Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A longtime Iowa research center for sustainable agriculture is on the chopping block in the Republican-controlled Legislature. A GOP-led budget committee voted Tuesday for an education bill that includes cutting nearly $400,000 from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. The legislation will require more votes before it can be finalized. The bill also includes cutting $1.5 million from the Iowa Flood Center at the University of Iowa.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the names of five people killed in a fiery Mason City crash. Police in Mason City say an officer discovered the accident scene around 2:40 a.m. Monday. On Tuesday the Mason City Police Department identified the driver as 20-year-old Zachary Hartley. His four passengers were identified as 17-year-old Donte Foster, 18-year-old Roderick Lewis, 14-year-old Sydney Alcorn and 19-year-old Alex Wiebke. All of them lived in Mason City.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A Dubuque woman accused of beating to death her ex-husband with a baseball bat has again been found not mentally competent to stand trial. The Telegraph Herald reports that the finding for 53-year-old Dolores Flynn was released Tuesday. Flynn has pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder in the January 2016 baseball-bat slaying of 72-year-old Gary Breckenridge.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Education Department says the state’s high school graduation rate has increased for the fifth year straight, even as dropout rates increased slightly for the first time since the 2009-10 school year. In a news release Tuesday, the department said 91.3 percent of students in the 2016 graduating class graduated within four years, up from 90.8 percent from the previous year. Iowa’s annual dropout rate was 2.8 percent last year, up from 2.5 percent the previous year.