Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.5% in January as more residents joined the workforce. The state’s Workforce Development department reported yesterday the rate was down from a revised 3.7% rate in December and compared to a 2.8% rate a year ago, before the coronavirus pandemic resulted in a severe economic slowdown. Iowa Workforce Development says the state added 8,200 workers in January. Iowa was tied with Kansas for the nation’s sixth-lowest unemployment rate. South Dakota and Utah had the lowest rate, at 3.1%. Iowa’s rate of 3.5% is in comparison with the national unemployment rate for January, which was 6.3%.
Yesterday’s winter storm dropped heavy wet snow throughout central and eastern Iowa. Algona reported six inches of snow, while both Parkersburg and Decorah tallied four and a half inches. Both Toledo and Waterloo reported three inches, while totals closer to 1 to 2 inches were common in the Cedar Rapids metro area.
Police are still gathering information after a shooting yesterday morning in Waterloo. Officers were called to the 700 block of West Park Avenue just after 11 a.m. Police say a man was shot in the torso and taken to the hospital. The man was speaking to officers on the scene but his condition was not made public. Law enforcement secured the area and said there was not a threat to the neighborhood.
Hy-Vee and Jubilee United Methodist Church Freedom Center in Waterloo are partnering to hold an appointment-only COVID-19 vaccine clinic today. It will be held from noon until 4 p.m., or while supply lasts, at the Jubilee United Methodist Church Freedom Center at 1621 E. Fourth St. Appointments were required, and all slots are filled. About 200 vaccinations will be given out. Patients will receive the Pfizer vaccine and will be scheduled for a second dose appointment approximately 21 days after their first dose.
A former assistant for the Black Hawk and Bremer Soil and Water Conservation District was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison for stealing more than $430,000.00. 44-year-old Leslie Carey of Waterloo received the prison term after she entered a plea of guilty to wire fraud last March. In her plea agreement, Carey admitted that from 2010 to 2017, she defrauded the Black Hawk and Bremer County Soil and Water Divisions and took their money through unauthorized withdrawals, debit card and credit card purchases, store purchases and disbursements. She also admitted to altering financial statements and submitting fraudulent treasurer reports. Carey was sentenced to 33 months in prison and was ordered to make full restitution. She must also serve a three-year term of supervised release after her prison term. Carey was released after her sentencing but must surrender to the U.S. Marshal no later than June 7.
A West Des Moines day care employee faces child endangerment charges after an infant in her care suffered a skull fracture. 36-year-old Jamie Leann Kober, a Canadian resident, has been charged with child endangerment causing serious injury. Officials say Kober was an employee at Alphabet Academy in West Des Moines and on Jan. 7, a mother picked up her infant at the day care and noticed swelling on the top right of the child’s head. She took the child to a doctor and discovered that the child had a skull fracture. Police said the child was the only one in Kober’s care at the time. During questioning by a detective, she said the child was sitting in a “boppy” and fell backwards, striking a changing table. Court documents show she told the detective she did not report the incident because she was “scared.” According to police, she acknowledged that she put the child in danger by not reporting the injury.
Sudden meat shortages last year because of the coronavirus led to millions of dollars in federal grants to help small meat processors expand. The goal was to help the nation lessen its reliance on giant slaughterhouses to supply grocery stores and restaurants. However, the money flowing to small slaughterhouses shows no sign of solving the larger problem. There’s little doubt the grants will help small processors and in turn provide sorely needed rural jobs, but the economics of the meat industry now centers on larger, highly efficient slaughterhouses, not smaller plants whose numbers have been decreasing sharply
