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Iowa early News Headlines: Saturday, April 23rd 2016

News

April 23rd, 2016 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:37 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawmakers in the split Iowa Legislature haven’t reached agreement on several issues needed for adjournment this session, and it means they’ll be back next week. The Republican-majority House and Democratic-controlled Senate have made advancements on several bills that will make up the nearly $7.35 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins in July. But many bills remain unfinished as each side adds funding and projects to the pieces of legislation.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — Prosecution and defense lawyers have finished presenting witness testimony in the trial of a man charged with killing a woman at a Coralville mall. Lawyers concluded testimony Friday in the first-degree murder trial of Alexander Kozak. He is charged in the June 12 shooting death of Andrea Farrington, who was working at the Coral Ridge Mall. Lawyers will make their closing arguments Monday, and the jury will begin deliberations. If convicted, Kozak faces a mandatory life in prison sentence.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Iowa and Minnesota lawmakers are exploring a system to allow Iowa residents to buy medical marijuana oil from their northern neighbor, lawmakers from both states have told The Associated Press. As Iowa’s Legislature barrels toward adjournment, legislative leaders are still struggling to expand a 2014 law that legalized marijuana oil for certain patients suffering seizures but left them nowhere to buy it.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has handed a victory to the Iowa Department of Human Services in a dispute over cuts in payments made to some Medicaid service providers in 2011. Justices said the Legislature’s intent in passing a 2010 bill to cut payments was clear, even if the department neglected to include wording in its administrative rules to specify those cuts.