DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two men who shot at each other in downtown Cedar Rapids are claiming a legal shield from prosecution under Iowa’s “stand your ground” law. The Des Moines Register reports that Michael Hodges Jr., of Cedar Rapids, and Zevon Johnson, of Urbandale, have pleaded not guilty and say the law passed last year makes them immune from prosecution. Security video shows them exchanging gunfire Jan. 28 outside a downtown Cedar Rapids bar and restaurant. Johnson was wounded; Hodges was not.

Both men have pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder. The law says a person doesn’t have to retreat before using deadly force if he or she thinks his or her life is being threatened.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a woman was found intoxicated in her Des Moines home after her 8-year-old son wandered to a neighborhood gathering. Polk County Court records say 35-year-old Morgan Brown-Edmundson is charged with three counts of child endangerment and is scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 2nd. Neighbors called police Sunday after the boy showed up at a neighborhood gathering. He told adults there he was worried about his mom because he couldn’t awaken her. Officers found her asleep and intoxicated and a 6-year-old child and a 2-year-old passed out or sleeping. A criminal complaint says the 8-year-old told officers his mom regularly makes him and his siblings ingest sleeping pills and other medicines to make them sleep during the day.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports four people were arrested on drug charges, Monday. At around 10:24-p.m., Deputies arrested three people at the Viking Lake State Park campground. 19-year old Christopher Bermejo-Pimentel and 18-year old Manuel Carrillo, both of Waterloo, were arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance. And, 21-year old Juan Daniel Jaime-Hernandez, also of Waterloo, was arrested for Possession of drug paraphernalia. Jaime-Hernandez was cited into court and released at the scene. Bermejo-Pimentel and Carrillo were transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where their bonds were set at $1,000 each.

And, 55-year old Bruce Warren Fitzwater, of Villisca, was arrested at around 6:34-p.m. in the 800 block of N. Broadway in Red Oak. He was charged with Possession of drug paraphernalia and held on a $300 bond. At the same time and location, 63-year old Jeff E. Mendenhall, of Corning, was arrested for Driving While License Revoked. His bond was set at $1,000. Deputies were assisted during the traffic stop by the Montgomery County K9 Unit.

At around 11-p.m. Monday, 39-year old Becky Jo Brace, of Red Oak, was arrested in the 100 block of W. Coolbaugh Street, in Red Oak. She was charged with Unlawful use of a credit card, and theft in the 5th Degree. Brace’ bond was set at $2,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Board of Parole has granted work release to a woman convicted in 2004 of fatally shooting her husband and leaving his body in a bedroom for more than a year. The Des Moines Register reports 50-year-old Dixie Shanahan Duty, of Defiance, was granted work release earlier in June.

Duty acknowledged killing her husband, Scott Shanahan, but said it was in self-defense. She argued her husband had battered and verbally abused her. A jury convicted Duty of second-degree murder, a conviction that carried a sentence of 50 years. Shortly before leaving office Gov. Tom Vilsack commuted her sentence so she only had to serve a minimum of 10 years before being eligible for parole.

When she begins work release, Duty will be able to leave a work release center for a job. Corrections Department spokesman Cord Overton says the center could later recommend that she be paroled. The parole board would make the final decision.

As of Monday, she remained in the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, east of Des Moines. Prosecutors say Duty used a shotgun to kill her husband while he slept in August 2002. She told people he’d left the community.