Supreme Court Approves Wind Farm
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected an effort by local landowners to block a proposed wind farm in northwest Iowa after it won approval from government regulators.
The court’s rulings on Friday remove a major obstacle for the 170-turbine wind energy project in Palo Alto County. It also provides more certainty that similar projects will be able to proceed in the future.
Residents filed two lawsuits challenging the plan by Palo Alto Wind Energy and MidAmerican Energy, one against the Iowa Utilities Board and another against the Palo Alto County Board of Supervisors.
The utilities board lawsuit contended board members should have required developers to get a special certificate that requires extensive study of the project’s impact. The county lawsuit challenged the supervisors’ process for approving the project.
Sioux City Stabbing Case Now At Trial
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A friend of a 19-year-old Sioux City resident accused of stabbing to death his ex-girlfriend and another man testified that the defendant said he wanted to talk to the girl about their breakup and that he needed closure.
The defendant, Tran Walker, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder. He’s accused of killing 17-year-old Paiten Sullivan and 18-year-old Felipe Negron Jr. Police say Walker was in a car with the other two on Jan. 28 last year when he stabbed Sullivan and then Negron when he tried to intervene.
Walker’s friend Erin Brand said at the nonjury trial that began Thursday that Walker “was very hurt.”
Sullivan’s stepmother, Stevie Sullivan, testified that Walker and
Sullivan broke up because he didn’t want her to finish school.
Burlington Stabbing
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) – An 18-year-old accused of fatally stabbing another woman in a fight has struck a plea deal during her trial in Burlington.
The Hawk Eye reports that Kaylee Wilson pleaded guilty Friday to
voluntary manslaughter and weapons charges. The deal was finalized after two days of testimony in her trial on a charge of second-degree murder. Lawyers on both sides agreed to recommend a total sentence of 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors say Wilson stabbed 23-year-old Mallery Doak on Jan. 22 during a fight in front of Wilson’s Burlington home. A criminal complaint says the two had been arguing in instant messages over a man who’d fathered one of Doak’s children. Wilson reported that Doak threatened her for spending time with the man and said she was headed over to Wilson’s house.
Wilson told investigators that she then armed herself with a kitchen knife.
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Basketball Coach Is Sentenced To Prison For Sexual Abuse
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A judge has sentenced an influential youth basketball coach to an effective lifetime prison sentence for secretly collecting sexual images of 440 boys and fondling more than a dozen over a 20-year period. U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced former Iowa Barnstormers coach Greg Stephen to 180 years in federal prison. Williams
called Stephen’s crimes horrendous, saying he abused his position of trust to prey upon boys who saw Stephen as a gateway to college basketball.
Judge Rules In Favor Of University Of Iowa Football Coach To Keep Trees
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – University of Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz and his wife have won another round in a neighborhood fight. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that a judge’s ruling issued Wednesday affirms the Ferentzes do not owe neighbors around $9,600 for road maintenance and don’t have to remove landscaping that affords them privacy from intrusive football
fans.
