Gazette Daily News Podcast, December 27

It'll be the last high below freezing this week on Tuesday, as temperatures continue to climb. According to the National Weather Service it will be mostly sunny, with a high near 26 degrees in the Cedar Rapids area. Wind chill values will still be below zero at times, with a 5 to 15 mph wind gusting as high as 25 mph. On Tuesday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low of 23 degrees but temperatures continuing to climb even more overnight into Wednesday.

Expect temperatures in the 40s and 50s by the end of the week.

Over $10,000 in donations have been raised to support Hercules’ Haven, a nonprofit farm animal sanctuary that was damaged in a fire Friday, while the owner remains in the chilly and charred home to continue caring for the animals.

The fire, which displaced a dozen of the animals, broke out in the home during a blizzard that brought with it strong winds and extreme cold. Hercules’ Haven is for animals who have been abused, neglected or rescued from factory farming, executive director Alison Stone said.

The fire “nearly took mine and my employee’s lives,” Stone said. “When we have temperatures that get down into negative digits like that, any farmer will tell you it makes things immeasurably harder. It’s awful. The animals hate it, I hate it.”

While no lives were lost in the fire, four pigs who were living in the house “are a bit traumatized” and one was injured in the rush to get them all to safety, Stone said. The pigs and other animals including goats, bunnies and cats were living inside because they need extra care, Stone said.

Iowa continues to be the top producer of hogs in the United States by a landslide, outnumbering people by over seven to one.

There are 23.6 million hogs in Iowa, compared with the state’s 3.2 million people. Although this is a decrease in hogs of 1.3 percent in the last year, Iowa still is the top producer of swine in the country, according to a new Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

The second largest producer is Minnesota with about 8.6 million hogs, followed by North Carolina with 8.20 million, according to the report.

A Cedar Rapids man holding a replica pellet gun pulled a girl from the vehicle of a man he was threatening to kill, according to a Linn County criminal complaint.

At about 4 a.m. Christmas morning, Cedar Rapids police were dispatched to the Kwik Star at 4141 Center Point Rd. NE. Matthew Falco-Tirado, 19, of Cedar Rapids, allegedly had approached a vehicle while brandishing a replica pellet gun and yelling at the occupants to get out of the vehicle. Falco-Tirado pulled a girl out of the back seat and threatened to kill the man inside, according to the complaint.

Falco-Tirado was arrested and taken to the Linn County Jail on charges of first-degree robbery, a Class B felony, along with several misdemeanor charges.