Cedar Falls voters will go to the polls again Tuesday in a runoff election for a city council at-large position. The top vote getter in this month five-person race was LeaAnn Saul, who said the on-going Cedar Falls Public Safety Officer program was why she got into the race. You can hear the full conversation between Cedar Falls council candidate LeaAnn Saul and KXEL’s Tim Harwood later this morning in the 9 o’clock hour of KXEL Live & Local. Her opponent, Kelly Dunn, will be on the program tomorrow.
Law enforcement officers executed twelve search warrants in Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Roland, and Marshalltown on Monday and Tuesday of this week, leading to three people being arrested and charged with methamphetamine trafficking in federal court. Bobbey Dean Robey, Travis Charles Werkmeister and Genaro Aguilar Lemus are accused of conspiring to distribute meth over a 19-month period starting in January of last year. All three appeared yesterday in federal court in Cedar Rapids. If convicted, each faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, a $10,000,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The University of Iowa Athletics Department announced the men’s basketball team has paused workouts for 14 days after two student-athletes tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. This mandatory protocol includes isolation for the individuals who test positive, and quarantine for those individuals who might have been exposed to someone with the virus.
The Iowa Department of Homeland Security is warning people not to eat or plant packets of seeds arriving in mailboxes in Iowa and other states. The people getting the seed packets have not ordered them…and they appear to be from China. State agriculture officials aren’t sure what types of seeds are in the packets but worry it is an invasive species that could threaten native plants. If you receive one of these, do not open the packet of seeds…instead contact the state ag department.
The Iowa State patrol is investigating a head-on car accident that injured four people, including two children…it happened shortly after sunrise yesterday on County Road T55 south of 230th Street in Grundy County. Officials said 34-year-old Becky Matthews of Lincoln was driving southbound on T55 when she hit a vehicle heading northbound head-on. The vehicle was being driving by 20-year-old Madison Elizabeth Robinson of Tama. Officials said Matthews admitted to being tired after working a 12-hour shift. They also said Matthews and her 8-year-old son had to be extricated from the vehicle. All four people—both drivers and Matthews’ two children–were taken to Grundy County Hospital with unspecified injuries.
Authorities have reported an outbreak of coronavirus at Iowa’s center for male juvenile offenders in Eldora. A total of 12 students and five staff members at the Boys State Training School have tested positive for the virus. The first case at the facility was reported just last week. Officials say all students and staff at the facility are now being tested. The school holds about 70 youth from across the state. News of the outbreak comes as state health data released Tuesday showed seven more COVID-19 deaths and another 253 confirmed cases from the day before.
The Republican National Committee sent a letter to the Iowa secretary of state’s office Monday asking that it prohibit all county auditors from sending pre-filled absentee ballot request forms and require those officials send notices to voters that applications sent with the auto-populated information are invalid. The state Legislative Council approved the Secretary of State sending absentee ballot requests forms to all registered voters prior to the November general election. But the order says the forms must be blank. Auditors in Linn and Johnson Counties are in violation of that rule, as they have independently sent out pre-filled forms, with information like name, address, date of birth and voter PIN numbers already filled out. A spokesperson for Secretary of State Paul Pate says the office had been investigating the Linn and Johnson County situations before the national GOP sent that letter.
There’s less than week before Cedar Falls residents will vote in a runoff election to determine who will hold the at-large city council seat. The top vote getter in this month’s election, LeaAnn Saul, told KXEL news that future growth for the city may focus less on density than in the past. KXEL’s Tim Harwood conducted extended interviews with both candidates in the runoff…the conversation with LeaAnn Saul can be heard today, the conversation with Kelly Dunn tomorrow…each during the 9 o’clock hour of KXEL Live & Local.
After hoping to hold events later in the summer, the sponsors of Cedar Falls Live to 9 Friday night events announced yesterday that the full 2020 schedule has been cancelled due to COVID-19. And the Cedar Rapids Jaycees announced the remainder of their Uptown Friday Nights shows in downtown Cedar Rapids at the McGrath Amphitheatre have also been called off this year.
