A Denison man will serve time for making money with golf clubs that weren’t his. 58-year-old James Mullen was sentenced to five-years probation and six months home of home confinement with electronic monitoring. He was also ordered to pay 94-thousand dollars in restitution and serve 250 hours of community service. Mullen allegedly sold golf clubs in the Omaha area. The clubs were allegedly stolen across the midwest by another man who’s already in jail.
Autopsy shows Jesup woman was strangled
January 16, 2004 By
The autopsy results are in on a Jesup woman found dead in her home, and official cause of death given for Patricia Rapacki is strangulation.There were reports that Rapacki was stabbed with a hunting knife and her body was put in a freezer in her home. That has not been confirmed. Police found Rapacki’s body after obtaining a warrant to search her home. She was last seen alive December 27th and was reported missing January 6th when her boyfriend — 38-year-old Lynn LaMasters — was arrested following a high-speed chase in her car. Investigators say an initial search of Rapacki’s home last week turned up no evidence in her disappearance. LaMasters, who stabbed himself before last week’s capture, was released from a Waterloo hospital Monday. He was booked into the Buchanan County jail on an unrelated drug charge.
Two businesses win state money for expansion
January 16, 2004 By
The expansion projects of two businesses in central and southwest Iowa are getting a boost from state funds. Tina Hoffman with the Iowa Department of Economic Development says the D-E-D board is giving Burke Marketing in Nevada a 200-thousand dollar grant. She says they’re going to upgrade their processing equipment that’s used to make cooked meat ingredients for restaurants and food service operations. Hoffman says the Iowa grant is a small portion of the expansion. She says the company is spending 16 million dollars to expand, and will create 16 new jobs will maintaining 73 jobs. The other state help is in the form of a one-and-a-half million-dollar Iowa Values Fund award to the Omaha Standard company in Council Bluffs. The company has a 17-point-four-million dollar plan to consolidate their operations and upgrade the equipment they’re using. The company makes truck bodies and hydraulic lift equipment. Hoffman says Omaha Standard says they’ll create 108 new jobs average around 21 dollars-an-hour and will retain 182 jobs. She says the values fund was created to bring in high-skilled, high-paying jobs, and this is an example. Omaha Standard has been in Council Bluffs for 75 years, while Burke Corporation was started in 1967.
Wind creates dirty air situation in Mason City
January 16, 2004 By
High winds in Mason City Wednesday blew up some dirty air that’ve created concern for the Department of Natural Resources. D-N-R air information specialist Brian Button says the wind apparently blew up dust from cement plants, and led to unhealthy air quality levels. Button says the cement plants have been working to control emissions. He says they’re trying to control emissions form vents and smoke stacks as well as piles of material. Button says they don’t know exactly where the emissions came from. Button says the last unhealthy air was recorded in Mason City back in February of 2002. He says the latest event raises a concern. He says they deal with a three-year standard, and if there’s another event, it would be the third in three years, putting the area on the cusp of not meeting healthy air standards. Button says the state overall has had few problems with dirty air. He says the conditions have been good this winter and most of last summer, with few problems with smog. Button says we’re meeting federal air quality standards, and our air is a lot cleaner than a lot of states. Button says you can view current air quality conditions in Iowa and nationally at www.iowacleanair.com.
Man pleads guilty to smuggling charge
January 16, 2004 By
During a court appearance in Sioux City on Thursday, a Mexican national pleaded guilty to several charges, including smuggling other illegals into Iowa last fall. 24-year-old Florencio Mendoza Mercado admitted he’d been deported before and returned illegally when he was caught in Monona County in October while driving a vanload of illegal aliens. If convicted, Mercado faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison and a 500-thousand dollar fine.
Phone service cut off in Harrison County
January 16, 2004 By
Phone service is back on-line in two western Iowa communities after a mysterious mishap. Parts of Harrison County’s 911 and long-distance service were cut yesterday for about four hours after a fiber optic cable was sliced along U.S. Highway 30 between Woodbine and Logan. Iowa Telecom is still investigating what caused the cut.
Two charged in loan fraud at ISU
January 16, 2004 By
Iowa State University police made a second arrest last night (Thursday) in what investigator say was a student loan scam. I-S-U police say 26-year-old Candace Walker enrolled as a student on the Ames campus last fall, though she allegedly had no intent to become a student, just to get student loan money and skip. Walker applied for student loans and qualified for more than ten-thousand dollars, though it’s still unclear how much she received. Police say Walker never attended a class. Investigators say her boyfriend, 35-year-old Shawn Pickett, was arrested Wednesday for taking more than ten-thousand dollars from Walker’s account. Both are now charged with theft and criminal conduct.
