Iowa

USA: Police: 2 students killed, man hurt in Des Moines shooting

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two teenage students were killed Monday and a man was seriously injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at an alternative educational program designed to keep at-risk youth away from trouble. The injured man was identified as the program’s founder — a rapper who left a life of gangs and violence and has been dedicated to helping youth in Des Moines.

USA: Mega Millions jackpot climbs to $940M after no winner

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Mega Millions jackpot increased to an estimated $940 million after another drawing resulted in plenty of losers but not a single grand prize winner.

The numbers drawn late Tuesday were: 25, 29, 33, 41, 44 and gold Mega Ball 18.

The next drawing is scheduled to be held Friday night.

The new $940 million jackpot is for a winner who chooses to be paid through an annuity over 29 years. Nearly all winners opt for a cash payout, which for Friday night’s drawing would be an estimated $483.5 million.

Iowa caucuses, built on myth, lose place at head of the line

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Hy-Vee Hall ballroom in Des Moines erupted in cheers in 2008 when the youthful Illinois senator hinted at the improbable possibility of the feat ahead: “Our time for change has come!”

That Iowa, an overwhelmingly white state, would propel Barack Obama’s rise to become America’s first Black president seemed to ratify its first-in-the-nation position in the presidential nominating process.

But in the half-century arc of the state’s quirky caucuses, Obama’s victory proved to be an outlier. All other Democratic winners turned out to be also-rans.

USA: Trump’s long shadow keeps 2024 hopefuls from Iowa State Fair

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz raised the roasted turkey leg like a sword in his Iowa State Fair debut in 2014, the up-and-coming conservative joining a half-dozen other Republican presidential prospects in strolling the Grand Concourse.

Four years later, almost as many Democrats made the pilgrimage to the fair, including former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, who snaked his way past tables under the Iowa Pork Producer’s tent at the annual Midwestern tribute to overindulgence.

USA: Pence says he didn’t leave office with classified material

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he didn’t take any classified information with him when he left office.

The disclosure — which would typically be unremarkable for a former vice president — is notable given that FBI agents seized classified and top secret information from his former boss’s Florida estate on Aug. 8 while investigating potential violations of three different federal laws. Former President Donald Trump has claimed that the documents seized by agents were “all declassified.”

USA: Girl, 6, among 3 fatally shot in tent at Iowa state park

(AP) --- A 6-year-old girl was among three Iowa family members fatally shot while camping in a state park, apparently killed by a man from Nebraska who later turned the gun on himself, police said.

The victims from Cedar Falls, Iowa — identified by the Iowa Department of Public Safety as Tyler Schmidt, 42; Sarah Schmidt, 42; and Lulu Schmidt, 6 — were found in their tent early Friday at the Maquoketa Caves State Park Campground, about 180 miles (290 kilometers) east of Des Moines.

Investigators provided no motive for the attack.

USA: Trump’s vulnerabilities for 2024 mount after new testimony

SIOUX CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Stunning new revelations about former President Donald Trump’s fight to overturn the 2020 election have exposed growing political vulnerabilities just as he eyes another presidential bid.

A former White House aide this week described Trump as an unhinged leader with no regard for the safety of elected officials in either party as he clung to power on Jan. 6, 2021. The testimony from the congressional panel investigating the Capitol attack provided a roadmap for prosecutors to potentially charge Trump with a crime, some legal experts say.

USA Biden: Russia war a ‘genocide,’ trying to ‘wipe out’ Ukraine

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Joe Biden has now said Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to “genocide,” accusing President Vladimir Putin of trying to “wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”

“Yes, I called it genocide,” he told reporters in Iowa on Tuesday shortly before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington. “It’s become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being a Ukrainian.”

Last week, Biden stopped short of saying Russia’s actions amounted to genocide.

USA: Bird flu case forces killing of 5.3 million chickens in Iowa

Des Moines (Iowa), Mar 19 (AP) The confirmation of bird flu at another Iowa egg-laying farm will force the killing of more than 5 million chickens, state officials said Friday.

It's the second confirmed case of avian influenza in Buena Vista County, about 160 miles (257 kilometers) northwest of Des Moines, but the latest outbreak is at an operation with 5.3 million chickens. The earlier case was at a farm with about 50,000 turkeys.

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