From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa has reached a milestone – 175 years as a state. WHO-TV reports that Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation on Tuesday declaring Iowa Statehood Day. President James Polk signed the bill that made Iowa the 29th state on Dec. 28, 1846. Fewer than 100,000 people lived in Iowa at the time. Now, the state has nearly 3.2 million residents. Iowa became part of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and became its own territory in 1838, separating from the Wisconsin Territory.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The number of people injured by gunfire in Des Moines this year nearly doubled from 2020, but fewer people died from their wounds. KCCI-TV reports that as of Tuesday, 86 people were treated for wounds inflicted by guns, compared to 49 in 2020, a number police described as about average. But just 11 people were killed by guns, compared to 17 last year. Police attribute the lower death toll to the care provided at the region’s hospitals.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The county attorney prosecuting the case of two southeast Iowa teens charged with murder in the death of their high school Spanish teacher says they surveilled her pattern of life, ambushed her along her daily walk and dragged her into the woods, returning later to better hide her lifeless body. Those additional details of the death of Nohema Graber in early November were revealed in a Dec. 23 filing in the case of Jeremy Goodale, 16, of Fairfield. He is charged with murder and conspiracy to commit murder with classmate Willard Miller, also 16. Attorneys for both teens have asked a judge to move their case to juvenile court. Hearings on the requests will be held on Jan. 27.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A former Linn County sheriff’s deputy and his lawyers will receive more than $500,000 to settle a lawsuit he filed alleging that other deputies belittled him for taking paternal leave. Scott Becker sued the county and the sheriff’s office in federal court last year. He alleged he was harassed and discriminated against when he applied for paternal leave because other deputies didn’t want to cover his shifts while he was gone. In the settlement, the county said it disputes Becker’s allegations. Sheriff Brian Gardner attributed the harassment to staffing issues because Becker’s colleagues were already working several 16-hour shifts every week.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A woman is alive after being pulled from an icy Iowa river by a rappelling firefighter. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that it isn’t yet known how the woman ended up in the Cedar River in Waterloo. A passerby called 911 Monday night after hearing her yelling from beneath a bridge. Firefighters tossed her a rope with a loop, which prevented her from floating over the dam only yards away. Firefighter Chris Roth then used a second line to rappel into the river while another crew launched a rescue boat. Roth helped the woman into the boat, which ferried her to a waiting ambulance. Her condition on Tuesday wasn’t immediately known.
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.
