Around Iowa: $2 million from state to enhance parks
Nearly $2 million in state funding will go to enhance park and recreation offerings in three eastern Iowa counties, Gov. Terry Branstad announced Monday.
Branstad said the Grant Wood Mississippi River Region would be the pilot project in a long-term effort to enhance Iowa’s parks.
The region — which includes Jones, Jackson and Dubuque counties — will come up with a plan by early 2015 to improve the four state parks in the area, as well as the county and municipal parks.
Officials said the regional leaders would seek about $6 million in private contributions, both monetary and in-kind donations. Improvements could include building cabins or developing another park.
Branstad said the effort was key to maintaining and improving the state for the future.
“We all share a love of the activities in the Iowa state parks,” he said.
ROCKWELL CITY
Prison pills free of controlled substances
Lab results show hundreds of capsules found at a northern Iowa prison tested negative for controlled substances.
The state Department of Public Safety made the announcement Monday about the 300 to 400 capsules found this month at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation laboratory completed an analysis of the capsules.
The pills contained an unknown substance, prompting a state drug investigation. Initial field testing indicated they contained cocaine and the painkiller Demerol, but later testing came back negative for controlled substances.
State officials have not said how the capsules got inside the prison
DAVENPORT
Man charged in wreck that left 2 dead
A Davenport man has been charged with vehicular homicide following a car wreck that killed two Illinois men.
Kai Miller, 24, was charged with homicide by vehicle, operating while intoxicated and two counts of serious injury by vehicle in connection with the crash early Sunday in Davenport. Court records do not list an attorney.
Authorities said Miller’s car collided with a vehicle carrying Andrew Adams, 21, and Daniel DeBacker, 22, both of Orion, Ill. An affidavit says Miller admitted to police that he drank multiple alcoholic beverages before driving.
Court records show Miller pleaded guilty to a speeding violation in connection with a 2009 car crash that killed his 18-year-old passenger. His license was taken away for two months.
WEST UNION
Ex-mayor’s pretrial conference delayed
A pretrial conference has been delayed for a former Iowa mayor accused of sexual abuse.
The date for Jason Manus’ pretrial conference was pushed back from Monday to Oct. 13 because his attorney died earlier this month. His trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 22.
Court records do not indicate whether a new lawyer has been assigned to defend Manus.
Manus, 36, is charged with five counts of second-degree sexual abuse. He is accused of sexually abusing a 9-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl in 2010. He has pleaded not guilty.
Manus was mayor of Oelwein until his resignation in August.
MUSCATINE
Missing elderly man is found; he’s OK
An 81-year-old Iowa man who went missing has been found safe after a chance encounter with an off-duty Iowa State Patrol trooper.
William Morgan of Muscatine was found Sunday at a campground near the Coralville reservoir.
Morgan, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, went missing Friday after going to a doctor’s appointment in East Moline, Ill. Authorities searched the area Friday.
One official who helped with the search, State Patrol Trooper Jesse Hernandez, was off-duty and fishing at the reservoir on Sunday when he noticed a van that looked like Morgan’s.
Hernandez contacted an on-duty trooper, and they eventually found Morgan sitting on the ground by the campground’s entrance. Morgan was later reunited with his family.
COUNCIL BLUFFS
Friends pay tribute to fatally injured teen
The Council Bluffs community has come together to remember a western Iowa 17-year-old who died from a head injury suffered during a fight at school.
Friends of Dakota Escritt released balloons at a memorial Sunday night. He died Saturday at Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, two days after he hit his head on a tile floor at Abraham Lincoln High School.
Authorities have filed an assault charge against a 16-year-old boy, who was suspended from school.
School officials said the fight appeared to be a random incident.
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