The Gazette

A Coralville woman is accused of using a credit card and gift card from a purse she stole from the Iowa City Probation office. Full Story »

Beth Freeman, a Cedar Rapids-based staffer for Sen. Tom Harkin, (D-Iowa), has been appointed to oversee Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She will take over Dec. 20 as director of FEMA Region VII, which is based in Kansas City. FEMA has ten regions. Freeman has worked on disaster assistance for Harkin [...] Full Story »

An ostrich — that’s right, an ostrich — is on the run after escaping from an Eastern Iowa farm Monday. The ostrich, named “Big Bird,” escaped from its cage at Dwight and Bonnie Sanders’ farm in Vinton. Dwight said he saw the bird run by as he was driving a tractor in his field. A neighbor saw the [...] Full Story »

An Iowa City man with prior assault charges is accused of assaulting and attempting to sexually abuse a woman in her home. Daniel R. Bothell, 32, of 424 Dakota Trail, allegedly dragged a woman down the hallway of her Iowa City residence around 11 p.m. Monday while repeatedly hitting her, causing injury, police said. He then [...] Full Story »

Doctors say an Iowa soldier wounded in last week’s deadly shooting at Fort Hood in Texas should make a full recovery. Twenty-seven-year-old Staff Sgt. Joy Clark, of Des Moines, was shot in her left forearm in the rampage last Thursday that left 13 dead and 29 others injured. The accused gunman, an Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal [...] Full Story »

Just four of the five groups expected to seek a state casino license handed over their proposals to state regulators Monday. While projects from Lyon, Tama, Webster and Wapello counties met the Monday application deadline, a group from Franklin County that had expressed interest in building a casino there did not turn in their application to [...] Full Story »

City, county and federal government offices will be closed Wednesday in observance of Veterans Day, as will state and federal courts. Post offices will be closed, and there will be no residential mail delivery except for special delivery. Public libraries in Marion and Coralville will be closed. Those in Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Hiawatha will be [...] Full Story »

There’s still no commitment to return any Cedar Rapids city offices to the flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building downtown. But the city is apparently ready to finally talk about the repair process. The Veterans Memorial Commission discussed some of the details at a commission meeting Monday afternoon. Members of the Cedar Rapids City Council should hear similar [...] Full Story »

The Internal Revenue Service is looking for 555 Iowa taxpayers who have refund checks waiting for them totaling $495,001 that were returned to the IRS as undeliverable. The refund checks, averaging $894, can be sent soon as taxpayers update their addresses with the IRS. Nationwide, 107,831 taxpayers had about $124 million in refunds returned to the [...] Full Story »

Authorities in Des Moines say they are looking into the possibility a Drake University student who suffered alcohol poisoning may have been sickened during a hazing. A spokesman for the Iowa Methodist Medical Center said the student, a member of Phi Delta Theta, was hospitalized Sunday and later released. Des Moines police identified the student as [...] Full Story »

A sentencing hearing for a former Agriprocessors human resource employee was reset to 10 a.m. Feb. 5. in U.S. District Court. Karina Freund, of Fayette, pleaded guilty last December to a misdemeanor count of aiding and abetting a pattern or practice of hiring undocumented immigrants. Full Story »

The first-degree murder trial of Lee Muldoon, 24, of Coggon, is reset to May 3. A pretrial will be 1:30 p.m. April 23. Muldoon is accused of killing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter Skylar Inman in 2008. Skyler died from blunt force injuries. Her mother Brianna Volesky, 19, is also charged in the case with child endangerment causing death. [...] Full Story »

A South East Junior High student was taken to the Linn County Juvenile Detention Center Friday after allegedly lighting a girl’s hair on fire. Charles Riley, 13, walked behind a girl and lit her hair on fire with a lighter, but then put out the fire, Iowa City Police Sgt. Troy Kelsay said. The girl was not [...] Full Story »

Police arrested a man Friday after he allegedly defecated in an Iowa City pharmacy. Robert E. Lee, 57, of 1902 H St., went into the CVS pharmacy, 2425 Muscatine Ave., at 4:17 p.m. where he walked to the front area of the store, lifted up his shirt, dropped his pants and defecated on the floor, then [...] Full Story »

Linn County will not be moving its administrative offices into the former Econofoods building on Cedar Rapids’ northeast side. The building has been sold, according to a news release from the county this morning. Here’s the news release: Linn County received a letter on Nov. 5 from Iowa Realty Commercial stating a purchase and sale agreement has [...] Full Story »

UPDATE: Commuter traffic clogged for about 45 minutes on Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids this morning after a two-vehicle crash. Police closed the southbound lanes of the interstate around 7:10 a.m. when a car struck a pickup on the 5-in-1 bridge, forcing traffic onto downtown streets. Police said a car driven by Trina Baumgartner, 24, of [...] Full Story »

Linn County Public Health officials are asking for the public’s patience in making appointments for Sunday’s H1N1 vaccination clinic. The department’s phone system was overloaded by calls today and employees are trying to get the system working again, spokesman Dave Koch said. Full Story »

Leaf-rakers, take heed: High volume has pushed leaf collection in Cedar Rapids about a day behind schedule, according to city officials. Here’s the news release from the streets department: Leaf collection crews are dealing with an overwhelming volume of leaves, which have already fallen and raked to the curb. Leaf crews have been collecting in excess [...] Full Story »

The Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Drake University has suspended three members as an investigation gets under way into their roles in an alcohol poisoning case. A new member of Phi Delta Theta, identified by Des Moines police as 19-year-old Nathan Cody Erickson, was hospitalized Sunday for alcohol poisoning. He was later released. Authorities say they are [...] Full Story »

Linn County owns odds and ends of property all over the county. Auditor Joel Miller wants the county to sell or give the land away, to reduce the county’s liability and get the land back on the tax rolls. “When we started talking abatements and layoffs, this is part of my leaving no stone unturned,” Miller [...] Full Story »

In the latest fallout from the state’s budget crunch, the Iowa Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered judges, magistrates and other staffers to take 10 days of unpaid furloughs by next June. The unpaid days will be scattered through the next seven months and will force the state’s court system to close on the designated days. “Regrettably, the [...] Full Story »

UPDATE: No one was injured when a 550-ton crane toppled over at a construction site in southeast Cedar Rapids this morning. Full Story »

Nick Pugliese, manager of sports content, will be providing live coverage of today’s press conference featuring Iowa football coach Kirk Ferentz. The press conference begins at 12:30 p.m. Full Story »

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has scheduled her first stop in Iowa since the last election, promoting her memoir at a bookstore in Sioux City next month. Full Story »

An Iowa City woman is charged with assaulting a police officer after he responded to a report that the woman was lying in the middle of the street. Full Story »