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Iowa early News Headlines: Wed., Feb. 19, 2020

News

February 19th, 2020 by Ric Hanson

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:33 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign plans to ask for a partial recount of the Iowa caucus results after the state Democratic Party released results of its recanvass that show Sanders and Pete Buttigieg in an effective tie. In the new results, Buttigieg has 563.207 state delegate equivalents and Sanders has 563.127 state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.004 percentage points. The Associated Press remains unable to declare a winner based on the available information, as the results may still not be fully accurate and are still subject to the recount.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa report says state workers didn’t act soon enough on child-abuse reports about a 16-year-old girl who starved to death. Officials have said Natalie Finn weighed only 81 pounds when she died in October 2016 in West Des Moines. An investigation report issued Monday by the state ombudsman’s office says more staffing, training and resources at the state’s top child-protective agency might have made prevented the abuse that led to Natalie’s death. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds is seeking 47 new agency positions for fiscal 2021. Natalie’s adoptive mother has been sentenced to life in prison. Her adoptive father was given 30 years.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa man has been given 11 years in prison for the drunken driving death of a cousin last year. The Sioux City Journal reports that Darrick Toel was sentenced Monday. He’d pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide while driving recklessly and to operating while intoxicated. Authorities estimate Darrick Toel was speeding at 90 mph July 1 on a rural highway just northeast of Sergeant Bluff when he lost control of his car and struck a tree. Toel’s passenger, 37-year-old Ryan Toel, of Struble, died two days later from his injuries.

HAMBURG, Iowa (AP) — A man accused of pushing a co-worker off the top of a grain bin in southwest Iowa has been found in Mexico and returned to the United States. The U.S. Marshals Service said in a news release Tuesday that Pedro Andrade was taken into custody outside Medina, Mexico. He’s been returned to a jail in Houston, awaiting his return to Iowa. A court document says the co-worker survived his 60-foot fall Oct. 10 in Hamburg. He told an investigator that Andrade had found out that Andrade’s wife and the co-worker were having an affair.