A man is being treated for suspected head injuries after the jet ski he was riding collided with a boat on a river in northeast Iowa. It happened Wednesday afternoon on the Shell Rock River, about two miles north of Greene. Authorities say Tad Schneider, of Allison, got too close to a boat that was pulling someone on an inner tube and his jet ski struck the boat. Schneider was wearing a life jacket and was briefly unconscious in the water before he was rescued by others on the river. A third boat took Schneider to a park in Greene, then an ambulance took him to the hospital in Waverly for treatment. Officials say the jet ski AND the boat involved in the accident are owned by Brian Cole, of Nashua.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa Congressman Steve King says he’s getting signals from the White House on the president’s preferred path on immigration policy. “I talked to the White House about three or four days ago. They said: ‘We’re done with amnesty,’ but they’re interested in going forward with rifle-shots of immigration reform, which is what I’ve always been for,” King says. “Let’s set ’em up one bill at a time. Let’s not crowd them all together and confuse the American people. Let everybody see what we’re doing.”

King suggests with a “rifle-shot” approach, there would be bills that address just one topic, like border wall funding in one bill and another that addresses so-called “DACA” recipients who were illegally brought into the country by their parents when they were children. “If we can’t move anything because all of the oxygen is sucked out of the political atmosphere by the upcoming announcement of an appointment to the impending vacancy on the US Supreme Court, I guess that’s alright because that’s the most important thing right now,” King says, “to get a constitutionalist seated on the court who will rule on the text and the original understanding of the Constitution and the text of the law rather than legislate from the bench.”

President Trump is scheduled to reveal his nominee for the Supreme Court vacancy on Monday night. Last month, Congressman King was among the Republicans who helped defeat two immigration bills advanced by House G-O-P leaders. King says the failure of those bills improves the chances future proposals will be in line with his views. “I think they are better than I expected they would be at this point,” King says. “My major concern on immigration, the thing that has animated me on the immigration issue — and I don’t think anyone out there would question whether I am animated on that issue or not — it has aways been for restoring respect for the rule of law.”

J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, King’s Democratic opponent, says it’s time to “modernize” the country’s immigration policies. “We absolutely have to have secure borders, but then beyond that we’ve got to have an immigration court that is functional and not months and even years behind,” Scholten says. “And then we need to have a visa program that matches our economy and then a pathway to residency and a pathway to citizenship that should be earned.”  Scholten says it’s frustrating to watch the D.C. debate on this topic. “I mean what isn’t happening is something being done,” Scholten says.

Trump tweeted Thursday that Congress should “FIX OUR INSANE IMMIGRATION LAWS NOW.”

(Radio Iowa)

A survey of 22 of the state’s largest employers indicates most of them should be growing between now and the end of the year. Georgia Van Gundy is executive director of the Iowa Business Council (IBC), which released its second quarter Economic Outlook Survey, Thursday. “Sixty-eight of our members are anticipating adding employees over the next six months,” Van Gundy says.

The positive economic outlook is tempered by a familiar concern among the state’s top employers. Eight-four-percent of I-B-C members cite “attracting, developing and retaining a quality workforce” as their primary business challenge. Van Gundy says the organization is launching an initiative, called Vision to Vitality, in hopes of addressing those workforce needs.  “And that (involves) going out to our communities and actually getting a community viewpoint on what are your barriers to growth? What are the best practices you have?”

The first Vision to Vitality forum is scheduled for July 17 in Boone. “We’ll be highlighting a partnership between business and education, Boone EDGE and Fareway, in which the businesses are partnering with the Boone School District to have work-based learning opportunities for students, so they can learn about some of the job opportunities early on in high school and hopefully will move into them after they graduate,” Van Gundy said.

Two more Vision to Vitality forums are scheduled for September 11 in Muscatine and October 9 in Le Mars. In addition to the expectation of adding employees, the new IBC survey shows 90-percent of the members anticipate higher sales and 63-percent project an increase in capital spending in the next six months.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unofficial tally shows that more than 1,500 properties in the Des Moines area were affected by weekend flooding, and authorities expect that number to increase. The Des Moines Register reports that officials still need to inspect many of the properties. Hundreds of residents were caught in Saturday night’s storm that dumped up to 9 inches on the area and caused flash flooding. One man was killed when he left his stranded van and was swept away by flood waters.

A map released by Polk County emergency management officials shows 1,501 unconfirmed reports of damaged properties in Des Moines and its suburbs. Des Moines appears to have taken the brunt of the flood, with at least 655 homes reported to be affected.

Red Oak Police, early this (Friday) morning, arrested 26-year old Cody Dean Johnson, of Red Oak. Johnson was taken into custody at around 12:30-a.m. for Simple Assault. His bond was set at $300. And, at around 12:15-a.m., 31-year old Katie Marie Pierce, of Red Oak, was arrested on two Pottawattamie County warrants for Violation of Probation. Pierce was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond, pending transfer to the Pott. County Jail.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to establish new rights for surrogate mothers that would allow them to change their minds about giving up babies born under surrogacy contracts. In an appeal of a February Iowa Supreme Court ruling, the woman asks the nation’s highest court to take her appeal and find that surrogacy contracts don’t negate the constitutional rights of surrogate mothers and their babies.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids police say they’ve made an arrest in a 2017 homicide case. Police said in a news release that 29-year-old Rayshaun Dion Friend, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested Thursday morning on charges of first-degree murder, robbery and going armed with intent. On Nov. 12, officers sent to a house for a report of a disturbance found 40-year-old Tarrence Newman dead on the front porch of the house. An autopsy showed he had been shot.

PRINCETON, Iowa (AP) — Law enforcement officials in eastern Iowa have identified a 14-year-old boy killed when a utility vehicle carrying him and three others crashed on private property. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened Tuesday afternoon in rural Princeton. Jacob Milo Fenn, of Eldridge, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators say three others on the vehicle were treated for minor injuries.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A decade after devastating floods along the Cedar River ravaged Cedar Rapids, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced it will approve $117 million in flood protection funding for the eastern Iowa city. The funding will go toward a $550 million flood control system already in the works. The city says the state of Iowa has committed to contributing $284 million, or 35 percent of the total cost. The city will match $110 million, with $10 million already invested.