May 22, 2012

You are here: Home / 2010 / June / Archives for 11th

Report says Ottumwa girl nearly died from alcohol poisoning

June 11, 2010 By

A teenage girl from Ottumwa nearly died this week after drinking too much alcohol with friends. Wapello County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a car accident at Camp Arrowhead Park Tuesday afternoon. They found two teenage girls who were intoxicated – one was passed out, the other unconscious and not breathing.

C-P-R was performed and the girl was resuscitated and taken to an Ottumwa hospital. She was later transported to University Hospitals in Iowa City. There’s no word on her condition. Investigators believe seven Ottumwa High School students skipped school Tuesday, stole a bottle of gin from Wal-Mart and drank it at the park.

After the teens realized two of the girls had too much to drink, a sober driver tried to go get help but crashed the car. Three of the seven teens are currently facing charges.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts Tagged With:

Shenandoah to hold gun amnesty days

June 11, 2010 By

While scripture talks of beating swords into plowshares, a community in southwest Iowa is putting that statement into a modern context. The Shenandoah Police Department is hosting its first-ever gun amnesty days next month.

Shenandoah Police Chief Kris Grebert says all firearms collected will be destroyed — and recycled. Chief Grebert says, “Kinda like what they do up in Omaha where anybody in the surrounding area can bring in any old or unused or unwanted firearms or ammunition and turn it in to us free of charge, no questions asked.”

Guns that are collected will be taken to a machine shop and flattened. Grebert says he’s working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on a fitting way to recycle the metal. The event will be held July 7th and 9th at the Old Armory in Shenandoah.

By Kristan Gray, KMA, Shenandoah

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Eastern Iowa woman to take over as Democratic Party chair

June 11, 2010 By

It looks like a woman from eastern Iowa will serve as the Iowa Democratic Party’s chair through November. Michael Kiernan announced on Wednesday that he was resigning as Iowa Democratic Party chairman for health reasons. He has a tumor in his salivary gland and he is to undergo surgery to determine whether it’s cancerous.

The Iowa Democratic Party’s state central committee met Thursday night. Governor Culver, the state’s top Democratic elected official, told the group his “preference” is that Sue Dvorsky — the party’s vice chair — “take the position for the remainder of the election cycle.”

Dvorsky, who is from Coralville, has been active in party politics for years in Iowa’s most-Democratic county — Johnson County. Dvorsky has been a teacher in Iowa City schools. Her husband, Bob Dvorsky, is a long-time state legislator.

Filed Under: Politics & Government Tagged With:

Man sentenced for carrying pipe bomb

June 11, 2010 By

A man caught in southeast Iowa with meth making material and a pipe bomb will spend over 16 years in a federal prison. Thirty-one-year-old Jerry Lee Schlarbaum used to live in Stockport, Iowa, which is in Van Buren County.

Schlarbaum was driving in Henry County in March of 2008 when he was pulled over. He had no valid driver’s license and authorities say when his vehicle was searched, they found methamphetamine and the items for making meth. They found a pipe bomb in the glove compartment.

He’s been sentenced to 50 months on a charge of conspiring to knowingly manufacture and distribute meth. He’s been sentenced to another 150 months of prison for having that pipe bomb.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Iowa man dies after Nebraska traffic stop

June 11, 2010 By

The Nebraska State Patrol says an Iowa man has died after a traffic stop in Seward County, Nebraska. Just after 9:00 P.M. Wednesday, an NSP trooper stopped a westbound vehicle for failure to signal, near the Utica interchange at milemarker 364, westbound Interstate-80.

A search of the vehicle led to the seizure of 10 pounds of marijuana. The driver, 38-year-old Katrina K. Burch of Burlington, Iowa, and a passenger, 40-year-old Carl Wayne Beach of Fort Madison, Iowa, were transported to the Seward County Jail. While there, Beach complained of feeling ill and was transported to the Seward County Hospital.

While at the hospital, his condition quickly worsened and he was pronounced dead at 1:43 A.M. on Thursday. An autopsy will be conducted at Creighton Medical Center. Katrina Burch remains lodged in the Seward County Jail on a charge of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

By Frank Greene, KTMX, York

Filed Under: Crime & Courts

Attorney General candidate promises more openess

June 11, 2010 By

The Republican candidate for attorney general says she’d assign some of the attorneys in the Iowa Department of Justice to “openness” duty. Brenna Findley is challenging Democrat Tom Miller, the current attorney general, in the November election.

“I would dedicate a team of attorneys within the attorney general’s office to respond to phone calls and e-mails and visits from Iowans who have concerns about violations of the Open Meetings and Open Records Law,” Findley says. “I think that’s important to clean up state government.”

Findley says the current attorney general hasn’t done enough to help Iowans who’ve run into problems with government officials who deny them access to public documents or who violate the state’s Open Meetings Law. “He has a consumer protection division,” Findley says. “But if someone has a question about the Open Records, Open Meetings Law, I have heard from people as I’ve traveled the state that they haven’t gotten an answer out of the attorney general’s office.”

Attorney General Tom Miller says the State Ombudsman’s Office in the legislative branch of state government has taken the lead on Open Meetings, Open Records complaints. “We’ve stood ready now, for well over a year, whenever the Ombudsman’s Office found a need for any kind of litigation or enforcement in court to do that,” Miller says. Miller asked legislators to provide more money to hire a full-time attorney and a paralegal.

“But the legislature didn’t fund it,” Miller says. “But, you know, what happens now is the Ombudsman’s Office is sort of at the front of it and they do a good job. They get most of the complaints. We get some of them and if the Ombudsman’s Office feels there should be legal enforcement they refer it to us and we’re prepared to do that.” Miller has a deputy attorney general who handles those cases today.

Findley has taken a leave of absence from her job as chief of staff for Congressman Steve King and has been campaigning for attorney general for the past four months. “At this point, I have raised seven times more money than incumbent Tom Miller has in 2010,” Findley says. Findley raised $124,000 so far this year, compared to the $15,000 Miller raised for his reelection effort. Miller has a bit more cash-on-hand, though, with $105,000 in the bank from previous fundraising efforts.

Findley’s latest campaign finance report showed she had $95,000 on hand for the fall campaign.

Filed Under: Crime & Courts, Politics & Government Tagged With: ,

Home building effort underway at 2 year anniversary of Cedar Rapids flood

June 11, 2010 By

After record flooding hit Cedar Rapids more than two years ago, another large weeklong home-building effort is being launched today in the eastern Iowa city. Bea Flodeen, spokeswoman for Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity, is helping coordinate what she’s calling a Build-A-Thon. The industrious effort involves more than 500 people who’ll be working through next Thursday.

They’re coming to Cedar Rapids from all over the country to help rebuild, Flodeen says, members of AmeriCorp, Habitat International and VISTA. More than 20 houses will simultaneously be built, rehabilitated or repaired during the project. Flodeen says a lot of planning and preparation has gone into getting to this juncture, as 13 of the 20 houses will be built from the ground up. Still, she says it will all be worth it in a week.

“It’s so rewarding to get to this point where we can see the houses going up and the people all working together,” Flodeen says. “There’s logistics on the one end, but you forget about all that once you actually see the hearts that are affected and changed through this whole process.”

This is the second consecutive year Cedar Valley Habitat for Humanity has hosted a Build-A-Thon as the agency builds affordable housing in a region that was severely flooded in 2008. Flodeen moved from Waterloo to the Cedar Rapids suburb of Marion in 2007 and was there for the devastating flood.

“It didn’t affect me personally but you know, in a way, I think it affected all of us personally, that we all lived in this area,” she says. “It touched everybody, in one way or another.”

Since Habitat was founded in 1976, the ecumenical Christian ministry has built, rehabilitated, repaired or improved more than 350,000 houses worldwide, providing decent and affordable shelter for more than one-point-75 million people. For more information, visit: “www.habitat.org“.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters, Human Interest
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »