From the KCRG-TV9 Newsroom:
Western Dubuque High School went on lockdown after school officials say they received an anonymous call regarding a potential threat on the school premises. Investigators now believe that call came from outside of the country and was not an immediate threat. The lockdown started around noon yesterday after the District received a threat from a phone caller. Some students, teachers, and staff followed protocols and barricaded inside classrooms. They left the high school earlier than usual. Western Dubuque’s superintendent says appropriate actions will be taken to prevent such incidents in the future.
Police are now charging a Cedar Rapids man with murder after a dead body was found in the passenger seat of his stalled car. 23-year-old Jihad Gasaway was arrested after State Patrol troopers arrived at his car parked along Interstate 80 near Grinnell. That’s when officers found 26-year-old Kemp Harriel dead in the passenger seat with gunshot wounds to his chest. Gasaway is also charged with abuse of a corpse.
U.S. Marshals arrested a man in Cedar Rapids yesterday afternoon who wanted for a murder in Ohio. 25-year-old Antoine Richardson was taken into custody by a large law enforcement presence in the area of 29th Street and Prairie Drive Northeast Thursday afternoon. Richardson was wanted for the fatal shooting of a man last month in a Cleveland, Ohio suburb.
Representatives Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks say they will support House Majority Leader Steve Scalise from Louisiana as the next House Speaker. Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and the rest of Iowa’s Congressional delegation voted to support Kevin McCarthy in his losing bid to retain the Speakership. Ohio U.S. Representative Jim Jordan is also a leading candidate for the Speaker’s job.
Drought conditions have worsened in the Cedar Rapids area. The latest USDA Drought Monitor indicates the worst drought condition–called an exceptional drought–now includes all of Benton County, the western half of Linn County, and parts of Tama, Iowa, and Johnson counties. Cedar Rapids is seeing a deficit of more than 14 inches of precipitation this year.
