SIGOURNEY, Iowa (KCRG-TV) – Fire officials said two people were killed in a house fire in Sigourney, Monday. The fire occurred Monday afternoon at a home on Highway 149 just south of Sigourney. Firefighters said there were reports of people inside the home and crews tried enter the residence, but couldn’t, because the fire was too intense.

Several departments were called to the scene. After the fire was put out, crews found two people dead inside the home. The victims named have not been released at this time. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the victims,” Sigourney Fire Chief Bill Halleran said.

The cause of the fire is unknown at this time and is under investigation by the state fire marshal.

ELDORA, Iowa [KCCI-TV] – Two people are now facing criminal charges more than a year after a 13-year-old girl was shot and killed in Eldora. Keeley Baer died April 14, 2024, after she was shot by a 12-year-old boy. Hardin County authorities at the time told KCCI the boy was taken into custody and the matter was being handled in juvenile court.

The boy obtained a pistol and shot Baer, which investigators say was accidental and the two children were friends. Now, two adults are facing charges connected to the fatal shooting. James Charles Ainsco, 42, and Robin Louise Raper, 35, were both taken into custody in Hardin County and are being held at the county jail.

Both Ainsco and Raper are listed as a “parent, guardian, or person having custody or control over a child” in court documents. Criminal complaints allege they knowingly left a loaded and unsecured firearm accessible in the home.

They are each charged with involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment causing death and making firearms available to a minor.

(Radio Iowa) – Provisional numbers released by the Centers for Disease Control show national drug overdose deaths decreased by 27% last year, but were down only 7% in Iowa.

The assistant director of the University of Iowa Addiction and Recovery Collaborative, Andrea Weber, says fewer opioid related deaths are driving these numbers. She says Iowa still needs to do a better job of getting the opioid-reversal drug naloxone into the community. “We kind of focused on making sure that our first responders had naloxone, which is great, but you know, really identifying that the first person who responds to someone who’s using drugs and experiencing overdose is actually people who are using drugs,” she says.

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Weber says Iowa still has a lot of laws and policies that make it harder for people to get help. “Things like syringe service programming is still illegal in the state of Iowa. Those programs have been shown to reduce overdose death rates,” Weber says.

The provisional data from the CDC showed drug overdoses in Iowa dropped from 447 reported cases in 2023 to 425 in 2024.

(Radio Iowa) – The Buena Vista County Board of Supervisors has temporarily tabled a decision on a road use plan developed by a Minnesota company that will be replacing dozens of wind turbines in northwest Iowa.

Josh Yernatich, a project developer for ALLETE Clean Energy, spoke with county officials this morning. “There are several points in those roads where we’ll need some sort of remediation,” he said. “Where we’ll know for certain where those are and what the fix that’s needed or the temporary improvement that’s needed is when we move forward with engineering.”

ALLETE Clean Energy purchased two wind farms in Buena Vista County, near Alta, in 2014. The company will be replacing 259 existing wind turbines and plans to add 44 high efficiency turbines at the two sites in 2027. Buena Vista county supervisors plan to speak with the county’s engineer before taking a vote on ALLETE’s road use plans during the project.

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The two wind farms have been operating since 1999. The company says refurbishing its Buena Vista County wind farms will improve turbine performance and reliability and support the renewal of power sales agreements. The electricity generated at the two wind farms is sold to MidAmerican Energy, Alliant Energy and a regional electricity transmission organization known as MISO.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Workforce Development is shutting down its system for filing unemployment claims tonight (Tuesday) as they move to upgrade it. I-W-D spokesperson Jesse Dougherty says they are merging the system with the IowaWorks.com system, where you go to get training or find a new job. “That means for Iowans on a daily basis, if they’re filing for unemployment or employers who are working in the unemployment system, they’re going to be operating from one central location. That’s something we’ve never been able to do before,” he says.

Dougherty says the system will be shut down for one week to make the change. “We’re going to convert all of the information and securely transfer all of the data over from one system to the other. An unemployment system as complicated as it is, is not something you can do with a flip of a switch,” Dougherty says. He says they’ve been letting everyone know about the changeover, and most have probably already filed for this week.

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“Most people on unemployment are going to file their weekly claim on a Sunday or Monday, that’s the start of the benefit week. And we expect that to happen again this week. But for any claimants who did not have the chance to file or are new to unemployment. They can immediately file as soon as the new system goes live. On June 3rd,” he says. Dougherty says they are making the switch now to try and minimize the impact.

“Late May and early June are typically the lowest times historically of claims that are filed. We wouldn’t make such a change, you know, during the winter months when you have temporary layoffs. and a higher volume of claims, we want to do that in the time with the minimal impact,” he says. “And so that’s why we’re looking to make this change and have this transition during a June time period,” Dougherty says they had originally started the process for the changeover in 2019, but the pandemic then caused it to be delayed. He says the new system should be a lot simpler for everyone.

(Radio Iowa) – Police officers in central Iowa negotiated a safe end to a potentially deadly situation over the holiday weekend. Des Moines police got a 9-1-1 call on Sunday just after noon from a caller reporting a man was standing outside the guardrail on the top floor of an 11-level downtown parking ramp. The caller was concerned the man might jump or fall.

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Firefighters and police responded to the ramp on 5th Avenue and trained officers began talking with the man. After almost two hours, officers convinced him to climb back over the railing. Police are saying little more about the man, other than they helped to connect him with the right resources for his situation. A Metro STAR Crisis Negotiator credits the officers with saving the man’s life.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Goldstar Military Museum at Camp Dodge in Johnston is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Museum curator Mike Vogt says the museum idea came from retired World War Two veteran and National Guardsman Al Rolfes from Le Mars, who noticed photos and memorabilia in buildings around Camp Dodge. “He made the comment at a meeting one time of the Iowa National Guard Memorial Association. He said, ‘You know, it’s too bad all that stuff isn’t gathered together somewhere, so when the soldiers come to drill or people come to Camp Dodge, they can learn something about the state’s, military history, ‘” Vogt explains. Vogt says that comment came in the early 1980’s and since Rolfes had the idea, he was put in charge of making it happen.

“The Museum’s origins date back to its first open house in late June of 1985 on the first floor of the Chapel. After about ten years, they moved into the old headquarters building. In the mid-1990s and then via an appropriation from the state legislature in the early 21st century recognized the importance of the stories that we told out here, we received funding to put 18-thousand square feet on,” he says. They started with the photos and memorabilia linked to the Iowa National Guard and Vogt says about 20 years ago they opened things up to include all branches of the service to recognize all Iowans who served. That now includes tanks and airplanes that sit outside the museum.

“Those are all loaned to us from the U-S Army Museum system. So they’re hand receipted to the museum. They still belong to the taxpayers and, they’re cared for here at Camp Dodge by the National Guard personnel and by museum staff,” Vogt says. “But 99 percent of the artifacts in our collection are donated, either by the veterans themselves, or by their descendants.” The exhibits inside expanding to tall the various stories of Iowa veterans, including a Cold War era periscope that you can use to look out over the base. Vogt says there is room to add some more exhibits as the Goldstar Museum moves forward. “We have some gallery area that we would like to develop into a temporary exhibit space. There has been some discussion of adding on maybe an auditorium, so we could have programs and seat more visitors,” he says. “There’s been talk about putting an addition onto the museum that would hold some of our larger items that are currently on cement pads outdoors.”

Vogt says the exhibits are important so everyone can see how soldiers and sailors and airmen lived, but the most important part is getting the stories behind the artifacts. “When the items come in, if they come in from the veterans themselves, they’re the only ones that can provide the unique story of how they obtained that item, whether it was foreign or issued to them, or picked up as a souvenir,” Vogt says. “So, if you can capture that story that’s related to the item, that’s what really provides that connection between the artifact and the Iowa veteran’s story.”

The Iowa Goldstar Military Museum is open 9 a-m until 3 p-m Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday from 10 a-m until 2 p-m. It is free and open to the public.

(Radio Iowa) – The mandatory retirement age for all judges in Iowa will soon change. Under current law, judges in Iowa have to retire in the year they turn 72. A state law that goes into effect July 1st raises the mandatory retirement age to 78 and it applies to Iowa Supreme Court justices and judges on the Iowa Court of Appeals as well as all district court judges and magistrates. The change cleared the Iowa House and Senate without debate this spring. Once Iowa’s new mandatory retirement age for judges goes into effect this summer, only one other state will have a higher retirement age for judges. Judges in Vermont have to retire sometime during the year they turn 90.

A mandatory retirement age for Iowa judges was first established in 1965. The president makes lifetime appointments to judges in federal courts and there is no retirement age enforced in 15 states.