Category: State News

WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – The man shot and killed by Waterloo police on Tuesday has been identified as Brent Boggess, 42 of Waterloo. Police say he was shot and killed after his vehicle rammed into a Waterloo police squad car during a police chase around 3:30 a.m.

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – The No. 8 Iowa women’s basketball team canceled a game against Drake on Sunday and won’t travel to the Cancun Challenge tournament because of positive COVID-19 tests in the program.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – All five Des Moines schools announced Friday they are leaving the Central Iowa Metropolitan League and forming a new conference with several other cities.
The new league will be called the Iowa Alliance Conference. It will be made up of 11 teams with two divisions. Ten of the teams are currently in the CIML. The South will be comprised of Des Moines East, Hoover, Lincoln, North, Roosevelt and Ottumwa. The North will be made up of Ames, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Mason City and Waterloo East.

CEDAR FALLS, IA (IRN) – RAYGUN shirts is adding a new store. On Friday, RAYGUN announced it’s adding a location in Cedar Falls. They expect the location to open spring 2022. This will be RAYGUN’s seventh location. The others include Des Moines, Omaha, Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Chicago and Kansas City.

ALTOONA, IA (IRN) – Inspectors with the Iowa Division of Labor found 17 separate safety violations with the ride where 11-year-old Michael Jaramillo died and his brother was seriously injured. The safety violations include improper repairs and inadequate records. Adventureland disputes the allegations.

ANKENY, IA (IRN) – Ankeny Police say three arrests have been made after its department received complaints about massage parlors. Search warrants were executed Wednesday at multiple locations, resulting in the arrest of three women on prostitution-related charges,

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Students and staff at Coe College in Cedar Rapids are protesting the treatment of a former Black trustee. Darryl Banks resigned last month. He expressed diversity and inclusion concerns about finding the next president of the college. Banks described a board meeting in October where he expressed concerns about diversity and was called a liar.

JOHNSTON, IA (IRN) – The discussion around two books featured in some Johnston High School learning plans turned into a heated debate Thursday night. The school district’s reconsideration committee held a public meeting following complaints about two novels: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. The committee didn’t remove the books, instead deciding to send warnings to parents about each book’s material in advance of the lesson.

CEDAR FALLS, IA (IRN) – Van Meter took home the title of 1A State Football Champions over West Sioux on Thursday. Not only did they take down West Sioux 17-14, Katie Lindsay was the first female to ever score at a state title football game.

EARTH (IRN) – The longest-lasting lunar eclipse since the year 1440 will happen late Thursday night into early Friday morning turning the moon blood red. Starting at 1:18 a.m. the full moon will enter the Earth’s shadow. Between 1:18 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., the moon will get dimmer and turn a shade of red. The max eclipse will occur at 3:02 a.m.

MONTICELLO, IA (IRN) – A Jones County deputy was injured and a suspect is in custody after a home explosion in Monticello. The female resident reported a disturbance with her husband, who was threatening to blow up the house. Officers arrived at the residence, where they found 62-year-old David John Costello in the basement. Authorities were attempting to communicate with Costello when he ignited an explosion in the basement. A deputy and Costello were injured, and transported to a local hospital.

WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Everyone is ok after a plane had to land unexpectedly at Waterloo Regional Airport Wednesday night due to a lost engine. A SkyWest flight from O’Hare to Mason City ended up landing in Waterloo fairly abruptly – only about 60 miles from its destination.

ANKENY, IA (IRN) – Union workers for John Deere will be going back to work after accepting the latest contract from the company. On Wednesday night, United Auto Workers voted on the third contract offered by John Deere. Of those who voted, 61% voted yes and 39% voted no.

AMES, IA (IRN) – Iowa hospitals are seeing one-third fewer patients battling COVID-19 than they were a year ago. Last year at this time Iowa’s coronavirus dashboard showed 1,527 were in hospitals across the state dealing with the coronavirus. As of Tuesday, numbers showed 544 patients with COVID-19 are in hospitals.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Des Moines Police Department attempting to track down a suspect in a brutal assault that lasted for several hours. According to police, “Evidence indicates that over a period of several hours, the victim was repeatedly, and intentionally, punched, kicked, choked, and burned by 25-year-old Ricardo Jeremiah Carroll.” The victim remains hospitalized and is expected to survive.

SIGOURNEY, IA (IRN) – A jury has found Steven Vogel guilty of killing 44-year-old Michael Williams, of Grinnell, in 2020. Vogel, 31, and three others were charged with burning Williams’ body in a rural Jasper County ditch. Vogel was convicted of first-degree murder and one count of abuse of a corpse. The three others were charged with abuse of a corpse, destruction of evidence and accessory after the fact.

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) – 46-year-old Marlin Santana Thomas of Des Moines was sentenced to life in prison for sex trafficking six adult victims by force, fraud, and coercion as well as trafficking a 14-year-old victim.

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – A former manager for an influential Iowa-based pork dealer has died in a crash, days after federal prosecutors charged him in a scheme to swindle hog farmers. Steven Demaray, 70, the former regional buying manager for Lynch Livestock, was driving a truck that crashed head-on Monday into a concrete overpass support pier on Highway 63 near New Hampton, where he lived.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowans can expect to see hundreds of millions of dollars go toward internet access, water quality and road construction through the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Senator Joni Ernst, and Representatives Miller-Meeks, Feenstra and Hinson, all Republicans, voted against it. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, and Congresswoman Cindy Axne, a Democrat, voted for it.

WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – A man has died after being shot by a Waterloo police officer after he refused to exit his vehicle and instead rammed a patrol car. The officer chased the suspect vehicle for several minutes. Additional officers arrived to help stop the suspect. Police then gave verbal orders for the suspect to exit the vehicle, but the driver accelerated, running into an occupied patrol vehicle head-on. That’s when an officer shot the suspect. The suspect, identified only as a 42-year-old man, died from his wounds.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A state audit report on government spending released Monday by auditor Rob Sand accused Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds of using nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay salaries for 21 staff members for three months last year and concealing the spending by passing it through the state Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.

OELWEIN, IA (IRN) – Anti Jewish graffiti has appeared on a billboard in Oelwein. It uses symbols used in a conspiracy theory blaming Jews for COVID-19.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Landus Cooperative, Iowa’s largest agricultural co-op, is considering moving its headquarters to downtown Des Moines from Ames. The Des Moines City Council on Monday approved preliminary terms of a development agreement offering Landus a $250,000 forgivable loan to help fund its relocation.

MASON CITY, IA (IRN) – There’s been an ongoing effort to remove Native American symbols from Iowa school mascots, and many districts are considering a name change to eliminate stereotypes. On Monday, the Mason City School Board decided to retire its ‘Mohawk’ mascot and name. A new mascot will be chosen at a later date.