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Iowa early News Headlines: Saturday, Jan. 25th, 2020

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January 25th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An animal welfare group that gained access to an Iowa lawmaker’s hog farm has posted a video and photos online that show pigs suffering and even dying in what appear to be inhumane conditions. Members of California-based Direct Action Everywhere entered a hog farm owned by Iowa Sen. Ken Rozenboom last April through an unlocked door. Rozenboom says the farm was managed then by others who didn’t follow proper animal care protocols. He says his family is overseeing operations and properly caring for animals. Rozenboom managed a law passed last year that heightens trespass penalties for undercover operations on farms.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A Fort Dodge man found guilty last month of the 2018 shooting deaths of two brothers has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The Messenger reports that 28-year-old Tanner King was sentenced Friday for two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of 34-year-old El Dominic and 37-year-old Marion Rhodes on Oct. 22, 2018. Police say Dominic’s body was found in an alley and his older brother’s body was found in a nearby apartment parking lot. Police say King also tried to kill another man by firing a shot at him but missed.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Company officials say a central Iowa plant that produces bodies for electric buses is closing. TPI Composites announced Thursday that production at the Newton plant will be consolidated at a company plant in Warren, Rhode Island. The company says nearly all of the bus plant employees will be offered employment at the company’s wind blade facility in Newton or at other TPI facilities. Josh Syhlman is plant manager at TPI’s wind blade factory, and he told the Newton Daily News the bus plant had never reached adequate production and profitability levels.

OSAGE, Iowa (AP) — With Iowa caucus voting just over a week away, each of the Democratic Party’s leading presidential candidates has glaring holes in his or her political bases. The gaps raise questions about the candidates’ ability to build a coalition like the one Barack Obama built. The Democratic Party’s last successful nominee relied largely on three core groups: young people, minorities and working-class whites. Polling and interviews with campaign officials suggest each of the leading Democratic candidates is showing weakness with one or more of those groups. That is concerning to Democratic officials who, above all, want to defeat President Donald Trump.