SUMNER, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say the pilot of a crop-dusting plane died Thursday when the aircraft crashed just short of a building in northeast Iowa’s Bremer County. The fiery crash occurred around 7:20-a.m. Thursday, a few yards north of Iowa Highway 93 in Sumner. Witnesses told authorities that a wheel came off the low-flying plane when it hit a power line, which knocked out electricity to part of Sumner. Officials say the wheel hit and shattered the glass front doors of a bank, but no other businesses were damaged. The plane then hit a tree and burst into flames. The pilot was identified as 56-year-old David Baker, who lived in Swedesburg.

The crash cause is being investigated.

A jury in Clarinda has returned a verdict of guilty, in the first-degree murder trial of 34-year old Toby Lee McCunn, of Red Oak. McCunn killed 33-year old Joshua Lyle Jordan April 22nd, in Shenandoah. According to reports, the jurors deliberated for about  2 1/2 hours Thursday, before announcing their verdict.

Over the three day trial, prosecutors called 15 witnesses to the stand. DCI Special Agent Phillip Kennedy testified that McCunn was obsessed over finding Jordan in the weeks leading up to the incident to recover some stolen property. The two men had previous encounters prior to the fatal shooting.

After the verdict was handed-down, McCunn was transported to the Page County Jail, where he was being held without bond. He faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole when McCunn is sentenced September 17th.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have identified the woman whose body was found in the charred wreckage of her mobile home in central Iowa’s Story County. Authorities say 27-year-old Katelyne Pratt was alone in her home in Nevada when the fire started Tuesday. The home was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived. Pratt’s body and that of a dog were found inside later.

Nearby homes suffered some heat damage, but no other injuries have been reported. Authorities are still trying to determine the cause of Pratt’s death.

(Radio Iowa) — The 2019 Iowa State Fair’s Big Boar tipped the scales yesterday (Thursday) at 1254 pounds. They call him Captain. Tricia Britt, of Monticello, says “We wanted to come up with a name that had authority.”  It’s the first time she and her husband, Bryan, have entered one of their boars in the biggest of big state fair contests.

“We’ve never been here before and we’ve never watched the ‘Big Boar’ show, but we knew about it,” Tricia Britt says. “Brian has a cousin that has done it.” Captain, who is three-and-a-half years old, was the heaviest of six boars entered in Thursday’s State Fair competition.

Each entrant was paraded into the Swine Barn’s show ring and weighed as a crowd on bleachers watched and cheered.

Red Oak Police, Thursday night, arrested a man for possession of a controlled substance/1st offense, and OWI/1st offense. 31-year old James Douglas Lee, of Warsaw, Missouri, was taken into custody at around 8:45-p.m. in the 200 block of N. Broadway. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, on a $1,000 bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock have opened the Iowa State Fair’s 2020 presidential blitz by blistering President Donald Trump and promising to push new gun restrictions. Biden says “everything the president’s said and done encourages white supremacists.” Bullock says Trump’s rhetoric and behavior are beneath the office he holds.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Across the early primary states, Democratic voters – who have seen a parade of more than two dozen presidential candidates march through their states for months – are starting to get exhausted with the primary field and are anxious to take on Donald Trump. Even some die-hard Democratic activists are getting restless.

EPWORTH, Iowa (AP) — State environmental officials are investigating a fish kill in a river in eastern Iowa. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says in a news release that thousands of dead fish _ mostly rough fish and minnows _ were found Thursday along a 10-mile stretch of the Little Maquoketa River starting north of Epworth and running downstream to Durango.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Pressure is mounting on former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper to trade in his faltering presidential bid for a U.S. Senate run in his home state. But the decision will not be an easy one for the 67-year-old. Hickenlooper has repeatedly said he’s more interested in being an executive. A successful run for Senate would also take him out of the mix for potential Cabinet appointments should Democrats win the White House next year.

DES MOINES– Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds today (Thursday), issued a proclamation extending existing proclamations of disaster emergency for flooding and severe weather that began in March. The extension allows state resources to be utilized to respond to and recover from the effects of the severe weather for an additional 30 days to Sept. 8, 2019.

The proclamation extends the governor’s temporary suspension of regulatory provisions pertaining to hours of service for disaster repair crews and drivers delivering goods and services while responding to disaster sites during the duration of this disaster, along with weight limits related to disaster repairs.

The proclamation also suspends length-of-stay and fee requirements at Waubonsie State Park located in Fremont County. For more information, visit the DNR Disaster Assistance website or the Waubonsie State Park website.

Iowa residents of counties impacted by the recent severe weather are asked to report damage to help local and state officials better understand the damage sustained. Damage to property, roads, utilities and other storm-related information may be reported. The information will be collected by the Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and shared with local emergency management agencies.

For more information on Iowa flooding, visit floods2019.iowa.gov or contact 2-1-1.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An influential Iowa Republican legislator says he opposes gun legislation that would allow authorities to take firearms away from people deemed a threat to themselves or others.

Sen. Jake Chapman said Thursday he will oppose efforts to pass so-called red flag legislation in Iowa despite national support for such a move by President Donald Trump and Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley. Congressional proposals would provide money to states to implement such laws.

Chapman, an assistant majority leader, says it violates the concept of innocent until proven guilty by forcing people who lose their gun rights to prove to a judge they’re competent. He says it would deny law-abiding gun owners due process rights.

The Iowa Legislature under Republican leadership has significantly loosened gun restrictions in recent years. Chapman says increased mental health care is a better answer but added sometimes there’s little government can do to stop someone intent on harming others.

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — A northeastern Iowa man has been found guilty of torturing the family dog — an act prosecutors say he had videoed to make his children watch.

The Buchanan County Attorney’s Office says in a news release that a jury on Thursday convicted 42-year-old Jason O’Neil Johnson, of Independence, of animal torture. Prosecutors say Johnson held down the dog, named Daisy, in May and repeatedly beat her with a belt and closed fists for chewing on a pair of sunglasses Johnson had left out. Prosecutors say Johnson made his son record the beating to send to his other children as a warning of what happens when they failed to securely kennel Daisy.

Johnson faces up to two years in prison when he’s sentenced at a later date.

DES MOINES — A second consecutive month of below normal precipitation has about 36 percent of the state rated as abnormally dry, according to the latest Water Summary Update.  “It seems surprising that after the wet winter and spring that we would be thinking about drought conditions, but recent dryness has pushed parts of the state in that direction,” said Tim Hall, DNR’s coordinator of hydrology resources. “So far, streamflow and shallow groundwater are at normal levels, but we will continue to monitor those conditions.”

The data show two-thirds of Harrison County, all but the southeast corner of Pottawattamie County, the eastern half of Page County, nearly all of Taylor County, the northern half of Adair and Madison Counties, and most of Guthrie and Dallas Counties, to name a few, are abnormally dry.

July averaged 3.35 inches of rainfall around the state, which is 1.15 inches less than normal. June and July together were 2.3 inches below normal for rainfall. Despite this recent dry weather, the previous 12 months were the fourth wettest on record. Iowa temperatures averaged 75.1 degrees, or 1.5 degrees above normal, ranking this as the 51st warmest July. The month’s high temperature of 99 degrees was reported on July 19 in Little Sioux in Harrison County, which was 13 degrees above average for that date. Cresco in Howard County reported the month’s low temperature of 48 degrees on July 31, 11 degrees below average.

For a thorough review of Iowa’s water resource trends, go to www.iowadnr.gov/watersummaryupdate.

The report is prepared by technical staff from Iowa DNR, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, IIHR—Hydroscience and Engineering, and the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Department.