From the Associated Press:
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa House has passed a tax cut proposal that would move the state to a 4% flat income tax over four years and repeal all state taxes on retirement income beginning next year. The plan approved Wednesday is similar to one backed by Gov. Kim Reynolds except it does not include her proposed corporate income tax cut. Democrats unsuccessfully attempted to amend the bill to increase benefits to Iowans with lower to middle class incomes or provide additional money for child care. The bill passed 61 to 37. It drains $1.6 billion from state revenues by the sixth year. Democrats predict future program cuts or tax hikes but Republicans say the state will have adequate revenue to fund the priorities of Iowans.
PRINCETON, Iowa (AP) — Scott County authorities say a man died after he was shot at an outdoor gun range near Princeton. The sheriff’s office said in a news release that emergency responders were called to the Princeton Wildlife Area Gun range Wednesday morning. The release says a man had been shot in the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. No other information has been released. Officials are still investigating the shooting.
CROFTON, Neb. (AP) — Officials in northeastern Nebraska say two Iowa residents have been killed in a crash near Crofton. The Sioux City Journal reports that the crash happened around noon Tuesday at a rural Cedar County intersection about 4 miles east of Crofton. Cedar County Sheriff’s investigators say a 90-year-old Orleans, Nebraska, man was southbound and approaching the intersection when he was hit by an eastbound car. The driver of the car, 74-year-old William Koontz, of Sioux City, was pronounced dead at the scene. A passenger in his car, 71-year-old Anita Koontz of Sioux City, was taken to a hospital in Yankton, South Dakota, where she was pronounced dead. The driver of the pickup was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
BETTENDORF, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa man has been charged with vehicular homicide after police say he ran over his girlfriend with his pickup truck during an argument, killing her. Television station KWQC reports the incident happened Tuesday night in Bettendorf. Police arrested 24-year-old Logan Paul Voss, of Goose Lake. He has been charged with vehicular homicide while operating under the influence and a count of first-offense OWI. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance in the case later Wednesday. The name of the woman killed has not been released.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa officials have agreed to pay a group of attorneys nearly $5 million in a case that showed staff wrongly kept boys at a state-run school in isolation chambers and restraints. The Iowa Appeals Board on Tuesday approved the payment to attorneys for former students of the Iowa Boys State Training School in Eldora. The former students earlier won a lawsuit against the state over their mistreatment. The school houses boys who have committed crimes. During the trial, witnesses testified that students were often kept in isolation for weeks or put in device called “the wrap” that left them immobilized for up to five hours.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Farms that raise turkeys and chickens for meat and eggs are on high alert, fearing a repeat of a widespread bird flu outbreak in 2015 that killed 50 million birds across 15 states and cost the federal government nearly $1 billion. Indiana officials said Tuesday a second flock of 26,473 turkeys near the first infected farm is suspected to have the same virus. The USDA also confirmed the presence of bird flu in a flock of commercial broiler chickens in Fulton County, Kentucky, and are awaiting results of a potential second case about 124 miles northeast in Webster County, Ketucky. A backyard flock of mixed species birds in northern Virginia also is positive for the virus.
