Fairfield News

The Fairfield Middle School had a level 2 lockdown this morning.The school district?s website, www.fairfieldsfuture.org, has a scrolling message: ?FMS Level 2 lockdown this A.M. was for a precautionary search. There ws no creditable threat and no danger detected.?FMS principal Laura Atwood was referring calls to superintendent Art Sathoff, but he was out of the district today.Fairfield Police Chief Julie ...

The Fairfield Public Library is hosting a series of talks by local authors this week. Monday was the first day of the five-day series, which began with authors sharing their poetry. The event is the First Inaugural Local Authors Exhibition and continues at 7 p.m. today, Wednesday, Thursday and then at 1 p.m. Saturday. Viktor Tichy was among those sharing their poetry Monday.

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The homespun Afghan burqa is under siege from east and west these days ? cut-price competition from China, and Western influences that are leading many urban women to exchange the full-body cloak for a simple headscarf.Alim Nazery, who has traded in burqas in Kabul for 27 years, remembers selling at least 50 burqas a day when the Taliban were in charge. Now he says he sells 20 a day, ...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is recommending keeping children and pets away from Crow Creek at least until Wednesday morning due to a discharge into the creek.About 9 a.m. Monday, Fairfield city workers discovered a wastewater discharge on the east side of town.The discharge was tied to a break in a collection line, and an unknown amount of untreated wastewater was entering Crow Creek near Chautauqua...

WASHINGTON, Iowa (GTNS) ? Washington Community Y director Becky Harkema was busy in a meeting Monday when her brother Russ called her and told her two explosive devices had gone off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.Hailing from a town in Maine that is 90 minutes outside of Boston, Harkema has run in the Boston Marathon four times. Her most recent run was last year. With a marathon coming up in Marion ...

Dalton Rippey plays bass for the Fairfield Middle School sixth-grade jazz band rehearsal this morning before school. The sixth-grade jazz band and the combined seventh- and eighth-grade jazz band will be in concert at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the FMS cafetorium. The concert will include refreshments in a casual jazz club style atmosphere. Admission is $2 for adults and $1 for students. Activity passes will be honored.

IOWA CITY (AP) ? Unlike ordinary drivers, the Iowa Supreme Court says licensed truckers will not be given a break if they're caught driving with a blood-alcohol concentration barely over the legal limit.The court ruled Friday that the Department of Transportation can suspend commercial drivers' licenses without considering the margin of error of breath tests.Justices ruled against Brandon Watson, who lost his ...

BOONE (AP) ? A 39-year-old man who's been charged with killing his wife in central Iowa has been fighting with her estate for proceeds of her $250,000 life insurance policy.Alexander Fazzino was arrested in Lee's Summit, Mo., and has been returned to Boone County, where he's being held on $1.5 million bail. He's accused of killing 32-year-old Emily Fazzino, on Jan. 29 last year.The Des Moines Register says ...

DES MOINES (AP) ? State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald waded Thursday into the partisan debate over whether to expand Medicaid in Iowa, attacking Gov. Terry Branstad's alternative proposal as a "bad financial deal."The Democratic treasurer said that Branstad's Healthy Iowa proposal would cost the state $163 million in the 2014-15 fiscal year, compared with a $4.7 million price tag for expanding Medicaid under the ...

The first witness for the defense in the murder trial of Tyler Webster in Jefferson County was an ex-wife of Buddy Frisbie, who was killed Aug. 25, shot by Webster.Carissa Godwin testified Thursday morning, but before she or the jury entered the courtroom after a morning recess, the Honorable Myron Gookin denied the defense and sided with the state about limiting the extent of her testimony.?Mr. Adams [defense ...

Jefferson County Sheriff?s Office arrested Richard Edward Desmond, 61 of 704 N. Court St., at 9:16 p.m. Wednesday at 1200 W. Grimes Ave., for operating while intoxicated, first offense.

Road construction work on Iowa 1 in Van Buren County between the intersection with Iowa 2 and mile marker 14.32, located 1 mile south of Birmingham, will require possible daytime lane restrictions until May 3, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation?s Mount Pleasant construction office.During the project, traffic will be operating in a single-lane pattern in alternating directions ...