From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for conspiring with his daughter in a conspiracy that involved around 1,000 drug-related transactions over an eight-month period. The U.S. Attorney’s office for northern Iowa on Monday announced the sentence for 47-year-old Kendell Lamont Thomas of Dubuque. He pleaded guilty in June to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Thomas says in a plea agreement that he conspired with his daughter to distribute more than 500 grams of crack cocaine by conducting around 1,000 drug-related transactions in Dubuque in 2020.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Despite a concerted effort to reduce traffic fatalities in Iowa, the number this year has just about matched last year’s total, with a few days to go before 2022. KCCI-TV reports that 341 people have died on Iowa roadways this year, two shy of the 343 in 2020. Last year, the Iowa State Patrol formed a fatality reduction task force in hopes of saving lives. One factor troopers cite in many accidents: Speeding. The patrol cited one instance where the driver was going 138 mph. Patrol officials also cited an increase in distracted and impaired drivers. Troopers plan targeted enforcement operations in various areas of the state in 2022.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The family of a retired school superintendent who died from an infection unrelated to COVID-19 believes he would have had a better chance of surviving had his transfer to a larger hospital not been delayed for 15 days by the coronavirus pandemic. Dale Weeks’ twin daughters told the Des Moines Register that said Weeks stayed at the relatively small hospital in Newton, west of Des Moines, because larger hospitals couldn’t spare a bed for him. Weeks died Nov. 28 at age 78. He’d been at a University of Iowa hospital since Nov. 17, but his arrival there from a smaller hospital in Newton had been delayed.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Refugees arriving in Iowa from Afghanistan are getting a little help from others who know what they’re going through – people who came to Iowa from Bosnia. KCCI-TV reports that on Sunday, the Bosniak American Association of Iowa and Des Moines Refugee Support teamed up for a donation drive at a mosque in Des Moines. Hundreds of items ranging from pillows to pots and pans to toiletries were donated for Afghan refugees. One woman who came over from Bosnia in the 1990s says they “know exactly what these people are going through.”
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa woman and a Nebraska teenager have been charged in connection with a hatchet attack on a man in a Sioux City apartment building earlier this month. Sioux City police said the attack was carried out on Dec. 18 to retaliate against the apartment’s occupant because that man had previously kicked the 52-year-old woman out of the apartment. Mary Blair was arrested Saturday on several charges. The teen was arrested Monday. Court documents say Blair let the 16-year-old into the locked apartment building and then knocked on the door of the victim’s apartment before stepping aside to let the teen enter. The victim suffered a broken shoulder when he was struck several times with a hatchet.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Authorities in Linn County continue to investigate a Christmas Day accident that killed a 76-year-old bicyclist. The Cedar Rapids Gazette reports that the accident happened about 2:25 p.m. when a 2017 Ford Escape driven by a woman from Amana struck the bicyclist from behind. Terry Zabortsky of Walford was pronounced dead at the scene. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office is investigating.
