DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police say an officer had to shoot and kill a dog that had attacked its owner before turning on the officer. The Des Moines Register reports that calls to 911 reported a 49-year-old woman who was being attacked by her dog around noon Friday. Police say the woman was moving the dog from her garage to another location when it “turned on her” in an unprovoked and unexpected attack.

An arriving officer says the dog turned on him, and he shot it four times, killing it.
Sgt. Paul Parizek says the attack on the woman was “very vicious and violent” and that she required surgery for injuries to her arms and abdomen. Her injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

ELDRIDGE, Iowa (AP) — Court documents in the case of a 12-year-old boy arrested at his Iowa school with a gun say he pointed it at his teacher’s face and pulled the trigger, but the safety was on.

The Courier reports that the court documents say the boy entered a North Scott Junior High classroom on Aug. 31 with a .22-caliber handgun and ordered everyone to the floor before he tried to shoot the teacher. Investigators say when the loaded gun failed to fire, the teacher wrestled it away from him.

The boy is charged with attempted murder, having a weapon on school grounds and assault while displaying a dangerous weapon. He remains in the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is scheduled to headline Iowa Democrats’ marquee fall banquet next month, raising his national profile further on the heels of a spotlight role in confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Booker is the first of the Democrats’ better-known potential 2020 presidential candidates to make plans to visit the leadoff caucus state this year. Several lesser-known Democrats have already begun making introductions.

Booker struck a defiant tone this week as a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee in declaring his willingness to face expulsion from the Senate by releasing an email from Kavanaugh about racial profiling written during his time as a top White House aide to President George W. Bush.

Calling it an act of “civil disobedience,” Booker said reading the email to the committee “is about the closest I’ll probably ever have in my life to an ‘I am Spartacus’ moment.” However, a committee lawyer later announced the material had been made public a day earlier.

Still, Booker garnered some of the national spotlight, as well as the mockery of some of his Republican colleagues on the committee. Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, said “running for president is no excuse for violating the rules of the Senate.”

In planning to visit Iowa before the November midterms, Booker, elected in 2012, is inviting further national attention. Other Senate Democrats mentioned as 2020 prospects, such as New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand, California’s Kamala Harris and Massachusetts’ Elizabeth Warren, have steered clear of the early presidential proving ground.

Likewise, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the independent who ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who is also weighing a 2020 campaign, have been in touch with Iowa Democrats but have not yet made plans to visit.

While some of the better-known potential 2020 Democratic candidates have been in touch with Iowa Democrats quietly, Booker too had met with lawmakers from the state in Newark in July.

Sheriff’s Officials in Taylor County report a Blockton man, 54-year old Walter Meier, was arrested this morning (Saturday). on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance with the Intent to deliver (Methamphetamine), a Class “C” Felony. Meier was being held at the Taylor County Jail on a $10,000 cash only bond.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’s gotten a response from federal investigators in a case where a woman died at a Buffalo Center nursing home. Senator Grassley says the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services responded to his request for more information on the February 27th death of Virginia Olthoff at the Timely Mission Nursing Home in Buffalo Center. State investigators say she was in pain and may not have had water several days before her death. C-M-S has fined the nursing home more than 77-thousand dollars. Grassley says the C-M-S administrator told him in a letter that the nursing home has had 19 complaint investigations conducted in the past five years and has “come back into substantial compliance with program requirements” after each one.

The Republican Senator says he appreciates the response, but says he is concerned about the Timely Mission Nursing Home’s compliance history and the sheer number of complaint investigations. He says the reported events are “extremely troubling” and call into question whether the facility has the ability to make lasting changes. He says he will continue to press for more information on this case and others like it.