CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is confident contaminated storm water from an explosion at C6-Zero’s Marengo plant didn’t get into the Iowa River, according to an email shared with TV9. According to the DNR, the Iowa River is a significant drinking water source for Iowa City and other nearby municipalities. The state agency said storm water with a “dark and oily in color and texture” were going into or towards the Iowa River on Friday. In an emergency order stopping C6-Zero from operating in Iowa, DNR said storm water sample analysis taken around the facility shows evidence of the discharge of pollutants resulting in contamination in excess of statewide water quality standards. Those chemicals were released after an explosion earlier in December injured 15 inside a plant operated by C6-Zero, which said it can turn asphalt roof shingles into oil, fiberglass, and sand.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Iowa say they’ve arrested a second man in the death of a 4-year-old boy killed when a car racing on a city street crossed into oncoming traffic, crashing into two vehicles. Des Moines police said 47-year-old Keith Eric Jones, of Des Moines, was arrested on charges that included homicide related to reckless driving and drag racing. Thirty-five-year-old Robert Miller III, of Urbandale, was arrested last week on similar charges. Investigators found that Miller’s car was going more than 100 mph along a four-lane road in Des Moines as it raced a BMW SUV that Jones was driving before the crash on Dec. 13.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police say a 22-year-old man forced his way into his ex-girlfriend’s home in Des Moines and shot and killed her and her mother before shooting himself. Des Moines Police said the man called police shortly before 3 a.m. Monday to report that he had shot the two women and was walking to a nearby park where he planned to kill himself. A 20-year-old woman and her 47-year-old mother were killed. Their names were not immediately released. Police spokesman Sgt. Paul Parizek said officers found the man in a park about a block from the home with a gunshot wound, but he was still alive. Paramedics took him to a hospital, and he remained in critical condition Monday afternoon.
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced a suburban Chicago businessman to nearly five years in prison on charges that he swindled two hospitals that had sought coveted protective face masks in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dennis W. Haggerty Jr. of Burr Ridge pleaded guilty in March to taking more than $2.5 million from hospitals in Chicago and Iowa. Prosecutors say Haggerty spent much of that money on personal credit cards and luxury cars without delivering the million N95 masks that his company promised to Northwestern Memorial Healthcare in Chicago and University of Iowa Medical Center. The judge said Monday that Haggerty took “advantage of a very bad time in this country.”
