Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CST

NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A felony charge has been dropped against a man accused of punching and damaging a northern Iowa casino gambling machine. Police had charged 55-year-old Dion King with felony criminal mischief. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that Worth County Attorney Jeffrey Greve dropped the case Tuesday after King paid for the damage to the machine. Authorities say King admitted punching the machine out of frustration.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republicans appear united in proposing about $32 million in new funding toward the state’s roughly $3.2 billion K-12 education budget. A GOP-controlled Senate education committee voted 9-6 Thursday for the 1 percent increase. The vote comes one day after the education committee in the Republican-majority House approved a similar measure. The funding is expected to be finalized next week. The amount is less than the $54 million increase proposed recently by Gov. Kim Reynolds.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa prison officials say the flu has contributed to the death of a 29-year-old inmate. The Iowa Department of Corrections says Rashod Develt Aldridge died Thursday morning at an Iowa City hospital. His cause of death is listed as cardiac arrest, but officials say he had been in the hospital for treatment of complications from a chronic disease and the flu. Aldridge was serving a 20-year sentence for the March 2015 stabbing death of his father, 50-year-old Roosevelt Aldridge.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A key Iowa lawmaker says there’s not enough support to advance a House measure that seeks to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa. The Des Moines Register reports that Public Safety Committee Chairman Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, says there aren’t enough votes in the committee to advance the bill. The proposal would allow those convicted of first-degree murder to be executed by lethal injection. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965.

Police in Council Bluffs, late Thursday afternoon released more information with regard to an Officer involved shooting, but the names of those involved were being withheld until all parties can be formally interviewed. The person who was shot by a CBPD Officer remains hospitalized in stable condition, with non-life threatening injuries.

As we reported earlier, Council Bluffs Police and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), were conducting a joint investigation into an officer-involved shooting that occurred at around 3-a.m. Thursday, in the parking lot of a convenience store at 611 East Broadway.

A preliminary investigation indicates that a Council Bluffs police officer, while responding to a call of suspicious vehicle on the business lot, discharged his firearm while attempting to take the driver  of the car into custody.

After being shot, the driver of the car sped off the lot and crashed, resulting in the car flipping onto its roof.  The driver then fled the wrecked vehicle on foot and was apprehended after a short foot chase. The injured driver was transported by ambulance to a metro area hospital for treatment.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest of 22-year-old Bryson Lee Powell of Red Oak on Thursday at 3:50pm. Powell was arrested on a Montgomery County Bench Warrant for Contempt- Resist Order or Process of District Court. Powell was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on $1,000 cash bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A key Iowa lawmaker says there’s not enough support to advance a House measure that seeks to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register reports that Public Safety Committee Chairman Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, says there aren’t enough votes in the committee to advance the bill. The proposal would allow those convicted of first-degree murder to be executed by lethal injection. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1965.

Baudler’s comments came after an emotional public hearing on the bill Thursday. More than a dozen people spoke, with most opposing the bill.

Baudler says he hopes a Senate version of the bill — which would apply the death penalty only to those convicted of kidnapping, sexually abusing and killing a minor — would find support in the House.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, Thursday afternoon, reported a plaque with a gavel mounted will be turned over the family of a man who many years ago, served as Mayor of Atlantic.

Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones displays the plaque honoring Dan Merrick for his years of serving as Mayor, as City Administrator John Lund looks on.

The plaque was for Dan Merrick, who has since passed away. His wife Mona, used to work for the Atlantic Coca Cola Bottling Company, and his daughter works in Carroll. Jones expects to hand the plaque over to Merrick’s daughter next week, as a memento of the City’s 150th Anniversary Celebration.

In other news, City Clerk Barb Barrick said Mayor Jones has been asked to serve on the Board of Directors for the Iowa League of Cities. The annual meeting for the ILC is held this year in October, in Davenport.

A meeting was held Wednesday evening in Atlantic to discuss how to help offset future expenses that have outpaced the Cass County Landfill’s current revenue source: the tipping fees. Atlantic Mayor Dave Jones, City Administrator John Lund and City Clerk Barb Barrick sat down with members of the local media Thursday afternoon to discuss what transpired at the meeting Wednesday, which was attended by about 30 officials from around the County, the Atlantic City Council and Cass County Board of Supervisors and John Danos, the City’s Bond Attorney, who’s with the Dorsey and Whitney Law Firm in Des Moines.

Wednesday’s discussion, according to John Lund, was “To figure out how we were going to pay for the per capita fee the Landfill is levying against the municipalities and the County. Exploring what our options are.” He said at this time it appears the County will divert some of the Local Option Sales Tax or other sources of existing money to make payment for the rural residents. As far as the other incorporated cities, Lund said Lewis will use some of their franchise fee money from Mid-American Energy to pay for the city’s share. “Atlantic will just do a one-day debt service and levy that on property taxes.” Mayor Jones said “It’s going to be a tax on the citizens of Cass County, one way or another.”

The increase amounts to 38-cents per thousand dollars property valuation, since the Landfill calculated the fee for the 28-E constituent members, based on 12-dollars per household., or one-dollar per capita per month. Lund said people should notice the change on the property tax bill in January, 2019. Mayor Jones said the City of Atlantic will contribute about $85,000, rural county $42,000. Atlantic will receive its first bill and the end of the 1st Quarter, which is in Sept., 2018.

The new rate will not affect the $100 per ton tipping fee. The Landfill he says, started out being a tipping fee-based only, but it’s not enough to meet the costs of DNR requirements. Jones says Cass County has one of the highest landfill rates in the State.
The option of using the landfill as nothing more than a Transfer Station was also discussed Wednesday night. Jones said because the budget needs to be finalized by the end of March, but after that, the Landfill operators need to seriously look at making it a Transfer station, because “My gut feeling, says, in three or four-years, you’re going to come back for more money.” They have a 10-year pay-out, but they will eventually need more money. He said “It’s not a pretty situation out there, right now.”

Issues with the Cass County Landfill arose when Iowa DNR, on behalf of the EPA, ordered the Landfill to set up a “post closure” fund before the facility could close, if a leaking cell can’t be cleaned-up in a timely manner and another cell is built. That would cost at least $900,000, which is the landfill’s annual budget. They currently have only $300,000 in the bank.

With the adjusted fee structure, Jones said in 10-years they should have more than enough money to take care of the costs, but in an ideal situation, the County would take over the Landfill. That, he said, “Is not going to happen.”