From the Associated Press:
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.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court says two Des Moines men who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for murders committed when they were teenagers must stay behind bars. James Dorsey and Fernando Sandoval have been trying for decades to have their convictions and sentences overturned. This time lawyers argued that their clients should not have been tried as adults because the crimes were committed when they were 18 and 19 years old. State law states that once someone turns 18 they face the full penalties prescribed by law. Justice Christopher McDonald, who wrote both majority opinions, acknowledges that the 18th birthday might be an arbitrary place to draw a line, but said a line must be drawn somewhere.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The federal government says it will distribute $60 million among 12 states that have waterways that flow into the Mississippi River to help them control farm runoff and other pollution that contribute to a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. The money comes from the infrastructure law that President Joe Biden signed in November, the Environmental Protection Agency said. Radhika Fox, EPA assistant administrator for water, made the announcement Friday alongside Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig in Des Moines. The money will be distributed over the next five years to Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
