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Man Killed in Knoxville Officer-Involved Shooting Identified

KNOXVILLE – Authorities have identified the man who was killed in an officer-involved shooting in the city of Knoxville last week.

The Knoxville Police Department reported last week that on the evening of Thursday, August 21, at approximately 11:10pm, officers responded to a domestic disturbance in the 300 block of Roche Street. There, they encountered 47-year-old Knoxville resident Steven Funk, who was allegedly assaulting an adult female. During the incident, an officer fired his weapon, striking Funk. Funk was transported to a Des Moines area hospital, but despite life-saving efforts from officers on scene, Knoxville EMS personnel, and hospital staff, the gunshot proved to be fatal, as Funk was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The adult female involved in the incident was treated at a local hospital and has since been released.

The involved officers were uninjured and have not been identified to the public. They have been placed on critical incident leave in accordance with Knoxville Police Department Policy.

The shooting is currently being investigated by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. 

Lil Nas X pleads not guilty to attacking police officers as he walked naked on LA street

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lil Nas X was charged Monday with four felonies after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week.

The musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, pleaded not guilty in a court appearance to three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer, the district attorney’s office said.

The charges were far more serious than initial reports that he was being investigated for a misdemeanor, and, with convictions, the counts could collectively bring a sentence of more than 10 years in prison for the singer and rapper whose “Old Town Road” was one of the biggest hit singles in history.

Police said officers found the 26-year-old walking naked on Ventura Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the Studio City neighborhood, shortly before 6 a.m. Friday. They say he charged at the officers when confronted and was arrested.

The criminal complaint filed in court Monday includes few details, but says that for each of the three officers he “did unlawfully use force and violence and inflict an injury” on a person he “reasonably should have known” was a peace officer “engaged in the performance of a duty.”

Police, suspecting a possible overdose, took him to a hospital where he spent several hours before being taken to jail, where he has remained since.

After spending three days in jail, he was released on $75,000 bail, conditional on attending drug treatment.

A message to his attorneys was not immediately answered.

But one of them, Christy O’Connor, told a judge Lil Nas X has led a “remarkable” life that has included winning two Grammy awards.

“Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person’s life,” O’Connor said in court, according to NBC. “Nothing like this has ever happened to him.”

The charges were first reported by TMZ.

Lil Nas X is set to return to court on Sept. 15 for his next pre-trial hearing.

The rapper and singer from Atlanta is best known for 2018’s country and hip-hop merging “Old Town Road,” which spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won him his Grammys.

Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, his first full studio album, 2021’s “Montero,” went to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and was nominated for a Grammy for album of the year.

William Penn Shuts Out Hannibal-LaGrange for Season’s First Victory

OSKALOOSA — The William Penn women’s soccer team notched its first win of the 2025 campaign, defeating Hannibal-LaGrange 2-0 in non-conference action Monday.

The Statesmen (1-0-1) dictated play throughout the evening, outshooting the Trojans (0-2) by a 13-5 margin. WPU placed seven of those attempts on frame, while H-LG managed just two.

Despite generating seven scoring opportunities in the first half, William Penn went into halftime scoreless.

The pressure continued into the second half, and the breakthrough finally came in the 72nd minute. Off a pass from Sian Bah (Sr., London, England, Political Science), Lilly Cote (So., Sioux City, Iowa, Psychology) slipped through the Trojan back line to deliver the Statesmen’s first goal of the season.

Cote struck again ten minutes later, capitalizing on a Hannibal-LaGrange turnover and slotting home her second tally at the 82:01 mark.

Goalkeeper Emma Billings (So., Salt Lake City, Utah, Psychology) recorded two saves to secure her second shutout in as many outings.

Cote paced the attack with four shots, including three on goal. Bah, Nemesis Leon (Fr., Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Business Management), and Elycia Cooley (Sr., Galveston, Texas, Biology) each added two attempts.

“Tonight was a battle. The team is really having to step up and find their roles early on,” Head Coach Kaleb Preston said. “It was a matter of time before we found the back of the net, and I can’t say enough about how solid we’ve looked defensively through the first few matches of the season. More to come.”

Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report

DES MOINES — Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig commented on the Iowa Crop Progress and Condition Report released by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The report is released weekly April through November. Additionally, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship provides a weather summary each week during this time.

“Farmers across Iowa enjoyed a welcome break from the rain last week along with cooler temperatures and less humidity,” said Secretary Naig. “As we finish out August, the forecast calls for more of the same this week. Looking ahead, initial outlooks are pointing toward a potentially warmer September as harvest approaches.”

The weekly report is also available on the USDA’s website at nass.usda.gov.

Crop Report
Iowa had 5.6 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending August 24, 2025, according to the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service. The week started with warm temperatures but closed with much cooler weekend weather. Field activities included harvesting oats and hay. Reports noted increasing levels of disease in field crops.

Topsoil moisture condition rated 1 percent very short, 5 percent short, 74 percent adequate and 20 percent surplus. Subsoil moisture condition rated 1 percent very short, 5 percent short, 77 percent adequate and 17 percent surplus.

Corn in the dough stage reached 88 percent, 1 day behind last year’s pace and 3 days behind normal. Corn in the dent stage reached 45 percent, 1 day ahead of last year, but 1 day behind the five-year average. Corn condition rated 1 percent very poor, 2 percent poor, 13 percent fair, 56 percent good and 28 percent excellent. Ninety percent of soybeans were setting pods, 1 day ahead of last year, but 4 days behind normal. Soybeans coloring reached 8 percent. Soybean condition rated 1 percent very poor, 3 percent poor, 17 percent fair, 59 percent good and 20 percent excellent. At 97 percent, almost all Iowa’s oat for grain crop has been harvested.

The third cutting of alfalfa hay reached 78 percent complete. Pasture condition rated 80 percent good to excellent.

Newton Woman Arrested for Child Neglect

NEWTON – A Newton woman was taken into custody yesterday after an investigation into an incident in which a child fell from a second-story window.

According to court records, on August 14, 35-year-old Angelia Michele Varner left her three children, who are all under the age of 9, alone in her apartment while she stepped outside. She was reportedly in the parking lot of the apartment complex when the youngest of the three children, who is 23 months old, fell roughly 12 feet from an open bedroom window.

Court records show that the child suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including a bruised head, and was treated in the emergency room at MercyOne Newton Medical Center. Varner allegedly told authorities that she had left the window open to cool down the apartment, and the window’s screen had been torn for several months.

Varner has been charged with Child Neglect, a class C felony, and her preliminary hearing is scheduled for September 2.

‘Sopranos’ star Jerry Adler, Broadway backstage vet turned late-in-life actor, dies at 96

NEW YORK (AP) — Jerry Adler, who spent decades behind the scenes of storied Broadway productions before pivoting to acting in his 60s, has died at 96.

Adler died Saturday, according to a brief family announcement confirmed by the Riverside Memorial Chapel in New York. Adler “passed peacefully in his sleep,” Paradigm Talent Agency’s Sarah Shulman said on behalf of his family. No immediate cause was given.

Among Adler’s acting credits are “The Sopranos,” on which he played Tony Soprano adviser Hesh Rabkin across all six seasons, and “The Good Wife,” where he played law partner Howard Lyman. But before Adler had ever stepped in front of a film or television camera, he had 53 Broadway productions to his name — all behind the scenes, serving as a stage manager, producer or director.

He hailed from an entertainment family with deep roots in Jewish and Yiddish theater, as he told the Jewish Ledger in 2014. His father, Philip Adler, was a general manager for the famed Group Theatre and Broadway productions, and his cousin Stella Adler was a legendary acting teacher.

“I’m a creature of nepotism,” Adler told TheaterMania in 2015. “I got my first job when I was at Syracuse University and my father, the general manager of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, called me (because) there was an opening for an assistant stage manager. I skipped school.”

After a long theater career, which included the original production of “My Fair Lady” and working with the likes of Marlene Dietrich, Julie Andrews and Richard Burton, among many others, Adler left Broadway during its 1980s slump. He moved to California, where he worked on television productions like the soap opera “Santa Barbara.”

“I was really getting into the twilight of a mediocre career,” he told The New York Times in 1992.

But the retirement he was contemplating was staved off when Donna Isaacson, the casting director for “The Public Eye” and a longtime friend of one of Adler’s daughters, had a hunch about how to cast a hard-to-fill role, as The New York Times reported then. Adler had been on the other side of auditions, and, curious to experience how actors felt, agreed to try out. Director Howard Franklin, who auditioned dozens of actors for the role of a newspaper columnist in the Joe Pesci-starring film, had “chills” when Adler read for the part, the newspaper reported.

So began an acting career that had him working consistently in front of the camera for more than 30 years. An early role on the David Chase-written “Northern Exposure” paved the way for his time on a future Chase project, “The Sopranos.”

“When David was going to do the pilot for ‘The Sopranos’ he called and asked me if I would do a cameo of Hesh. It was just supposed to be a one-shot,” he told Forward in 2015. “But when they picked up the show they liked the character, and I would come on every fourth week.”

Films included Woody Allen’s “Manhattan Murder Mystery,” but Adler was perhaps best known for his television work. Those credits included stints on “Rescue Me,” “Mad About You,” “Transparent” and guest spots on shows ranging from “The West Wing” to “Broad City.”

He even returned to Broadway, this time onstage, in Elaine May’s “Taller Than a Dwarf” in 2000. In 2015, he appeared in Larry David’s writing and acting stage debut, “Fish in the Dark.”

“I do it because I really enjoy it. I think retirement is a road to nowhere,” Adler told Forward, on the subject of the play. “I wouldn’t know what to do if I were retired. I guess if nobody calls anymore, that’s when I’ll be retired. Meanwhile this is great.”

Adler published a memoir, “Too Funny for Words: Backstage Tales from Broadway, Television and the Movies,” last year. “I’m ready to go at a moment’s notice,” he told CT Insider then, when asked if he’d take more acting roles. In recent years, he and his wife, Joan Laxman, relocated from Connecticut back to his hometown of New York. Survivors include his four daughters, Shulman said.

For Adler, who once thought he was “too goofy-looking” to act, seeing himself on screen was odd, at least initially. And in multiple interviews with various outlets, he expressed how strange it was to be recognized by the public after spending so many years working behind the scenes. There was at least one advantage to being preserved on film, though, as he told The New York Times back in 1992.

“I’m immortal,” he said.

Iowa Sex Offender Registry Launches New Website

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) is pleased to announce the launch of its redesigned Sex Offender Registry (SOR) website. The updated site enhances user experience, improves functionality, and continues to provide Iowans with critical tools and resources to access information on registered sex offenders. The site remains accessible at the same web address:

https://www.iowasexoffender.gov/

The website introduces new features aimed at making it easier and more efficient for users to find the information they need. Updates include: 

– Homepage links to active registrants and most wanted registrants

– Enhanced search functions that include a wider range of options and helpful tips

– Interactive maps that display the number of registrants in specific areas of the state

– Personalized notifications

– Links to helpful crime prevention and safety information aimed at fostering community safety and awareness

“Our goal with this redesign is to provide Iowans with an updated, intuitive, and accessible platform to access vital information,” said Hunter Bellon, Special Agent in Charge of the SOR. “We are committed to transparency and safety, and this new website will help ensure that critical information about sex offender registrants remains readily available to the public.”

William Penn Departs North Sioux City with Three Wins in Tournament

NORTH SIOUX CITY — The Statesmen women’s volleyball team traveled to the Siouxland Invitational Friday and Saturday and came home with three more wins to add to its early season total.

William Penn (5-1) opened the tournament Friday with a 3-1 win against Bismarck State (N.D.) (12-25, 25-20, 25-23, 25-20), but then succumbed to Dakota State (S.D.) 3-0 (14-25, 11-25, 13-25).  On Saturday, WPU got back to its winning ways, sweeping Mayville State (N.D.) 3-0 (25-23, 25-21, 25-16) and taking down Briar Cliff 3-1 (25-13, 19-25, 25-21, 25-15).

WPU 3, Bismarck State 1

After a one-sided first set that went against the navy and gold, William Penn took over the rest of the way, winning the next three sets despite being outhit .259-.158 overall.  The Statesmen did dominate at the service line, however, as they collected 12 aces compared to Bismarck State’s four.

Emilie Bojorquez-McFadden (Jr., Surprise, Ariz., Biology) paved the way for the Statesmen in the weekend opener with 14 kills.  Hailee Pesek (So., New Hampton, Iowa, Nursing) was next as she collected nine kills.

Maju Vierira (Jr., Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) was one kill shy of a double-double, totaling nine kills and 19 digs.

Rounding it out for the Statesmen were Emalee Young (Jr., O’Fallon, Mo., Nursing) (20) and Mia Brady (Sr., Pontiac Ill., Nursing) (19) as they combined for 39 assists.

Dakota State 3, WPU 0

Kaya Caprini (Sr. Minneapolis, Minn., Psychology) was the only Statesmen to reach double-digits against the Spartans as she had 10 digs.

Vierira finished with a team-high five kills, while the Statesmen were outhit .344-.013.

WPU 3, Mayville State 0

WPU bounced back on Saturday, outhitting Mayville State .122-.027 with the standout play coming in the third set.  In the clinching go-round, the navy and gold hit .348, while limiting the Comets to a -.038 mark.

Bojorquez-McFadden posted a team-high nine kills, while Khiani Jackson (Sr., St. Joseph, Mo., Psychology) was right behind with seven kills.

Caprini and Vierira headlined the defense with 11 digs apiece, while Brady narrowly missed a double-double with 15 assists and nine digs.

WPU 3, Briar Cliff 1

WPU wrapped up its weekend tournament with a victory, although it was outblocked 12-6.

Pesek was the best hitter in the bout with 16 kills, while Jackson also reached double figures with 10.  Bojorquez-McFadden and Alix Robinson (Fr., Pontiac, Ill.) ended up with eight winners each.

Caprini (15), Brady (12), Bojorquez-McFadden (11), Vierira (11) topped the victors in the dig column, and Brady (23) and Young (22) again guided WPU in assists.

Overall, WPU outhit Briar Cliff .175- .101.

“This was a solid weekend for us, going 3-1 against some good competition,”  Head Coach Lauren Eldridge said.  “While we still need to work out some kinks, we did a lot of great things; I am very happy with how we competed in the opening weekend of the season.  This is a great start to the season.”

Special Traffic Routes for Liberty Intermediate and Wilson Elementary Schools

OTTUMWA — Ottumwa Community Schools begins classes on Monday, August 25, 2025. Due to ongoing construction in certain areas, special traffic routes will be in place for Liberty Intermediate School and Wilson Elementary School.

Those dropping off or picking up students at Liberty School should use Milner Street, Finley Avenue, Shaul Avenue, and Mary Street west of Bennink Lane. Unless you are transporting children to or from Pickwick Early Childhood Center or live in that area, please do not use Williams Street between Shaul Avenue and Milner Street during busy before and after school times. It is also recommended to avoid the Fahrney/Douma area at the corner of Milner Street and Mary Street if you are not transporting children to or from that location.

For Wilson School, those transporting children will travel east from Iowa Avenue to Cooper Avenue, where they will turn left. Motorists will then travel south to Plum Street, just on the southern side of Wilson School, where they will turn right and head towards Ash Street. Finally, motorists turn left on Ash Street and drive south. Ash Street between Plum Street and East Second Street will be one-way traffic heading south.

The City of Ottumwa and Ottumwa Community Schools thanks you for your patience as the 2025-2026 school year kicks off.

Villanova says a report of a campus shooter was a ‘cruel hoax’

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — False reports of active shooters at Villanova University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Thursday led to panic and temporary lockdowns at the two campuses as they kicked off their fall semesters.

In Pennsylvania someone called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. reporting a shooter in a Villanova law school building with at least one wounded victim. Students received texts from the school’s alert system saying “ACTIVE SHOOTER on VU campus. Move to secure location. Lock/barricade doors.”

The school’s president later said it was a hoax.

“Today, as we are celebrating Orientation Mass to welcome our newest Villanovans and their families to our community, panic and terror ensued,” the Rev. Peter M. Donohue said in a statement. “Mercifully, no one was injured and we now know it was a cruel hoax.”

About four hours earlier, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga locked down its campus, telling students: “Possible active shooter in the University Center or Library. Run. Hide. Fight. More info forthcoming.”

After multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI responded alongside local fire and emergency crews, the lockdown was lifted less than an hour later. School officials said there was no evidence of any threat.

At Villanova, where new student orientation was underway and classes begin next week, a call came in reporting a man with an AR-15-style weapon, Delaware County spokesperson Michael Connolly said in a statement. There were also “multiple” calls with gunshot-like sounds in the background, and about 30 minutes after the initial call, someone called to report a gunshot wound.

The initial report sent police scouring the campus and even had some law enforcement officials suggesting they believed there was a shooter.

“I know today was every parent’s nightmare and every student’s biggest fear,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said on the social platform X.

Shapiro told state police to use all tools available “to find the person or people who called in this fake threat and hold them accountable.”

Courtenay Harris Bond was walking near the law school with her husband and son, a freshman, when word spread of the supposed shooting.

“Really tough way to start freshman year at college,” she said shortly after getting the all-clear to leave the bookstore where the family spent the lockdown.

Villanova is a private Catholic university in the Philadelphia suburbs. It borders Lower Merion Township and Radnor Township at the center of the city’s wealthy Main Line neighborhoods.

The Augustinian school got extra attention this year as the alma mater of new Pope Leo XIV.

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