Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CST
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is defending her relaxation of mask wearing and other coronavirus reduction measures, even as public health officials warn against ending the measures when a new more contagious variant of the virus is spreading in the U.S. Reynolds says lower hospitalizations and other measures prompted her to lift the partial mask mandate and limits on crowd sizes. She says she trusts Iowans to do the right thing. Iowa reported 1,035 new confirmed cases on Wednesday and 29 additional deaths, increasing the state’s death toll to 5,174. Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, says opening up now gives the U.K. variant a chance to spread quickly in the U.S.
HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — The southwestern Iowa town of Hamburg has finally gotten federal approval to raise its flood protection levee. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday announced it had approved the city’s plan to raise the levee by about 8 feet. The decision comes nearly 10 years after the Corps scrambled to help the town of about 1,200 temporarily raise the levee, which saved it from devastating floods that year. But once the floodwaters subsided, the Corps insisted that the work be undone, and the town was later inundated by historic flooding in 2019. Hamburg will provide between $7 million and $8 million to raise the levee.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have announced the arrest of a man for the shooting death last April of a Des Moines woman. Police said in a news release Thursday that Antonio Markez Hodges has been charged with first-degree murder and intimidation with a dangerous weapon in the death of 33-year-old Catherine Bobbitt. Police called to an area just blocks southwest of the Drake University campus on April 3 found Bobbitt suffering from a gunshot wound. She was taken to a hospital, where she died. Police say that witness statements and video evidence led them to develop Hodges as a suspect in the case. He was arrested on Feb. 1 at a home in Des Moines and charged this week.
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — A 37-year-old man has been charged in a shooting in Marshalltown that left a man dead and another injured. Robert Thomas was charged Wednesday with first-degree murder in the March 2020 death of 22-year-old Johnqwez Deanthony Lewis. Another man, 27-year-old Devonte Allen Brooks, was injured. Thomas was charged with attempted murder in Brooks’ shooting. Police said Thomas was already being held in the Marshall County Jail on unrelated charges. He remains in custody pending an initial court appearance. Police said the investigation into the shooting is continuing.
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