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Mason City man given life sentence for murder

October 27, 2009 By

An 18-year-old Mason City man will spend the rest of his life in prison for the murder and burglary of another man in August of 2008. Judge John Mackey handed down the sentence on Monday in Cerro Gordo County District Court after a Hardin County jury in August found Damion Seats guilty of first-degree murder and first-degree burglary in connection with the death of Isidoro Erreguin.

Mackey denied a motion by Seats for a new trial before his sentencing. Mackey also ordered that Seats pay restitution of $150,000 as well as $15,500 to the crime victim’s assistance program. Another man charged in the case, Andre Wells Junior, is currently scheduled to stand trial on the same charges in December, while the other co-defendant in the case, Jamie McFarland, has agreed to plead guilty to a first-degree burglary charge in exchange for his testimony against Wells and Seats.

Contributed by Bob Fisher, KRIB, Mason City

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Women accused of using baby to smuggle pot

October 27, 2009 By

Two women are facing charges after Iowa City Police say they used a baby to try and smuggle marijuana out of an apartment complex. The women, Alicia Reed and Kenyatta Taylor, were arrested last Friday afternoon at Taylor’s apartment. Both women are 21-year-old. Officers were executing a search warrant after receiving information that there were drugs in the apartment. Reed attempted to leave the residence with a three-month-old baby.

When officers asked to look through the baby’s blankets, several bags of marijuana fell to the ground as Reed went to set the baby down. Police then searched Taylor’s apartment and found more than 42 grams of packaged marijuana, a digital scale and other items used for dealing drugs under a couch. Taylor’s three young children were in the apartment at the time. Both Reed and Taylor face child endangerment and drug charges.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Families in FEMA trailers get extension

October 27, 2009 By

Over a hundred Iowa families who lost their homes in flooding back in the summer of 2008 are still living in mobile homes provided by the government. They were facing eviction, but got a reprieve late Friday when the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced the 122 Iowa families who still live in a FEMA trailer can stay in the home for seven more months.

Crystal Payton, a FEMA spokesperson, says the program is designed to provide housing for a year and a half, but it’s not uncommon for the program to be extended in “cold-weather” states like Iowa. “So many of our big disaster events occur in the spring that the 18-month window of the housing program generally leaves us ending the program as winter approaches,” she says, “which is obviously not a good situation.” The Iowans who’re living in FEMA trailers now have until June 27th to find permanent housing.

“There are something like 53 families, I think, who have school-aged children,” Payton says. “So, rather than disrupt them during the school year, it seemed reasonable and humane to extend the program.” However, the agency will begin charging rent starting November 27th.

The floods struck in June of 2008 and, at its highest point last year, there were 564 Iowa families living in a FEMA trailer.

“So, in our eyes, the program is working well because people have used it (as a) temporary, focus on temporary, housing program,” Payton says. Iowans can buy the FEMA trailers if they meet certain criteria. So far, two families have completed that process.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Politics & Government

One dead in Fort Dodge fire

October 27, 2009 By

A fatal fire is under investigation in Fort Dodge. One person died in the fire that occurred at around 9:30 last night. The name of the victim has not been released pending notification of relatives.

Fort Dodge firemen were on the scene until early this morning. There was moderate damage to the residence. The State Fire Marshall has been called in to assist the Fort Dodge Fire Department into finding the exact cause.

Contributed by Pat Powers, KQWC, Webster City

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Grassley does not support new Reid health plan

October 27, 2009 By

Yet another incarnation of a health care reform plan was introduced in Congress on Monday, a plan Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he will not support. The new plan was authored by Senate Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, and includes a so-called public option. Grassley, a Republican, says the public option is not an option.

“It’d be very difficult for me to support any public option, which is another word for a government-run health care plan, or another new entitlement on top of Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, which are already bankrupt,” Grassley says. “Can we afford any more entitlements?” Reid says his plan would offer states the chance to opt in or opt out of the program, but Grassley says it’s still a losing proposition.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s opt in, opt out or some kind of trigger, you still get back to the basic fact it’s a government-run plan that will undermine the market,” Grassley says. “There are close to 200-million people already in private health insurance and (the Democrats) are trying to disguise it.”

The latest plan would start offering people the option of buying private insurance or the government-run plan by 2013, but Grassley says it will only bring trouble. “This would be bad for doctors, hospitals and especially (patients),” Grassley says. “I think it’s pretty clear that any government-run plan will act as a competitor, a regulator and eventually a tax-supported funder and will ultimately force private insurers out of business.”

He says such a plan would ultimately lead to the government running everything, hospitals and doctors’ offices would close their doors, and employers would drop insurance. Grassley says that would bring a full government take-over with eventual rationing and delay or denial of care. He says it would be better to focus on cleaning up the current marketplace, bringing stronger rules and regulations for private health plans.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine, Politics & Government Tagged With: , , ,

Boone woman found guilty in death of husband

October 27, 2009 By

A jury in southwest Iowa’s Pottawattamie County has returned a guilty verdict in the case of a Boone woman who’s charged with killing her husband. The jury deliberated for about four hours Friday before taking a break for the weekend.

When they returned Monday morning, it took only four more hours for them to convict Jessica Hill on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of her husband. Michael “Shane” Hill was shot to death on May 2007 while working on a sheep farm in Ogden.

Hill’s wife admitted to having an affair with Daniel Blair, who was earlier convicted of first-degree murder. Another man, Aron Moss, who was convicted of helping in the slaying, was convicted of second-degree murder. Jessica Hill faces up to 50 years in prison. Her sentencing date has not yet been set. The trial was moved to Council Bluffs due to pre-trial publicity.

Contributed by Ric Hanson, KJAN, Atlantic

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

U-I graduate students say cut administrator pay, don’t raise tuition

October 27, 2009 By

Nearly fifty University of Iowa graduate students rallied Monday asking administrators to cut their salaries instead of raising tuition and possibly cutting graduate assistant positions. The students chanted “Chop from the top” during the rally at the Old Capitol on the U-I campus.  Tuition rally chant :12 MP3

Graduate assistant Kari Thompson says a tuition hike along with a cut in the number of teaching assistants at the school would mean a lower quality of education. “A tuition increase affects us as graduate students as well as the undergraduates who we serve, who we teach every day. We’re the ones who are on the front lines of those classrooms and so when they cut our jobs as T-A’s, they’re doing more than just cutting our source of revenue while we’re in graduate school, they’re actually cutting the quality of education for undergraduate students as well.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Education Tagged With:
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