Emily Andersen

The Marion City Council unanimously voted Thursday to continue discussions surrounding a proposed ordinance that would allow the city to put up traffic cameras at certain intersections.

An Iowa Department of Transportation program aimed at clearing large crashes quickly to prevent traffic from backing up was recently expanded to the Des Moines area after proving successful around Iowa City.

The Marion City Council on Thursday appointed Gage Miskimen, a former reporter at The Gazette, to fill the vacancy left on city council when Colette Atkins, who had been on the council since 2018, resigned at the end of March.

A commercial building in Ely was destroyed in a fire Wednesday night, but no injuries were reported, according to a news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

Damontie Haggstrom-Wells, 20, already in prison on a burglary conviction, now faces a murder charge in the May 2020 fatal shooting of Daniel Spangler.

He’s accused of scamming a deacon from St. Matthew Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids out of more than $25,000 with a story about needing to settle family affairs in Vietnam.

A man was arrested Thursday in relation to a shooting in February in Cedar Rapids in which two people were injured.

A shooting that resulted in the deaths of two women in rural Springville in February was a murder-suicide, according to a Thursday news release from the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

The City of Cedar Rapids hosted a municipal training exercise Thursday that involved simulating a large-scale emergency response and provided a sneak peek into what happens behind the scenes when city agencies team up to respond to emergencies.

A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Wednesday on charges related to a shooting March 21 in the 1500 block of Oakland Rd. NE in Cedar Rapids.

A Cedar Rapids man arrested Wednesday on murder charges started a verbal fight with the victim and punched him before fatally shooting him at a Marion bar earlier this month, according to a criminal complaint.

A man was arrested Wednesday on a charge of first-degree murder in relation to a fatal shooting at a Marion bar on St. Patrick’s Day, according to a news release from the Marion Police Department.

The North Liberty and Tiffin fire departments are working to expand recruitment and services using money from a federal grant program designed to help improve staffing for fire departments.

Two people have been arrested in relation to a shots fired incident that happened in rural Johnson County in November, according to a news release from the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.

Technological advancements can have far reaching effects in every area of life, including public safety and law enforcement. Drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, for example, have become increasingly popular among police departments and fire departments in the last few years, and serve a variety of purposes.