Fairfield News

AMES (AP) ? Authorities say a skull found on a Skunk River sandbar in Ames was that of a woman of American Indian ancestry who died more than 200 years ago.Experts say the woman likely was 25 to 40 years old when she died. The experts have not determined the cause of her death.Ames police say a person walking along the river found the skull on July 2. Officials said heavy rains may have washed the skull down ...

Families of students attending Pence Elementary School received a letter earlier this month about the school?s second year on the Schools in Need of Assistance list for student test scores not meeting proficiency levels established by federal guidelines of No Child Left Behind.Schools are required to offer students a choice to transfer within the district to another attendance center.District curriculum ...

The tiny mosquito all too often has man on the run. And this summer, it seems even worse than usual.?You can?t get from the car to inside our house without getting attacked, it?s that bad,? high school teacher Ryan Miller said from his home in Arlington, Va. Minutes earlier, he saw a mosquito circling his 4-month-old daughter ? indoors.Experts say it?s been a buggier-than-normal summer in many places around the ...

The Jefferson County Environmental Health Department found an elevated level of radon in half of the test kits it gave away earlier this year.The department distributed 125 free radon test kits to county residents in January. Of the 123 results the department received, 51 percent were at or above the United States Environmental Protection Agency?s ?action level? of 4 picocuries per liter of air, meaning those ...

Two men stand anxiously at the classroom entrance and another lies seriously wounded beside a wall outside. ?Don?t come down here, I?m telling you ? I?ll kill ?em,? a man inside the classroom shouts to officers snaking down the corridor with guns drawn. The officers call out to the gunman, who demands money, and order the potential victims to get down as they approach the classroom they take out the shooter in a ...

He was the master of his genre, the Dickens of Detroit, the Chaucer of Crime.Every novel Elmore Leonard wrote from the mid-1980s on was a best-seller, and every fan of crime stories knew his name. George Clooney was an admirer. So were Quentin Tarantino, Saul Bellow and Stephen King and millions of ordinary readers.Leonard, who died Tuesday at age 87, helped achieve for crime writing what King did for horror ...

Fairfield Police Department had no arrest records for the media today. The calls to dispatch Monday included: Police logMonday7:44 a.m. Caribou Coffee reported a men?s red mountain bicycle left for several days; police took it to impound.1:27 p.m. caller reported a gravel road almost impassable with deep pot holes; Darrell Bisgard, city maintenance was informed.2:03 p.m. a parked Kia Sportage was cited for ...

Jefferson County Sheriff?s Office will hire two part-time deputies temporarily to fill spots in the department while the sheriff is conducting interviews to hire two full-time deputies.Sheriff Gregg Morton said deputy Josh Tarrence has resigned to relocate. He has been with the sheriff?s department about five years.?We?ll have another open spot when one of my deputies deploys for a year with the Army Reserves,? ...

DAVENPORT (AP) ? A Davenport woman is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 2 for two counts of child endangerment.The Quad-City Times says 43-year-old Holly Johnson entered Alford pleas last week. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit the crime but does acknowledge prosecutors likely can prove the charge.Johnson was convicted of physically abusing her daughter, making her live in a filthy home and allowing ...

CLIVE (AP) ? Data show that the number of accidents at Clive intersections monitored by red-light cameras was twice as high in 2012 as the number four years earlier.The Des Moines Register says over the same period, the number of accidents citywide dropped 22 percent.Clive?s red-light cameras are to be back in operation Monday, now that the City Council has approved a new contract.A review of data provided to ...

BROOKLYN (AP) ? The owner of Skydive Iowa says a 56-year-old man who fell to his death Friday had planned only to observe the flight, not jump.Company owner Bruce Kennedy tells the Des Moines Register that the eastern Iowa man?s parachute deployed prematurely during take off and he was pulled from the plane.The Iowa State Patrol said Sunday that Wayne Kidrowski, of Brooklyn, died in the accident.Kennedy says ...

NEW MARKET (AP) ? Officers are scouring a section of Taylor County in southwest Iowa for an escaped inmate suspected of wounding a sheriff?s deputy.The Iowa Department of Public Safety says the shooting occurred around 11:30 p.m. Sunday on Iowa Highway 2 just east of New Market. A deputy was shot twice after he left his cruiser to check on a man walking along the highway. The man then took the deputy?s vehicle ...