From the KCRG TV9 Newsroom:
A Marion man accused of killing his five-year-old son has pleaded not guilty. Matthew Schleier is charged with first-degree murder. His trial has been set for May 2025. In October, he was arrested after he admitted to officers he strangled his son. During an interview with investigators, Schleier said he’d been up most of the night deciding how to kill his child, and that he’d been thinking about it for a week. He also admitted he’d thought about using knives in order to commit the act. Investigators did find knives while executing a search warrant.
A Hiawatha man is facing charges after police say he tried to sexually entice a minor. Douglas Norum is charged with sexual exploitation of a minor and interference with official acts. Police say in November, he contacted a fake account the police had set up on a website known for prostitution. After learning the profile was for a 15-year-old girl, he asked her to send inappropriate photos. Norum set up a meeting at the Panera to meet this person in Cedar Rapids and tried to run away from police when officers tried to arrest him, according to authorities.
The operators of a charter school located in Cedar Rapids say it is looking at options to expand. That expansion comes as the Cedar Rapids Community School District points to how the growth is hurting its bottom line when it comes to charter schools. The executive director of the charter school says she opened the school not to compete with traditional public schools, but to give students who were falling through the cracks a second chance. In a statement, the district said, in the fall of 2022, CRCSD had three students enrolled in charter schools. By the fall of 2024, this number had increased to 112, with 106 students attending the Empowering Excellence Charter School. Iowa is seeing more charter schools open since the state changed laws, making it easier for them to work in the state.
