Today, Governor Kim Reynolds signed a proclamation that eases transport for crews and drivers hauling motor fuels.

The proclamation temporarily suspends regulatory provisions of Iowa law pertaining to hours of service for crews and drivers hauling motor fuels, including gasoline, diesel #1, diesel #2, ethanol and biodiesel. The proclamation also temporarily provisions of Iowa law pertaining to oversize and overweight loads of fuel. Increased demand, along with above average wait times at petroleum product terminals, along with ripple effects of the Colonial Pipeline shutdown, have created challenges to timely access of these fuels.

While some states across the country are experiencing shortages, the state of Iowa wants to proactively take steps to maintain supply. The proclamation is effective immediately and expires on June 19, 2021 at 11:59 pm.

(Radio Iowa) – An officer has testified that the man accused of killing college student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018 led investigators to the field where her body was found. Pamela Romero was an Iowa City police officer two years ago who interviewed suspect Cristhian Bahena Rivera. “He showed me the corn field and he goes: ‘This is the corn field where I came, took her out of the trunk, carried her on my shoulder, went inside the corn field, dropped her on the ground, covered her with leaves and I left right away,'” she testified.

Romero said during an 11 hour police interview, Rivera admitted chasing Tibbetts and fighting with her when she threatened to call the police. She says Rivera told her he couldn’t remember how he killed Tibbetts. “The next thing that he told me was that he remembered him driving and looking down into his legs and finding the ear buds that belonged to Mollie,” she testified, “and that is when he remembered that he had Mollie in the back of his vehicle, in the trunk.”

Based on the questions Bahena Rivera’s attorneys are asking witnesses, it appears they plan to argue Rivera was sleep deprived and coerced into making a confession.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Kate Payne)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa voters could establish a new local property levy to provide funding for Emergency Medical Services under a provision included a bill that cleared the legislature late Wednesday night. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, says ambulance services have been lobbying for this for 50 years.

“This piece of policy legislation in this bill is truly a generational change,” Kaufmann says, “to be able to give our counties or our cities or our districts the ability to finally levy for and raise the funds to fully fund our ambulance services.” Kaufmann says calling for an ambulance in rural Iowa often depends upon a response from a volunteer department running on donations from pancake breakfasts and other fundraisers.

(Radio Iowa) – A Monona County jury has found a Mapleton teenager guilty of second degree murder for shooting another teen to death. The jury’s deliberations lasted less than three hours to decide the case against 18-year-old Jay Neubaum in the January, 2020 death of 16-year-old Joseph Hopkins in Mapleton. Neubaum’s defense argued the shooting was an accident and the gun wasn’t pointed at the victim.

Prosecutor Marty Platz, an assistant state attorney general, told the jury the gun didn’t fire itself.  “As the gun science expert testified…the only way this weapon fired at anybody is that the trigger was pulled and the only way it hit the victim was it was aimed dead center,” Platz says. “…At the range that he was at, he could not miss.” Prosecutors rested their case Thursday morning and then the defense called the defendant’s father as their only witness.

Neubaum will face up to 50 years in prison when he’s sentenced June 29th and he is awaiting trial in a separate case. Neubaum is charged with sexually assaulting seven teenage girls from the Mapleton area and that trial is scheduled for December.

The Glenwood Police Department, Thursday, reported two women were arrested over the past couple of days. On Thursday, 34-year-old Nicole Hunt, of Glenwood, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault. Hunt was held without bond in the Mills County Jail, until seen by a magistrate judge.

And, on Wednesday, May 19th, 30-year-old Skye Hauger, of Council Bluffs, was arrested for Driving while Barred. Her cash or surety bond was set at $2,000.