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District Judge Tod Deck had no conflict of interest while presiding over Tran Walker's double-murder trial, according to a Woodbury County defender and assistant county attorney. That means Walker will be sentenced for killing two companions Sept. 20 in Woodbury County District Court, according to the Sioux City Journal.
A Woodbury County Public defender and First Assistant Woodbury County Attorney reviewed two juvenile court cases involving Walker and found nothing to show that Deck had any involvement in either case when he was a lawyer. If so, they could have argued that Deck should have recused himself and sought his disqualification from the case. A disqualification could have led to a retrial.
A new analysis shows Iowa is seeing certain impacts of climate change more clearly than most of the rest of the country. And the Upper Midwest is slated to see hotter temperatures and heavier precipitation than other regions into the future.
The report was done by researcher James Boulter [BOWL-ter] for the Iowa Policy Project. He says the Midwest is also predicted to see the greatest increases in premature deaths due to hotter temperatures driven by climate change.
The way this is a big impact on rural populations, of course, is that, compared to cities, there’s a lot greater emphasis in rural areas on people that need to be outside to do their job. And so this becomes really problematic on extreme heat days in a different way than in an urban environment, right?”
According to Boulter’s analysis, while climate impacts in Iowa are already damaging, they are “almost insignificant” compared to those projected for the late 21st century.
