Iowa Radio News

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled the plea deal in a 2012 Des Moines stabbing death is invalid and has vacated the convictions of the killer. WHO-TV reports Joseph Ceretti pled guilty in 2013 to attempted murder, manslaughter, and willful injury causing serious injury in the stabbing death of 31-year-old Eric Naylor. Ceretti appealed claiming the attempted murder and willful injury convictions should merge with the manslaughter conviction because they share the same intent – to kill. The court agreed and vacated the conviction. FORT MADISON, IA (IRN) – Two Fort Madison teenagers have been accused of tossing Molotov cocktails into several parked vehicles, according to KCRG-TV. The boys, a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old, were arrested Wednesday. One boy is charged with four counts of arson and one count of criminal mischief. The other is charged with four counts of aiding and abetting arson. No injuries from the fires have been reported. DAVIS COUNTY, IA (IRN) – A Davis County cross country runner was disqualified from the state tournament as an individual–for his good sportsmanship. KCII Radio reports Zach Hougland took first in the state qualifying race at Columbus Junction. After Hougland crossed the finish line, he returned to the course to help a Mediapolis runner who had collapsed. Helping a runner cross the finish line constitutes a rules violation. Davis County qualified as a team so Hougland will still run at State. OGDEN, IA (IRN) – The Boone County Board of Supervisors has taken a stand against the proposed Bakken crude oil pipeline that would run across Iowa through Boone County. WHO-TV reports the supervisors voted unanimously against the pipeline, saying landowner property rights would be violated and that the environmental risks are too great. DES MOINES (IRN) – A large number of teachers falling ill Thursday resulted in the cancellation of classes at Des Moines’ Roosevelt High School. KCCI-TV reports 58 teachers or about half of the school’s staff reported being ill. Those who attended a catered lunch Wednesday became ill with what the Polk County Health Department believes to be food poisoning. DES MOINES (IRN) – Ben Carson has passed Donald Trump as the favorite Republican presidential candidate in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports Carson is the favorite for 28% of likely Republican caucus-goers, 9 percentage points ahead of Trump’s 19 percent. Moving up into third place is Ted Cruz, at 10% support, followed by Marco Rubio in fourth, with Jeb Bush and Rand Paul tied for fifth place. DES MOINES (IRN) – The Iowa real estate market had the best third quarter in eight years, with the median sales price up 5.1 percent and home sales up 5.2 percent from the third quarter of 2014, according to the Iowa Association of Realtors. Houses sold in the third quarter were on the market an average of 67 days. Year-to-date sales have outpaced last year’s numbers by nearly 8 percent. The median sales price in September was nearly $140,000.  

DES MOINES (IRN) – A verdict was announced today in the trial of two former aides of the 2012 Ron Paul campaign for president, according to KCCI-TV. Dmitri Kesari was found guilty of falsifying records, found not guilty of obstruction of justice, and the jury was unable to reach a verdict on three other counts. Jesse Benton was found not guilty of making false statements to law enforcement. DES MOINES (IRN) – A naked California man emerged from a Southridge Mall bathroom in Des Moines Wednesday and raised a finger to his lips, begging silence from passersby, according to the Des Moines Register. 55-year-old Michael James Ryan of Venice, California, walked naked from the men’s restroom. After returning to the restroom to dress, he tried to flee police and became belligerent while being placed under arrest. CHEROKEE, IA (IRN) – An Iowa judge has dismissed a lawsuit that challenged the Iowa Utilities Board’s authority to give the power of eminent domain to an out-of-state developer of an oil pipeline through Iowa. KCCI-TV reports Judge Carl Petersen said in an order filed Tuesday in Cherokee that the three landowners who brought the lawsuit had to exhaust the administrative remedies required before they may sue a state agency. SOLON, IA – Three Marion teens face multiple charges for a rash of vehicle burglaries in Solon last month.  KCRG-TV reports the teens were later recorded on video using the stolen credit cards at various businesses and admitted to the burglaries during an interview. DES MOINES (IRN) – A Pleasant Hill man has been found guilty of attempted murder, two counts of assault to inflict serious injury, and other charges. The Des Moines Register reports the verdict came Wednesday against 33-year-old Pete Polson. Polson went on a shooting rampage last November, shooting one man in the abdomen, another in the back and neck, and firing a shot at a third man, missing him. DES MOINES (IRN) – A Des Moines mother was charged with child endangerment Wednesday after she allegedly beat her toddler in a Hy-Vee parking lot, according to KCCI-TV. Witnesses say the child would have died from injuries inflicted by Shauna Davis, 28, had someone not intervened. One witness says “She was just punching the baby so hard that the whole car was shaking…then she threw her baby onto the cement…screaming I hate you, shut up.” Davis is in jail. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – An intense thunderstorm that passed through Iowa City Tuesday night stressed firefighters and dispatchers as several fire response units were pressed into action at the same time. KCRG-TV reports two house fires and dozens of 911 calls required responses during the heavy rain and lightning.  At one point all firefighters were pulled off ladders and away from trucks because of concerns over the proximity and intensity of the lightning. DES MOINES (IRN) – A Des Moines woman saved her sons but lost her home to a fire. WHO-TV reports April Ruby left her six and seven year old sons sleeping Monday night while she ran two doors down to her mother’s house to pick up her 2-year-old daughter. When she got back home, minutes later, she heard the smoke alarm blaring and the house was on fire. She was able to rescue the boys, but the house and everything they own was destroyed.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Altoona police are investigating an incident involving two men trying to lure two young males into their truck on Tuesday. The Des Moines Register reports two Altoona Elementary students reported that they were approached by two white males in a pickup. The juveniles reported that the men yelled at them from their vehicle, offered candy and told them to get in. Police were called, but the men had left the scene when they arrived. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A Cedar Rapids woman is accused of stealing $40,000 worth of heirlooms to support her drug habit. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports 27-year-old Jessica Brians took heirlooms and pawned them to obtain money for drugs. Authorities said the heirlooms were taken from her residence, but belong to another couple. When officers arrested Brians, she had meth, heroin and syringes in her possession. MAQUOKETA, IA (IRN) – A Maquoketa taxidermist convicted of selling endangered black rhinoceros horns to a known trafficker was sentenced Tuesday to over two years in federal prison. KCRG-TV reports James Hess, owner of Wildlife Pride Taxidermy and Décor, pled guilty in May to violating the Lacey Act, which prohibits interstate trade of certain wildlife, including endangered species. Hess bought rhino horns in Oregon and shipped them back to Iowa before reselling them. DES MOINES (IRN) – A disgruntled Des Moines Price Chopper customer threatened to beat an employee with a 2-by-4 when an argument ensued over product prices, according to the Des Moines Register. Police arrived at the grocery store Tuesday to find William Graves, 45, of Des Moines holding a “wooden stick” at an employee in a “threatening manner.” Nobody was injured in the incident, and police reduced assault charges to trespassing. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – An officer-involved shooting in Cedar Rapids has left a man dead. According to KWWL-TV, officers stopped a car believing three people inside were suspects in a drug investigation. One person ran off when the vehicle stopped. Two officers and a K9 caught up with the suspect. Officers say the suspect fired a gun at them and officers returned the gunfire. The suspect, Jonathan Tyler Gossman, 21, of Cedar Rapids,  was killed. The police officers and the K9 involved were not hurt. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A Des Moines police officer was taken to the hospital early this morning after a chase and a wreck. KCCI-TV reports police were pursuing a motorcycle when the driver crashed in a wooded area. The squad car also crashed. The motorcycle driver was arrested, and the police officer taken to the hospital as a precaution. Police did not say why they were pursuing the motorcycle. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – Iowa City firefighters responded to a house fire Tuesday night, the result of an apparent lightning strike.  KCRG-TV reports heavy smoke and flames were visible when firefighters arrived. The home belongs to well-known artist Hans Breder, 80. Everyone made it out of the home safely, but the home reportedly contains priceless pieces of art that were likely destroyed. MASON CITY, IA (IRN) – A flood of fake $20 bills has hit Mason City, according to KIMT-TV. Counterfeiters have primarily targeted convenience stores by purchasing cheap items and pocketing the change. One clue the bills are counterfeit? The White House is printed upside down.  

NEWTON, IA (IRN) – A Newton man has been charged with attempted murder in two vehicle crashes reported Monday night. KCCI-TV reports 50-year-old John Leslie Britton is charged with three counts of attempted murder, reckless driving and leaving the scene of an accident. Police were called to a report that a man had been intentionally hit by a vehicle, and then to a report of a vehicle occupied by a woman and child being hit. No one was seriously injured. WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Waterloo firefighters say they found one woman dead at the scene of an early morning house fire on Tuesday. There was no visible smoke or flames when firefighters arrived. However, after a walkthrough of the home, firefighters found a woman in her 60’s dead. Officials say she lived alone, and they are now investigating the cause of her death and the fire. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased slightly to 3.6% in September from 3.7% in August. The state’s jobless rate was 4.3% one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate remained at 5.1 percent in September. This low unemployment rate has not been seen since 2006. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – Hundreds of new parking spots will soon be available for patients and visitors at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics as well as the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. KCRG-TV reports work is nearly complete on a new $10 million underground parking ramp. It’s located outside the main hospital and adds 700 parking spots. CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A 20-year-old will spend 14 years in prison for selling heroin mixed with fentanyl to two people who overdosed and nearly died in February. KCRG-TV reports Marcus DeJohn Wallace of Cedar Rapids admitted he distributed heroin to a person in a parking lot who shared it with another. Both users immediately overdosed in a car and lost consciousness. The driver of the car slumped forward, hitting the steering wheel and horn, which a passer-by heard and called 911 when he saw people unconscious in the car. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – An internal police investigation into the shooting death of an unarmed man in June has cleared the Des Moines police officer who shot him. KCCI-TV reports the investigation found Officer Vanessa Miller did not violate any administrative policies when she fired shots through her squad car window at 28-year-old Ryan Keith Bolinger. Bollinger’s family isn’t surprised the police department concluded one of their own did no wrong. IOWA CITY, IA (IRN) – University of Iowa students, faculty and community members will engage in a protest on Wednesday in what they are calling a “Rally to Defend Our Universities.” KWWL-TV reports it’s a protest in support of demands for the Iowa Board of Regents to resign or be removed. Organizers say they planned the event as a response to anger over the Regents’ corrupted search for a new UI President. WINTERSET, IA (IRN) – A 102-year-old Winterset woman has received an honorary high school diploma, according to WHO-TV. Ruth Lampe volunteers at the senior center in Winterset, helping out in the kitchen twice a week. She dropped out her freshman year in high school to go to work during the Great Depression.  Lampe says working keeps her young.  

DES MOINES (IRN) – A woman accused of abusing three young children she was watching in her Pleasant Hill home has pled guilty to two counts of child endangerment. WOI-TV reports in May, 28-year-old Christina Williamson was arrested and charged with five counts of child endangerment. Williamson’s husband recorded her abusing children under her care at her in-home daycare and turned the video over to police. DES MOINES (IRN) – The teen birth rate is down, according to the Des Moines Register. Teen pregnancy continues to much rarer than it used to be, mainly because many young people are more careful about sex than their parents and grandparents were, experts say. The rate has dropped by more than half in two decades, and by more than two-thirds since its peak in the late 1950s. WATERLOO, IA (IRN) – Waterloo police have arrested a man after he allegedly attempted to abduct a man Monday morning. The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier reports the assailant also beat a woman with a revolver, which discharged when he struck her, and then shot at her when she fled in her vehicle. The man then put the gun to the head of the woman’s friend, and forced him into a car and drove away. Tyray Dantrell Smith, 33, was arrested for kidnapping among other charges. DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – The emerald ash borer has been confirmed in Cedar Rapids in Linn County. There are now twenty-nine counties in Iowa confirmed positive with this invasive pest. EAB has spread to 25 states destroying tens of millions of ash trees COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA (IRN) – A 9-year-old girl is in the hospital after being struck by a train Sunday afternoon in Council Bluffs. KETV reports witnesses heard the girl scream. Officers found her conscious and alert, lying between two sets of train tracks. She is in “stable” condition with a skull fracture. It appears the girl attempted to cross the tracks after a train had passed and was struck by a second train she didn’t know was coming. NEWTON, IA (IRN) – A fire broke out in a restaurant’s kitchen in Newton Sunday evening, causing smoke damage to nearby businesses. KCCI-TV reports the fire broke out at Panda Garden while customers and employees were inside the restaurant. The fire likely started on the stove and spread up to the ceiling. At least six other businesses suffered smoke damage, including a mortgage company, dress shop and a county building. No one was injured. WASHINGTON, D.C. (IRN) – A Floyd County man who’s been fighting the life sentence he received on federal firearms charges is now trying to take his case to the Supreme Court. KIMT-TV reports 43-year-old Randy Lee Patrie pled guilty in 2014 to a charge of felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of sawed-off shotguns.  He received a longer sentence than usual because of prior convictions and the judge considered him an “armed career criminal.” NORWALK, IA (IRN) – A fire early this morning has forced a family from its Norwalk home. WHO-TV reports when crews arrived, flames were rising from the back porch. Authorities say the fire started on a grill that sparked, then quickly spread to the entire porch area. Everyone was able to get out of the house safely.