2020 Presidential candidate Kamala Harris will campaign in Western and Central Iowa May 23rd and 24th. On Thursday, May 23rd the Democrat Junior Senator from California will hold events in Sioux City, including a public town hall. On Friday, May 24th, Harris will campaign in Council Bluffs and Des Moines. The appearances mark Harris’ fourth trip to Iowa since announcing her candidacy for president of the United States.

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA)

Members of the public interested in attending the Thursday town hall in Sioux City should reserve their seat here: https://www.mobilize.us/kamalaforia/event/93080/

Harris will discuss her proposal to give the average Iowa teacher a $12,200 raise by the end of her first term, her plans to combat climate change and to address the student debt crisis, among others. This trip will be another opportunity for Iowans to hear directly from Harris about her vision for America and ask her questions about important issues.

Additional details about her visits to Council Bluffs and Des Moines will be released soon.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Officials with the Creston Police Department report two separate arrests took place Thursday. At around 7:35-p.m., 19-year old Conner Sobotka Callison, of Creston, was arrested at his residence, on a Clarke Co. Warrant for Failure to Appear on the charge of Simple Assault. Callison was transferred to Clarke County authorities. And, at around 1:20-p.m., 24-year old Jessica Marie Larkin, whose address is unknown, was arrested on a Trepass charge. Larkin was released on a promise to appear in court.

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who won a $2 million Powerball prize says the money will cushion his retirement, update his house and provide a boat for his father. Rob Maser claimed his winnings Thursday from Wednesday night’s drawing. The ticket he bought at a Kum & Go on 156th Street in Urbandale matched the first five numbers drawn but missed the Powerball number and a chance of winning the $250.3 million jackpot. Maser also purchased the Power Play option, which multiplied the normal $1 million prize to $2 million.

He says he won’t be quitting his job at an automotive dealership but will be fulfilling the promise he made to his father if he ever won big: the boat. Wednesday’s winning numbers were 7, 17, 33, 61, 68 and Powerball 4.

GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa (AP) — A central Iowa woman whose 11-month-old son drowned in a bathtub has been sent to prison. Guthrie County District Court records say 25-year-old Seaira Briceno was sentenced Monday to 15 years. She’d pleaded guilty to child endangerment and manslaughter. Those sentences are to be served after her sentences for drunken driving and two counts of child endangerment in Marshall County.

The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says Briceno’s baby drowned Aug. 10 when she left him and his 2-year-old brother in the tub at their Bagley home. Briceno told investigators she left the boys for about five minutes, but deputies believe the children were left alone longer.

No injuries were reported after a semi tractor-trailer hauling a load of cardboard boxes caught fire on Interstate 80 during the mid-afternoon hours, Thursday. Officials closed both westbound lanes of I-80 between Neola and Underwood for a couple of hours while the fully engulfed semi was being extinguished and the mess cleaned-up. There’s been no word on how the blaze started. 

Photo from the KNOD Facebook page.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowa State University researchers say the largest population of monarch butterflies in more than a decade could be headed to Iowa and the Midwest later this spring, prompting a good news-bad news scenario. Steve Bradbury, an I-S-U professor of natural resource ecology, says some 225-million adult monarchs may arrive in the next month or so and they’ll need more milkweeds on which to breed. “If these numbers coming up are as high as we think they might be, we could be overwhelming the amount of milkweed we have in the upper Midwest and Iowa,” Bradbury says. “What we want to do is build our habitat bank, if you will, in Iowa, up to the point that we can maintain those high numbers of monarchs.”

Iowans in rural and urban areas are encouraged to create milkweed habitats, as that’s the only place the important crop pollinators will lay their eggs. “It’s very helpful if folks in Des Moines and Sioux City in their gardens are getting habitat patches started and county parks and city parks, Iowa renewable fuel facilities, getting their patches in,” Bradbury says. “It all combines and is important.”

If the state wants to maintain higher numbers of monarchs, it will need to add a half-million to a million acres of habitat over the next ten to 20 years. Habitat loss and pesticide use have caused monarch populations to drop over the past decade. In recent years, Iowa’s cities, farmers and individual Iowans have joined to create or preserve habitat that’s vital to monarchs, including the cultivation of nectar plant gardens. “Getting new habitat in the ground is picking up the pace,” he says, “and people being really careful about the habitat that’s already on the landscape and protecting it.”

Bradbury says expanding monarch habitat in Iowa will play a major role in the recovery of the species.

(Thanks to Katie Peikes, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — A bill that has cleared the U.S. House would make it easier for generic drugs to be sold in America, a move meant to limit the rising cost of prescription drugs. Third district Congresswoman Cindy Axne of West Des Moines says prescription medications cost more in America than in any other country.

“A teacher in Farragut who’s had diabetes for 20 years is spending over $750 a month for insulin,” Axne says. “That’s a third of her take-home pay and she needs a second job just to cover her costs.” Axne accuses brand-name drug manufacturers of using delay tactics to prevent cheaper generics from being sold.

The House bill would forbid brand-name drug makers from paying a generic manufacturer NOT to sell the cheaper generic alternative. In addition, the bill would make it easier for generic drug manufacturers to get important data about brand name medications.

“I ran for congress to protect Iowans, not Big Pharma,” Axne said. “And this bill will help bring generics to market quicker, lower the cost for consumers and save billions in taxpayer dollars.”

Axne — a Democrat who’s in her first term in congress — made her comments during a brief speech on the House floor Thursday. She did not mention other components of the bill, some of which are designed to help Americans navigate the insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act. Republicans in the SENATE and President Trump oppose those parts of the package House Democrats put together.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Federal prosecutors say two Iowa men face charges in separate child pornography cases. Officials say 35-year-old Aaron Olson, of Nora Springs, is charged with two counts of sexual exploitation of a child. Officials say Olson used two minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct to produce child pornography. Prosecutors also say 31-year-old Derek Clemens, of Evansdale, has been charged with receipt and possession of child pornography. Officials say he accessed child pornography on his cellphone.

WEST UNION, Iowa (AP) — A northeastern Iowa man has been charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 death of a 4-week-old infant. The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s Division of Criminal Investigation says in a news release that 22-year-old Dean Hettinger, of Westgate, was arrested Thursday at the Black Hawk County Jail, where he was being held on unrelated charges. He’s accused of causing the death of Holton Smith.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — “Lucky Larry” may have a shot to win millions more _ this time from a jury. A judge has ordered a trial in a lawsuit filed by Iowa lottery winner Larry Dawson, who contends a $9 million jackpot that he won in 2011 should have been nearly three times as big. Dawson filed the lawsuit in 2016 after an investigation revealed that lottery contractor Eddie Tipton rigged the previous $16.5 million jackpot, bought the winning ticket himself and unsuccessfully worked with associates to claim it.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A flurry of lawsuits against maker of OxyContin intensifies as Idaho’s attorney general tells the company and the family that owns of it of plans to take legal action. Six other states have announced filings this month against Purdue Pharma and another said it’s looking for a law firm to help it sue. Idaho’s letter was disclosed Thursday. It suggests a lack of progress with settlement negotiations with the company behind a drug that helped change the way prescription painkillers were used.

Audubon Community School District Superintendent Brett Gibbs has announced that the Audubon Community School District is participating in the Summer Food Service Program.  Meals will be provided to all children without charge and are the same for all children regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the meal service.

Meals will be provided, at a first come, first serve basis, at the sites and times as follows:

• Audubon Elementary School: June 10 – August 9, 2019, 11:30am-12:30 pm

To file a program complaint of discrimination, complete the USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, (AD-3027) found online at: http://www.ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html, and at any USDA office, or write a letter addressed to USDA and provide in the letter all of the information requested in the form. To request a copy of the complaint form, call (866) 632-9992. Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by:

(1)      mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410;

(2)      fax: (202) 690-7442; or

(3)      email: program.intake@usda.gov.

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.

Iowa Non-Discrimination Statement:

“It is the policy of this CNP provider not to discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or religion in its programs, activities, or employment practices as required by the Iowa Code section 216.6, 216.7, and 216.9.  If you have questions or grievances related to compliance with this policy by this CNP Provider, please contact the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, Grimes State Office building, 400 E. 14th St. Des Moines, IA 50319-1004; phone number 515-281-4121, 800-457-4416; website: https://icrc.iowa.gov/.”