Category: State News

STORY CITY, IA (IRN) – A COVID-19 outbreak forced 200 kids to return home early from an Iowa summer camp. Riverside Bible Camp, located north of Story City, closed after multiple staff members tested positive for COVID-19. Most of the employees have mild symptoms and most staff members are either vaccinated or had COVID-19 a year prior.

ALGONA, IA (IRN) – An Iowa race track said Thursday that it will cut ties with an announcer who went on a racist rant against Black fans and athletes who kneel during the national anthem as a protest against racial inequality. The Kossuth County Speedway in Algona, Iowa, said its leaders “do not condone” the comments made by the announcer before the races on July 15, but it called them an isolated incident.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – A bill backed by Iowa Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst that increases funding for the victims of crime is now law. Ernst and Axne joined President Joe Biden at the White House on Thursday for the bill signing.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – The Iowa State Association of County Auditors plans to push for a salary raise of around $17,500 each year in response to new state laws passed during the last Republican controlled legislative session. The association says the laws make their jobs much more difficult, and their efforts subject to fines and penalties.

IOWA (IRN) – Iowa tops the list of structurally deficient bridges in the United States, according to data from the Federal Highway Administration. Structurally deficient means one of the key elements is in poor or worse condition. 19.1 percent of Iowa’s bridges are structurally deficient.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Democrat Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman, is running for Republican Chuck Grassley’s U.S. Senate seat. The 32-year-old former state lawmaker would offer a stark contrast to the 87-year-old Grassley, who was elected to his first term in the Senate eight years before Finkenauer was born.

IOWA (IRN) – The latest weekly update on the state of the coronavirus in Iowa shows a large increase in cases and hospitalizations, but no significant upward trend in deaths from the virus. Cases are up 51% over last week.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Numerous agencies in Polk County conducted a large-scale law enforcement operation on Wednesday. Arrest and search warrants, part of investigations by the Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force and the FBI, were executed at 13 locations.

IOWA (IRN) – Ticket sales for the Iowa Lottery have increased during the pandemic. Through the first 11 months of this fiscal year, Iowa Lottery sales totaled over $417 million. That’s a nearly 25 percent increase in sales and surpasses the previous 12-month record, which was $390 million in 2019.

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – There are reports that the University of Iowa plans to name the field at Kinnick Stadium for Duke Slater, a trailblazing Black player who was an All-American tackle a century ago, two people familiar with the proposal said Wednesday. After leaving Iowa, Slater became the NFL’s first Black lineman and a pioneering Chicago judge, and he will be inducted next month into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Slater died in 1966 at age 67.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Emergency responders and a hospital that treated a Cedar Rapids man for a gunshot wound after he allegedly killed his parents and sister must share his medical records with prosecutors, a judge ruled Tuesday. Alexander Jackson, 20, is charged with first-degree murder in the June 15 shooting deaths of his parents and 19-year-old sister in the family home.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A teenage girl was found dead in a vehicle that crashed into an apartment building in Cedar Rapids Tuesday. Police found a 15-year-old female who had died in the driver’s seat. She appeared to have died from a gunshot wound.

OSCEOLA, IA (IRN) – No one was injured in a fire that destroyed an airport hangar at the Osceola airport. Someone was doing welding work in the hangar before the fire started, but it’s unclear if that was the cause. At least two planes were also destroyed.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – The Linn County Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution that will put gambling on the November 2, 2021 ballot. The resolution will allow Linn County voters to decide whether to reauthorize gambling in the county. Per state statute, this measure must be voted on and approved twice, with an eight-year separation between the two votes, to allow gambling in Linn County permanently. Linn County voters first approved a gambling referendum in 2013.

TOKYO, JAPAN (IRN) – Since 1920, at least one wrestler either born in Iowa or competing collegiately in Iowa has represented Team USA in the Olympics. That’s 24 straight Olympics. Former Hawkeye wrestler Thomas Gilman is the latest, who will be wrestling at 57 kilograms or 125 pounds in the Tokyo Summer Olympics.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Cedar Rapids Mayor Brad Hart pressured a non-profit to cancel an event featuring one of his two opponents for the upcoming mayoral election. Hart suggested CSPS Hall, a non-profit involved in the arts, could lose funding from the city’s hotel-motel tax because it appears the non-profit is endorsing a candidate. Hart sits on a committee that recommends which non-profits should receive funds from the city’s hotel-motel tax.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines has been at capacity or close to capacity every day for the last several weeks, according to hospital officials. They say this is a result of an increase in children being treated for COVID-19, RSV and other illnesses.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Polk County hopes to get over 70% of its residents vaccinated against COVID-19 before the start of the next school year. After paying $150,000 over the last few weeks in a series of vaccine lotteries — Polk County said it’s slowly risen to a 64% vaccination rate. Officials say the recent increase in vaccinations could be attributed to the rise of the delta variant.

DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – Dubuque city council members voted unanimously to use federal money from the recent stimulus package, the American Rescue Plan, to help people behind on paying utility bills due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The city is currently reporting more than 900 delinquent accounts.

IOWA COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A man piloting a crop duster survived a crash into a cornfield when the plane had trouble taking off Monday afternoon. The Iowa County Sheriff’s Office says Robert Garrett, 45, was able to walk away from the crash uninjured. The plane lost power as Garrett was attempting to take off at the Amana Airport.

FORT DODGE, IA (IRN) – Fort Dodge is home to the Iowa State High School Softball Tournament and it has been for more than 50 years. That partnership isn’t ending anytime soon. Fort Dodge recently extended its partnership with the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union for the next five years.

DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – A Dubuque man twice convicted of killing his girlfriend was sentenced to 50 years in prison Thursday. Fontae Buelow, now 29, was arrested after Samantha Link, 21, died in March 2017 from three stab wounds.

DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – Dubuque Police have arrested a 15-year-old boy for allegedly shooting and killing an 18-year-old Saturday. Officers found the victim with a gunshot wound to the chest. Investigators used city traffic cameras, which captured the shooting, to track and capture the suspect.

CEDAR FALLS, IA (IRN) – Cedar Falls rescue crews say there was no hope in saving two people killed when a barn collapsed onto them Friday. Investigators determined that the two were killed instantly.

BAGLEY, IA (IRN) – Residents of the Guthrie County town of Bagley can now drink their tap water again, more than two years after authorities deemed it unsafe, thanks to the completion of a $1.2 million project. Residents had complained of brown, mucky water that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources found to be caused by levels of the element manganese high enough to render the water undrinkable.