Regional News
Iowa News
GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa (AP) – Preliminary autopsy results show four people who died in a small plane crash in central Iowa earlier this month were suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning. Television station KCCI reports that the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office report said all the victims died from “multiple blunt force injuries in the setting of carbon monoxide toxicity.” The crash happened the night of Nov. 9 after plane passengers reported the pilot had had an apparent heart attack.
OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa State Patrol says a pregnant woman and her 2-year-old stepson have died in a crash in south-central Iowa. Television station KCRG reports that the crash happened Friday evening in Clarke County, about 9 miles south of Osceola. The patrol says 22-year-old Bethannie Kennedy, of Osceola, was driving south on U.S. 69 when she lost control, went sideways and was broadsided by a northbound pickup truck. Kennedy and 2-year-old Michael Dohrn Jr. died from injuries received in the crash.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A former northeastern Iowa high school teacher arrested in April for being drunk at work has had his teaching license suspended. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported Friday that Daniel Reisner’s license was suspended for two years by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners. He must complete at least 15 in-person class hours of an ethics course before his license is reinstated. He also received a written reprimand.
NEVADA, Iowa (AP) – DuPont has agreed to repay Iowa $10.5 million in incentives it received. The news of the settlement come a year after the company announced it was seeking a buyer for its 30-million gallon, $400 million cellulosic ethanol plant in central Iowa. The settlement repays all but about $3.7 million it received in incentives in 2011 for the plant in Nevada, Iowa. The plant made ethanol from corn cobs, stalks and other crop residue before closing the plant last year and laying off 90 workers. DuPont says it’s selling the plant to Verbio North America of Michigan, which plans to invest $35 million to make renewable natural gas from corn stover at the plant, a first for the state. The Iowa Economic Development Authority board agreed Friday to provide $1.78 million in tax credits to Verbio, which plans to create 44 high-wage jobs.
Wisconsin News
MADISON, Wis. (AP) – A man whose armed robbery of a Culver’s restaurant in Madison led to a bystander’s fatal heart attack has been sentenced to 25 years in prison. Nicholas Ivy and Xavier Fleming pleaded guilty in August to causing the death of 56-year-old Chris Kneubuehl, of Twin Lakes, during the robbery last year. The judge said at Ivy’s sentencing that he caused Kneubuehl’s death by refusing to let others call for help when the victim fell ill. Fleming’s sentencing is Dec. 17.
MANITOWOC, Wis. (AP) – Manitowoc County authorities have charged a man and a woman in the death of a 3-year-old child in July. Eduardo Gamez and Jamie Schrank were already jailed on child neglect and methamphetamine charges when authorities filed the new charges Wednesday. The felony charge of child abuse resulting in death carries a potential life sentence. Police say the couple was using meth while supervising the victim and their own 5-year-old child when it happened.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) – The Republican majority Legislatures of several states are contemplating steps to curb the power of Democratic governors as they lose some of their power following the midterm elections. GOP lawmakers are planning such moves in Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
UNDATED (AP) – Democrats likely would have boosted their majority in the US House and won more state legislative seats if not for districts gerrymandered by Republicans. The election results in several states where Republicans controlled the last round of redistricting show how difficult it is for Democrats to overcome those maps, even with heavy turnout. But the results in Pennsylvania’s congressional races show what happens when gerrymandering is overturned and maps have a greater level of fairness.
Illinois News
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) – The autopsy on an Illinois prison inmate who died in May concluded that his death was a homicide. The inmate died weeks after an “altercation with correctional staff” at Western Illinois Correctional Center. Sixty-five-year-old Larry Earvin died from blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen. The Associated Press received the autopsy report from a Freedom of Information request.
CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) – One of southern Illinois’ earliest and best-known radio and TV stars has died. The (Carbondale) Southern Illinoisan reports that Erv Coppi died this week at 92. Longtime friend Joey Helleny says everyone in southern Illinois knew Coppi from the 1960s through the ’80s.
PEORIA, Ill. (AP) – Two public defenders from Peoria County say requiring permits to carry firearms outside the home is unconstitutional. The Peoria Journal Star reports that defense attorneys Chandra Justice and Mark Rose have filed motions in several cases in which defendants are charged with felony aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Illinois allows carrying concealed firearms with a permit. Justice and Rose argue requiring a permit violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
ANTIOCH, Ill. (AP) – A woman doing landscaping on her suburban Chicago property unearthed the bones of a man who died 800 to 1,000 years ago. The Lake County News-Sun reports that the woman was digging in Antioch Township near Fox Lake in September when she unearthed some bones. She called authorities when she found a jaw that looked human. The newspaper said the woman didn’t want to be identified. Crime scene investigators, anthropologists and other experts secured the area and recovered 75 percent of the skeleton of a man of about 20 to 30 years old who died at least 800 years ago. Bill Brown is a Native American who runs the annual Potawatomi Trails Pow Wow in Zion. He says the man could be from the Ho-chunk or Miami tribes.