CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A 16-year-old who is accused of shooting and killing an 18-year-old earlier this month is asking for his case to be moved to juvenile court. Gerald Vance’s attorney filed the request on Friday. Vance, 16, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with the felony charges of first-degree murder, possession of a firearm by a felon and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. The court motion argues that Vance has a good chance of rehabilitation if his case is moved. His attorney says the circumstances of the alleged crimes, Vance’s past with the juvenile court, and the juvenile court’s rehabilitation programs are more suited to the case. Vance was previously given probation after pleading guilty to a shooting during trick-or-treat last Halloween. While serving that probation, Cedar Rapids Police say Vance’s ankle monitor tracked him to the scene of the July 11 shooting. Police say Vance shot 18-year-old La’Rell Rushing more than 20 times. A hearing is set for August 17.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – Tuesday’s Iowa City Community School District board meeting is set to discuss the final report from the district’s Interim Chief Financial Officer, Kim Michael-Lee. In the report filed ahead of the meeting, she says despite financial records being incorrect, she found no fraudulent activity or cover-ups while at the district. Michael-Lee served as Interim CFO until Pat Moore took over as CFO. The report says staff were unable to prepare financial statements correctly because they couldn’t understand the software and didn’t understand how to properly read the financials. The district was three years behind on filing bank statements, which prevented the school from completing the past three years of annual audits. Michael-Lee says the school will use a monthly template moving forward for recurring expenses and payments to be filed with consistency. The former financial team acted without routine evaluations, and Michael-Lee suggests that the district move forward with annual goals and training to provide useful annual evaluation and feedback. Michael-Lee says the district’s grants are now organized in one place with a template that has all information in one place. The report says that the school makes all of its vendor payments via check, with a suggestion to move over to direct deposit. The report says that there were two times that employees were nearly not paid on time within six months. The report also says that in FY2024, the district had more than $38,000 in money transfers within the district that were not approved by the school board beforehand and were not properly monitored or repaid in a timely manner with interest. The report says that the district’s assets were being tracked with a manual Excel spreadsheet, despite the school paying for a financial software system. The report says the FY2025 audit will start in August. The School Board on Tuesday will also discuss candidates for the district’s Financial Oversight Committee.
IOWA (KWQC/KCRG) – The U.S. Department of Energy has issued an emergency order aimed at preventing blackouts in 17 states, including Iowa, as a heat wave drives up electricity demand across the country. High temperatures have prompted increased air conditioning use, straining the country’s electrical system. In response, the Energy Department directed the Southwest Power Pool to take steps to keep electricity flowing, including tapping into unused backup generation. The order took effect Sunday and is expected to remain in place through Aug. 3.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (KCRG) – Black Hawk County Dispatch received a call regarding a commercial building fire at 2210 Thunder Ridge Blvd around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. When firefighters and public safety officials arrived, they found fire coming out of the roof of a nine-car garage. Firefighters extinguished the flames before they spread to any neighboring buildings. There was severe damage to the garage and the cause of the fire is under investigation.
