Authorities have now released the name of the eastern Iowa school official who’s facing drunk driving charges. Marion school district superintendent Nicholas Hobbs is charged with OWI. The 51-year-old allegedly registered a .21 blood alcohol leve during a breath test when police officers stopped him Saturday night in Linn County following an accident. That’s more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit. Hobbs has been superintendent nearly two years.
No more criminal charges to be filed in crash that killed family
February 10, 2005 By
Authorities have decided -not- to file additional charges against the driver of a car who was involved in a December accident in Cedar Rapids that killed a Fredericksburg family. A car driven by 20-year-old Jose Uribe-Ugalde of Fredericksburg, for unknown reasons, had crossed the median into the oncoming lane of traffic, headed south in the northbound lane. As Uribe-Ugalde was making a u-turn to turn his car around, he was struck by a car driven by 24-year-old Cory Evans of Marion. All four occupants of the Ugalde vehicle were killed, including his girlfriend, 21-year-old Gabriela Botello-Lara, their one-month-old son Antonio Uribe, and Ugalde’s brother, ten-year-old Jose Uribe. Evans was charged with OWI; his blood alcohol level was .122; the legal limit is .08. Authorities had been trying to determine if alcohol was a factor in the accident; however, following an extensive investigation, they were not able to determine that Evan’s impairment was a factor. However, there may be further civil litigation.
Harkin says health care should focus on wellness, not curing the sick
February 10, 2005 By
After this week’s release of President Bush’s budget strategy, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin is proposing an alternative health care plan which he says would help Americans become healthier while helping the government save money. Harkin, a democrat, says the system we have now is failing. “Currently, we do not have a health care system. We have a sick care system. We wait until people get sick, obese or disabled and then we spend hundreds of billions of dollars trying to pick up the pieces. This is unwise, it’s uneconomic and we know it’s totally unsustainable.” Harkin says his health care proposal would be radically different. Harkin says his Help America Act is to create a health care system that focuses on wellness and disease prevention, and that keeps people out of the hospital in the first place. He says it’ll be good for the physical health of our nation’s citizens and for the fiscal health of the nation’s Medicare and Medicaid programs. Harkin, the chief sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act, says the Bush plan to privatize Social Security would hurt the nearly six-million people who are now getting disability payments. Harkin says it’s the sole source of income for many of those people and they’d face their benefits being cut by up to 30-percent. “This just can’t happen,” he says.
Lawman pleads not guilty to manslaughter
February 10, 2005 By
A western Iowa lawman who killed a man after mistaking a cellular phone for a gun is headed to court. A Shelby County Sheriff’s deputy who was indicted last week for voluntary manslaughter entered a written plea of NOT guilty on Wednesday before a grand jury. Deputy Chad Butler is charged in the death of 41-year-old Dwayne Jens of Hancock in late December. Butler shot Jens after a chase because he thought Jens had a dangerous weapon in his vehicle. The case is expected to go to trial April 26th.
Creighton beats UNI by one, again
February 10, 2005 By
For the second time this season UNI has dropped a one-point decision to Creighton. The lead changed hands eight times Wednesday night but in the end the Blue Jays edged the Panthers 83-82 in Missouri Valley Conference play. The Panthers fall to 7-6 in the Valley. Ben Jacobsen poured in 31-points for UNI. He also added seven rebounds and four assists.
Iowa lead unravels, Hawks lose to Badgers
February 10, 2005 By
The Iowa Hawkeyes unraveled down the stretch in a 65-60 loss at 20th ranked Wisconsin last night. It was a game the Hawkeyes should have won. Leading 52-39 with just under 13-minutes remaining, Iowa was in control. What followed, though, was a streak in which the Hawks missed 11 of their next 12 shots from the field, many of which were ill-advised three point attempts. Eight minutes later the Badgers had come back to take a 56-54 lead. Wisconsin put the game away at the foul line as the Hawkeyes fall to 3-6 in the Big Ten. Greg Brunner had 27-points to lead Iowa. Jeff Horner had 19-points, added four assists and played the entire game. The Hawkeyes are at home against Northwestern Saturday night.
911 tape of Pierce episode
February 10, 2005 By
Police on Wednesday released tape of the 911 call made the night Pierre Pierce is accused of trashing a girlfriend’s apartment in West Des Moines. The caller says she doesn’t know the woman’s name but lives next door and was concerned about the woman’s safety. “I think there is an assault taking place inside my townhouse.” The dispatcher asks the address and the woman gives a West Des Moines street address on South 79th. The unidentified neighbor says she noticed the girl who lives near her screaming out in her car, and seeing a man through the car window “jumping.” The caller says something (partly intelligible) about hearing a woman screaming “what are you doing?” and seeing a man “in the car on her.” During the tape the emergency dispatcher questioned the caller, asking if the caller knows the names of the woman she’s seeing or the man who’s with her, and she replies she doesn’t, “but they just went inside and I don’t think she’s really OK like she said she was.” Pierce was dropped from the University of Iowa basketball team after the woman he’d reportedly been seeing for over two years accused him of trashing her apartment and assaulting her, and authorities on Wednesday filed six charges including burglary, criminal mischief, domestic abuse and false imprisonment.
