Category: State News

IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – A daycare provider has been charged after a 7-month-old child at the daycare was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. KCRG-TV reports 49-year-old Wendy Young was acting as a daycare provider for children in Iowa City. Young admitted to having 10 to 12 cans of beer before arriving at the daycare.

OSAGE, IA (IRN) – A Mitchell county man has been charged with 3rd degree kidnapping, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, and possession of drug paraphernalia. KIMT-TV reports 43-year-old Timothy Eugene Hines is in jail. HIs victim is a 14-year-old girl.

LINN COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A driver has been convicted on two counts of homicide by vehicle and reckless driving. KGAN-TV reports 35-year-old Keith Furne was texting while driving when he ran into a vehicle near Robins in 2016. Two teenagers were killed, and another was seriously injured.

NEWTON, IA (IRN) – A crash involving two vehicles on Interstate 80 near Newton slowed traffic for hours Wednesday morning. KCCI-TV reports a semi with a flatbed trailer hauling large spools of wire was sideswiped by another vehicle. The crash left the semi-trailer overturned, causing an 11,000-pound spool of wire to hang over the side of the bridge and the railroad tracks below. No one was injured.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Our seemingly never-ending winter is impacting gardening centers and their ability to make money, according to WHO-TV. Lucille Vannoy of Lucille’s Garden Center in Bondurant has been in business for decades, and has seen a lot of Iowa winters. She says, “I’ve had bad years of snow and stuff, but this is really different–I have shrubs and trees and roses that would be out front in a normal year, but this year, nothing.”

BETTENDORF, IA (IRN) – A first grade teacher at Jefferson Elementary School in Bettendorf has opened up a hair salon in her classroom. WQAD-TV reports students can schedule appointments before school and during lunch periods to get the latest hairstyle from teacher Emily Hill. But the styles aren’t free. To pay, each student has to choose a book and read aloud for ten minutes to Miss Hill.

DES MOINES COUNTY, IA (IRN) – The Des Moines County Sheriff’s office is investigating an incident that left one woman dead. KCRG-TV reports deputies and a Mediapolis fire crew responded to a car on fire in a field and found the dead woman next to the flaming vehicle. Deputies also found 57-year-old Bradley Wischmeier on scene and he admitted to driving the vehicle in the field when it got stuck and caught fire.

URBANDALE, IA (IRN) – Police arrested an Urbandale mother Monday after an autopsy showed her six-month-old son died of an overdose of liquid Benadryl. KCCI-TV reports 33-year-old Latyia Johnston has been charged in connection with the child’s death. The amount of Benadryl she gave the boy was eight times the dose recommended for a child his size.

WAUKON, IA (IRN) – A Waukon man has been charged with second degree murder in the fatal shooting of his roommate, who was also his stepfather. KCRG-TV reports 32-year-old John Quanrude reported an accidental shooting at a trailer court. Officers found 60-year-old Dean Russell lying face down on the floor with a gunshot wound to the chest. Quanrude told police he had fired a “warning shot” and then fired a second shot that hit Russell.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A vehicle went through the front of a Cedar Rapids business Tuesday. KGAN-TV reports police and firefighters were called to the Orange Leaf after a Toyota Rav4 crashed through the glass entrance. No one was hurt.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A snake in the bathtub has one couple in Des Moines wanting out of the lease they have at their apartment building. WHO-TV reports when the couple moved in January 1, they didn’t see any problems, but since then brown water is coming through the walls, mold is becoming an issue, and they have started seeing mice and rats. The snake was the last straw. The landlord says it was only a “garden snake.”

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Seven Iowa Younkers stores will close. The locations include stores in the Des Moines metro at the Merle Hay Mall and Jordan Creek. Stores will also close in Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Dubuque, Mason City and Sioux City. The closures are expected to happen in the next two months.

MARION, IA (IRN) – A man died after his pickup truck rolled on top of him at a Marion Dairy Queen drive thru. KCRG-TV reports Curtis Schantz’s pick up truck broke down while he was waiting in the drive thru. Schantz got out to repair it and the F Series Super Duty truck rolled on top of him. Crews rushed him to the hospital where he died. Schantz was 74.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – An Amber Alert for two young boys who went missing from the Clinton County town of Toronto has been cancelled after the boys were found safe. They were taken by a non-custodial parent who was considered possibly suicidal or homicidal.

CLIVE, IA (IRN) – The man behind Mr. Massage Iowa in Clive is behind bars. KCCI-TV reports Gage Bauer, 26, turned himself in to police Monday for allegedly sexually abusing a 17-year-old client and attempting to sexually abuse another client. He’s in jail.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Andie Dominick, an editorial writer at the Des Moines Register has won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing. She won for a series of Iowa-focused editorials criticizing policies that restrict access to health care. It’s the Register’s 17th Pulitzer Prize, and its first since 2010. The Pulitzer Prize citation states that Dominick won “for examining in a clear, indignant voice, free of cliché or sentimentality, the damaging consequences for poor Iowa residents of privatizing the state’s administration of Medicaid.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A trial has been scheduled for an Iowa youth basketball coach who’s accused of secretly recording some of his players undressing. KCRG-TV reports 42-year-old Greg Stephen has pleaded not guilty to knowingly transporting child pornography. The ex-Iowa Barnstormers co-director has acknowledged taking secret videos of three players disrobing in a hotel bathroom in Illinois in January. He told investigators he recorded the adolescents in an attempt to monitor their physical development.

LA PORTE CITY, IA (IRN) – The FBI is now involved in the search for a missing Black Hawk County teen, according to KIMT-TV. Jake Wilson, 16, was last seen near Wolf Creek in La Porte City on the evening of April 7. The FBI is now asking the public to send in any photos or videos they may have taken in La Porte City on that day to help locate the autistic boy.

WARREN COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A Des Moines man has been charged in the death of a woman in Warren County. WHO-TV reports on April 2nd, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of suspicious activity at a home. When they arrived, officials found the body of 25-year-old Mercedes Wathen of Cambridge. 18-year-old Jacquarious J’Ray Scoggins of Des has been charged with first degree murder. He’s in jail.

WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Waterloo Police Sergeant Robert J Greenlee III was found dead in his home yesterday, according to KWWL-TV. Police say his death does not appear suspicious. Cause of death is pending an autopsy.

LOS ANGELES, CA (IRN) – An eastern Iowa native performed on Sunday night’s episode of American Idol. Maddie Poppe of Clarksville is one of the top 24 contestants in the competition. She performed the song “Brand New Key,” and the judges praised her performance.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Altoona police have captured a woman they say is responsible for preventing spring-like weather from arriving in Iowa. KCCI-TV reports the Altoona Police Department posted on its Facebook page that officers caught well-known Disney character Queen Elsa, also known as the Snow Queen, so spring can finally arrive. The post says, “it’s January 105th and we are sick of the snow, Elsa! Just let it go!” Elsa will be extradited back to her Kingdom of Isolation, and police say they prefer the weather in the place where another Disney heroine — Moana — lives.

LA PORTE CITY, IA (IRN) – Authorities are asking for more information on a person who could be connected to the disappearance of a La Porte City teen, according to KCRG-TV. Jake Wilson, 16, is on the autism spectrum and first went missing the evening of ‪April 7,. Saturday morning, Black Hawk County Sheriff Tony Thompson said authorities were looking for any information on a person who was spotted walking in the area near where Wilson was last seen.

DAVENPORT, IA (IRN) – One man was hurt early Saturday morning after an explosion at an apartment building in Davenport. WQAD-TV reports the first crews on scene found a six unit apartment building with debris in the front and back yards. All other tenants in the building were located by the fire crew and evacuated safely. The explosion and fire are under investigation.

WEST DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A party bus carrying 21 passengers overturned Saturday afternoon in West Des Moines, and everyone made it out OK. KCCI-TV reports it’s unclear what caused the crash, but troopers believe there could have been a mechanical failure of some kind.

STORY CITY, IA (IRN) – Storms rolled across Iowa Friday night doing damage in several areas throughout the state. WHO-TV reports in Story City, several buildings sustained heavy damage in the Story City Industrial Park. A number of farm buildings were also damaged, with at least one barn losing its roof. On Highway 20 between Eldora and Iowa Falls, an 18-wheeler was flipped on its side.