A man was shot and killed early yesterday morning in downtown Waterloo. Shortly after midnight, police were called to West Fourth and Jefferson Streets due to a disorderly conduct complaint. As they arrived, they heard shots being fired in the 300 block of West Fourth, and saw several people running from the area. Officers found a man lying on the sidewalk suffering from a gunshot wound. He later died at Unity Point Allen Hospital. The location is about one block south of the convention center.
A Waterloo man says two to three people entered his home yesterday morning while he was sleeping. It happened around 4:30 early yesterday morning in the 1400 block of Byron Avenue. The man was awakened by the sound of people in the house. He told police one of the people had a gun and they stole items in the house. Investigation is continuing.
Officials at the Iowa Department of Corrections verified that substances used to create a bomb were found in an inmate’s cell at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Last Friday, acting on credible intelligence, Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation agents arrived to begin interviews of inmates who may have been planning to use an explosive device. During the interviews and resulting search, a household substance was found in an inmate’s cell that could have been used to create an explosive device when combined with other materials. The substance will be examined by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. The investigation is ongoing, but officials do not believe there is a threat to the public or prison at this time.
Meanwhile, the former warden of the Anamosa State Penitentiary has taken a voluntary demotion. According to the Iowa Department of Corrections, Jeremy Larson was the warden at the Anamosa State Penitentiary when two staff members were killed in March. He was moved to the position of interim warden at the Newton Correctional Facility following the attack, but is now in the position of Correctional Counselor. Randy Gibbs is serving as interim warden at the Anamosa State Penitentiary, as the state looks to hire a new warden for that prison.
Federal stimulus funds are allowing the Waterloo Community Schools to reduce its planned property tax collections by $1 million for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Board of Education today will consider the recommendation of the finance committee to recertify the 2021-2022 budget with total tax askings of $39.41 million. The district was able to take the unusual step of revising its budget after certification due to the amount of money received through multiple rounds of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund approved by Congress during the past year.
Iowa’s unemployment rate rose slightly in April to 3.8% as the number of residents with jobs fell slightly. Iowa Workforce Development reported Friday the rate for April increased from a March unemployment rate of 3.7%. Iowa’s rate was still the nation’s 10th lowest and compared to a national rate for April of 6.1%.
Prison officials say a Jesup man convicted of stabbing his 3-week-old son to death in 1982 has died in prison. 68-year-old Michael Craney died Wednesday at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Craney was convicted and sentenced in late 1982 of first-degree murder in connection with the death of his son, Matthew. Craney’s attorney argued at trial that his client was insane at the time of the killing.
A DNA analyst says blood found in the trunk of an illegal immigrant’s vehicle was an exact match for that of a University of Iowa student who was abducted and killed while out for a run in 2018. Tara Scott, a criminalist in the DNA section of Iowa’s crime lab, testified that she analyzed a swab of a blood stain found on the trunk seal of Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s vehicle after investigators recovered the body of Mollie Tibbetts. She said she compared that DNA profile to one she already had for Tibbetts and, in her words, “they were exactly the same.” Scott testified Friday on the third day of the prosecution’s case against Bahena Rivera. That first-degree murder continues in Davenport today.
An administrative law judge says the leader of Iowa’s largest school district violated his duty by not complying with a law intended to ensure students could learn in classrooms during the pandemic. However, the judge did not specify Thursday how Des Moines Superintendent Thomas Ahart should be punished. Administrative Law Judge David Lindgren said during a hearing that Ahart “violated an ethical duty” to comply with all laws. The judge gave no timeline for when he’d decide how, or even if, Ahart should be punished. Ahart is facing potential sanctions because the Des Moines school board violated a state mandate in the 2020-2021 academic year that districts must offer at least half-time in-person learning. The district did not renew Ahart’s contract earlier this month.
An 18-year-old Onawa man faces up to 50 years in prison after being convicted of shooting and killing a teenager last year. A Monona County jury found Jay Lee Neubaum guilty of second-degree murder on Thursday in connection with the January 2020 death of 16-year-old Joseph Hopkins. Neubaum was charged with first-degree murder but the jury convicted him of the lesser charge. Hopkins was shot once while he, Neubaum and two other boys were working on a demolition derby car. Prosecutors said Neubaum fired after he became angry because Hopkins wouldn’t stop playing with an unloaded shotgun. Neubaum’s attorney argued the shooting was an accident.
That dust explosion at a central Iowa grain elevator earlier this month should not affect storage capacity or operations during this fall’s harvest. Landus Cooperative grain elevator in Jefferson said in a news release that it expects grain receiving and corn drying to resume at the site by the fall harvest. The May 14 explosion did “catastrophic” damage to the elevator, concrete storage bins and catwalks, but no injuries were reported and officials say plans to rebuild the facility are already underway.
