From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has made it easier for lawmakers to limit or outlaw abortion in the state, reversing a decision by the court just four years ago that guaranteed the right to abortion under the Iowa Constitution. The court concluded Friday that a 2018 decision was wrong and should be overturned. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by abortion providers who challenged a 2020 law that required a 24-hour waiting period before a woman can get an abortion. A judge struck down the law in June 2021, citing the 2018 Iowa Supreme Court decision that declared abortion a fundamental right under the state constitution. The court reversed that decision and sent the case back to district court.
MACEDONIA, Iowa (AP) – Authorities in western Iowa say a 9-year-old boy has died after being hit by a motorcycle in the small town of Macedonia. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports that the crash happened around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday along Macedonia’s Main Street. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says the boy was riding his bicycle at the intersection of Main and Dye streets when he was hit by a motorcycle. The boy was rushed to a Council Bluffs hospital, where he died. Officials have not released his name. Police say the 51-year-old motorcycle driver was not injured.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A bird flu outbreak in the U.S. that led to the deaths of more than 40 million chickens and turkeys and contributed to a spike in egg and meat prices appears to be waning, but experts caution the virus hasn’t disappeared and worry another surge could take hold this fall. The Department of Agriculture isn’t ready to say the outbreak is winding down, but some state agriculture and industry officials are optimistic the end is near as hot weather spreads across the country. The cost of the outbreak is still being tallied but the USDA has already approved $793 million in additional funding this year.
HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a Fremont County sheriff’s deputy has died in a head-on crash in the southwestern corner of Iowa. The sheriff’s office says in a news release that the crash happened early Tuesday afternoon along Highway 275 north of Hamburg, killing 37-year-old Deputy Austin “Melvin” Richardson. Investigators say Richardson was in his patrol car traveling north when it collided with a southbound farm combine. A report by the Iowa State Patrol says the combine was wider than the width of the southbound lane, with one of its front tires operating over the highway’s center line. The patrol says Richardson’s car collided with that front tire, then rolled several times.
CHICAGO (AP) – People are flocking to pools, beaches and cooling centers in a swath of the Midwest and South spanning from northern Florida to the Great Lakes, as a heat wave pushed temperatures into the 90s and beyond and may have caused the deaths of at least two people in the Milwaukee area. The National Weather Service maintained an excessive heat warning through Wednesday evening for most of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, which have been dealing with the sticky humidity and soaring temperatures since Tuesday. And the heat advisory in place for the Midwest and South stretched all the way eastward to the South Carolina shoreline, covering an area that is home to roughly a third of the country’s population.
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – A former eastern Iowa police officer has pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl last year while he was on duty. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says in a news release that 24-year-old Andrew Patrick Denoyer pleaded guilty Tuesday in Scott County District Court to three counts of third-degree sexual assault. Denoyer faces up to 30 years in prison when he’s sentenced July 29. His arrest in September came a day after he resigned from his job as an Eldridge police officer and four days after law enforcement launched an investigation into allegations that Denoyer had had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in May 2021 while he was on duty.
