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Iowa early News Headlines: Thursday, March 12, 2020

News

March 12th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s three public universities announced Wednesday they would shift to only online classes beginning March 23 in an effort to keep students and faculty safe from the new coronavirus. The University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa said they would only offer online classes after students return from next week’s spring break. The online courses would continue for at least two weeks, with officials reassessing the situation during the week of March 30. Some private colleges are making similar moves. The president of Grinnell College has told students they must leave the campus by March 23. Classes will be offered online for the rest of the semester.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says a 14th person who had recently taken a cruise in Egypt has tested positive for COVID-19. The news came late Wednesday afternoon on the same day that an Iowa City hospital CEO says a COVID-19 patient who took the same cruise was admitted and is in critical condition there. University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics CEO Suresh Gunasekaran said all proper procedures and precautions were followed during the admission process so staff members were properly protected. Both patients are among a group of 21 who went on a recent Egyptian cruise sponsored by Hills Bank in Hills, Iowa.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Police say a man who was among a group of people trying to rob an armored vehicle outside of an Iowa bank was wounded in a shootout with the armored truck guards. The shooting happened Wednesday morning outside a Waterloo U.S. Bank branch in northeastern Iowa. Police and medics who arrived on the scene found a man with gunshot wounds who was taken to a hospital with serious injuries. His name has not been released. Police say an initial investigation showed that people in a vehicle tried to rob the armored car in the bank’s parking lot when the shootout began. Police later located the vehicle they believed was used in the attempted robbery. No arrests have been reported.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A loaded handgun was spotted at a Sioux City airport security checkpoint Wednesday and confiscated from the Nebraska woman who was carrying it. The Transportation Security Administration says the 9 mm semi-automatic had one of its eight bullets in the chamber. A TSA officer says the X-ray machine showed the gun inside the woman’s carry-on bag. The woman lives in Ponca, Nebraska, and she told Sioux City Police that she didn’t know the gun was in the bag. She says the weapon belonged to her husband and that they had reported the gun as stolen because they lost track of it.