From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Homicide detectives in Des Moines are investigating after police found a man fatally shot in a residential neighborhood. Police say in a news release that officers were called Thursday night to a neighborhood several blocks northeast of the Iowa State Capitol, where they found a 34-year-old man with a gunshot wound. Paramedics rushed the man to a hospital, where he died of his injuries. Police have not released the man’s name. Homicide detectives were interviewing witnesses and gathering forensic evidence in the shooting.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law a bill that prohibits transgender females from participating in girls high school sports and women’s college athletics, rejecting opponents’ argument that she would harm vulnerable children to solve a nonexistent problem. Republican leaders made the bill signed Thursday by the governor effective immediately, which means transgender female students playing on girls or women’s teams may be forced to quit. It wasn’t immediately clear how many students it would affect. Iowa will join 10 other GOP-run states with such laws. Some have faced court challenges alleging violations of constitutional rights and federal nondiscrimination laws.
ANKENY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say five teenagers have been charged for their roles in a reported fight over the weekend that led to a shootout with Ankeny police officers. The Des Moines Register reports that while three 17-year-olds and a 15-year-old face burglary charges, another 17-year-old faces two counts of attempted murder as well as a burglary charge. Ankeny police have said that officers were responding to reports of a fight followed by gunshots Saturday night at Prairie Point Apartments. Police say when officers pulled over a car suspected in the fracas, two people got out, started shooting at officers and fled into a wooded area. Officers returned fire, but no one was injured in the shootout.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Federal officials say bird flu has been detected in a backyard flock of chickens and ducks in western Iowa. It’s an especially troubling development for a state that is home to the nation’s largest number of egg-laying hens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it confirmed highly pathogenic avian influenza in the flock in Pottawattamie County. State officials have quarantined the affected location and the birds were killed to prevent the spread of the disease. Cases have been discovered in noncommercial flocks and farms across the nation in the past month. The first infection was identified at a turkey farm in Indiana on Feb. 9. In a 2015 outbreak, egg farmers in Iowa had to kill 33 million hens.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police in the Des Moines suburb of Clive say five juveniles face hate crime charges after using racial slurs against another child at a sleepover. Clive police Lt. Mark Rehberg says six juveniles ages 12 and 13 had a sleepover on Friday. Five of the children allegedly used racial slurs and threw footballs and other objects at one of the children. The Polk County Attorney’s Office determined harassment and simple assault charges were appropriate. But Rehberg said the assault charges were upgraded to hate crime charges because racial slurs were allegedly used.
YETTER, Iowa (AP) – The partial collapse of a grain elevator in west-central Iowa left a mess of corn and chunks of concrete littering the railroad tracks next to the structure. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports the collapse happened early Tuesday morning at the Landus Cooperative elevator in Yetter. Officials say a structural failure caused the side of one silo-like receiving pit to blow out around 4:30 a.m., sending a sea of corn to the ground below. Mary Harrington, a spokeswoman for Landus, said the damage was not caused by an explosion and that there was no fire risk. No one was injured in the collapse.
