Iowa Radio News

DAVENPORT, IA (IRN) – A child was declared dead upon arriving at a hospital in Davenport after being hit by a car in a church parking lot Sunday. WQAD-TV reports the child was hit around 3 p.m. in the parking lot of All Saints Catholic School. Employees at a nearby business say they saw crews performing CPR on the child but the child was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Information on the driver has not been released. COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA (IRN) – Council Bluffs police arrested a man after they witnessed him attempting to break into a home Sunday night. KETV reports 29-year-old Adam Souza broke a window and then started to enter the home. Officers ordered Souza to place his hands behind his back and Souza began to run. Officers then deployed a Taser, but say it was not effective and Souza fled. He was caught and arrested shortly later. He’s in jail. NORWALK, IA (IRN) – A woman crashed her vehicle into a Norwalk home Sunday night. WHO-TV reports the 20-year-old woman took a turn too fast and crashed into the garage area of the home. Before hitting the garage, she plowed over a stop sign and street sign. There were no major injuries. Police say the woman was an inexperienced driver and charges are pending. NEWTON, IA (IRN) – Two inmates from the Newton Minimum-Security Correctional Release Center have escaped. WOI-TV reports inmates Michael Amodeo and Jessy Foley are missing. Officials aren’t sure if the men are together, or if they’ve split up. Both of the inmates are in for drug-related offenses. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – An 80-year-old Iowa City man is celebrating his 20th birthday today. The Iowa City Press Citizen reports that although he has 80 years under his belt, Dick Vitosh has had only 20 birthdays, given that February 29 occurs only every four years. He has a sign over his desk that says “I’m not a senior citizen, I’m a recycled teenager.”

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines police are investigating an early-morning stabbing Sunday. KCCI-TV reports 29-year-old Isaac Sando was attending a party when he was stabbed. Sando was taken to the hospital where his condition remains unknown. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Cedar Rapids Police issued an Operation Quickfind for a missing 17-year-old girl, according to KCRG-TV. Police said Leslie Pettie was last seen around 8:00 a.m. on Thursday. The Operation Quickfind states she is off of her depression and anxiety medication and is known to be suicidal. URBANDALE, IA (IRN) – An Urbandale criminal defense attorney who punched a woman in the face while drunk has had his law license suspended for three months. KWWL-TV reports the Iowa Supreme Court imposed the suspension Friday against 33-year-old Jamie Deremiah. He had pled guilty to domestic abuse and trespassing charges after breaking into the woman’s home and attacking her. BETTENDORF, IA (IRN) – For most high school seniors, graduation day is still months away. But that wasn’t the case in Bettendorf on Friday, according to WQAD-TV. For Lia Bellomy, it was graduation day. Her father Ron entered hospice last week after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The family doesn’t believe he’ll make it for his daughter’s graduation. So Lia’s May graduation was moved up by her Pleasant Valley School to allow the family to celebrate together.

ELK RUN HEIGHTS, IA (IRN) – A man died Friday after his gun fell on the ground and went off. KCRG-TV reports Black Hawk County Sheriff’s deputies were called to Elk Run Heights and found 45-year-old Martin Lawrence unconscious. Investigators say he was getting out of his car when his gun dropped onto the ground and fired, hitting him in the leg. He later died at the hospital. Deputies believe the bullet traveled up Lawrence’s body and caused internal injuries. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – A house fire in Iowa City was quickly contained Friday night, according to KWWL-TV. Crews were called to the location after smoke was spotted near the roof of the house. The fire was declared under control within ten minutes of fire crew arrival. No injuries were reported, but seven people living in the house have been displaced. JOHNSTON, IA (IRN) – A former Johnston school bus driver will be sentenced in March. KCCI-TV reports 61-year-old Robert Scarbrough was charged with assault causing injury and child endangerment last October. Police said Scarbrough approached a 15-year-old student with special needs after he failed to follow instructions. The student directed an inflammatory comment toward the bus driver who grabbed the student’s coat, hit the boy in the face and pushed him to the floor. In videos of the incident, students can be heard screaming, demanding the driver to stop. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa Senator Rob Hogg (HOEG) is filing nomination petitions for U.S. Senate on Monday at the offices of the Iowa Secretary of State in Des Moines. The filing will include more than 13,000 signatures from Iowans from all 99 counties. Hogg is running against incumbent Senator Chuck Grassley. OSCEOLA, IA (IRN) – An unemployed southern Iowa man can stop his job search after he won a Publishers Clearing House lifetime prize. WHO-TV reports the prize patrol was in Osceola on Friday to award its youngest-ever big prize winner. 21-year-old Ryan Hart won the lifetime prize and will be awarded $5,000 a week for the rest of his life. Hart had his mother on the phone with him when he was awarded the prize at his doorstep. Hart said he’s been entering the contest for a year, and isn’t sure what he will do with the money.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Department of Public Health reported three Iowans have contracted the Zika virus. The cases were confirmed by lab tests in a new report released Friday. All three cases are women, and none of the women were pregnant. The women all had traveled to countries where the virus is present. Mosquitoes carrying the virus have not been found in Iowa or most of the U.S. OTTUMWA, IA (IRN) – A Florida man has been federally indicted in a case out of Ottumwa that prompted an Amber Alert. Nineteen-year-old Kevin Ramirez faces federal charges of enticement of a minor; travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, enticement of a minor; transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and possession of child pornography. Ramirez is accused of travelling to Ottumwa from Florida to meet with a 13-year-old girl. MOLINE, IL (IRN) – Deere & Company has announced 100 layoffs at two Iowa factories. KCCI-TV reports the company informed the employees that they will be placed on indefinite layoff, effective April 1. The company said the layoffs will take place at Deere’s factories in Davenport and Dubuque. CRAWFORDSVILLE, IA (IRN) – A single-vehicle rollover accident near Crawfordsville Thursday afternoon resulted in the death of a Washington man. KCII radio reports the SUV was traveling southbound, left the roadway, travelled through an intersection, overcorrected, crossed the centerline, entered a ditch and rolled several times. Dirk Charles Weerman was transported by helicopter from the scene and succumbed to his injuries at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He was not wearing a seatbelt. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The boarding school for troubled teens in Keokuk is under a new investigation. KHQA-TV reports this time it’s Iowa legislators who want answers about Midwest Academy child abuse allegations. Iowa representative Bobby Kaufmann initiated the formal request to start the inquiry. He wants to find out who is responsible, and how they can prevent it from happening again. LINN COUNTY, IA (IRN) – Two Cedar Rapids residents face charges in connection with a robbery Thursday afternoon. KCRG-TV reports the 29-year-old male victim provided information on two suspects who left in a silver Ford Taurus with Missouri plates. Cedar Rapids Police located a vehicle matching the description a short time later. Linn County Deputies then arrested 23-year-old Tanor Jimmison and 24-year-old Kashawna Harris on various charges. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A man is in custody after he led officers on a chase through the east side of Des Moines Thursday night. WHO-TV reports the man was taken into custody after he crashed the van he was driving into a ditch. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines has reached its highest homicide rate in two decades this past year. Now one rapper is using music to speak out against violence in the state, according to CNN. The untimely death of 16-year-old Terry Harris inspired hip-hop artist Will Keeps to write a song, “Wake Up, Iowa.” Keeps, who at one time was left for dead on the streets of Chicago, has dedicated his life to keeping gangs out of central Iowa. The Des Moines Police Department is helping the rapper promote his song.

BLOOMFIELD, IA (IRN) – A Bloomfield woman was killed Tuesday in a three-vehicle crash on Highway 2. The Iowa State Patrol reports a Toyota van driven by 34-year-old Kristine Kaelin of Ottumwa was stopped on the highway trying to make a left hand turn. A Dodge van driven by 63-year-old Marilyn Roberts of Missouri, was also eastbound, and failed to notice that Kaelin’s vehicle was stopped and swerved into the westbound lane, hitting a Chevy pickup truck head-on. 79-year-old Carolyn Lawson of Bloomfield was killed in the crash. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – Iowa led the nation in grain bin entrapments in 2015, although overall totals declined from the previous year. KCRG-TV reports Iowa saw seven such incidents last year, a little less than one-third of the 24 grain bin entrapments reported across the country. Of the two dozen entrapments nationwide, 14 were fatal, including one in December in Benton County that killed a Keystone man. FORT MADISON, IA (IRN) – A southeast Iowa man is behind bars facing one burglary charge but more are likely to follow. KHQA-TV reports Paul Baker of Fort Madison has been arrested for one count of Burglary in Lee County. Investigators seized hundreds of stolen items from Baker’s home, mostly jewelry and electronics. Authorities say Baker could be facing multiple charges in Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines police arrested a man Wednesday evening in the November shooting death of his wife and daughter. KCCI-TV reports 47-year-old Barney Fraaken of Des Moines was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Police identified the victims as 42-year-old Amy Fraaken and 16-year-old Amber Fraaken, both of Des Moines. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A man was shot and killed in Cedar Rapids Tuesday night marking the first shooting homicide in the city this year. KWWL-TV reports 25-year-old Joseph Perkins Jr. of Chicago died and another man was taken to the hospital with a gunshot wound to the leg. Authorities say the shooting wasn’t random. DAVENPORT, IA (IRN) – A driver died when his vehicle crashed after an object went through his windshield, according WQAD-TV. The crash happened Wednesday on eastbound Interstate 80 in Davenport. Road debris, which investigators did not yet identify, went through the windshield of the vehicle. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. A female front-seat passenger was taken by ambulance to a local hospital; her injuries were not believed to be life-threatening. FAYETTEVILLE, AK (IRN) – Former Iowa State University head football coach Paul Rhoads has been hired as a secondary coach at the University of Arkansas. The 48-year-old Rhoads will be the defensive backs coach. Rhoads was fired from ISU in November.