Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The mother of an 18-year-old University of Iowa student who froze to death on the university’s campus is suing the school for negligence. The lawsuit contends Gerald Michael Belz, of Cedar Rapids, was unable to get into his residence hall on the night of Jan. 29, 2019, when wind chills were 51 degrees below zero. The lawsuit says the university locked all exterior doors to Burge Hall to prevent pipes from freezing but did not alert residents to the change in normal procedures. Belz was found unresponsive the next day. His death was ruled an accident. The university declined to comment on the lawsuit.

UNDATED (AP) — The refusal of Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to require Iowans to wear masks in public has prompted at least three cities and a county to impose their own local ordinances to address the coronavirus outbreak. It’s setting up what could be a legal battle over whether local officials have the authority to impose the mandates. Local government control also has become an issue as a few school boards have said they may refuse to abide by Reynolds’ demands to open schools if they feel it’s unsafe. Some local mask ordinances are set to take effect on Monday.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole in the 1979 murder of an 18-year-old high school student. Jerry Burns was arrested in Dec. 19 2018, 39 years to the day after Michelle Martinko was found dead in her parents’ car outside a shopping mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She had been stabbed to death. Burns was convicted of first-degree murder in February and was sentenced on Friday. Cedar Rapids police have said they arrested Burns after DNA taken from a restaurant straw he had used matched DNA from the crime scene.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The family of a man killed by a Polk County sheriff’s deputy two years ago alleges in a federal lawsuit that the office is “covering up” the killing by refusing to release footage and records. The Des Moines Register reports that the family of Isaiah Hayes, of Ashland, Wisconsin, filed the lawsuit on June 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. It says the county has refused to release body camera or dash camera footage which shows the shooting of the 25-year-old Hayes in 2018. The lawsuit alleges the county is withholding the video because it would show Deputy Ryan Phillips “shooting Isaiah in the back while Isaiah did not pose a threat.”