DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some advocates for programs that help low-income people are expressing puzzlement over Gov. Terry Branstad’s decision to veto spending from an infrastructure fund.

When he used his line-item veto authority earlier this month to cut $1.8 million in spending approved by the Legislature, Branstad wrote that he would prefer state funds be spent on people, not buildings. But the proposed spending came from a fund that can only be used on building work.

Sen. Rick Bertrand, the Republican chairman of the subcommittee that oversees the infrastructure fund, says he doesn’t understand the veto, noting “This fund is not set up for individuals.”

When asked about the governor’s move, Branstad spokesman Ben Hammes offered a response that largely repeated the veto statement. Hammes declined to answer further questions.

Residents of Des Moines are waking up to the news another person has died as the result of a shooting, the 15^th homicide in the Capital City this year. KCCI TV reports Des Moines Police are investigating the shooting that took place in the 4300 block of Beaver Avenue in the Parking lot of Zion Lutheran Church. The incident, which happened at around 2:30-a.m., resulted in one person killed, three others injured.

Witnesses provided a potential suspect vehicle description to officers. Police later located and stopped that vehicle after a short pursuit. Inside, they found a third shooting victim. He was taken to a local hospital. Detectives are now interviewing the other people in that vehicle. A fourth victim later showed up at a local hospital.

No word yet on the conditions of the three surviving victims.

Sheriff’s Deputies in Montgomery County early this (Sunday) morning, arrested a woman for Public Intoxication. 28-year old Madison Marie Bowling, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 1:45-a.m. in the 700 block of E. Corning Street, in Red Oak.

Bowling was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 cash bond.

A western Iowa man wanted on Child Endangerment and other charges, was arrested Friday in California. Captain Todd Weddum with the Council Bluffs Police Department reports, in October 2016, Council Bluffs police detectives began to investigate 72-year old Frank French, of Council Bluffs, on allegations of abuse committed upon his teenage daughter.

In January 2017, a felony arrest warrant for French was signed, charging him with:

• 4 counts of Child Endangerment – resulting in bodily injury
• 2 counts of Child Endangerment – without no injury
• Neglect or Abandonment of a Dependent Person
• and False Imprisonment.

On May 19th, 2017, French was located and arrested in San Bernardino County, California, where he is being held as a Fugitive from Justice. Proceedings will soon begin to have French extradited back to Iowa. Details of the case, including those documented in the arrest warrant affidavit, will not be released by the Council Bluffs Police Department until French arrives back to Pottawattamie County, where he will be served with the warrant and notified of the allegations he faces.

An influential figure in Iowa politics for more than four decades has died. Former House Speaker Don Avenson, of Oelwein, died of a heart attack on Friday. He was 72. Avenson was the Democratic Party’s unsuccessful nominee for governor in 1990 and he’d been statehouse lobbyist ever since. Avenson served eight years as House Speaker, the legislature’s most powerful post. No other speaker has had a longer tenure. Jerry Fitzgerald struck up a friendship shortly after the two were elected to the Iowa House nearly 45 years ago. Fitzgerald says Avenson was “a towering figure” with shrewd deal-making skills.

Fitzgerald was with Avenson when he died. The two had been vacationing. They were driving through Nebraska when Avenson suffered a heart attack. Republican Terry Branstad, who defeated Avenson in the 1990 race for governor, issued a written statement Saturday, calling Avenson a “strong and effective legislator…who cared deeply about…the people of Iowa.”

Avenson steered the Groundwater Protection Act through the legislature in 1987 as well as a bill that dramatically reorganized the executive branch of state government. Avenson was an avid outdoorsman and a voracious reader of non-fiction. Several years ago, Avenson tracked down every book about the Lewis and Clark Expedition that was still available in print and he read each one.

Avenson is the father of three adult children as well as grandchildren. He and his wife Diane were married in 1964 and have made their home in Oelwein. He joined the family business after college and became president of Oelwein Tool and Die Company in 1984.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 5:30 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa will give Flexsteel Industries more than $2 million as part of a $10 million bid to keep the furniture company’s plant in Dubuque and save most of the site’s more than 200 jobs. The Des Moines Register reports that the Iowa Economic Development Authority board approved a $2.1 million incentive package for Flexsteel on Friday. That includes a $1 million forgivable loan and more than $1 million in tax credits and refunds.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As expected, the Iowa Supreme Court has ordered a new trial for a man sentenced last year to up to 10 years for sexually abusing a teenage boy. Friday’s decision by the Iowa Supreme Court came after state prosecutors last month took the rare step of asking it to reverse 61-year-old Doug Lindaman’s conviction. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office made the move after finding the Charles City man was allowed to represent himself at his trial without knowingly waiving his right to have an attorney.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa man has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Federal prosecutors say 41-year-old Mitchell Eugene Obrecht, of Carter Lake, was sentenced Friday. Prosecutors say Obrecht pleaded guilty in January to an indictment charging him with possession of child pornography in September 2015. The charge resulted from an investigation into the posting of a video and an image, each depicting child pornography, on a social networking site.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Des Moines are investigating a shooting that sent one person to a hospital. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the shooting happened Saturday morning on SE Third Street. One person was taken to a hospital by ambulance. Police tell KCCI that an arrest has been made and that investigators believe the shooting was a domestic violence incident.

The driver of a car that got hung-up on railroad tracks early Saturday morning in southeast Iowa died, when her vehicle was struck by a train. The Iowa State Patrol says 24-year old Alysabeth Loise Ferneau, of Burlington, died at the scene of the crash at around 3:35-a.m. on 165th Street, in Burlington at the BNSF crossing.

Officials say her 2008 Chevy Impala was northbound on 145th, north of U-S Highway 34, when the vehicle dropped-off the crossing to the west and became stuck. An eastbound Burlington Northern-Sante Fe train struck the car, which came to rest on its side on the tracks, west of the crossing. The train came to rest on the eastbound tracks.

The accident remains under investigation.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton says he’s not in Iowa laying the groundwork to run for president, but is touching on familiar themes of those who have. He told about 100 Iowa Republicans at a fundraiser Friday night in Council Bluffs he “loves Iowa so much I married a woman born here,” referring to his wife Anna, who was born in Sioux City.

But, besides the typical Iowa pandering, Cotton laid out a broader vision. He called for the national unity that followed the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Cotton, who was elected in 2014, noted Republican President Donald Trump’s victory, but grouped it generally with GOP wins in November that he attributed to general dissatisfaction with Congress and the federal government.

Yet despite those wins, Cotton called on his audience to aspire to better days.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A former U.S. Postal Service worker in northwestern Iowa has been sentenced to probation for stealing items from the mail he was supposed to deliver. Federal prosecutors say 42-year-old Kirk Baird, of Sergeant Bluff, was sentenced in a Sioux City federal court Friday.

He pleaded guilty in March to one count of theft of mail by a postal service employee. At his plea hearing, Baird admitted that from August to October, he removed cash and gift cards from items in the mail at least 22 times. Baird had originally faced up to five years in prison without the possibility of parole.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Des Moines are investigating a shooting that sent one person to a hospital. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that the shooting happened Saturday morning on SE Third Street. One person was taken to a hospital by ambulance.

Police tell KCCI that an arrest has been made and that investigators believe the shooting was a domestic violence incident. Witnesses told the television station that a man tried to flee on foot after the shooting, but was caught and arrested.