Category: State News

FAYETTE, Iowa (KCRG) – Upper Iowa University is cutting 37 positions and closing seven of its regional education centers. Layoffs will impact the main campus in Fayette, and one location in Illinois and six sites in Wisconsin will be closing. University leaders cited dropping enrollment and shifting student needs.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The families of two students shot and killed inside a Des Moines educational program are suing Starts Right Here and its founder, William Holmes, for negligence. Eighteen-year-old Gionni Dameron and 16-year-old Rashad Carr died on Jan. 23 after gunfire erupted inside Starts Right Here. Holmes was wounded in the shooting. Another student, Preston Walls, is charged with the murders. Bravon Tukes is also facing murder charges. Police say Tukes was the getaway driver.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Police have charged a Des Moines man with murder, saying he shot a man six times at an apartment on Urbandale Avenue earlier this month. Joshua John Taylor, 22, is charged with first-degree murder in 23-year-old Dakota Toepfer’s death.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – The state of Iowa will enforce stricter penalties on those that are caught delivering or possessing fentanyl. Governor Reynolds signed a bill on Tuesday that will increase prison sentences for those convicted of dealing, or possessing the drug.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Wildfire smoke from fires in Alberta, Canada is moving south towards Iowa. The smoke is forecasted to spread across the area on Wednesday and Thursday before moving out of the area on Friday. Smoke from the wildfires will likely have an impact on our sunrises and sunsets. The smoke particles will change the way light is scattered in the atmosphere, causing both our sunrises and sunsets to have deeper shades of orange and red.

FOLLETTS, IA (IRN) – Deputies are investigating after a dead body was discovered in the backwaters of the Wapsipinicon River on Saturday. The teen’s body is that of 18-year-old Benjamin Williams, who had been reported missing earlier that day by two teenage campers.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A Menlo woman has been charged with theft and money laundering for allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from two former employers. Angel Welker, 44, forged checks and used company credit cards from Infomax Office Systems in Des Moines to buy over $50,000 in gift cards and make other unauthorized purchases last year. Authorities say she also forged more than $10,000 in checks while working at Vision Park Eye Care in Urbandale.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Polk County will start dropping larvicide from a helicopter into unincorporated areas of the county in an effort to lower the number of mosquitos.

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – Iowa football’s first Big Ten football game of the 2023 season will be broadcast on CBS2 this year. The game on the road against Penn State will air on September 23. This upcoming season will be the first season of the new TV deal between the Big Ten and CBS. The $7 billion deal starts this summer and runs through 2029-30 season. It will be the first time in several years no regular season Big Ten games will be broadcast on ESPN.

JASPER COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A central Iowa man died Friday night in a wrong-way crash on U.S. Highway 65 in Jasper County. Ronald Vasey, of Maxwell, was driving north in the southbound lanes near Collins when his 2020 Kia Soul collided with a semi-truck headed south around. Vasey, 79, died at the scene.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A man has been arrested more than one year after a shooting at a former Des Moines bar. Court documents say on March 19, 2022, 39-year-old Floyd Couch, of Minneapolis, got into a dispute with the victim at Whiskey River bar. Couch pulled out a gun and shot at the victim, but missed. As the victim tried to get away, Couch continued to follow the victim, shooting him twice. The victim was shot once in the upper torso and once in the leg.

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – Iowa City Police responded to the Clock Tower Parking Ramp Saturday night after officers heard multiple shots fired. They found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds on the sidewalk by the parking ramp. He was taken to a hospital for serious injuries. The suspect was last seen fleeing the area on foot with several other people involved in an altercation before the shooting.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines Police officers saved a two-week-old infant from a hot, locked car on Thursday. Officers arrived at the Primary Health Care Clinic in Des Moines and found a two-week-old infant inside of a locked car. The infant appeared to be unresponsive, so officers broke the car’s window. The baby’s parents were inside the clinic. The infant was unharmed, but one officer received lacerations to his hand.

MOUNT VERNON, IA (IRN) – Cornell College had its graduation on Saturday, but for one Eastern Iowa man the ceremony was especially meaningful because it was 80 years in the making. Fred Taylor is 101 years old. He was finally able to take part in his graduation ceremony getting his degree in music. He wasn’t able to attend his ceremony the first time because he left school to serve during World War II in the United States Army.

CEDAR COUNTY, IA (IRN) – The Iowa State Patrol reports at least one person is dead after a semi vs. train crash in Cedar County on Friday afternoon. The semi was crossing the railroad tracks when it was hit on the driver’s side of the cab by the train.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A lawsuit seeking class-action status has been filed against Governor Kim Reynolds and the State of Iowa over her decision to terminate participation in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief programs that provided additional unemployment benefits to Iowans. The lawsuit says Reynolds deprived Iowans “of life-sustaining benefits to which they were otherwise entitled.” Those benefits were part of the CARES Act passed in March 2020.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research says Iowa is below average at retaining college graduates. 42 other states are better at retaining them.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – While in Iowa on Thursday, Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy voiced support for changing the overall U.S. voting age to 25, unless younger Americans fulfill at least six months of service in the military or as a first responder, or pass the same citizenship test administered to those seeking to become naturalized citizens.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – In a split decision Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court backed a California law that impacts pork production in Iowa and across the country. Proposition 12 requires pork sold in California to come from farms where sows are given at least 24 sq. ft. of space with the ability to lie down and turn around, much different than the commonly used gestation crates California voters describe as animal cruelty. Iowa pork producers object.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Supreme Court is reversing course on a ruling it made six years ago, now saying Iowans can’t just file a lawsuit if they think their constitutional rights were violated by the state. Now those cases have to go through the state legislature first. Iowa’s highest court is currently made up of seven justices, all appointed by Republican governors.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – On Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a plan to allow the sale of raw milk in Iowa into law. Raw milk is milk that has not been pasteurized. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, raw milk can contain bacteria that cause illnesses.

AMES, IA (IRN) – If you want to attend one of Iowa’s public universities, prepare to pay up. The Iowa Board of Regents is planning to raise tuition by 3.5 percent in the 2023-2024 academic year.