WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – Officials say the leaking inflatable dam on the Cedar River in downtown Waterloo has been fixed. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that contractors found a slit in the half-inch-thick rubber and repaired it. Associate city engineer Wayne Castle said the final cost of the project will be significantly below the original $388,350 contract approved in November. He figures it will be just under $220,000. The city has inflated the bladder dam since 2009, raising the Cedar River level by about 4 feet to enhance boating. It’s usually inflated in June and deflated in October.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) –  Police say one person was shot to death and and another wounded in northeast Cedar Rapids. The shooting occurred around 11:45 p.m. Friday. Officers sent to the scene in a parking lot found the two people, and both were taken to a hospital. Police say 18-year-old Andrew Gaston died early Saturday. The 16-year-old with him is expected to survive his wound. No arrests have been reported.

(Radio Iowa) — Staff for three U.S. Senators running for president scrambled to arrange campaign events around the state this weekend during a brief break in the senate’s impeachment trial. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told a crowd in Sioux City last (Sunday) night he had planned to spend this week campaigning here. “I can’t do that now because I’ve got a constitutional responsibility,” Sanders said, “and unlike the president of the United States, I actually believe in the constitution.” Sanders says he has “zero idea” what the impeachment trial’s schedule may be this week — or how long it may go in February. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren had to cancel an event in Burlington because of the impeachment trial’s Saturday morning session, but added one in Davenport Saturday night.

Warren spent the weekend traveling through eastern Iowa and met with a group of volunteer leaders in Cedar Rapids before flying back to Washington. “I’m there for the trial and I will be there for the trial, but it’s very hard not to be here in Iowa” Warren told Radio Iowa. “I’m very grateful that so many people have volunteered, have engaged, have said: ‘We know you’re in Washington, so we’ll get out there.'” Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is boarding a 6 a.m. flight to D.C. this (Monday) morning. “It is with some bitter sweet sentiments ’cause I know I’m going back to do good,” Klobuchar said, “but I would love to be here.” Klobuchar says she had intended to make another 99-county tour this month, after completing one at the end of December.

Klobuchar suggests there’s now more pressure on Republican senators to call former National Security director John Bolton as a witness in the impeachment trial. On Sunday night, The New York Times reported Bolton’s book draft alleges President Trump wanted to freeze aid to Ukraine until the country investigated Joe Biden and other Democrats. “With Mr. Bolton saying that exactly what we said happened — happened, for them to deny him testifying would be wrong,” Klobuchar says, “so that’s what I’m going back to work on.” Former Vice President Joe Biden told an audience in Ankeny he expects to be a focus of Trump’s impeachment defense, but Biden suggests it will not be an issue for Iowa Caucus-goers as they make their decision NEXT Monday night.

“I’m not sure it will because so far it hasn’t,” Biden told Radio Iowa this weekend. “I mean, they’ve beaten the living hell out of me and my numbers have gone up, not down.” Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg appeared at a town hall hosted by Fox News last (Sunday) night and the first audience question was whether Trump should be removed from office. “If he’s not, it’s going to send a message that this Senate, or at least Senate Republicans today think that it’s okay to cheat, it’s okay to involve a foreign government or pressure a foreign government to get involved in American elections,” Buttigieg said. Buttigieg said the American people will have the last word, at the ballot box.

A man wanted in connection with the alleged assault of a woman in Villisca Sunday, was arrested following a brief foot pursuit. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports 38-year old Alan Joe Turpen, of Villisca, had left the residence where the incident allegedly occurred, and was apprehended a short time later a short distance away from the scene, following the foot chase. Turpen was transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault, Interference with Official Acts and Public Intoxication. He was being held in the jail without bond.

Alan Turpen