From the Associated Press:
FAIRFIELD, Iowa (AP) — Two 16-year-old students are charged in the death of a high school Spanish teacher in southeast Iowa. Jefferson County authorities say Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale are charged as adults with first-degree homicide and conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide in the death of 66-year-old Nohema Graber. The Fairfield High School teacher was reported missing on Tuesday and her remains were found later that day at a park. Court filings say her body was found under a tarp and she suffered head trauma. Graber taught Spanish at the school since 2012. Court documents indicate the suspects, who are students at Fairfield, do not yet have attorneys.
FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — Police in the southeastern Iowa town of Fort Madison have arrested a 17-year-old boy in connection with the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old. Officers were called to a home just after 5 p.m. Wednesday and found the victim in a bedroom. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. The victim’s name has not been released. Police say the weapon was found inside the victim’s home. It wasn’t immediately clear if formal charges have been filed.
DOWS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities in north-central Iowa are investigating the death of a man in the small town of Dows. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says EMS crews called to a home on Tuesday found the body of Mario Salvador Lopez. His body was sent to the State Office of the Iowa Medical Examiner. DCI says that after the autopsy, the death is being investigated as a homicide. No further information was released. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Wright County Sheriff’s Office.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police are investigating a shooting that left four people injured. The shooting happened about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday on a residential street near a middle school in the northeastern part of the city. Police say the injuries are not life-threatening. Police have not disclosed the circumstances surrounding the shooting and have not released the names or ages of the victims.
MOLINE, Illinois (AP) — Deere executives say the company won’t return to the bargaining table with striking workers because it won’t offer a better contract than one they rejected that included immediate 10% raises. Marc Howze, the chief administrative officer of Deere & Co., said Wednesday that the deal the United Auto Workers union rejected on Tuesday represented the most it could offer and still keep its costs competitive. Pressure on the union to reach a settlement will mount the longer workers go without pay. The disputed contract would cover more than 10,000 Deere workers at 12 facilities in Iowa, Illinois and Kansas, who make the company’s iconic John Deere green tractors and other equipment.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Neal Smith, a World War II bomber pilot who became a successful lawyer before representing Iowa for 36 years in Congress, has died. He was 101. Smith was first elected in 1958 and remained until 1995, a tenure that made him Iowa’s long-serving U.S. House member. Smith was known as a quiet but effective leader whose greatest accomplishments revolved around the approval of federal funding for dams and reservoirs that safeguarded cities from flooding and created much-used lakes for recreation.
