(Radio Iowa) — An eastern Iowa man is facing charges after Allamakee County Deputies say he was on top of a water tower naked. Deputies were called to a pickup fire at 7:15 p-m Tuesday and were unable to locate the truck’s owner. The fire was put out and deputies say they later got a call that the 34-year-old owner, Ryan Peters, of Waukon, was on a 65-foot water tower near the sheriff’s office and jail. He didn’t have any clothes on and he refused to come down for more than an hour. Peters finally came down and deputies arrested him and charged him with trespassing and interfering with official acts.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports 39-year old Joseph Wallace, of Bedford, was arrested Wednesday, following a traffic stop, in Bedford. Wallace was charged with Driving While Barred, an aggravated misdemeanor, and Possession of a Controlled Substance 3rd or Subsequent Offense, a class D felony. He was being held at the Taylor County Jail on $7,000 cash bond.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says hackers have NOT compromised any Iowa voting systems, but Pate says the Russians are waging a “war of public opinion” on social media to sow doubt about the U.S. election process.  “I think, if anything, the Russians proved they were very active on that front and the things they’ve done, cyber-wise, has been to create the doubt, not to really get a result or impact an election directly,” Pate says. “…That’s as damaging as if they did get in.”

Pate says Russian military officials visited some public websites for Iowa counties before the 2016 election, but did not access any PRIVATE information. Pate says his office is working on another election-related project — to improve the flawed list of people who are barred from voting because of a felony conviction.

“We’ll probably end up having one full-time person doing this and monitoring it because bad information in is bad information out,” Pate says. “We have to make sure that when we get information from other government entities, we have to ensure that it’s the most accurate and up-to-date.”

The Des Moines Register has reported some Iowans who are NOT felons have wrongly had their ballots rejected. Pate says his office doesn’t maintain the list, but the court system sends a list of felons to his office and that list is passed along to county auditors, who have the power to add and remove names from the list of eligible voters. Pate admits people convicted of felonies in other states aren’t all being added to the list.

(Reporting by Iowa Public Radio’s Katarina Sostaric)

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

LACONA, Iowa (AP) — Cracks are appearing in President Donald Trump’s support from Midwest farmers. His trade war with China has already scrambled global grain markets, but now corn farmers are up in arms over Trump’s decision to allow dozens of oil refineries to skip blending corn-based ethanol with gasoline. The head of the National Corn Growers Association, Nebraska farmer Lynn Chrisp, says frustration with Trump has boiled over. One Iowa farmer, Randy Miller, sees the ethanol waiver as a stab in the back.

NORTH SIOUX CITY, S.D. (AP) — An official with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says a study is needed to consider changes to flood-control measures along the Missouri River south of Sioux City, Iowa. Speaking after a U.S. Senate field hearing Wednesday in North Sioux City, South Dakota, Brig. Gen. Peter Helmlinger noted such a study could call for actions such as changing the Missouri River channel in the Sioux City area to let the river spread out and carry more water. Levees also could be rebuilt farther from the river.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Federal prosecutors for Iowa say a former medical student who sold guns to a felon and tried to hire a hit man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Officials say 36-year-old Steven Arce, of Waterloo, was sentenced Wednesday in Cedar Rapids to 90 months in federal prison. Arce admitted that he sold guns to someone he knew was a felon, and arranged with the felon to hire a hit man, who turned out to be an undercover officer.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwestern Iowa man has been charged with vehicular homicide and drunken driving in a crash last month that killed his cousin. The Sioux City Journal reports that 37-year-old Darrick Toel, of Le Mars, was arrested late Tuesday on the charges. Investigators say Toel was driving about 90 mph the night of July 1 when he lost control of his car, left the road, rolled and hit a tree. His passenger, 37-year-old Ryan Toel, of Struble, was critically injured and died two days later.

The City of Atlantic’s Personnel and Finance  Committee, Wednesday evening, agreed to look into establishing a one-year, trial run 28-E agreement with the City of Marne, for the contracting of City Clerk services. Atlantic City Clerk Barb Barrick told the Committee Marne Mayor Randy Baxter called her a couple of weeks ago to say they will be losing the services of their City Clerk, Lora Hansen, who was the former City Clerk in Audubon, and has more than 30-years of experience.

Atlantic’s P&F Committee talks w/Marne Mayor Randy Baxter (clockwise, 2nd from the left)

The Marne City Council gave him their blessing to explore clerk service with Atlantic. Baxter told the Committee, Wednesday, that being a City Clerk is “A pretty specialized position. It take a fair amount of training and know-how to do all the reports and [other] things that the State requires.”

Baxter said his City has no employees and runs a lean business, and looks to be completely debt-free in two-to three-years. In fact they, cut their fund balance from $50,000 to $35,000 in the current year. Their budget is $100,000. Barrick said if the 28-E agreement is recommended to the Atlantic City Council and approved, she would share the duties with full-time Deputy City Clerk Ali Tupper, allowing her to gain some overlap in experience, as well. Any change would mean an extra 5-to-7-hours to their workload per month, divided among the two ladies.

Mayor Baxter said Marne would be willing to pay Atlantic $400 per month, the rate for their current City Clerk, not including FICA and IPERS. He said he’d be happy to offer more for the services of Barrick and Tupper. Before making any commitments or recommendation to the Atlantic City Council, however, the Committee requested Barrick explore in greater detail, the subject of Barrick’s compensation and the legalities involved.

In other business, the Personnel and Finance Committee agreed to a proposal from the Atlantic Parks and Rec Board, for an increase in salary for Parks Director Bryant Rasmussen. The change would bump him from his current $42,000 per year to $47,600 for Fiscal Year 2019-20, retroactive to July 1st 2019. Rasmussen was approved as Full-time Parks Director after having recently served as Interim Director, following the resignation earlier this year of Seth Stasshelm.

Parks Board member Jolene Smith said Rasmussen has being “Doing a great job.” She said “Anyone that started a job in the first six-months you get a flood, you get RAGBRAI and playground equipment with no company to help you set it up…he’s got a lot of great ideas…he’s a naturalist…we need to set his salary with the increase we’ve proposed.” Bryant has a Bachelor of Arts Degree in the area of Earth Science.

The Parks Board proposed a three-year step-scheduled pay increase to $53,300 in FY 2021, $59,000 in FY 2022 and $64,338 in FY 2023, commensurate with the median pay of persons in similar positions, education and experience. The proposed salary will be recommend to the Atlantic City Council for approval during their next meeting.

CRESCO, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa man convicted of killing his wife has been sentenced to life in prison. The Courier reports that 35-year-old Brian Fullhart was sentenced Wednesday for the shooting death of 34-year-old Zoanne Fullhart. Several of her relatives made victim impact statements prior to Brian Fullhart’s sentencing.

Zoanne Fullhart’s mother, Jo Olson, said her daughter was beautiful “outside and inside,” and that Brian Fullhart was “ugly on the outside and inside.” Prosecutors say Brian Fullhart killed his wife because she planned to leave him.

Police say he forced Zoanne Fullhart to kneel in the back room of a friend’s mobile home on Feb. 28, 2018, and he shot her in the head. He then police at bay for five hours — and shot arrows at officers — before surrendering.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwestern Iowa man has been charged with vehicular homicide and drunken driving in a crash last month that killed his cousin. The Sioux City Journal reports that 37-year-old Darrick Toel, of Le Mars, was arrested late Tuesday on the charges. He’s being held on a $50,000 bond.

Investigators say Toel was driving about 90 mph the night of July 1 when he lost control of his car, left the road, rolled and hit a tree. His passenger, 37-year-old Ryan Toel, of Struble, was critically injured and died two days later.

Police say Darrick Toel also was injured, and a blood test taken at a hospital more than an hour after the crash showed his blood alcohol content was .111 — more than the .08 legal limit to drive.

LACONA, Iowa (AP) — When President Donald Trump ordered tariffs on China that scrambled global grain markets, many U.S. farmers were willing to absorb the financial hit. But the patience of Midwest farmers with a president they mostly supported in 2016 is being newly tested.

The administration has now granted waivers to 31 more oil refineries so they don’t have to blend ethanol into their gasoline. Given that roughly 40% of U.S. corn is processed into ethanol, that’s a fresh blow to producers struggling with low prices and potentially mediocre harvests.

Nebraska farmer Lynn Chrisp, president of the National Corn Growers Association, calls it “the straw that broke the camel’s back.” Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said in Illinois Wednesday that Trump will take action to soften the effects, but there are no details.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Federal prosecutors for Iowa say a former medical student who sold guns to a felon and tried to hire a hit man has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Officials say 36-year-old Steven Arce, of Waterloo, was sentenced Wednesday in Cedar Rapids to 90 months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty in March to one count of selling a firearm to a felon.

With his plea, Arce admitted that he sold an AR-15 rifle to someone he knew was a felon, asking the man during the exchange if he could kill one of Arce’s medical school professors. A couple of weeks later, he sold a second gun to the same man, and Arce arranged to meet with someone he believed to be a hit man.

The next day, Arce met with the hit man, who was actually an undercover officer. Officials say Arce offered a machine gun as down payment on the killing before he was arrested.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal officials have kicked off the construction phase of a $136 million federal courthouse in downtown Des Moines, defying requests that the 2-acre prime site be left for a development that would fit the city’s plans for the Riverwalk district along the Des Moines River.

The federal government says it will work with the city to maintain the Riverwalk access. City Council members Chris Coleman and Josh Mandelbaum said at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday they must move beyond disagreement over locating the new tax-exempt courthouse on the west bank of the Des Moines River and work with the government to make the best of the project.

The seven-story building should be completed in late 2022. It will consolidate courtrooms and offices of judges and staff for the Southern District of Iowa, bankruptcy court, probation offices, a law library and the 8th Circuit federal appeals court.