Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Republican congressman Steve King is losing his place on House committees after GOP officials condemned his comments about race. The nine-term congressman had lamented in a recent interview that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. House Democrats are pursuing censure and other punishments for King, who has been criticized for his remarks about race over the years.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top elections official has acknowledged that his office mistakenly derailed a long-sought plan to grant residents more expansive gun rights by forgetting to notify the public of the proposed constitutional amendment. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate cited a “bureaucratic oversight” for his office’s failure to publish notice of the proposed amendment in newspapers before the November election, which the state constitution requires.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans who control the Iowa Legislature are vowing to continue building the state’s workforce while reducing taxes and government dependence, the kind of reforms they say voters had in mind when returning them to power. Both parties pledged bipartisanship as the legislative session opened but largely laid out priorities unlikely to foster much agreement.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — House Democrats appointed to a committee to review the results of a contested northeast Iowa House seat are vowing to fight any attempt to rush to judgment on whether to count 29 absentee mail ballots. Kayla Koether trails Republican incumbent Michael Bergan by nine votes in the Iowa House district 55 seat. The dispute is the result of a conflict between state law and current practices of the U.S. Postal Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Veteran Republican Rep. Steve King will be blocked from committee assignments for the next two years after lamenting that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms. King, in his ninth term representing Iowa, will not be given committee assignments in the Congress that began this month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday night.

King served on the Agriculture, Small Business and Judiciary committees in the last Congress, and he chaired Judiciary’s subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. McCarthy, R-Calif., called King’s remarks “beneath the dignity of the Party of Lincoln and the United States of America.”
King’s comments “call into question whether he will treat all Americans equally, without regard for race and ethnicity,” McCarthy said, adding: “House Republicans are clear: We are all in this together, as fellow citizens equal before God and the law.”

The action by the GOP steering committee came after King and McCarthy met Monday to discuss the remarks on white supremacy, the latest in a years-long pattern of racially insensitive remarks by King. King called McCarthy’s decision to remove him from committees “a political decision that ignores the truth.” He vowed to “continue to point out the truth and work with all the vigor that I have to represent 4th District Iowans for at least the next two years.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell denounced King earlier Monday, saying, “There is no place in the Republican Party, the Congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind.” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, also condemned King, telling CNN Monday that King “doesn’t have a place in our party” or in Congress and should resign.

Meanwhile, House Democrats moved to formally punish King. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the third-ranking House Democrat and the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, introduced a formal resolution of disapproval late Monday. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said he will introduce a censure resolution, a more serious action by the House, that Rush said would announce to the world that Congress has no home for “repugnant and racist behavior.” A third Democrat, Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio, introduced a separate censure resolution against King.

One Republican did not join the chorus of criticism. Asked about King’s remarks Monday, President Donald Trump said, “I haven’t been following it.”

Firefighters from Bridgewater, Greenfield, Fontanelle, Adair and Massena, were called to a residential structure fire in Bridgewater, at around 4-p.m. Monday. A blaze broke out at 109 W. 1st Street. Adair-Guthrie County Emergency Management Coordinator Robert Kempf said the home was a total loss. A single male occupant of the residence was able to escape unharmed. The American Red Cross was notified to offer the man assistance.

Most fire crews were on the scene until around 9:45-p.m. Some units remained on the scene a little longer, when the fire flared up again at around 10-p.m.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday denounced Rep. Steve King over his latest remarks on white supremacy, saying, “There is no place in the Republican Party, the Congress or the country for an ideology of racial supremacy of any kind.” McConnell is the highest-ranking Republican to criticize King, R-Iowa, who lamented last week that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and other GOP House leaders have also condemned King’s remarks as racist. Meanwhile, House Democrats said they’ll seek formal punishment for King.
Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., said a censure resolution against King would announce to the world that Congress has no home for “repugnant and racist behavior.”

“As with any animal that is rabid, Steve King should be set aside and isolated,” Rush said Monday in a statement that also called on Republicans to strip King of his committee memberships until he apologizes. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, introduced a separate censure resolution against King. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican, we all have a responsibility to call out Rep. King’s hateful and racist comments,” Ryan said, noting that the white supremacy comments were not the first time King has made headlines for inappropriate language.

The text of Rush’s censure resolution lists more than a dozen examples of King’s remarks, beginning with comments in 2006 in which he compared immigrants to livestock and ending with his lamentation in the New York Times last week that white supremacy and white nationalism have become offensive terms.

McConnell, in his statement, said he has “no tolerance” for the positions offered by King, and said “those who espouse these views are not supporters of American ideals and freedoms. Rep. King’s statements are unwelcome and unworthy of his elected position. If he doesn’t understand why ‘white supremacy’ is offensive, he should find another line of work.” McCarthy on Sunday said that “action will be taken” against King.

One Republican did not join the chorus of criticism. Asked about King’s remarks Monday, President Donald Trump said, “Who?” Told it was King, Trump said, “I haven’t been following it.” King on Friday suggested he’s been misunderstood. He said the foundation of the Times interview was partly a Sept. 12 tweet in which he wrote: “‘Nazi’ is injected into Leftist talking points because the worn out & exhausted “racist” is over used & applied to everyone who lacks melanin & who fail to virtue signal at the requisite frequency & decibels. But…Nazis were socialists & Leftists are socialists.”

On Friday, King said on the House floor that the interview with the Times “also was discussion of other terms that have been used, almost always unjustly labeling otherwise innocent people. The word racist, the word Nazi, the word fascist, the phrase white nationalists, the phrase white supremacists.” King said he was only wondering aloud: “How did that offensive language get injected into our political dialogue? Who does that, how does it get done, how do they get by with laying labels like this on people?”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who is the only black Republican in the Senate, cast King’s remarks and those like them as a blemish on the country and the Republican Party. “When people with opinions similar to King’s open their mouths, they damage not only the Republican Party and the conservative brand but also our nation as a whole,” Scott wrote in an op-ed last week in The Washington Post. King’s views, Scott added, are separate from the conservative movement and “should be ridiculed at every turn possible.” “Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism — it is because of our silence when things like this are said,” Scott wrote.

King’s position in the GOP had been imperiled even before his remarks about white supremacy.
Shortly before the 2018 midterm elections, in which King was running, Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio, then the head of the GOP campaign committee, issued an extraordinary public denunciation of him.
King has already drawn a primary challenger for the 2020 election: Randy Feenstra, a GOP state senator.

ROME, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say they have found the body of a missing snowmobiler in southeast Iowa. The Henry County Sheriff’s Office says searchers on Monday morning found the body of 25-year-old Spencer Adam, of Richland. He was reported missing just before 2 a.m. Monday.

His snowmobile was found about an hour later west of Mount Pleasant, just south of the village of Rome. His body was found in the Skunk River, about three-fourths of a mile from where the snowmobile was found. An autopsy is planned.

Firefighters from Massena were called to assist Bridgewater fire this afternoon. The page went out just before 4-p.m. for a residential fire at 109 W. 1st Street, in Bridgewater. No other details are currently available.