Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has designated three Iowa counties as natural disaster areas due to severe drought. The USDA says in a statement released Tuesday farmers in Lee, Monroe and Wapello counties who suffered losses due to drought may be eligible for Farm Service Agency emergency loans to meet various recovery needs including replacing equipment or livestock, reorganizing a farming operation or refinance certain debts. Farmers in 11 other Iowa counties also are eligible.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa is challenging city ordinances that prevent homeless people from asking for money in public places saying the local laws are unconstitutional. The ACLU of Iowa says it sent on Tuesday formal demand letters to Council Bluffs, Des Moines, and Grimes insisting that they repeal their bans on panhandling. It’s part of a larger effort with other organizations to notify cities in 12 states that such ordinances are unconstitutional.

WOODWARD, Iowa (AP) — A former Iowa school district official accused of embezzling nearly $217,000 over the course of several years has been arrested on first-degree theft charges. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says 35-year-old Melissa Lee Lantz turned herself in Tuesday at the Dallas County Jail and later was released on bond. The arrest follows a state audit that found that Lantz had cut herself 101 unauthorized checks over a five-year period.

VINTON, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa couple who kept hundreds of animals in and outside their home have been given two years of probation for child endangerment. Benton County court records say 36-year-old Marshall Galkowski and 38-year-old Barbara Galkowski pleaded guilty. Among the probation terms are limits on how many animals they can have in their Vinton home: fish, one dog, two cats and up to an additional six small animals inside the residence in a properly maintained cage.