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Texas man charged with stalking WNBA and Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark

Posted on by Sam Parsons

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Authorities in Indianapolis have charged a 55-year-old Texas man with felony stalking of Indiana Fever star and WNBA rookie of the year Caitlin Clark.

Michael Thomas Lewis is accused of repeated and continued harassment of the 22-year-old Clark beginning on Dec. 16, the Marion County prosecutor’s office wrote in a court filing Saturday. Jail records show Lewis is due in court on Tuesday.

Lewis posted numerous messages on Clark’s X account, according to an affidavit from a Marion County sheriff’s lieutenant.

In one, he said he had been driving by the Gainbridge Fieldhouse — one of the arenas where the Fever plays home games — three times day, and in another he said he had “one foot on a banana peel and the other on a stalking charge.” Other messages directed at Clark were sexually explicit.

The posts “actually caused Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened” and an implicit or explicit threat also was made “with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery,” prosecutors wrote in the Marion County Superior Court filing.

The FBI learned that the X account belonged to Lewis and that the messages were sent from IP addresses associated with an Indianapolis hotel and downtown public library.

Indianapolis police spoke with Lewis on Jan. 8 at his hotel room. He told officers he was in Indianapolis on vacation. When asked why he was making so many posts about Clark, Lewis replied: “Just the same reason everybody makes posts,” according to court documents.

He told police that he didn’t mean any harm and that he fantasized about being in a relationship with Clark.

“It’s an imagination, fantasy type thing and it’s a joke, and it’s nothing to do with threatening,” he told police, according to the court documents.

In asking the court for a higher than standard bond, the prosecutor’s office said Lewis traveled from his home in Texas to Indianapolis “with the intent to be in close proximity to the victim.”

The prosecutor’s office also sought a stay-away order as a specific condition if Lewis is released from jail ahead of trial. Prosecutors requested that Lewis be ordered to stay away from the Gainbridge and Hinkle fieldhouses where the Fever play home games.

The Associated Press was unable to determine Monday if Lewis has a lawyer who can comment on his behalf.

Fever officials have not responded to an Associated Press request for comment.

The Associated Press named Clark the Female Athlete of the Year for 2024. After leading Iowa to last year’s national championship game, she was the top pick in the WNBA draft and went on to win rookie of the year honors in the league.

Des Moines Airport sets its second straight record for passenger numbers

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

The number of people flying out of the state’s busiest airport went up again last year after cracking the three-million passenger mark for the first time in 2023.

Airport spokesperson Sarah Hoodjer  says they welcomed 3,176,952 passengers, a 2.6% increase from last year. Hoodjer those record numbers came despite the January blizzard that canceled more than 100 flights. “We actually had to close the airport, and that hasn’t we don’t get to do that very often, which we don’t like to do, but we had that disruption, and then also that crowd strike took out quite a few flights for a couple of days as well, and flights that were incoming as well,” she says. “So with those two kind of huge disruptions, it’s amazing that we still were able to have a record-breaking year.”

She says the increase in passengers coincides with an increase in stops.  “Right now, we offer flights to 33 nonstop, so that is also a record for us. So this is the first time that we’ve been able to offer that many nonstop flights. We add Boston, Jacksonville, and then Philadelphia; all three of those will be added this summer,” she says. Hoodjer says they only have a breakdown through the first quarter of last year, and the top destination out of Des Moines was Arizona.

Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate? to be held Feb 18

Posted on by Sam Parsons

OSKALOOSA — Few families will escape making decisions about passing on the personal possessions of their members.  They are inevitable when a family member downsizes, declutters, moves or dies.  Passing on of personal property can become challenging and lead to serious family conflicts.

University of Minnesota developed Who Gets Grandma’s Yellow Pie Plate?™  a research informed resource to help address common inheritance decision making challenges.  No matter who you are— older parent, siblings, spouse, adult child, or grandchild the popular guide to passing on personal possessions helps family members understand and address common decision-making obstacles when passing on personal possessions.
The program addresses six key protective decision-making factors to optimize inheritance planning and family relationships across generations. Very few families, regardless of shape, size, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status, escape the later life distribution of accumulated possessions while older parents are alive or at death.  These factors will help families:
· Understand sensitivity of the issues and strategies for communicating.
· Determine what they want to accomplish.
· Decide what’s “fair” for their family.
· Understand belongings have different meanings for different individuals.
· Consider distribution options and consequences.
· Agree to manage conflicts if they arise.
The program will be held February 18, 2025 at 6:30 pm at the Mahaska County Extension office; 212 North I Street, Oskaloosa.  The session is free to attend.  Register by Feb 10 by calling 641-673-5841 or emailing striegel@iastate.edu.
Workbooks will be available to purchase from Mahaska County Extension.  If you can not attend on Feb 18, a video of the program is available and workbooks can be purchased from https;//extension.umn.edu/later-life-decision-making/who-gets-grandmas-yellow-pie-plate.

Pella School Board Hosts Public Hearing on Budget Cuts

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Sam Parsons

The Pella Community School Board held their first regular meeting of the new calendar year last night. The board held a public hearing regarding proposed budget cuts in the district. The current budget recommendation for the district includes over $888,000 in cuts from last year’s budget, with 17 faculty positions to be potentially reduced. Last month, Pella superintendent Greg Ebeling cited school enrollment as a driver behind the need to make cuts; the district is set to graduate a class of roughly 200 students, while bringing in a class of roughly 150 students. No official action was taken on the budget last night, but the board will host their next budget work session on Monday, January 20.

The list of proposed budget cuts can be found here.

Osky Girls Stymied, Boys Victorious in Doubleheader Split at Newton

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Sam Parsons

The Oskaloosa Indians traveled to Newton on Friday night for a Little Hawkeye Conference basketball doubleheader. The girls entered at 5-4, hoping to shake off a 3-game losing streak, while the boys were 3-5 going into the night’s action.

Girls Game

From the opening whistle, the Newton Cardinals’ M.O. was clear: they were going to do everything they could to limit Oskaloosa’s Dasia Foster.

The opener of Friday night’s doubleheader was defined by the Cardinals’ approach to the Indians’ senior center. Starting in the first offensive possession, and continuing throughout the game, the Cardinals slapped a true double team on Foster: everywhere she went, she had two players in her hip pockets. As Foster entered the game averaging 19.6 points per game, the strategy was sound, but risky: it essentially left the remainder of Oskaloosa’s half-court offense in a 4-on-3 situation.

However, the Indians were not able to take advantage of the extra space allotted on the floor for most of Friday night. Given space to attempt a plethora of open three-pointers, the Indians made those attempts, but came up empty a few too many times, only draining 3 triples as a team on the night. Sophomore Naomi Cole accounted for two of the successful 3-pointers on her way to a team-high 12 points, but the hit rate for Osky as a team was simply too low to mount an effective offensive attack.

“[We were] just unsure of what we wanted to do when they took our best player away,” said coach TC Cunningham after the game. “…we had a gameplan for it, we just didn’t knock down our outside shots. So if your outside shots are not falling, then it’s one-and-done, because they have the advantage on the inside…we got the shots we wanted with what they were doing, but just couldn’t knock them down.”

Oskaloosa was limited to just 5 points in both the first and fourth quarters on their way to scoring 29 points in the game. The Indians’ defense largely succeeded in limiting the Cardinals all game, but not enough to overcome the low offensive output, and the final score was 36-29 Newton. The loss set the Indians back to 5-5 and marks their 5th loss in their last 6 games, which have been by a combined 24 points.

Boys Game

Oskaloosa’s boys were searching for a strong bounce-back effort after arguably their worst game of the season on Tuesday night versus Pella. They got exactly what they were looking for, as the team had a different feel to it on Friday night, and the energy was palpable immediately.

In the first quarter, Heavon Knox and Xavier Edwards went to work by knocking down baskets at all three levels on their way to helping the Indians put up one of their most productive quarters of the season. At the end of the first, the Indians led 18-11.

From there, it was the Indians’ defense that made the difference: Oskaloosa limited Newton to just a 28.8% shooting percentage from the field and 23.8% from downtown. Easy buckets were nonexistent for the Cardinals as the Indians protected the rim with ferocity and guarded the perimeter with focus. The Cardinals were a good outside shooting team entering Friday night’s contest, with multiple starters shooting 40+% from deep, but the Indians were able to take that threat away.

“Compared to the Pella game from Tuesday, our defense was phenomenal,” said Oskaloosa senior Xavier Edwards following the game. “Amazing energy, I loved to see it, it was probably the best defense we’ve had all year…at the start of it, our hands were off, we were moving our feet, we were playing great defense, and that’s exactly what we were practicing for the entire past two days.”

Offensively, Knox and Edwards continued to score at highly efficient clips in quarters 2-4 to help the Indians stave off any potential comeback runs. Knox finished the night going 9/15 from the floor and 4/6 from deep on his way to 24 points, while Edwards notched 13 points and 9 rebounds on 6/9 shooting. Sophomore Tommy North chipped in with 11 points on 5/10 shooting from the field. The Indians finished the night with a 56.1% FG%, which was their highest mark of the season, and they won the game 55-45, picking up their first conference victory of the campaign.

Oskaloosa’s girls and boys will be back in action with a doubleheader versus Ottumwa on Tuesday night (1/14). Coverage of those games can be heard on KBOE 104.9 FM and kboeradio.com.

Landscapes turned into hellscapes, shock and the ongoing fight against wildfires in Los Angeles

Posted on by Sam Parsons

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Firefighters on Saturday raced to get the upperhand on blazes chewing through homes in the greater Los Angeles area, five days after powerful winds swept across a bone-dry landscape and fueled urban wildfires that have turned much of the world famous city into a hellscape.

The ongoing fight

While firefighters made gains on the fires, the battle was far from over. From both the air and the ground, firefighters attacked the flames. Hazardous smoke, from both active burning and smoldering homes, filled the skies.

The devastation

Parts of Los Angeles, the city internationally known for its movie industry, now looked like the sets of war movies. Large swaths of neighborhoods were all but eliminated, with houses flattened and blackened trees.

The shock

People returning to what was left of their homes were clearly in shock. They hugged, cried and sometimes just stood in place, as if trying to take it all in.

Property tax limits top GOP priority for ’25 Iowa legislative session

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

The 2025 Iowa legislature convenes later this morning and Republican lawmakers say setting new limits on property taxes is their top priority.

House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, said it’s time for a broad conversation that shifts the focus to providing certainty for property tax payers.

“I also want to be very aggressive and bold in our approach to this,” Grassley said during an interview “Iowans have an expectation and they’ve seen from the legislature when we work on big things, we’ve been able to achieve results.”

House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, a Republican from Missouri Valley, said during the 2024 campaign, lawmakers heard from property owners in “every corner” of the state.

“People want to make sure that their homes are affordable and if they’ve made the investment into their homes that they’re not being taxed out of them,” Windschitl told reporters last month after a forum sponsored by the Greater Des Moines Partnership. “They also want to make sure that if they are paying property taxes that they are being used for the appropriate purposes that property taxes should be used for.”

Republican Representative Bobby Kaufmann of Wilton is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. It’s where a property tax bill would first be considered.

“Everything’s on the table intentionally so that all options can be considered,” Kaufmann said during a Radio Iowa interview. “I’ve been having many meetings with the affected stakeholders — cities, counties and planning on meeting with education folks and then, of course, we’ll narrow things down, but only after we’ve had productive conversations about what should or should not be included or eliminated from the bill.”

Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver, a Republican from Ankeny, said it’s time for a “holistic review” of Iowa’s complicated property tax system.

“It’s something we hear about on the campaign trail,” Whitver told Radio Iowa, “and we want to be responsive to Iowans.”

Senator Dan Dawson, a Republican from Council Bluffs, is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. Like other GOP lawmakers, he told Radio Iowa a wide array of options will be considered, but Dawson said the focus must be on the taxpayers, not the tax collectors.

“To ensure that some relief gets to those property tax owners out there, we’re going to have to either improve upon what we already have in place to look at going to a different model,” Dawson said.

Dawson indicated property tax credits may also be part of the conversation.

Democrats say they’re interested in providing property tax relief, but House Minonrity Leader Jennifer Konfrst, a Democrat from Windsor Heights, said city and county officials as well as school board members need to be consulted.

“The needs of Ackley are not the same as the needs of Ankeny,” Konfrst said during a forum sponsored by the Iowa Capitol Press Association, “so sometimes I wonder about these one-size-fits-all solutions.”

Senate Minority Leader Janice Weiner, a Democrat from Iowa City, said property tax changes approved two years ago are already having an effect.

“Whether the community is large or small, whether the county is large or small in terms of population, everybody that I’ve talked to realizes they’re coming into a very difficult budget year right now,” Weiner said last week at the same forum.

All types of property in Iowa are assessed in odd-numbered years — like this year, 2025 — and assessment notices must be mailed to property owners by April 1.

Centerville Man Dies in Head-On Crash on Wrong Side of Road

Posted on by Sam Parsons

CENTERVILLE — A man died in Centerville on Saturday in an accident where police say he was driving on the wrong side of the road.

According to traffic records, 63-year-old Jeffrey Robert Underwood of Centerville was driving a Ford pickup truck in the westbound lane of Highway 2, going eastbound. 59-year-old Ronald Kevin Bedford was traveling westbound in the westbound lane in a Kia SUV when the two vehicles collided head-on just east of the intersection of Highway 2 and North B Street in Centerville. Underwood was pronounced dead at the scene by responders.

The two occupants of the SUV, Ronald and Esther Bedford, were transported to MercyOne Centerville Medical Center for non-life threatening injuries.

Oskaloosa, Mahaska County Government Representatives Speak at First Coffee and Conversation

Posted on by Sam Parsons

By Sam Parsons

The Mahaska Chamber hosted its first Coffee and Conversation event of 2025 on Saturday morning at Smokey Row Coffee. The weekend’s forum featured local government officials from the city of Oskaloosa and Mahaska County, including Oskaloosa mayor David Krutzfeldt, and Mahaska County Supervisors Mark Groenendyk, Steve Wanders, and Chuck Webb. Mahaska County residents were able to ask questions about pressing local issues, including property taxes, housing development, and various projects happening in the county.

Mahaska County Supervisor Mark Groenendyk talked about changes to property taxes from the state legislature and how that has impacted what Mahaska County can do.

Oskaloosa mayor David Krutzfeldt was asked about the recent city council vote to amend the city’s 28E agreement with the city of Pella for the SCRAA. Krutzfeldt said that the agreement was changed to account for Mahaska County no longer being a part of it, and to ensure that no action could be taken by the SCRAA without approval from both city councils; and on top of that, the SCRAA needed to continue to exist for financial liability reasons.

Mayor Krutzfeldt also answered a question regarding the status of the pool at the Mahaska County YMCA. He explained that the city is still in litigation regarding the pool, but that there is light at the end of that tunnel.

The next Coffee and Conversation event is scheduled for Saturday, January 25. It will feature members from the Iowa State legislature, including Senators Ken Rozenboom and Adrian Dickey, as well as House Representatives Helena Hayes and Barb Kniff-McCulla.

Woman who stabbed classmate to please Slender Man can be released from psychiatric hospital

Posted on by Sam Parsons

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin woman who at age 12 stabbed her sixth grade classmate nearly to death to please online horror character Slender Man will be released from a psychiatric hospital, a judge ordered Thursday after a trio of experts testified that she has made considerable progress battling mental illness.

Morgan Geyser has spent nearly seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She has petitioned Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who committed her, for release four times since June 2022. She withdrew her first two petitions. Bohren denied her third request this past April, finding she still presented a threat to the public.

Geyser, now 22 years old, filed her latest petition in October. Bohren decided to grant her release after a day-long hearing Thursday, finding that she had maximized her treatment options at the facility and is no longer a safety risk. He ordered the state Department of Health Services to set up a plan to house her in a group home and supervise her for his consideration at a hearing within 60 days.

The judge said that her crime was a “brutal, terrible offense” but Geyser has since grown up and to be truly rehabilitated she must exist as part of society.

“She’s done what she’s supposed to do,” Bohren said. “She appears to have a good attitude.”

Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a Waukesha park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.

The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man’s servants and they feared he would harm their families if they didn’t follow through.

Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to the psychiatric institute due to mental illness in 2018.

Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center but was granted release in 2021 to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor.

Three psychologists who have been working with Geyser since she was committed to the institute testified at Thursday’s hearing that she’s made impressive progress in just the last six months and should be released.

Dr. Brooke Lundbohm testified that Winnebago staff weaned Geyser off her anti-psychotic medications by early 2023 and she’s suffered no symptoms since then.

Dr. Deborah Collins said Geyser is always at risk of reoffending simply because she almost killed someone but she has worked on her coping skills, improved her emotional control and retreats into fantasy less frequently. Collins added that Geyser told her that she hates what she did to Leutner and can’t forgive herself.

Dr. Ken Robbins told the judge that she could become dangerous if she remained confined at Winnebago and lost hope.

“The longer she’s there, at this point, the harder it’s going to be to re-integrate,” Robbins said.

Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz argued that Geyser couldn’t be trusted, noting that she claimed during evaluations last year that she faked her delusions about Slender Man and actually attacked Leutner as a way of escaping her abusive father. He hinted that was a ploy to make the release more likely.

The judge shrugged that off, saying it’s not unusual for mental illness diagnoses to evolve.

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