WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Students in Wayne Lidtke’s sustainable construction and design class have learned about house building by doing it. They’ve framed walls, hung drywall, installed windows and doors, and done minimal wiring while building small scale houses at the Waterloo Career Center. The students will be working on some other skills, like roofing, in the Waterloo Community Schools’ program before the semester is over, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported .

Though, the nine high schoolers put down their hammers and picked up trowels. Iowa Masonry Institute members taught them lessons on mixing mortar and building a number of structures with cinder block and brick. Their task was to construct a pier. The column-like structure can support a beam in a building, an overhang on an entryway or have a more decorative use at the end of a driveway.

Students shoveled mortar out of wheelbarrows onto plywood platforms. They scooped up the substance with their trowels, depositing it on the edges of a pair of cinder blocks before adding another layer of blocks. Chris Busch, overseeing the students’ efforts, emphasized the importance of getting the right amount of mortar between the blocks. Without the right amount, “it’ll start to lose considerable integrity,” he said.

Students were building the piers five blocks high, and then covering them with a veneer of brick. Busch doesn’t expect everyone in the class to end up as a bricklayer. But bringing the program into schools is important to finding the next generation of workers he says — and the amount of time they’ve had at the career center only helps.

PROMISE CITY, Iowa (AP) — Local builders and avid do-it-yourselfers have long turned to Lockridge, Inc. for construction materials. Many residents are beginning to turn to them for high-speed Internet. The Daily Iowegian reports the unique scenario recently drew the attention of Gov. Kim Reynolds and her Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, as they stopped at the company’s Promise City location during a southern Iowa swing.

Lockridge, Inc., a family-owned building materials company with locations in Wayne, Appanoose, Lucas and Putnam counties, set out about two years ago to come up with a solution to their own internal problem of obtaining high-speed internet. That solution may end up solving a societal problem faced by many in rural southeastern Iowa. Challenges with getting high-speed Internet in rural areas and even small towns have proved a struggle, even in places in which federal data states an area has access to high-speed internet, that data doesn’t always prove true.

The Lockridge company is headquartered where the business began in the 1940s in Promise City, population 113. The location houses their company network, including point-of-sale and their estimate generation systems. Getting their other locations in Centerville, Chariton and Unionville, Missouri able to connect to that network, however, was sometimes a challenge due to the lack of broadband access in the area.

Around the same time, they were aiding in the construction of a home for Pete Krebs, who has an Internet networking background. Together, they came up with a solution: Create Lockridge’s own wireless Internet network. That involved setting up various towers in the area, which drew questions from curious residents in the sparsely populated rural areas. Caleb Housh, a sales manager of the family-run business, said at first some employees of Lockridge themselves got connected with the system. The family began seeing they could begin offering the service to the communities they serve.

Housh said the service is still in a pre-launch stage. Krebs said over two years the new Internet service company has grown confident in their network and service options. Krebs, who co-owns the new Lockridge Networks company, told Reynolds that just a few feet in elevation change can make a major difference in the kind of power or radios that need to be used to establish service. One day, Housh told Reynolds, the dream is that service would be available south of the Highway 34 corridor between Interstate 35 and the Mississippi River. For now, the service is expected to remain in somewhat of a soft-launching phase until the first part of 2019.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:00 a.m. CST

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A major financial rating agency has lowered its bond ratings for an Iowa town because of how it is financing a $70 million arena project. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that S&P Global Ratings pointed to Coralville’s bank loans with variable interest rates to pay for the planned 5,700 seat arena set to open in 2020. City leaders say they remain confident the project does not threaten the city’s finances.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman whose son died from a drug overdose has had a chance to hear his heart beat again in the chest of an Ohio man who received it as an organ donation. The Quad City Times reports that Lisa Bragg met Friday in Davenport with 45-year-old Kenneth Vogelsong, of Sherwood, Ohio. Bragg’s 27-year-old son, Markus Abbott, died in January, and his heart was transplanted in Vogelsong.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In 2008, Barack Obama won the hearts of Iowa Democrats. Today, his supporters are looking more pragmatically for someone who can simply seize the presidency from Donald Trump in 2020. Niki Neems, a Democratic activist in Iowa city, says that ideally she would want to fall in love with the new candidate the same way as she did with Obama. But she adds that the candidate’s ultimate success at defeating Trump is more important. Neems says, “So, for me, it’s OK to just fall in like.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Des Moines man with murder in the deaths of his mother and uncle. Detectives on Friday night charged 30-year-old Joshua Adams with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, 49-year-old Tracy Linn Adams, and his uncle, 54-year-old Gaylord George Jolly Jr. Police say both of the victims died of “sharp-force injuries.”

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge visitor center will close for New Year’s Day. Officials say the center will close Monday at noon and reopen Wednesday morning. The seasonal sections of the refuge tour road and refuge grounds will remain open during the federal holidays. DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge sits 25 miles north of Omaha on U.S. Highway 30, between Missouri Valley, Iowa, and Blair, Nebraska.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A major financial rating agency has lowered its bond ratings for an Iowa town because of how it is financing a $70 million arena. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that S&P Global Ratings pointed to Coralville’s bank loans with variable interest rates to pay for the planned 5,700-seat arena set to open in 2020. The arena would host the University of Iowa’s home volleyball games and concerts.
City leaders say they remain confident the project does not threaten Coralville’s finances.

S&P this month lowered its rating for Coralville’s general obligation bonds from BBB+ to BB+, making it “non-investment grade.” The rating for bonds back by annual appropriations dropped from BBB to BB. An S&P report said the city has a “heightened debt burden” and exposure to high interest rates.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman whose son died from a drug overdose has had a chance to hear his heart beat again in the chest of an Ohio man who received it as an organ donation. The Quad City Times reports that Lisa Bragg met Friday in Davenport with Kenneth Vogelsong, of Sherwood, Ohio. She and family members put a stethoscope to Vogelsong’s chest to listen.

Bragg’s 27-year-old son, Markus Abbott, died in January, and his heart was transplanted in Vogelsong. With the help of donor networks, Bragg and Vogelsong exchanged letters, emails, and texts and agreed by phone to meet.

Vogelsong is a is a 45-year-old father of four who was close to death because he had an enlarged heart that couldn’t efficiently pump blood to other organs.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:05-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The Iowa State Patrol says four people were injured during two separate eastern Iowa accidents. Just after 2-a.m. today (Saturday), three people were hurt during during a rear-end collision in Bremer County. Authorities say a 1995 Chrysler Cirrus driven by 48-year old Donald F. Fairholm, of Charles City, was traveling north on Highway 218. A 2000 Dodge Dakota pickup driven by 57-year old Bambi K. Teska, of Charles City was behind the car traveling at a slow speed, when it was struck by a northbound 2015 Ford van, driven by 49-year old James E. Garner, of Dunlap. The van was traveling at a high rate of speed when it struck the pickup. The impact caused the pickup to hit the rear of the Chrysler. All three drivers were hurt. They were transported to the Charles City Hospital by Chickasaw County Ambulance. The accident remains under investigation.

And, at around 3:10-p.m. Friday, a two-vehicle accident in Black Hawk County injured a passenger in one of the vehicles. The State Patrol says a 2011 Chevy Equinox driven by 27-year old Justina Brown, of Waverly, had pulled to a stop in the gore of the ramp at U-S Highway 218 northbound and U-S Highway 58 southbound, in the untraveled portion, when it was hit from behind by a 2003 Dodge Durango, driven by 16-year old Joshua Michael, of Charles City. The accident happened when the Durango went out of control and hit a concrete bridge rail before striking the rear of the Chevy. The road surface was ice-covered at the time of the crash. A passenger, 19-year old Zaria Middleton, of Charles City,  was injured and transported to Satori Hospital, in Cedar Falls.

Authorities cited Joshua Michael for Failure to Maintain Control.

HOLY CROSS, Iowa (AP) — Bob Hayes picked up the phone Dec. 21 and gave the usual greeting. “Holy Cross Locker, Bob speaking,” he said. A few seconds pass. Suddenly, Hayes chimes in again. “All right, 30 packages, that’s 60 pounds, all smoked, got it.” He jotted down the order on a piece of paper and pinned it to a wall already smothered with similarly sized notes. Thirty packages. Sixty pounds. It was a larger-than-usual order for the Holy Cross Locker. But practically every order for the past few weeks has been of a similar size. “People are in panic mode,” Hayes told the Telegraph Herald . “We got a guy coming up from Minnesota who ordered 100 pounds.”

Those massive orders started coming in November, shortly after Hayes announced that after 72 years in business, the Holy Cross Locker will permanently close Dec. 29. Founded in 1946 by Vic Brecht and Louie Hayes, who was Bob’s father, Holy Cross Locker has been one of the cornerstone meat processors in the tri-state area for generations. Much of the business remains the same as it did more than 70 years ago. A chipped wood countertop sits at the entrance. Ink-stained meat-labeling stamps dangle from the wall. Family photos hang on the massive freezer door. Hayes can’t remember when he started working at the locker with his father. He’s pretty sure by middle school he was slicing up cuts. But what he is certain of is that the locker has been a second home for his entire life.

Now, at 67 years old, he’s hanging up the smock. It’s not that he is tired of meat processing, he said. It’s just time to move on. The locker’s closing will hit meat enthusiasts throughout the tri-state area and beyond. Holy Cross Locker is known for producing some of the finest smoked sausage, with many farmers claiming it has no equal. While he enjoys working with meat, Hayes said he mostly is going to miss the people, whether it be his customers or his longtime employees who he now considers family. Still, he’s looking forward to his retirement. All that stands in the way now is a few thousand pounds of meat.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Des Moines man with murder in the deaths of his mother and uncle. Detectives on Friday night charged 30-year-old Joshua Lee Adams with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of his mother, 49-year-old Tracy Linn Adams, and his uncle, 54-year-old Gaylord George Jolly Jr. Police say both of the victims died of “sharp-force injuries.” Adams was charged hours after officers were called to a home in northeast Des Moines to check a report of an assault. They found the bodies inside. Both of the victims were residents of Des Moines.