From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Legislature will convene for its second special session in a month to consider another plan for redrawing boundaries for the state’s legislative and congressional districts. The second gathering Thursday was required after the Iowa Senate rejected the first plan drawn by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency in a one-day session on Oct. 5. Republicans who control both chambers said some legislative districts were irregularly shaped and population deviations should be improved in a second map. The LSA drafts maps following detailed guidelines to ensure population balance among Iowa’s congressional districts and to prevent political influence. The Legislature can only accept or reject the first and second set of maps. In the third round, legislators could make changes.
McCALLSBURG, Iowa (AP) – The Story County Sheriff’s Office has launched a criminal investigation into questionable spending of public money in the town of McCallsburg after a state audit identified tens of thousands of dollars improperly spent or not collected. The audit released Thursday says investigators identified more than $47,510 in utility bills that were improperly reduced or not collected for dozens of the towns approximately 400 residents, including for accounts for the homes of Mayor Chris Erickson and Councilwoman LeAnne Hazen. Auditors found that Erickson made no utility payments for his home for nearly two years from 2017 to 2019, and that Hazen made no payments for 18 months. Both Erickson and Hazen are up for re-election on Tuesday.
FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) – A Webster County jury has convicted an Eagle Grove man in the 2020 shooting deaths of two men during a celebration of life gathering. The jury on Wednesday found 56-year-old Michael J. Shivers guilty in the June 16, 2020, deaths of 25-year-old Jamael Cox and 47-year-old Tyrone Cunningham, both of Fort Dodge. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports the shooting happened about 4:45 a.m. after people had gathered at a home to celebrate the life of a woman. Prosecutors say the party became tense and that Shivers fired a rifle toward another man, causing others who were armed to begin shooting. Cox and Cunningham were caught in a crossfire and died. Two women were wounded but survived. Shivers will be sentenced Dec. 13.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police in Des Moines have declared the death of a person found overnight with traumatic injuries a homicide. Police say officers and medics were called just before 2 a.m. Thursday to a home in a neighborhood between Interstate 235 and Easttown Park. Arriving first responders found a person suffering from traumatic injuries who was rushed to a nearby hospital and later died at the hospital. Police did not immediately release the person’s identity or give details about how the person was injured. No arrests were immediately reported.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A U.S. House report says at least 59,000 meatpacking workers became ill with COVID-19 and 269 workers died when the virus tore through the industry last year. The report released Wednesday shows the coronavirus hit the industry much harder than previously thought. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union earlier this week estimated 22,400 workers were sickened by the virus. With workers standing shoulder-to-shoulder along production lines, the meatpacking industry was one of the early epicenters of the coronavirus pandemic. The House report says companies could have done more to protect their employees.
WAUKON, Iowa (AP) – Hundreds of people and law enforcement officers filled the Waukon High School gymnasium on Wednesday for the funeral of an Iowa State Patrol trooper who died from injuries he received in a car crash in the line of duty. Trooper Ted Benda was hurt Oct. 14 in a single-vehicle crash while en route to help the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office with a wanted suspect. He died in a La Crosse, Wisconsin, hospital from those injuries on Oct. 20. The 37-year-old Benda joined the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation in 2005 and transferred to the state patrol in 2016. He is survived by his wife, Holly, and their four children. A private burial will be held following the funeral.
