Home News Wednesday Afternoon News, May 22nd

Wednesday Afternoon News, May 22nd

Governor Reynolds Gives Line Item Veto To Bill Asking Attorney General To Get Approval On Out-of-state Lawsuits

(Des Moines) — Republican Governor Kim Reynolds has rejected a plan to restrict the authority of Iowa’s attorney general.


Reynolds says she shares concerns raised by Republican lawmakers about having Attorney General Tom Miller
join lawsuits challenging Trump Administration policies, as those lawsuits conflict with the policy goals of the Republican-led legislature AND her, but Reynolds said she’s cautious about redefining the attorney general’s duties since he’s elected to the job by voters. Reynolds and Miller recently met privately to discuss this proposal. The governor says Miller has agreed to
consult with her and join lawsuits on behalf of the state only when she agrees. If the governor doesn’t agree with a lawsuit’s aims, Miller may still join it — but independently under his own name, not on behalf of the State of Iowa.
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Strong Winds And/Or Tornado Responsible For Iowa Death

ADAIR, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say one person has been killed and another injured by what may have been a tornado that damaged a farmstead in southwest Iowa’s Adair County.
The Adair County Sheriff’s Office says first responders found the
body of 74-year-old Linda Brownlee early Wednesday morning at the farm just east-southeast of Adair. Seventy-eight-year-old Harold Brownlee was flown to a Des Moines hospital.
Robert Kempf is emergency management coordinator for Adair and Guthrie counties, and he says the Brownlee home sits atop a hill, so the extensive damage could have been caused by straight-line winds. The National Weather Service is sending an assessment team to determine whether a tornado was involved.
Kempf says three outbuildings were destroyed at the farm, and two nearby houses were damaged as well.
The weather service says debris from the farmstead landed on nearby Interstate 80.

 

 

King To Hold Woodbury County Town Hall Meeting And Hornick Recognition Ceremony

Washington DC– Congressman Steve King announces that he will be hosting town hall meetings in Webster and Woodbury counties on Tuesday, May 28. The Webster County town hall will occur in Fort Dodge at Iowa Central Community College from 10:00-11:00 AM Central time. The Woodbury County town hall will occur in Hornick at the Hornick Town Hall facility from 3:15-4:15 PM Central.
The town hall meetings are open to the public and to the media. King has pledged to hold a town hall in each county in the 4th Congressional District this year, and these two events will be the 15th and 16th town hall meetings King has hosted since January.

In addition, King announces that he will be hosting a “Hornick Recognition Ceremony” on May 28th prior to the Woodbury County town hall meeting. During the ceremony, which will run from 2:30-3:00 PM, King will be specifically recognizing individual town residents and town officials for heroic actions they took to protect Hornick during this year’s flooding.
Congressman King’s “Hornick Recognition Ceremony” is open to the public and to the media.

 

 

Violent Offender Released Days Prior To Shooting Incident

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A violent offender shot this month by Iowa City police had been released from jail days earlier, despite probation violations that could have kept him behind bars.
Hours after bonding out of jail on a charge of assaulting a police
officer, Michael Cintron Caceres allegedly robbed an Iowa City gas station at knife-point early May 7. Two days later, he allegedly burglarized other businesses before he was shot and wounded after fleeing from police officers.
Now the Department of Correctional Services, which was responsible for supervising Cintron Caceres during his probation, says the 34-year-old is “a danger to the community” who should be jailed indefinitely.
And the Division of Criminal Investigation is investigating whether officers appropriately used deadly force when they sought to apprehend him early May 9.

 

 

Black Hawk Board Of Supervisors Request Moratorium On Livestock Production Facilities

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – The Black Hawk County Board of Supervisors has added its voice to those calling for a moratorium on new livestock feeding operations.
The board voted unanimously Tuesday for a resolution that asks Gov. Kim Reynolds and state legislators to bar construction of new concentrated animal feeding operations until Iowa’s water quality improves. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that supervisors in 25 more of the state’s 99 counties have passed similar measures. The resolutions also call on the state
to revise the regulations controlling the feeding operations and to give county governments more control over the operations’ locations.
Groups such as the Sierra Club and Iowa Citizens for Community
Improvement say the operations are detrimental to human health and that failed manure management plans harm the state’s streams, rivers and lakes.

 

 

Judge Rules Missouri Patrolman Can Return To Duty Following Drowning Incident

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) – A judge has reversed the revocation of the peace officer license of a Missouri highway patrolman who was driving a boat when a handcuffed Iowa man fell out and drowned.
Cole County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Green on Monday sent
proceedings against trooper Anthony Piercy back to the Department of Public Safety for further action.
Piercy was driving 20-year-old Brandon Ellingson, of Clive, Iowa, for a breath test at the Lake of the Ozarks in 2014 when Ellingson fell off the boat and slipped out of an improperly secured life vest.
Green ruled director Drew Juden didn’t provide findings of fact and conclusions of law when revoking Piercy’s license.
Piercy was sentenced to 10 days in county jail for misdemeanor
negligent operation of a vessel. He needs the license to return to patrol.