From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Hospitalizations of people being treated for coronavirus infections in Iowa surpassed 1,000 this week as COVID-19 cases grow at the fastest rate since the beginning of the pandemic nearly two years ago. State data updated Wednesday shows Iowa surpassed 1,000 hospitalizations on Monday and then dipped lower to 991 with 182 patients in intensive care. The state reported 19 children age 11 or younger in hospitals and 13 aged 12 to 17. Most were unvaccinated. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Iowa’s seven-day moving average of daily cases was 5,440 on Monday. That is the highest rate ever, surpassing the previous high of 4,622 in November 2020. The state Wednesday reported 8,317 deaths, which is 116 more than reported on Monday.
ELDORA, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for causing a 2020 crash that killed three people by driving drunk and the wrong way on a rural highway. The Ames Tribune reports that 27-year-old Spencer Bultman, of Hampton, was sentenced Tuesday after he had pleaded guilty to three counts of vehicular homicide while driving under the influence and one count of serious injury by vehicle. Investigators say Bultman was drunk and driving his pickup the wrong way in the westbound lanes of U.S. Highway 20 near Alden when he crashed into a sport utility vehicle. The crash killed 44-year-old SUV driver Cristy Gutierres, her boyfriend, 37-year-old Mario Zubia, and Gutierres’ 10-year-old son Jesse “Alex” Gutierres. Gutierres’ 6-year-old daughter was critically injured in the crash.
HASTINGS, Neb. (AP) – An arctic cold front has sent temperatures plummeting in Plains and Midwest states – including in the south-central Nebraska city of Hastings, which saw a more than 50-degree temperature drop from Tuesday to Wednesday. The National Weather Service says Hastings saw a Jan. 18 record high temperature of 66 degrees Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the temperature in Hastings had plunged to 13 degrees with a wind chill of minus 11. The weather service expected the low by midnight Wednesday in Hasting to drop below zero to minus 3. The service has issued a wind chill advisory for most of Iowa and northern Missouri, as well as a hazardous weather outlook advisory from Wednesday through Thursday for most of Nebraska and parts of Kansas.
SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have identified a man who was shot and killed by a Woodbury County sheriff’s deputy. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation on Tuesday said 35-year-old Michael Scott Meredith, of Sergeant Bluff, died last Wednesday after being shot by the deputy. Woodbury County Sheriff Chad Sheehan said last week that officers received a report of a man trying to break into a mobile home. He says the suspect was shot when he walked toward officers and hit one of them with a tire iron. The officer was not seriously injured.
