From the Associated Press:
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Union leaders for workers at a Davenport defense contractor supplier say a labor strike that began last week will continue for at least another week. A representative of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District Lodge 6 tells the Des Moines Register that Eaton Corp. signaled company representatives won’t return to the bargaining table until March 1. The strike at the Eaton-Cobham Mission Systems factory in Davenport began Friday. It ensued after 98% of union members voted Thursday to reject a tentative agreement with the company over what union representative John Herrig said was the company’s offer of “sub-standard wages” and cuts to health care and retirement benefits.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service is warning of bitter cold descending on several Midwest states, including Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and parts of Missouri, as a winter storm system dropped some snow, sleet and freezing rain on those areas early Tuesday. The weather service has issued a wind chill warning for much of western and northern Nebraska until noon Wednesday, with sub-zero temperatures and high winds combining to send the wind chill plummeting to a dangerous 40 below zero in some areas — including Chadron, Alliance and Broken Bow — by early Wednesday morning. Much of Kansas could see wind chills as low as 20 below, while most of Iowa and a northwest segment of Missouri were warned to expect wind chills around 15 below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 1. GOP congressional leaders made the announcement Tuesday. Reynolds is being praised by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell as fighting COVID “without forgetting common sense” by protecting Iowans’ health and their rights at the same time. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy says “disastrous decision-making in Washington” has been offset by real leadership in states across the country, and cited Iowa as an example. Reynolds is the 43rd governor of Iowa and has served since May of 2017.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa House Republicans have approved a bill that prohibits transgender girls from participating in girls sports moving the direction of about 10 other Republican-run state legislatures in passing the controversial measure. Opponents say the bill which passed on party lines 55 to 39 is discriminatory and state-sanctioned bullying of transgender children while supporters say it’s the only way to protect girls from being dominated in sports competition by males who identify as females. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has supported the idea. The Iowa Senate has not yet voted on its slightly different version of the measure.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Investigators in Cedar Rapids are working to determine what sparked a fire at an apartment tower that left two people with serious injuries and seven others who were taken to hospitals for observation. Fire officials reported that the fire broke out early Sunday morning in an apartment on the ninth floor of the Geneva Tower and spread to higher floors. Several apartments in the floors below the fire also suffered water damage as fire crews doused the flames. Firefighters and police worked to evacuate the tower from the seventh floor up. The 12-floor tower provides income-based housing mainly to the elderly and adults with disabilities.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been charged with child endangerment in a case that saw one young child shoot another inside an Iowa City apartment last year. The Gazette of Cedar Rapids reports that 36-year-old Christopher Horras has been charged with once count of misdemeanor child endangerment and one count of felony child endangerment. He’s also charged with a count of making a firearm available to a minor. Police say Horra left a loaded gun in his bedroom on Nov. 7 and left two children unattended while he went to another area of the house. Police say the children found the gun, and one accidentally shot the other. Accessible court records don’t give the ages of the children or Horras’ relationship to them.
