The father of a young boy who shot himself while staying at a suburban Des Moines hotel is now charged with child endangerment causing bodily injury. The felony charge against 29-year-old Jonathan Hauser of Council Bluffs resulted from the August 19th shooting at the Sterling Inn hotel in Clive. Police say Hauser’s two-year-old son found a loaded gun in a suitcase and picked it up and pulled the trigger. The child was shot through the chest and neck, but police say he survived as was released from the hospital. Hauser was booked and released on a promise to appear in court again on September 4th.

Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County say a man from Ringgold County was arrested Sunday night, on a drug charge. 25-year old Mark Donald Cooley, of Mt. Ayr, was arrested at around 9:15-p.m. and charged with possession of marijuana. Cooley was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.

(DES MOINES) – Gov. Kim Reynolds ordered all flags in Iowa to be lowered to half-staff effective immediately until sunset on Sunday, September 2, 2018, in honor and remembrance of Sen. John McCain. He passed away on Saturday, August 25, 2018, at the age of 81. Reynolds said “We lost an American hero. John McCain’s life reflected some of the very best our country had to offer. He understood the greatness of America, fought tirelessly for our values and put forth decades of admirable service to this nation. He was a loving husband and father, and we will never forget him or the legacy he leaves behind.”

Flags will be at half-staff on the State Capitol Building and on flag displays in the Capitol Complex. Flags will also be half-staff on all public buildings, grounds and facilities throughout the state. Individuals, businesses, schools, municipalities, counties and other government subdivisions are encouraged to fly the flag at half-staff for the same length of time as a sign of respect.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A third trial is set to begin for an Illinois man convicted of the 1990 killing of a 9-year-old girl in Iowa. The Quad-City Times reports that 56-year-old Stanley Liggins will go on trial Tuesday on one count of first-degree murder in the death of Jennifer Lewis. Juries have twice convicted Liggins in the death of Jennifer Lewis, who disappeared from her Rock Island, Illinois, neighborhood. Her burned remains were found near a Davenport school in September 1990.

The Iowa Supreme Court overturned Liggins’ 1993 conviction. The Iowa Court of Appeals in November 2013 vacated Liggins’ second conviction. The court ruled that 77 police reports weren’t provided to Liggins’ defense team and that prosecutors didn’t disclose that a key witness was a paid police informant. Liggins has maintained his innocence.

An immigrant charged in the fatal stabbing of an Iowa college student has hired new defense lawyers. Attorneys Chad and Jennifer Frese filed paperwork Sunday to represent Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who is accused in the killing of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts. They’re expected to replace attorney Allan Richards, who called President Trump “sad and sorry” for labeling his client guilty before trial.
Rivera, a dairy worker suspected of being in the U.S. illegally, was charged with murder last week. Richards says Rivera’s family hired him and that he hasn’t spoken with Rivera about being replaced. Richards says he understands if Rivera wants attorneys with more criminal trial experience. Jennifer Frese confirmed today (Monday), that the two have been privately retained to represent Rivera.

The father of Mollie Tibbetts, whose body was found last week in a central Iowa cornfield, asked hundreds of mourners to remember the 20-year-old by “celebrating something wonderful” rather than focusing on how she died. Tibbetts was memorialized Sunday afternoon at a ceremony in the gymnasium of Brooklyn-Guernsey-Malcom High School in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa. Rob Tibbetts urged congregants to remember his daughter’s passion for life and her desire to help others. To highlight his call to celebrate “wonderful” things, Tibbetts recognized a couple who had just married the day before during his eulogy.

(Radio Iowa) — The two major party candidates for state ag secretary say preserving Iowa’s soil and cleaning up the state’s lakes and streams are an important mission for the State of Iowa, but they differ on a proposal that’s been around nearly eight years to raise more money for that mission.Tim Gannon, the Democrat who’s running to be Iowa’s next ag secretary, supports raising the state sales tax by a fraction to finance the effort.  “We are an agricultural state because we had the fortune to be settled on top of the best soil in the entire world and we’ll only be an agricultural state as long as we care for that resource,” Gannon says. “And so I think that putting the three-eighths cent sales tax into place, giving us that large funding stream into conservation, helps make things much more dynamic and helps us make progress much faster.”

Mike Naig, the Republican who’s been ag secretary since March, is seeking a full, four-year term. Naig is a proponent of THIS year’s legislation that reallocated already existing taxes to water quality initiatives.”It puts us on a different trajectory,” Naig said. “…I’m very comfortable where that has gotten us. As I said at the bill signing, this is not the last conversation that we will have about water quality funding in this state, so I would never rule out a funding source in the future, but it’s got to come with a larger package around it in order to be considered.”

Naig says he’d only support raising the sales tax if it’s part of a broader package of tax cuts. Naig and Gannon made their comments this weekend on Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program. Iowa voters passed an amendment in 2010 that created a state Natural Resources and Outdoor Recreation Fund, financed with a three-eights-cent increase in the state sales tax — if the Iowa legislature and governor passed a sales tax increase.

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie Country report the arrest of a Griswold woman, Friday evening. 26-year old Destiny Jo Fuller was arrested following a traffic stop, for Driving While Barred. Her bond was set at $2,000. Late Friday night, a transient, 32-year old Miguel Angel Aguirre-Esparza, was charged with Simple Assault, in connection with an incident at the Pott. County Jail, where Aguirre-Esparza and another inmate, a man from Council Bluffs, had a verbal disturbance, and Aguirre-Esparza allegedly shoved the other man with his hands. His bond was set at $300.

A call to assist a motorist on Interstate 80 late Friday night, resulted in the arrest of a woman on drug charges. A Pott. County Sheriff’s Deputy was dispatched to mile marker 34-of I-80 eastbound, at around 11:30-p.m., ended-up arresting 19-year old Bree Nicole Sautter, of Avoca, for Possession of a Controlled Substance (a 21.6-gram bag of marijuana), and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (2 marijuana pipes and a grinder). And, 25-year old Austin Charles Harmon, of Crescent, was arrested Saturday afternoon, on charges that include Possession of a Concealed Weapon (a 10-inch black knife), Possession of a Controlled Substance (.07-grams of methamphetamine), Unlawful Possession of a Prescription drug (294 unidentified green pills, and 36 Buprenophrine pills-an opioid medication used to treat opioid addiction in the privacy of a physician’s office ), and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia (a needle, a scale and 2 containers with residue).