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Ottumwa Man Arrested for Attempted Murder

OTTUMWA – An Ottumwa man is in jail after police say he stabbed a man over the weekend and was in possession of drugs during a traffic stop the following day.

The Ottumwa Police Department reports that on the morning of Saturday, July 26th, at around 7:28am, officers were dispatched to 1600 Stellar Avenue in Ottumwa for a report of an individual being stabbed. The victim was identified as 20-year-old Marshaun Carlvin of Ottumwa, and he was found to have sustained multiple stab wounds on his arm and abdomen. Officers further learned that the suspect had left prior to their arrival. Court records show that the suspect believed Carlvin was talking to his girlfriend, which led to the altercation. Carlvin was transported to the Ottumwa Regional Health Center and was later transferred to a Des Moines hospital for further treatment of his injuries. He has since been released.

On Sunday afternoon, at around 2:28pm, the suspect in the stabbing was located during a traffic stop on Joe Lord Memorial Drive. The suspect was identified as 29-year-old Trinity Allen Shafer. A K9 unit conducted an open air sniff of the vehicle and alerted officers to the presence of drugs; soon after, a small baggie containing methamphetamine was found in the vehicle.

Shafer was ultimately arrested and charged with attempted murder, a class B felony. He also faces additional charges from the traffic stop, including Prohibited Acts, Possession of a Controlled Substance – 3rd or subsequent offense, a class D felony, and 2 outstanding warrants for Probation Violation and Failure to Appear.

Shafer is being held in the Wapello County Jail with no bond being set at this time.

3 Indians Honored by Little Hawkeye Conference

By Sam Parsons

The Little Hawkeye Conference unveiled its softball all-conference teams on Sunday for the season that just wrapped up.

3 members of the Oskaloosa Indians were honored. Sophomore shortstop Haylee Parker was named to the 2nd team as an infielder, while freshman second baseman Jillian Parks and sophomore catcher Cadence Grubb were each named honorable mentions.

Parker followed up a strong freshman season that earned her a 3rd team all-state nod with another highly productive campaign. In 35 games, mostly hitting at the top of the order, she recorded a .426 batting average with 28 runs scored, 6 RBI, and 19 stolen bases on 21 attempts. On defense, she had a .940 fielding percentage at shortstop.

Parks was a fixture in the #2 spot in the batting order for Oskaloosa for much of the season as a freshman. She hit .340 in 35 games with 26 runs scored, 13 RBI, 8 walks, and 7 strikeouts, while stealing 16 bases in 17 attempts. Parks also had 5 successful sacrifice bunts and had a .966 fielding percentage.

Grubb was Oskaloosa’s most productive power hitter in the 2025 season. As a sophomore, she had a .368 batting average with a team-high .626 slugging percentage. She hit 5 doubles and a team-high 7 home runs with 22 RBI. Her 1.024 OPS was also the highest mark on the team. Behind the plate, she successfully threw out 11 baserunners attempting to steal.

Oskaloosa finished their season with a 15-21 record overall with a 5-12 record in the Little Hawkeye Conference. It was the program’s first season with Alex DeJong as the head coach. They won their first playoff game since 2021 when they defeated Mount Pleasant 10-2 in the first round, then pulled off an upset at #11 Winterset in the region semifinals to get within one game of the state tournament. Oskaloosa graduated only two seniors from their roster.

The full Little Hawkeye All-Conference softball teams for 2025 can be found below:

*denotes unanimous selection

1st team

Pitcher – Carly Brewer, Norwalk*

Pitcher – Tessa Jones, DCG

Catcher – Addison Lyddon, DCG*

Infielder – Sam Gripp, Indianola*

Infielder – Jenah Gray, DCG*

Infielder – Bailey Birmingham, Norwalk

Infielder – Katie Scheckel, Pella

Outfielder – Nyah Hulbert, Norwalk*

Outfielder – Dana Blake, Indianola

Outfielder – Mack Sims, Newton

Utility – Kale Montag, DCG

Utility – Emma Eekhoff, Pella

Utility – Lex Guyer, Indianola

2nd team

Pitcher – Leah Crick, Norwalk

Pitcher – Ashley Schultz, Indianola

Catcher – Faith Kacmarynski, Pella Christian

Infielder – Genevieve York, DCG

Infielder – Sully Downey, Indianola

Infielder – Haylee Parker, Oskaloosa

Infielder – Sophia Bauman, DCG

Outfielder – Tessa Gripp, Indianola

Outfielder – Maddie Gullion, Norwalk

Outfielder – Addie Abens, DCG

Utility – Delaney Fetters, DCG

Utility – Hadley Michael, Norwalk

Utility – Riley Parks, Pella

Honorable Mentions

Indianola: Ava Tichy, Bria Boell;  Pella: Avery Parks, Saige DeJong;  DCG: Jenna Morrison;  Norwalk: Halie Karnatz, Addie Fisher;  Oskaloosa: Jillian Parks, Cadence Grubb;  Pella Christian: Chloe Snyder, Brynn Roozeboom;  Newton: Chloe Swank, Leileigh Hammons

US-EU deal sets a 15% tariff on most goods and averts the threat of a trade war with a global shock

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) — The United States and the European Union agreed on Sunday to a trade framework setting a 15% tariff on most goods, staving off — at least for now — far higher import duties on both sides that might have sent shock waves through economies around the globe.

The sweeping announcement came after President Donald Trump and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen met briefly at Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Scotland. Their private sit-down culminated months of bargaining, with the White House deadline Friday nearing for imposing punishing tariffs on the EU’s 27 member countries.

“It was a very interesting negotiation. I think it’s going to be great for both parties,” Trump said. The agreement, he said, was “a good deal for everybody” and “a giant deal with lots of countries.”

Von der Leyen said the deal “will bring stability, it will bring predictability, that’s very important for our businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Many facets will require more work

As with other, recent tariff agreements that Trump announced with countries including Japan and the United Kingdom, some major details remain pending in this one.

Trump said the EU had agreed to buy some $750 billion worth of U.S. energy and invest $600 billion more than it already is in America — as well as make a major military equipment purchase. He said tariffs “for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15%” and meant that U.S. exporters ”have the opening up of all of the European countries.”

Von der Leyen said the 15% tariffs were “across the board, all inclusive” and that “indeed, basically the European market is open.”

At a later news conference away from Turnberry, she said the $750 billion in additional U.S. energy purchases was actually over the next three years — and would help ease the dependence on natural gas from Russia among the bloc’s countries.

“When the European Union and the United States work together as partners, the benefits are tangible,” Von der Leyen said, noting that the agreement “stabilized on a single, 15% tariff rate for the vast majority of EU exports” including cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals.

“15% is a clear ceiling,” she said.

But von der Leyen also clarified that such a rate wouldn’t apply to everything, saying that both sides agreed on “zero for zero tariffs on a number of strategic products,” like all aircraft and component parts, certain chemicals, certain generic drugs, semiconductor equipment, some agricultural products, natural resources and critical raw materials.

It is unclear if alcohol will be included in that list.

“And we will keep working to add more products to this list,” she said, while also stressing that the “framework means the figures we have just explained to the public, but, of course, details have to be sorted out. And that will happen over the next weeks.”

Further EU approval needed

In the meantime, there will be work to do on other fronts. Von der Leyen had a mandate to negotiate because the European Commission handles trade for member countries. But the Commission must now present the deal to member states and EU lawmakers, who will ultimately decide whether or not to approve it.

Before their meeting began, Trump pledged to change what he characterized as “a very one-sided transaction, very unfair to the United States.”

“I think both sides want to see fairness,” the Republican president told reporters.

Von der Leyen said the U.S. and EU combined have the world’s largest trade volume, encompassing hundreds of millions of people and trillions of dollars and added that Trump was “known as a tough negotiator and dealmaker.”

“But fair,” Trump said.

Trump has spent months threatening most of the world with large tariffs in hopes of shrinking major U.S. trade deficits with many key trading partners. More recently, he had hinted that any deal with the EU would have to “buy down” a tariff rate of 30% that had been set to take effect.

But during his comments before the agreement was announced, the president was asked if he’d be willing to accept tariff rates lower than 15%, and he said “no.”

First golf, then trade talk

Their meeting came after Trump played golf for the second straight day at Turnberry, this time with a group that included sons Eric and Donald Jr. In addition to negotiating deals, Trump’s five-day visit to Scotland is built around golf and promoting properties bearing his name.

A small group of demonstrators at the course waved American flags and raised a sign criticizing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who plans his own Turnberry meeting with Trump on Monday.

Other voices could be heard cheering and chanting “Trump! Trump!” as he played nearby.

On Tuesday, Trump will be in Aberdeen, in northeastern Scotland, where his family has another golf course and is opening a third next month. The president and his sons plan to help cut the ribbon on the new course.

The U.S. and EU seemed close to a deal earlier this month, but Trump instead threatened the 30% tariff rate. The deadline for the Trump administration to begin imposing tariffs has shifted in recent weeks but is now firm and coming Friday, the administration insists.

“No extensions, no more grace periods. Aug. 1, the tariffs are set, they’ll go into place, Customs will start collecting the money and off we go,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told “Fox News Sunday” before the EU deal was announced. He added, however, that even after that “people can still talk to President Trump. I mean, he’s always willing to listen.”

Without an agreement, the EU said it was prepared to retaliate with tariffs on hundreds of American products, ranging from beef and auto parts to beer and Boeing airplanes.

If Trump eventually followed through on his threat of tariffs against Europe, meanwhile, it could have made everything from French cheese and Italian leather goods to German electronics and Spanish pharmaceuticals more expensive in the United States.

“I think it’s great that we made a deal today, instead of playing games and maybe not making a deal at all,” Trump said. “I think it’s the biggest deal ever made.”

ISU trying to find ways to improve lithium-ion battery safety

By Dar Danielson (Radio Iowa)

An Iowa State University researcher is using a special tool to test the limits of lithium-ion batteries. Todd Kingston says the device called the accelerating rate calorimeter or ARC.

“It enables us to do various types of electrochemical, thermal, mechanical and electrical abuse testing in a very safe manner. It’s specifically designed to contain a thermal runaway event, explosions of the battery,” Kingston says.

Kingston purchased the ARC with a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research. He says they can use it to push the batteries beyond their charging limits, or submit them to mechanical abuse. “Mechanical abuse could be like a crush test. So if you apply pressure to a battery, some batteries are designed, they have a kind of a rigid can and can withstand some pressure. But after enough pressure is applied, you can start to have mechanical deformation and start to actually mechanically deform the active materials inside of the battery,” he says.

Kingston is an associate professor of mechanical engineering and says they want to learn how to prevent issues with the batteries. “Ultimately we are interested in improving the safety and the performance of batteries. That being said, I don’t design batteries myself, but we can provide lots of information that would inform the design or the guidelines or the use of battery in various applications,” Kingston says

Waste haulers say lithium-ion batteries have increasingly caused problems with fires in garbage trucks and landfills, and are encouraging everyone to recycle batteries. Kingston says his research could also help in the recycling process.  “Recycling them, even the collection and transport of batteries, you know, ones that are reached their end of life and are looking to be recycled, there’s a lot of safety concerns associated with just, you know, that process the recycling process and how do we safely transport them, how do we safely recycle them. So there’s a lot to learn and a lot that we need to still improve on,” Kingston says.

He says the are testing a range of batteries used for various applications from smaller ones to larger ones used in electric vehicles.

Extreme Heat Warning to Go into Effect Today

DES MOINES – An Extreme Heat Warning will be in effect for our area today.

The National Weather Service in Des Moines issued the warning for portions of central and southern Iowa, and it will be in effect from noon today till 8pm this evening. The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities likewise issued a warning for portions of southeastern Iowa for the same time frame.

Dangerously hot conditions are in the forecast for this afternoon and evening, with heat index values of 110-115F expected. The risk of heat-related illness increases significantly during extreme heat and high humidity events, so officials urge caution for those who must be outside for extended periods. The NWS advises those in the area to drink plenty of fluids, stay in an air-conditioned room, stay out of the sun, and check up on relatives and neighbors.

Oskaloosa City Council Special Election to be Held One Week from Tomorrow

OSKALOOSA – The city of Oskaloosa’s special election for its vacant at-large city council seat is happening one week from tomorrow.

Former councilmember Charlie Comfort held the seat until he announced his resignation in May. The Oskaloosa City Council temporarily filled the seat via appointment, but a petition was received requesting a special election to fill the vacancy. 

There are three candidates on the ballot for next week’s election:

  • Manny Garcia
  • Nicholas Ryan
  • Andy Holmberg

Oskaloosa residents will be able to vote at one of four polling locations around the city, depending on their home address.

Oskaloosa – Ward 1

  • Ag Extension Office: 212 North I Street

Oskaloosa – Ward 2

  • Gateway Church of the Nazarene: 140 Gateway Drive

Oskaloosa – Ward 3

  • Assembly of God Church Gym: 716 S. 17th Street

Oskaloosa – Ward 4

  • Old YMCA: 414 North 3rd Street

More information on the election is available here.

Jazz legend Chuck Mangione, known for ‘Feels So Good,’ dies at 84

NEW YORK (AP) — Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single “Feels So Good” and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy “King of the Hill,” has died. He was 84.

Mangione died at his home in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday in his sleep, said his attorney, Peter S. Matorin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. The musician had been retired since 2015.

Perhaps his biggest hit — “Feels So Good” — is a staple on most smooth-jazz radio stations and has been called one of the most recognized melodies since “Michelle” by the Beatles. It hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart.

“It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist, even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,” Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008.

He followed that hit with “Give It All You Got,” commissioned for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and he performed it at the closing ceremony.

Mangione, a flugelhorn and trumpet player and jazz composer, released more than 30 albums during a career in which he built a sizable following after recording several albums, doing all the writing.

He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for his album “Bellavia,” which was named in honor of his mother. Another album, “Friends and Love,” was also Grammy-nominated, and he earned a best original score Golden Globe nomination and a second Grammy for the movie “The Children of Sanchez.”

Mangione introduced himself to a new audience when he appeared on the first several seasons of “King of the Hill,” appearing as a commercial spokesman for Mega Lo Mart, where “shopping feels so good.”

Mangione, brother of jazz pianist Gap Mangione, with whom he partnered in The Jazz Brothers, started his career as a bebop jazz musician heavily inspired by Dizzy Gillespie.

“He also was one of the first musicians I saw who had a rapport with the audience by just telling the audience what he was going to play and who was in his band,” Mangione told the Post-Gazette.

Mangione earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music — where he would eventually return as director of the school’s jazz ensemble — and left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

He donated his signature brown felt hat and the score of his Grammy-winning single “Feels So Good,” as well as albums, songbooks and other ephemera from his long and illustrious career to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2009.

Iowa boy awarded Guinness World Record for most premature baby

By James Kelley (Radio Iowa)

An Iowa baby now holds the Guinness World Record for the most premature baby.

Nash Keen was born last year at just 21 weeks — so early that most hospitals couldn’t deliver him, but doctors at University of Iowa Health Care resituated the baby at birth and supported him using advanced ultrasound technology to measure the blood supply to his heart and lungs.

“We don’t really know…We don’t have any research on babies this young and so we just held on to hope,” said Mollie Keen, Nash’s mother. “That was kind of what we did for the first month until Nash started to show us that he was really fighting.”

In the beginning, doctors told the family the baby boy had a zero percent chance of survival. Dr. Patrick McNamara, the UIHC’s director of neonatology, said this case opens a new frontier in his field.

“Nash is resilient,” he said. “What we have learned, and not just necessarily with Nash, is that survival is possible at 21 weeks gestation, but not just survival — meaningful survival.”

Nash, who lives with his parents in Ankeny, turned one on July 5. He was born at 21 weeks and weighed 10 ounces. The previous Guinness World Record for most premature baby was a boy born in Alabama five years ago — at 21 weeks and one day.

Ottumwa Woman Arrested for Forgery, Theft

OTTUMWA – An Ottumwa woman was arrested this week after allegedly using counterfeit money to make purchases at a gas station.

Court records show that 56-year-old Tammatha Lea Brown made two separate purchases at the Hy-Vee Gas Station in north Ottumwa in June using fake $100 bills. Both were described as smaller transactions, allowing Brown to receive large amounts of real cash in change.

Authorities say that Brown was aware she was using counterfeit money when making the purchases. She has two prior theft convictions on her record, one of which occurred in 2010, and the other of which occurred last month.

Brown was arrested on a warrant on Wednesday and charged with 3rd Degree Theft, an aggravated misdemeanor, and Forgery, a Class D felony.

Oskaloosa’s Sweet Corn Serenade Held Yesterday

By Sam Parsons

Oskaloosa Main Street Hosted their 38th Annual Sweet Corn Serenade yesterday. Plans were changed early, as rain had been forecasted for the afternoon, resulting in many of the festivities being held indoors at Penn Central Mall.

Vendors were set up inside Penn Central Mall at noon, and food trucks lined the downtown Osky square at the same time. Delicious hamburgers and sweet corn were served later in the afternoon, and a performance from Thunderkatz took place indoors for much of the evening. The Oskaloosa City Band concert at 8pm was still held in the city bandstand.

Oskaloosa Main Street’s next flagship event is their annual Lighted Christmas Parade, which is scheduled for December 6.

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