Iowa Radio News

IOWA (IRN) – Hy-Vee is hiring 500 pharmacy technicians in Iowa to expand access to COVID-19 testing and eventual vaccine distribution. The West Des Moines-based grocer announced it will fill 1,000 licensed pharmacy technician positions across the Midwest, about 500 of which will be in Iowa. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack could return to his old job as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Politico reports that Biden is leaning toward asking Vilsack to lead the USDA. Vilsack served as Secretary of Agriculture for eight years under President Obama. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Authorities filed attempted murder charges in a Sunday shooting that occurred during a rally for President Donald Trump at the Statehouse. St. Charles resident Michael McKinney, 25, is in custody. McKinney admitted to firing the gunshot that struck and injured a 15-year-old girl during the rally. The victim was inside a car when the shooting occurred but was not involved in the rally. Camera footage shows the car with the victim inside back into a pickup truck before the shot is fired. WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Waterloo Fire and Rescue responded to a fire at a townhouse apartment just after midnight. Six people have been taken to the hospital. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – One person was injured in a structure fire in Des Moines Monday. Two men were living in the remodeled church while running a business there. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Freedom to Dan Gable in the Oval Office Monday, making him the first wrestler in history to receive the honor. Gable won three state high school championships for Waterloo West and two NCAA titles for ISU. He won gold at the 1972 Olympics, where he won six matches and didn’t allow a single point. As a coach, Gable led the Iowa wrestling program to 21 straight Big Ten titles and 15 NCAA team championships. He produced 152 All-Americans, 46 national champions and 12 Olympians who combined to win eight Olympic medals — four gold, one silver and three bronze.

FORT DODGE, IA (IRN) – A girl was shot in Fort Dodge Sunday. After arrival on scene, officers began lifesaving efforts until paramedics arrived and were able to continue. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries and later transported by ambulance to a Des Moines hospital. Her current condition has not been released. Police don’t believe the shooting was a random act. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – An Anamosa State Penitentiary inmate with COVID-19 has died. Larry Donell Whaley, 64, was pronounced dead on Saturday. Whaley was serving a 50-year sentence for the 2016 death of 19-year-old Samantha Teeter in Mason City. Teeter died from a bullet wound after Whaley fired a gun through his apartment door. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A shooting occurred near the statehouse Sunday evening after a traffic incident. A woman was shot in the leg. A pro-Trump rally was being held nearby, but authorities have not confirmed a connection between the incident and the rally. AMES, IA (IRN) – Just one hour before the 5 p.m. scheduled tipoff time Sunday, the men’s basketball game between the Iowa State Cyclones and DePaul Blue Demons was canceled because of COVID-19. The players were already warming up at Hilton Coliseum when the athletics departments announced that the game would not be played. DePaul has now had to postpone or cancel its first five games of the season because of COVID-19. AMES, IA (IRN) – The Big 12 championship football game matchup is set between No. 12 Iowa State and No. 13 Oklahoma. Iowa State clinched a spot in its first title game and the best conference record in the regular season with a 42-6 home win over West Virginia. The title game is Dec. 19 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Oklahoma has won six games in a row since a 37-30 loss at Iowa State on Oct. 3.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Public Health on Saturday reported another 62 additional COVID-19 deaths in the state. Iowa has reported 216 virus deaths in just the last three days. There have been 2,665 total deaths since the pandemic began. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – A new search timeline released Friday for the next University of Iowa president has the Iowa Board of Regents selecting a successor to Bruce Harreld by April 30. DAVENPORT, IA (IRN) – A former Iowa newspaper reporter and his wife have left a $3 million estate for local causes. The Quad-City Times on Saturday reported the paper’s former reporter John Willard and his wife Carol donated the estate to the Quad-Cities Community Foundation. Interest from the $3 million estate will be divided evenly between nine organizations each year. AMES, IA (IRN) – Brock Purdy threw for 247 yards and three touchdowns, and No. 12 Iowa State dominated on defense in a 42-6 rout of West Virginia on Saturday to secure its first appearance in the Big 12 championship game. The number 19 Hawkeyes beat Illinois 35-21.

ALTOONA, IA (IRN) – The Iowa State Patrol says three people have died in a head-on crash near Altoona at around 12:48 a.m. Saturday morning. Troopers say a Volkswagen got onto the interstate in the wrong lane. It then hit a semi-truck head-on. Two adults and a baby inside the Volkswagen were killed in the crash. The truck driver was not seriously injured. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – After facing a workforce shortage for months, Iowa awarded an emergency $2.3 million contact-tracing contract to a company that has worked for the campaigns of President Donald Trump and Gov. Kim Reynolds and is owned by a Republican insider. The Iowa Department of Public Health selected Iowa City-based MCI for the contract out of 14 applicants, saying it submitted the best proposal and that political considerations did not play a role. IOWA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Public Health has reported 84 more COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24 hours, the most ever for a one day period since the pandemic began. WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – An Iowa man has admitted that he threatened to find someone to assassinate U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York. During a hearing Friday in federal court, Kenneth Dean Brown, 56, of Waterloo pleaded guilty to transmitting a threatening communication. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Governor Kim Reynolds has ordered all flags in Iowa at half-staff from sunrise to sunset on Monday, December 7th, in honor of Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Gov. Kim Reynolds says she will take the coronavirus vaccine publicly. On Thursday, she announced that about 26,000 Pfizer vaccines will arrive in the state the week of Dec. 13. A second batch of Pfizer and the first batch of Moderna vaccine will arrive the week of Dec. 20. The state should have about 172,000 doses by the end of the month. State officials have decided to give the vaccines to health care workers first. They announced a deal to work with major pharmacy chains to give the vaccines to people in long-term care facilities. GLENWOOD, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Human Services is facing a whistle-blower lawsuit connected to a care facility in western Iowa. The lawsuit references the troubling allegations at Glenwood Resource Center, where former Superintendent Jerry Rea was accused of spearheading human experiments on Iowans with severe mental disabilities. SIOUX CITY, IA (IRN) – A woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for fatally stabbing another woman in April 2018 in Sioux City. Melissa Camargo-Flores was sentenced Thursday in the death of 24-year-old Kenia Alvarez-Flores. Prosecutors say 22-year-old Camargo-Flores, of Dakota City, waited outside Alvarez-Flores’ house and stabbed the victim as she left for work. The reason for the stabbing isn’t clear, but police said Camargo-Flores told them she had been involved with Alvarez-Flores’ boyfriend. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – The Cedar Rapids Police Department is seeing an increase in violent crime and shots fired. Police Chief Wayne Jerman says the increase is mirrored across America, and one of the main reasons is the pandemic. He says increases in stress level due to the loss of jobs and the level uncertainty is behind the increase. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Education is allowing more school districts to go 100% online because of the pandemic. But the state still prefers in-person teaching. The director of the Iowa Department of Education said reading proficiency tests show younger students who learn online-only scored lower than they did last year. Decreases range from 5% for kindergarten to 21% for first grade.