Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police have announced murder charges against two people already being held on other charges in connection with the January killing of a Des Moines man. Des Moines police say 50-year-old Ricky Hascall and 26-year-old Monica Fagan were each charged Friday with first-degree murder in the January death of 31-year-old Michael Huckleberry. Hascall and Fagan have been jailed since February on robbery charges in connection with Huckleberry’s death.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An attorney who served as counsel to Gov. Kim Reynolds when she was No. 2 to former Gov. Terry Branstad has been named the state’s next public defender. Larry Johnson Jr. will replace Adam Gregg, who was appointed acting lieutenant governor on Thursday. Reynolds also announced Friday that Mark Lowe, interim director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, will now be in the job permanently. Katie Averill will serve as superintendent of the Iowa Division of Credit Unions.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for forcing another vehicle off the road and stealing the occupant’s purse, as well as passing forged checks. The Sioux City Journal reports that 42-year-old Stephanie Dunscomb pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree theft and forgery. Police say Dunscomb used her vehicle to force another vehicle off the road in Sioux City on May 5, then stole the victim’s purse. Police say she also stole and forged checks in November.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A group has proposed building greenhouses along railroad tracks in Iowa’s capital. The Des Moines Register reported that a New York architect and a local venture capitalist met with the Des Moines City Council this week to share their plans for downtown. They say the project could take 20 years to build and could cost tens of millions of dollars, but that it would meet demands for locally grown food and provide research space.

Officials with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office late Friday night, released information on their social media page about a chase and two arrests that occurred Thursday night. Authorities say a Deputy with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office attempted to stop a vehicle for a traffic violation. The suspect vehicle then fled and a pursuit continued until the vehicle stopped in a farm field near the intersection of Orange Road and 800th st. Apprehended at the scene was the driver identified as 37 year old Jessie Jay Kirchner, from Burlington Iowa and 31 year old Marcia Alicia Finch, of Harlan Iowa.

Kirchner is charged with eluding, possession of controlled substances, carrying of weapons, possession of drug paraphernalia, theft, and driving under suspension. He was being held in the Shelby County Jail on a $20,000 bond.

Finch is charged with probation violation warrants, possession of controlled substances, possession of drug paraphernalia, and theft. She was being held in the Shelby County Jail, on a $25,000 bond.

The Shelby County Sheriffs’s Office was assisted by the Harlan Police Department and Medivac Ambulance.

More than 24-hundred hogs died in a fire at a hog confinement in northwest Iowa’s Plymouth County. Fire fighters from five communities fought the blaze, which was reported at about 10:30 Friday morning.

According to Kingsley Fire Chief Paul Huth, the hog barn was fully engulfed when firefighters arrived on the scene. He says the barn is totally gone. Huth says an electrical exhaust fan is what is being blamed for the fire’s origin. “The owner…had done chores in the other building and he smelled smoke…That’s when he realized a fan was engulfed [in flames]…It was blowing fire into the building and that’s what started it all,” Huth says.

The Kingsley fire chief says the fire burned for a couple of hours before firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City woman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for forcing another vehicle off the road and stealing the occupant’s purse, as well as passing forged checks. The Sioux City Journal reports 42-year-old Stephanie Dunscomb pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree theft and forgery.

Police say that on May 5, Dunscomb used her vehicle to force another vehicle off the road in Sioux City, then approached the victim’s vehicle. Police say she reached through a partially open passenger-side window to open the door and steal the victim’s purse, which held a wallet and checkbook.

Police soon found Dunscomb’s vehicle broken down with the victim’s purse inside it. Police say Dunscomb also stole a billfold from a home in November and later forged checks from it.

In an update to our earlier reports, the Iowa State Patrol says a Cass County man was injured during an accident that took place at around 4:15-a.m. today (Friday), southwest of Cumberland. 26-year old Devin Anthony Boots, of Anita, suffered severe head and neck injuries was transported by Medivac Ambulance to the Cass County Memorial Hospital, and then flown by LifeNet to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, after the 1999 Toyota Corolla he was driving on westbound Highway 92 (Richland Road), for reasons unknown, crossed the center line of the road and struck the driver’s side of a utility trailer being pulled by an eastbound 1998 Chevy 1500 pickup. The accident happened near the intersection with 660^th Street.

After the impact, the Toyota went out of control and spun sideways before it entered the south ditch and rolled over, striking an embankment. The car came to rest on its wheels facing southeast. The driver of the pickup, 24-year old Nicodemus Xavier Lane, of Atlantic, was not injured.

The accident remains under investigation. Crews with the Cumberland and Massena Fire and Rescue Department and Deputies with the Cass County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.

An Iowa State University study finds traumatic events like natural disasters or terrorist attacks can have a profound impact on children a world away. Carl Weems, an I-S-U professor and chair of human development and family studies, says this week’s pop concert bombing in England where children were killed is a prime example.

“We’re looking at how perceptions of competence, or self-efficacy, predicts who does well after something like that,” Weems says. “We found that perceptions of competence were protective of developing PTSD symptoms, but we also found that exposure to those kinds of events can diminish perceptions of competence.”

Weems says parents and teachers should not try to shield children when bad things happen, but instead work to help kids build up their confidence to handle coping with events. “Perceptions of competence are really important for a sense of — if you think you can do it, then you are typically better at accomplishing things. If you feel like you have the competency, the skills and abilities to get things done, then you tend to get things done.”

Weems says adults need to be there for the children and enable them to understand what’s happening during a crisis. “It’s important to help kids process this information,” he says. “You typically can’t hide kids from seeing it on TV and it’s important to process it with them and assure them that the family or the school or whatever has plans in place to deal with those kinds of things.”

Given the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast in 2005 and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, Weems worked with professors at Louisiana State University on this study, which was published in the latest edition of the Applied Developmental Science academic journal.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, has introduced a bill with a Democrat Senator from New York to mandate in-person sexual assault prevention training for new members of the military. Ernst says this training would add to what’s already in place. “Those who are currently serving, they do undergo mandatory training when it comes to sexual assault prevention. And we do have many layers within our leadership — whether its our enlisted soldiers or whether its in our officer ranks — that are out there ever day encouraging respectful actions within our military,” Ernst says.

She says they want to have the new recruits get in-person training to so they don’t create an ineffective computer-based teaching program. “You will always find bad actors,” Ernst says, “and what we’re trying to do is really stop that from every happening. Especially by bringing it up right away as young men and women are entering the military.”

Ernst says the training would include proper use of social media for newly enlisted service members in all branches of the U-S military before they depart for basic training. “They need to be thoroughly briefed on social media, what’s acceptable, what’s not acceptable. What would be considered a sexual assault in and out of the military — they need to understand those things,” Ernst explains. “We are taking what society gives us and we are trying to mold them into productive service members.”

Ernst says the 2016 annual report from the Department of Defense estimates that 14-thousand-900 service members experienced a sexual assault, compared to 20-thousand-300 when the last comprehensive survey was done in 2014. She says even with the drop in those numbers, more needs to be done.

(Radio Iowa)