From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
Authorities say four of the seven people killed in devastating storms that tore through central Iowa were members of the same family who were huddled together in the pantry of a home that was razed by a powerful tornado. Family members said two children, their father and their grandmother all died when a tornado hit the grandparents’ home Saturday near rural Winterset. Four other family members were hurt but survived. The children and their parents, from Blue Springs, Missouri, were visiting their grandmother, 63-year-old Melissa Bazley, when the tornado hit. Two others killed in the tornado lived just down the street.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa will pay eight men working for the Iowa Department of Revenue just over $1 million to settle their complaints that they were secretly photographed by a male colleague in a restroom and that supervisors didn’t take the matter seriously. The State Appeal Board voted Monday to settle with the men who will each receive payments ranging from $70,000 to $200,000. The total state payout comes to $1.01 million. The state previously settled with three other men who had filed a federal lawsuit for $900,000. The man who took the photos, Kenneth Kerr, was fired, pleaded guilty to invasion of privacy and sexually motivated stalking and was sentenced to two years of probation.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials announced they have identified bird flu in a commercial flock of 50,000 turkeys in northwest Iowa, the state’s second case of a virus that has been identified in multiple states. Iowa agriculture officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday confirmed the case in Buena Vista County, about 100 miles north of the case identified March 1 in a backyard flock of 42 ducks and chickens in Pottawattamie County. Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a disaster proclamation for Buena Vista County to allow state resources to help with disposal of the affected flock and disinfection of the farm. Officials on Monday confirmed Nebraska’s first case this year, in a wild goose near Holmes Lake in Lincoln.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California judge has ordered an online, for-profit university and its former parent company to pay $22 million in penalties, saying they misled students. The San Diego Superior Court ruled Thursday in favor of the state of California in its lawsuit against Ashford University and its then-parent company Zovio, Inc. The University of Arizona has since acquired the university and rebranded the online school, the University of Arizona Global Campus. It is an independent university that is operated in affiliation with the University of Arizona. The court said Ashford gave false or misleading information about the school’s cost, financial aid, pace of degrees, among other things. Zovio did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa man facing four federal charges related to entering the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack has pleaded not guilty. Kenneth Rader of Sioux City appeared in a video hearing on Friday before Judge Royce Lamberth to face charges he knowingly entering a restricted building, two counts of disorderly and disruptive conduct and demonstrating in a Capitol building. The 53-year-old Rader remains free on bond and has another hearing scheduled for May 10. He was arrested on Jan. 20 in Sioux City after an Omaha, Nebraska, FBI agent said the agency received a tip from a relative that Rader was involved in the breach of the Capitol.
