DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The director of the Iowa Department of Human Services has denied a petition by some Republicans who want the state to stop using public money to pay for abortions in cases of rape and incest. Forty-one House GOP members filed the petition last month seeking to end Medicaid payments for such abortions, contending the state program violates state law. Iowa DHS Director Chuck Palmer announced the decision yesterday.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Workers have cleaned up after a truck spilled some animal entrails and parts on a Sioux City street. The spill occurred about 9:45 a.m. Thursday on the east side of the northwest Iowa City.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) – A federal fugitive has been arrested after a brief standoff with officers in northern Iowa’s Mason City. Twenty-five-year-old Levi Andersen was taken into custody on Thursday evening. Officers had been tipped that Andersen was at the residence in central Mason City, and they went there and made his arrest about 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A 29-year-old man already serving time for sexually abusing a 4-year-old girl has pleaded guilty in another child sex abuse case. Daryl Bentley made his plea on Thursday in Linn County District Court to the lesser charge of lascivious acts with a child. He’d been charged with sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl between 2008 and 2009. In March 2010 Bentley was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing the 4-year-old girl.