CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Cedar Rapids man accused of shooting a flare gun at the city’s federal courthouse and igniting a small fire has been charged with several federal counts. The Gazette reports 39-year-old John Miller has been charged with malicious damage to federal property, violent threats to a federal official and interstate communications with intent to injure. Miller made his first court appearance of the charges on Tuesday. Prosecutors say Miller fired two flares at the federal courthouse in Cedar Rapids on Nov. 19 from a parking lot across the street, igniting a traffic barrier outside the building. Officials say he also left threatening messages on social media for a federal prosecutor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge has issued an order that prevents state officials from banning a group of Des Moines Black Liberation Movement protesters from entering the Iowa Capitol grounds. U.S. District Court Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger ruled Thursday that a ban requested by state legislative leaders and enforced by the Iowa State Patrol violates the constitutional rights of five protesters.

They were protesting at the Capitol on July 1 when a scuffle broke out with police. Troopers told them that legislative leaders had ordered them banned, some for six months and others for a year. The judge concluded the bans likely burden more speech than necessary.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on Nov. 29th, of 38-year-old Raymond Hurt, from Carroll. Hurt was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant for failure to serve a jail mittimus on an original, Driving While Barred charge. He was held for the length of his mittimus and released.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Carroll Police Department and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials with the Creston Police Department report the arrest at around 1:30-p.m. Tuesday, of 45-year-old Alisha Marie Peckham, from Creston. Peckham was arrested at her residence on a charge of Failure to Abate [a] Nuisance. She was given a Summons to Appear in court. Authorities said also, a woman residing in the 600 block of N. Pine Street, in Creston, reported Thursday morning, that someone had stolen her Christmas decorations. They included two candy canes one candle stick. The loss was estimated at $60.

And, a man residing in the 11-hundred block of W. Montgomery Street in Creston, reported Thursday, that a package containing 48 exotic tea bags was missing from his front porch. The loss was estimated at $70.