Body found in southeast Iowa river identified; more

Body found in southeast Iowa river identified

COLUMBUS JUNCTION (AP) ? Authorities have identified of a man whose body was found in the Iowa River in Columbus Junction in southeast Iowa.

Police say 32-year-old Lo Pi, a refugee from Myanmar, was living in Columbus Junction and was reported missing on Jan. 19. His body was discovered by two fishermen south of the Iowa Highway 70 bridge on March 31.

Police say an autopsy didn?t determine the cause of death.

Plane lands safely in Des Moines after wheel scare

DES MOINES (AP) ? A U.S. Airways flight has safely returned to the Des Moines International Airport after a warning light indicated a wheel problem.

Airport officials told The Des Moines Register that Flight 2747 left Des Moines for Phoenix Wednesday afternoon, but returned after its nose steering indicator light came on.

Airport spokesman Kenneth McCoy says the plane circled the airport for about 30 minutes to burn off some fuel before it was able to land.

McCoy says the flight, which had 54 people on board, including the crew, landed safely and taxied to the gate without issue.

Officials think the problem may have been with the warning system, not the actual landing gear.

Chief sends scorching email to firefighters

IOWA CITY (AP) ? The chief of North Liberty?s fire department has said in email to firefighters and city officials that the department has gone downhill and he worries that some volunteers have been turning off pagers and not responding to calls.

Chief Eric Vandewater told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that he regrets sending the email. He says it had been prepared in frustration and wasn?t intended to be made public. The newspaper had obtained a copy of the email.

Vandewater says there?s been no decline in the department?s response to emergencies and says the email was aimed at motivating some volunteers.

The chief says in the email that he?s noticed a change in his department that has resulted in its being referred to by some officials as the ?North Liberty No Responders.?

Branstad to sign bill creating information panel

DES MOINES (AP) ?Gov. Terry Branstad says he will sign a bill into law, changing the state?s open meetings and records laws and creating a nine-member Iowa Public Information Board.

Branstad scheduled a signing ceremony for this afternoon.

The measure caps a six-year effort to improve access to government meetings and records.

The board will oversee enforcement of open meetings and records laws, and investigate claims that those laws have been violated. The board will include three people nominated by media associations, three by local-government groups and three unaffiliated citizens.

Under the new system, residents who believe an open records law has been violated could seek help from the board, which would investigate the claim and could take the case to court.

It replaces a process that relies primarily on county prosecutors.

Chief information officer hired

DES MOINES (AP) ? Iowa has a new chief technology officer, a job created by the Legislature in 2010 to improve the state?s use of technology and create efficiency.

Gov. Terry Branstad has appointed Robert von Wolffradt, who was most recently the CIO for the state of Wyoming.

The 55-year-old Wolffradt installed the first cloud email system of any state in the nation. Cloud computing is a new trend in business and government in which computer operations for things like billing and inventory are done on computers often located thousands of miles away. It saves money by eliminating additional computer equipment.

Wolffradt also planned and implemented information technology consolidation through improved technology and the combining of programs and services.

The position pays $125,000 a year.