Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

UNDATED (AP) — The state of Iowa has released documents that appear to support the claims of two men who said they were just doing their job testing security when they were arrested on suspicion of breaking into a courthouse. The men were working for Colorado-based cybersecurity company Coalfire when they were arrested inside the Dallas County Courthouse on Sept. 10. The state has said it hired Coalfire to test only the security of electronic access to court records, not to force “entry into a building.”

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than 200 Iowa scientists from 38 Iowa colleges and universities have signed on to a climate change statement that warns of “sobering extreme heat projections” for the Midwest that will put people, livestock and pets at risk. The statement released Wednesday says he World Meteorological Association identified July as the hottest month in more than 140 years of record-keeping.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A prosecutor says an Iowa man accused of using a corn rake to kill his wife was irate over her affair and fearful he’d lose their farm if she divorced him. Testimony resumed Wednesday after opening statements for the trial of 43-year-old Todd Mullis. He’s charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of 39-year-old Amy Mullis on Nov. 10 at the farm west of Dubuque. He claimed she accidentally fell on a corn rake, but prosecutors say evidence showed she’d been stabbed in the back with it.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bernie Sanders’ Iowa political director has departed his 2020presidential campaign, leaving him without a key staffer in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Jess Mazour was announced as Sanders’ Iowa political director in March and was let go from the team in recent weeks. A Sanders aide on Wednesday confirmed Mazour’s departure on condition of anonymity. The aide wasn’t authorized to discuss personnel matters.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Bernie Sanders’ Iowa political director has departed his 2020presidential campaign, leaving him without a key staffer in the first-in-the-nation caucus state. Jess Mazour was announced as Sanders’ Iowa political director in March and was let go from the team in recent weeks. She previously worked as an organizer for the progressive group Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.

A Sanders aide on Wednesday confirmed Mazour’s departure on condition of anonymity. The aide wasn’t authorized to discuss personnel matters. The news of her departure was first reported by The Washington Post.

While the team still has a number of original top-level staffers in place in Iowa, the news of Mazour’s departure comes as Sanders has also drawn headlines for staff troubles in New Hampshire, where his state director has been replaced.

The state of Iowa has released documents that appear to support the claims of two men who said they were just doing their job testing security when they were arrested on suspicion of breaking into a courthouse this month. The men were working for Colorado-based cybersecurity company Coalfire when they were arrested after being found on the third floor of the Dallas County Courthouse just after midnight Sept. 10.

The state has said it hired Coalfire to test only the security of electronic access to court records and not to force “entry into a building.” The two workers still face criminal charges. Yet the contract between Coalfire and the state says that a “physical penetration test targets your facilities/buildings/locations” and notes that the company planned to “attempt to collect physical documentation” at the courthouse where the men were arrested.

Members of the Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, passed a Resolution committing financial support to the non-profit “Shift ATL” organization, with regard to their plans for a future Housing Rehabiliation Project. Shift ATL spokesperson Alexis Fleener, said they’re not asking for a specific amount of funds at this time.

Councilman Gerald Brink asked Fleener how the money would be used, if it were to be granted at some point in time. She said it would go toward the purchase of a home to rehabilitated. Once completed, the home would be sold at a price more than the cost of the purchase price and rehab costs combined. Funds from the sale of the home would be returned to Shift ATL for future rehab projects, and the title to the property would be transferred to the new owner.

Brink said he’s fielded questions and concerns from the public about how much Shift ATL is taking on, with regard to the purchase and rehabilitation of the old Downtowner Restaurant on 4th Street. Fleener said grants are being applied for to help to pay for work on the old building located across from City Hall.

Fleener said the housing rehab project will be done in cooperation with other groups and partners, the Chamber, CADCO, the City and local contractors, which stand to benefit from tax deductions for their in-kind services. She said they would be purchasing, in a targeted neighborhood, a home under $100,000, with the idea to flip it for anywhere from $120,000 to $150,000 range. The home would be one with “Good bones” and “Curb appeal,” that, once finished would attract potential buyers to Atlantic. She said also, the home would be thoroughly inspected before a decision is made to purchase it for rehabilitation.

Councilman Pat McCurdy said he would like to see “Some fill-in housing,” by means of modular homes, with the City footing the bill. That idea didn’t sit well with some of the other Council members. Alexis Fleener suggested a representative with “Housing 360” from Lenox speak with the Council about other ways to find ways identify open lots and homes that can be acquired through employer participation.

In other business, following a Public Hearing, the Council authorized Mayor Dave Jones (Who was not present Wednesday evening), to make an application to the Federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Water/Sewer Program for Water Improvements, on behalf of Atlantic Municipal Utilities (AMU). SWIPCO’s Alexis Fleener said AMU hired Snyder & Associates Engineers to complete a preliminary Engineering report and cost estimate.

Snyder’s proposes to rehab a water filtration system at the water treatment plant, and a second water main crossing over the Nishnabotna River, to create a looping system and redundancy, which will also serve the City of Marne. The costs of the project are anticipated to be $1.097-million. The City will apply for a $493,997 CDBG, with AMU matching $603,773. The CDBG application must be submitted on or before Oct. 1st.

City Administrator John Lund says the project completes will benefit low-to-moderate income residents. The City will work with SWIPCO (Southwest Iowa Planning Council), to complete and

Sheriff’s officials in Adams County report deputies were called a little before 3-p.m. today (Wednesday), to 2918 Highway 34, for a report of an intoxicated person who was damaging property and causing a scene. Deputies arrested 44-year old Matthew Rayhons, of Lenox, for Public Intoxication, Disorderly Conduct, and Criminal Mischief.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The rising Missouri River broke through two levees northeast of Omaha, but the flooding affected rural areas that have been flooded twice before this year.

Interstate 29 remained open near Omaha Wednesday afternoon, but transportation officials warned that parts of the highway will likely have to close overnight. Several on-ramps were closed Wednesday. The lower Missouri River is flooding in Nebraska and Iowa this week because exceptionally heavy rains fell last week in Montana, North and South Dakota and Nebraska.

Officials don’t expect the floodwaters to cause significant damage to communities. But many levees remain damaged from severe flooding in the spring, allowing the floodwaters to flow into many farm fields and rural areas.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Officials have distributed emergency notifications to portions of northwest Pottawattamie County amid reports of two breaches in protection structures along the Missouri River as a result of this latest round of flooding. A breach in a protective berm along the bank of the Missouri just southwest of the Boyer and Missouri confluence as well as a breach in the Honey Creek Drainage Ditch have been reported to officials.

The emergency management agency has distributed emergency notifications to residential properties in the potential impacted area. Crews are attempting to get access to the area to observe conditions for more information and remind motorists to observe all road closures and detour instructions. “As more floodwater is now being released into the area due to theses breaches, we need the public to steer clear of the area,” said Doug Reed, emergency management director for Pottawattamie County.

Officials urge residents living in the areas south of the Boyer and Missouri River confluence southward to I-680 and from the Missouri River to just east of I-29 along 152nd street and south to Old Mormon Bridge Road should monitor conditions closely and be prepared to leave the area over the next 2 to 6 hours if conditions worsen or threaten your property.

As a reminder, emergency notifications and alerts are distributed through county emergency notification system “Pottawattamie Alert”, part of the Alert Iowa Network. Residents should sign up for notifications at www.pottcounty-ia.gov.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s governor is defending a law she signed earlier this year that prohibits Medicaid payment for gender reassignment surgery after California’s attorney general prohibited state-funded travel to Iowa.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Friday added Iowa to a list of 10 other states for which state-funded travel isn’t allowed because they violate a 2017 California law that guards against discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a bill in May that reversed an Iowa Supreme Court ruling guaranteeing protection under the Iowa Civil Rights Act for Medicaid-funded gender reassignment surgery. Becerra says California takes an unambiguous stand against discrimination. He says the California prohibition on state-funded or sponsored travel to Iowa begins in October.

Reynolds on Wednesday defended the law as a narrow provision clarifying longstanding state policy in response to the court ruling. A lawsuit challenging the new law is now before the Iowa Supreme Court. After justifying the law, Reynolds described California, home to more than 10% of the U.S. population, as a state with high taxes, excessive business costs and expensive housing.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than 200 scientists from 38 Iowa colleges and universities have signed on to a climate change statement that warns of “sobering extreme heat projections” for the Midwest that will put people, livestock and pets at risk. The statement released Wednesday says the World Meteorological Association identified July as the hottest month in more than 140 years of record-keeping.

The scientists say the atmosphere and earth’s surface are warming at an unprecedented rate and by mid-century temperatures in Iowa will exceed 90 degrees for 67 days per year, compared to the average of 23 days in recent decades.

Peter Thorne, director of the University of Iowa Environmental Health Sciences Research Center, says adaptations will include expanded disaster preparedness, increased energy use and curtailment of outdoor work and recreation during times of extreme heat.

The University of Iowa Center for Global and Regional Environmental Research has released annual climate statements since 2011. They are vetted by Iowa’s top experts and are intended to place climate change research into an Iowa-specific context and encourage preparedness.

WESTMINSTER, Colo., Sept. 18, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Coalfire, a trusted provider of cybersecurity advisory and assessment services, issued the following comments on recent penetration tests in which the Iowa Judicial Branch contracted with Coalfire for comprehensive security testing:

Malicious cyber criminals use all techniques at their disposal—fair or foul—to access valuable data from private and public organizations. Global cybersecurity firms such as Coalfire involved in technical testing are professionally contracted to simulate attacks using the same techniques any attacker may use to test the company’s defenses so that they can remedy their vulnerabilities before a real-world incident occurs.

Recently, two penetration testers employed by Coalfire were arrested in the Dallas County Courthouse during a security testing exercise to help the Iowa Judicial Branch ensure the court’s highly sensitive data was secured against attack. Coalfire was working to provide quality client service and a stronger security posture.

Coalfire and State Court Administration believed they were in agreement regarding the physical security assessments for the locations included in the scope of work. Yet, recent events have shown that Coalfire and State Court Administration had different interpretations of the scope of the agreement. Together, Coalfire and State Court Administration continue to navigate through this process. To that end, the Iowa Judicial Branch and Coalfire will each conduct independent reviews and release the contractual documents executed between both parties.

State Court Administration has worked with Coalfire in the past to conduct security testing of its data and welcomed the opportunity to work with them again. Both organizations value the importance of protecting the safety and security of employees as well as the integrity of data.

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Company officials said in a Press Release: “Coalfire’s client confidentiality is one of the most important aspects of our business. We are providing this statement only to clarify an unfortunate set of events; since this is an evolving legal matter and involves confidential client work, we cannot comment on further details of the incident at this time. The Iowa Judicial Branch is also making a statement related to our work together; their statement will link to the contractual documents.”