Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
The 18-year-old Windsor Heights man who allegedly threatened a female University of Northern Iowa student and prompted the Tuesday night lockdown of all residence halls on the Cedar Falls campus is being held in the Polk County Jail on charges of first-degree harassment.
Todd Michael Younk was arrested at his Windsor Heights residence Tuesday night while the UNI campus remained in lockdown. According to Younk’s MySpace page he attends Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. Bond has been set at $10,000 on the aggravated misdemeanor. He could pay a fine of up to $5,000 and serve up to two years in prison. It is unclear if Younk had a weapon in his possession at the time of his arrest.
The threats toward a female student who lived in UNI’s Dancer Hall were reported to come by phone, both voice and text messages. The threats, deemed credible by campus police, prompted the first-ever use of the university’s emergency alert system. Students, faculty and staff were originally warned to stay away from Dancer Hall, a co-educational dormitory that houses approximately 600 students. Later, the alert system advised avoiding the entire Tower complex of which Dancer is a part. Students in the dormitory were told by loudspeaker to lock themselves into their rooms, turn off lights and avoid windows and doors.
University police worked with both the Cedar Falls Police Department and the Iowa Highway Patrol throughout the incident. While law enforcement did not believe Younk to be on campus or even in Cedar Falls from the start of the incident, precautions were taken to protect students. Law enforcement blocked all entrances to Dancer Hall and searched all 12 floors of the building.
In total, the campus remained on lockdown between 2 and 3 hours. The all-clear was not sounded until police confirmed Younk was in custody around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday night.
On Wednesday morning, campus officials were pleased with the performance of their alert system, and grateful that the incident ended without injury. According to UNI spokesman Jim O’Conner, a review of the system — which had its first full-scale test run at the end of February — will be completed today.
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