SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa woman has been imprisoned for duping dozens of people into buying nonexistent tickets to the Super Bowl and other big events. The Sioux City Journal reports Ranae Van Roekel, of Boyden, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City to 51 months. The judge also ordered her to pay nearly $468,000 in restitution. Van Roekel had pleaded guilty to mail and income tax fraud.

Prosecutors say Van Roekel was a self-employed ticket broker who ran the business Get ’em Now Tickets from January 2008 to June 2012. Victims say she falsely claimed to have personal relationships and ties to events that gave her an inside track for deeply discounted tickets, hotel rooms and VIP passes.

Two Union County residents were arrested on Theft charges early this (Friday) morning. According to the Creston Police Department, 19-year old Xavier Lee Long and 26-year old Mark Allen Steinback, both of Creston, were arrested at around 1:30-a.m. at the Creston Wal-Mart Store on charges of Theft in the 2nd Degree. Both men were being held in the Union County Jail on $5,000 bond, each.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A Nebraska filmmaker caught up in Iowa’s film tax credits scandal has been acquitted at his third trial. The Des Moines Register reports jurors found Dennis Brouse not guilty Thursday of fraudulent practice. He’d been convicted at two previous trials, but the Iowa Appeals Court overturned both convictions, once because of issues with evidence, once because of faulty jury instruction.

Brouse made public television programs about horse training that aired in Nebraska. He moved his company to Iowa to take advantage of generous tax credits. Iowa suspended the credits program after auditors discovered that $26 million in credits were improperly issued.

Prosecutors accused Brouse of buying a trailer for $10,500, but reporting that it cost twice that much so he could inflate his credits.

Under current law, licensed teachers, administrators and coaches can be charged with sexual exploitation by a school employee if they’re suspected of inappropriate contact with an Iowa student. A new law the governor approved yesterday (Thursday) expands the list of people who could be charged with this crime to “non-licensed” school employees like cooks, custodians, bus drivers and volunteers who oversee students. Representative Megan Jones of Sioux Rapids has been trying to pass this legislation for a few years.

“Many of you have reached out to me in one way or another and said that you had a similar issue in your district and I just appreciate the thoughtful, hard consideration you put into this bill so that we can make the children of Iowa safer,” Jones said during House consideration of the bill last month. Those found guilty of the crime of sexual exploitation by a school employee can be sentenced to up to two years in prison.

Three years ago lawmakers adjusted the law so prosecutors could charge COACHES with the crime of sexual exploitation of a student. Legislators acted after the Iowa Supreme Court tossed out a conviction against an assistant basketball coach for having sex with a 16-year-old student. The court ruled the 36-year-old coach did not fall under the law forbidding sexual exploitation of students because he did not have a teaching license. His main job was at a manufacturing plant.

(Radio Iowa)

An Iowa lawmaker says it was a “terrible, horrible mistake” that a man convicted in connection with his wife’s death was able to collect on her life insurance policy — and a new state law will ensure it won’t happen again. Representative Marti Anderson of Des Moines was director of the Iowa Crime Victim Assistance Division seven years ago when Bridgett Wirtjes, of Manly died.

“She had cuts on her nose and on her knees, blunt force injuries and I’m not going to tell you about the rest,” Anderson said. It HAS been illegal in Iowa for people to collect the life insurance benefits of someone they’ve been convicted of MURDERING, but Tyler Wirtjes and two others were convicted of sexually assaulting his unconscious wife, who died soon after the incident.

“He was found guilty of two, third-degree sexual assaults because they couldn’t really determine what the exact cause of her death was,” Anderson said. “But when this happened, her kids were sleeping in the next room. His kids were sleeping in the house when he did this to his wife.” Wirtjes, who took photos of the assault with his cell phone, successfully filed a claim on his dead wife’s life insurance policy. Her parents went to court, but lost.

“This insurance was a policy that they had bought for her when she was four years old and they had paid for,” Anderson says, “but the man who contributed to her death…he got the insurance.” The governor signed a bill into law Wednesday that now bars people like Wirtjes who are convicted of a felony like sexual assault from collecting on the life insurance policies of their victims. Those convicted of other felonies, like kidnapping and human trafficking, also will be prohibited now from being the beneficiary of their victim’s life insurance.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CDT

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — A Republican congressman who campaigned on repealing the Affordable Care Act is cautioning constituents that the House GOP replacement bill is just “a tweak of Obamacare.” Two-term Iowa Republican Rod Blum indicates that the GOP bill would have gone further if he had his way. Blum and others are understating the impact of the bill that, if enacted, could drop millions from their insurance by next year.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An audit of the University of Iowa athletics department says administrators failed to adequately monitor information technology purchases, allowing wasteful spending and creating a major risk for equipment theft. The report cites missing iPads, unnecessary travel and improper credit card spending. The department’s IT director left his job in February as auditors were nearing the conclusion of their inquiry.

MARION, Iowa (AP) — A teen convicted of fondling three kindergarten students while volunteering at an eastern Iowa elementary school has been sentenced to a state training school. Cedar Rapids television station KCRG reports that the teen, now 16, was sentenced Thursday to the school in Eldora, and a judge recommended he stay there until he’s nearly 20. However, the school has discretion to decide how long he’ll stay. He’ll also have to register as a sex offender.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Greg Forristall, a Republican state representative from southwest Iowa, has died. Colin Tadlock, a spokesman for House Republicans, said Thursday that Forristall’s wife, Carol Forristall, contacted legislative staff to confirm the Macedonia lawmaker died Wednesday. He was 67. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer said in a press release that Forristall had been battling cancer.

Hy-Vee pharmacies are now offering over-the-counter the drug that can be used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose. A state order allows Iowa pharmacies to go through training to be able to sell naloxone without a prescription. The director of prevention services at the Area Substance Abuse Council in Cedar Rapids, Erin Foster, says Hy-Vee’s decision is a good start to making sure naloxone is available to those who need it.

“If someone wanted to obtain naloxone before the standing order, they actually would need to go to a medical provider and get a prescription for it. It kind of takes that barrier out of going and talking to a medical provider, which we know there’s a stigma against substance use,”Foster says. Foster says the pharmacies appear to be slow in moving on this.

“Our agency actually did a quick survey not too long ago to see who was actually utilizing the state standing order, and sadly not too many pharmacies had jumped on board with that yet,”Foster says. She says two doses of naloxone in the Cedar Rapids area can cost between 140 and 280-dollars. She says people still need to seek immediate medical treatment after using the drug.

(Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office is reporting two, recent drug-related arrests. Today (Thursday, May 11th), 19-year old Seth Alan Nelson, of Atlantic, turned himself in at the Cass County Sheriff’s Office on a Sheriff’s Office felony warrant for Possession with Intent to Deliver Marijuana. Nelson was booked into the Cass County Jail where he remains held on $5,000 bond.

And, on May 5th, 23-year old Joy Margaret Foley, of Omaha, was arrested in Cass County on charges of Possession of Alprazolam 1st Offense; Unlawful Possession of Prescription Drug; and Theft 4th Degree. Foley was taken to the Cass County Jail where she was released the following day on $1,000 bond.

In other news, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office say 28-year old Leslie Ann Olwell, of Atlantic, was arrested Monday on an Atlantic Police Department warrant for Harassment 1st Degree. Olwell was taken to the Cass County Jail and released the following day on $2,000 bond. And, 39-year old Richard Lee Wegenke, of Lewis, was arrested today (Thursday) on a charge of Violation of No Contact Order. Wegenke was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains held until hearing before the magistrate.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Missing iPads. Unnecessary travel. Improper credit card purchases. A recent audit of the Iowa athletics department warns that administrators failed to adequately monitor information technology purchases, allowing wasteful spending and creating a major risk for equipment theft.

The department’s IT director, Patrick Delin, left his job in February as auditors were nearing the conclusion of an inquiry that was sharply critical of his practices. The audit comes at a difficult time for athletic director Gary Barta, who is facing criticism following last week’s jury award of $1.4 million in damages to his former top aide, Jane Meyer.

At trial, the university argued that deputy athletic director Gene Taylor was paid $70,000 more than Meyer because his job included overseeing IT. Taylor is now at Kansas State.