in the road. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa’s Senate president opened the legislative session with an attack on the media and claims of a sinister agenda to normalize deviant behavior against children. Republican Jake Chapman used his opening speech Monday to challenge lawmakers to take a stand. He argued there is a “sinister agenda occurring right before our eyes.” Chapman has earlier called for jailing educators who provide what he considers obscene material to children. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The December derecho that hit Iowa is now considered a $1 billion disaster. The derecho was the final $1 billion disaster of 2021. Last year, the United States saw 20 disasters totaling at least $1 billion. That includes the historic deep freeze in Texas and wildfires in the West. LINN COUNTY, IA (IRN) – The Linn County Board of Supervisors voted 2-1 Monday night to support rezoning 750 acres of high quality farmland to be used for a solar farm west of Coggon. The applicant for the project is an Idaho clean energy company called Clenera. Clenera is proposing to operate the solar farm for 35 years, then remove the panels, restore the land and give it back to farmers in north Linn County. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowans wagered over $2 billion on sports in 2021. That’s a significant increase from 2020, when $575 million worth of sports bets were placed in the Hawkeye state. This past year, Iowans could register on their phone to place bets, instead of having to register in person at a sportsbook. 90% of sports bets in the state were placed online.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Public Health reports the state’s 14-day COVID-19 test positivity rate is now close to 20%. IDPH released new virus data Monday, showing 32,732 positive tests in the last seven days. That’s up from 24,935 at the last report on Friday. The state’s 14-day positivity rate is now 19.9%, up from 17.5% at the last report. WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – One person died Saturday after a shooting at a Waterloo convenience store. Waterloo Police said officers found the victim with several gunshot wounds around 10 p.m. Saturday at the Prime Mart. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Police are investigating a bombing threat at a Des Moines church. A crisis line counselor called Des Moines police saying they had been in an online conversation with a person who said they had placed multiple devices outside Burns United Methodist Church. The pastor of the historically Black church decided to hold services online as a precaution. Des Moines police searched the church and did not find a threat. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – West Des Moines police are investigating racial slurs targeting black Iowa lawmakers. On Friday, the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Progress Iowa hosted a “People’s Condition of the State” event ahead of the 2022 Iowa legislative session. The meeting was hijacked via Zoom. Hijackers said racist slurs and projected racist slurs and images onto the screen. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa’s labor commissioner says the state will not enforce the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 employees or more. This decision comes as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments regarding the mandate.

RIVERSIDE, IA (IRN) – Two people are dead after a fire in a Riverside home early Saturday morning. It happened just before 1:00am. 9-1-1 callers alerted first responders to the fire and that there were two people inside. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – West Des Moines police are investigating racial slurs targeting black Iowa lawmakers. On Friday, the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, and Progress Iowa hosted a “People’s Condition of the State” event ahead of the 2022 Iowa legislative session. The meeting was hijacked via Zoom. Hijackers said racist slurs and projected racist slurs and images onto the screen. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa’s labor commissioner says the state will not enforce the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for businesses with 100 employees or more. This decision comes as the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments regarding the mandate. FORT MADISON, IA (IRN) – An inmate assaulted a correctional officer at the maximum security Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison Friday evening. The officer was taken to the hospital. The inmate wasn’t injured.

ALTOONA, IA (IRN) – The Southeast Polk school board was forced to abruptly end its meeting Thursday evening due to a bomb threat that was made against the school board. Altoona police said the caller said he had placed bombs around the building and was going to shoot anyone who came out. SIOUX CITY, IA (IRN) – The state of Iowa is suing Sioux City over what it says was the city’s manipulation of wastewater testing results and dangerous pollution of the Missouri River in a scheme that saw the wastewater plant’s former supervisor sentenced to jail. POLK CITY, IA (IRN) – Roughly 26 years after it was stolen, a shotgun is back in the hands of its rightful owner in Polk City. Keith Lister now has his Remington 870 after it was found in Arkansas. Polk City Police say they received a call from the Mena, Arkansas Police Department saying they had a gun that was stolen from Polk City. The Police Department was notified after a pawn shop put the serial number of the gun through a nationwide reporting system to see if it was stolen. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The wind chill was 5 degrees below zero when Linda Houlton of Des Moines fell trying to get her mail, and for the next 19 minutes, she struggled in vain to get back on her feet and out of the cold.Though the home sits along busy Indianola Avenue, no one stopped to help until mailman Chris Meyer pulled up in a mail truck. Security video from the home shows he lifted Houlton off the ground, carried her to the house and, and then retrieved the mail she had dropped in the fall.

WEST BURLINGTON, IA (IRN) – Firefighters have found one person dead inside a burning mobile home near West Burlington. Crews worked to knock down the flames and found the body during a search of the home. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A former Republican representative said she is running for state auditor, accusing the Democratic incumbent of conducting “political witch hunts” that don’t help taxpayers. Mary Ann Hanusa said she would seek the GOP nomination to run against Democrat Rob Sand. Hanusa accused Sand of using the office to launch baseless investigations based on partisan politics. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A Des Moines-based church is having trouble getting its tax-exempt status because of the use of a psychedelic drug in its ceremonies. The Iowaska Church of Healing was founded in 2018. What’s in question is whether or not it can use Ayahuasca in its ceremonies. Ayahuasca is a plant-based psychedelic drug that has DMT in it, which is a hallucinogenic that is banned under the Federal Controlled Substances Act. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A man caused two wrong-way crashes on a Cedar Rapids highway on Thursday morning, then stripped naked and tried to run from the scene before being taken into custody. SAN ANGELO, TX (IRN) – Donald Huisinga went from being a high school student from Auburn, Iowa to jumping out of a plane during the U.S’s attack on Normandy in 1944 during World War II. After surviving the battles at Normandy, including a six-month stint as a prisoner of war, Huisinga moved back to the States, started a family, but lived with one major regret: not finishing his diploma at Auburn High School. Now he has–at age 98.