From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
MILAN, Ill. (AP) – Police say a vehicle struck and killed a United Auto Workers member as he was walking to a picket line outside a John Deere plant in Illinois. Milan, Illinois, Police Chief Shawn Johnson said the man was struck Wednesday morning near a road that leads to the John Deere Parts Distribution Center in the northwest Illinois city. He says authorities to not believe the fatality was intentional but that the investigation is ongoing. The UAW leadership in Detroit said in a statement that the man had worked at the plant for 15 years. Workers are on strike at 14 Deere factories in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado and Georgia.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A woman is suing a University of Iowa fraternity and two men after an alleged sexual assault that spawned protests on campus earlier this fall. The woman alleges in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that two members of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, also known as Fiji, sexually assaulted her at a party at the house in September 2020. She says the alleged assault was filmed and widely circulated. The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages against the two males and the fraternity. The two men were expelled from the fraternity but no charges were filed. The lack of charges prompted protests on campus in he fall.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police in Des Moines say an Iowa prison inmate will be charged with murder for the 2012 killing of a homeless man. Station KCCI reports that 35-year-old William Rulli will face a first-degree murder charge after confessing to a corrections officer that he killed 56-year-old Stanley Golinsky nine years ago. Golinsky’s beaten and burned body was found in October 2012 by a passerby under a railroad bridge in downtown Des Moines, between a bike path and the Des Moines River. Rulli is currently in Anamosa State Penitentiary serving a prison sentence for first-degree burglary. Officials say he’ll be taken to Polk County to face the murder charge.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A Chicago man has been sentenced in Iowa to federal prison for running a scheme in which he collected deposits and money for other expenses related to music concerts that never took place. Federal prosecutors in Cedar Rapids say 43-year-old Romel Murphy was sentenced last week to more than six years in federal prison after pleading guilty in January to one count of wire fraud. There is no parole in the federal system. Investigators say Murphy used his talent booking agency to solicit music venues to send him money to secure artists’ performances, but instead kept the money for himself. Prosecutors say Murphy defrauded his victims of more than $410,000 from November 2017 through March 2019.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An activist who was acquitted in August of interfering in a protest arrest last year has been acquitted of another charge in which police accused him of blocking a street during a protest. The Des Moines Register reports that a judge on Friday found 24-year-old Jaylen Cavil, an organizer for Des Moines’ Black Liberation Movement, not guilty of obstructing a public way. Police had argued that organizers didn’t get a permit for the protest on Sept. 22, 2020, in which Cavil participated. Police say protesters in the street put them and others in danger. But the judge said there was no evidence that Cavil planned the march or that he blocked traffic.
AMES, Iowa (AP) – An Ankeny resident and Iowa State University student has become the first woman enlisted infantry soldier in the Iowa National Guard. The Guard says Pfc. Taylor Patterson returned from basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia last month and is with Company C, 168th Infantry. It’s been five years since the U.S. Army opened combat arms positions to women. An infantry soldier must complete a 22-week training stint, where they learn skills ranging from squad tactics to close-quarter combat training. Patterson says she succeeded in the training with the help of her drill sergeants and to prove that she could do it.
