From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A former manager for an influential Iowa-based pork dealer has died in a crash, days after federal prosecutors charged him in a scheme to swindle hog farmers through fraudulent buying practices. The Iowa State Patrol says 70-year-old Steven Demaray, the former regional buying manager for Lynch Livestock, was driving a truck that crashed head-on Monday morning into a concrete overpass support pier on Highway 63 near New Hampton, where he lived. Demaray, who was known by his nickname “Shooter,” was the only person in the vehicle and died at a hospital. An accident report released Tuesday gave no indication why his truck left the road. A federal grand jury on Nov. 4 indicted Demaray and a former Lynch Livestock bookkeeper on two counts of mail fraud. Demaray had pleaded not guilty.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A new state audit report on government spending accuses Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds of using nearly $450,000 in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay salaries for 21 members of her staff for three months last year and concealing the spending by passing it through the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. State Auditor Rob Sand says a review of the state’s payroll system shows the money was used to pay the governor’s office staff, but it’s unclear why she had to take federal money to pay the salaries and why the funds weren’t initially in her budget. Reynolds’ office responded Monday by saying she is working to provide federal officials the documentation needed to approve the funds.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials in Des Moines say a woman has died in a house fire. The fire was reported Sunday evening by a neighbor in a residential area between the city’s Union Park and Fairmont Park neighborhoods. Arriving firefighters learned that a man and his mother had been in the house when the fire broke out. The man was able to escape but told firefighters his mother was trapped inside. Firefighters were hindered by flames, but found the woman about 20 minutes later inside the burning home. She did not survive. Officials have not released the woman’s name. Investigators later said a space heater had been found in the home’s basement surrounded by blankets and could have been the cause of the fire.
SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa State Patrol says a Minnesota woman and her 1-year-old baby died in a crash in northwestern Iowa that also injured four others, including woman’s two other children. The crash happened late Saturday morning at an intersection northeast of Spirit Lake. A patrol investigation found that an eastbound car driven by 29-year-old Mariah Nelson, of Jackson, Minnesota, ran a stop sign and collided with a southbound pickup truck driven by 63-year-old Allen Weinzetl, also of Jackson, Minnesota. Television station KTIV reports that Nelson and her 1-year-old son, Symere Williams, died in the crash. Nelson’s daughters, ages 5 and 6, were rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. Weinzetl and his passenger, 58-year-old Teresa Chonko, also were injured and taken to hospitals.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines police have identified an 18-year-old man killed Sunday morning in a shooting. Police say Monday that Dean Titus Deng of Des Moines died in the shooting, which also left another man injured. Police haven’t identified the second man. Police responded to a report of a shooting about 4 a.m. Sunday and found one man in a car. He was rushed to a hospital, where he died. The other man was in good condition at a hospital. The death was the 12th homicide in Des Moines in 2021.
MONTROSE, Iowa (AP) – A train struck a barge in southeast Iowa late Saturday night, knocking several cars off the tracks and spilling coal into the Mississippi River. BNSF railroad officials told the Burlington Hawk Eye that two coal cars landed in the river and three others were partially in the water after the collision near Montrose, Iowa that also knocked over two locomotives. One other car that left the tracks remained upright. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources said several hundred gallons of diesel fuel also spilled out of the locomotives. No injuries were reported. The railroad said it will work to remove any coal that ended up in the river.
