DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Rep. Todd Prichard is joining the race for governor.
Prichard, a 42-year-old Democrat who grew up in Davenport, says he’ll seek higher wages and help the middle class to expand. He says: “I know that we can do better.”
Prichard says he’ll also focus on improving educational opportunities in the state.

He won the seat for House District 52 in a special election in 2013. The district includes Floyd and Chickasaw counties. The Democratic field for governor has grown in recent weeks. It includes former party chairwoman Andy McGuire and state Sen. Nate Boulton. Polk County Conservation Director Rich Leopold and party activist Jon Neiderbach also say they’re running. Businessman Fred Hubbell says he’s considering a run as well.

SPENCER, Iowa (AP) – A former pastor in northwest Iowa had been given five years in prison for having sex with people he was counseling.

Former DaySpring Assembly of God pastor Kevin Grimes was sentenced Monday in Clay County District Court. He’d pleaded guilty to two felony and one misdemeanor count of sexual exploitation by a counselor. Prosecutors dropped three other counts in exchange for Grimes’ pleas. The 52-year-old also must register as a sex offender.

Grimes had worked as chief executive officer of the Spencer Dream Center, which provides social services to the community. Prosecutors allege Grimes engaged in sexual conduct with some clients while providing mental health services to them.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports two Pottawattamie County men have been sentenced to 10-years each in prison, followed by a five-year term of supervised release each, for Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine.

On January 4th, 31-year old Frank Moises Torres and 40-year old Brandon Wayne Moore, both of Council Bluffs, pled guilty to the distributing meth in the southern district of Iowa, beginning as early as August, 2016. A drug trafficking investigation led to the charges in Council Bluffs and southwest Iowa. The investigation was conducted by the Southwest Iowa Narcotics Task Fore, Council Bluffs Police, and the Iowa DCI.

Torres and Moore were sentenced last Friday in Council Bluffs Federal Court. Their cases were prosecuted by the U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

(9-a.m. News)

• 3 cups uncooked medium pasta shells
• 1 can (20 oz.) unsweetened pineapple chunks, drained
• 1 large navel orange, peeled, sectioned and halved
• 1 cup halved red grapes
• 1 cups halved green grapes
• 1 medium apple, chopped
• 1 large firm banana, cut into 1/4″ slices
• 1 carton (8 oz.) plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate

Cook pasta according to package directions; drain and rinse in cold water.  Place in a large bowl; add the fruit.  Combine yogurt and orange juice concentrate; pour over salad and toss to coat.  Cover and chill for several hours.  YIELD:  10 servings

(Dixie Terry, Marion, IL)

The Creston Police Department reports a northwest Iowa woman faces a charge of  OWI/2nd offense following an accident early Saturday morning on N. Cherry Street. Officials say 27-year old Lindsey Jean Veitz, of Storm Lake, was traveling north on N. Cherry Street at around 2:20-a.m., when her 2016 Hyundai Tucson SUV drifted over and struck a legally parked 2004 VW Bug. Damage from the collision amounted to $10,000. There were no injuries reported.

Creston Police said also, 34-year old Heather Davis, of Creston, was arrested last Friday afternoon at the Union County Law Enforcement Center. Davis was taken into custody for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Theft in the 4th Degree. She was later released from the Union County Jail on a $1,000 bond.

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

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A traffic stop Monday night in Adams County resulted in an arrest. 19-year old Justice Guy Myers, of Villisca, was arrested at around 9:35-p.m., and charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance/Marijuana. Myers was brought to the Adams County Jail and held on $1,000 bond.

A trailer being pulled by a pickup truck fish-tailed Monday evening, causing a rollover accident in Pottawattamie County. The Iowa State Patrol says the 2015 Chevy Silverado pickup was traveling west on Interstate 80 near Neola at around 7:15-p.m., when the trailer began to sway, possibly due to the wind. The driver, 66-year old Louis David Damico, of Saegertown, PA, tried to correct the vehicles’ path, but the truck and trailer crossed both lanes of traffic.

The truck rolled onto its top and came to rest in the north ditch, while the trailer came to rest on its side in traveled portion of the roadway. Damico, and a passenger in the truck, 66-year old Almeda M. Damico, also of Saegertown, PA, were transported by Neola Rescue to Mercy Hospital. The couple was wearing their seat belts.

Two people from southwest Iowa were injured in a collision Monday evening, in Mills County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2011 GMC SUV driven by 42-year old Dawn Marie Hale, of Red Oak, and a 2010 KIA Forte driven by 22-year old Ashley Ann Greedy, of Henderson, collided as one of the vehicles was preparing to the turn north onto County Road M-16 from Highway 34. The accident happened at around 5:30-p.m.

Both women were transported by rescue crews from Red Oak and Malvern respectively, to area hospitals. Hale went to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, while Greedy was transported to Jennie Edmundson in Council Bluffs.

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

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — An 88-year-old sex offender whose attack on an elderly woman led to an Iowa Supreme Court ruling last month has died at a mental health institute. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports 88-year-old William Russell Cubbage died Friday at the Independence Mental Health Institute. His death followed a supreme court ruling that the state had no legal responsibility to safeguard a 95-year-old woman who was sexually assaulted by Cubbage. He’d been released from custody and sent to her nursing home.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A special election has been scheduled to fill the Iowa House seat left open by the death of Rep. Greg Forristall. Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad signed a proclamation Monday directing a special election on June 27 for House District 22. The district covers Pottawattamie County in southwest Iowa. Forristall, a Republican from Macedonia, died earlier this month.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The state of Iowa has been billed more than $20,000 so far to fight a second lawsuit challenging a new collective bargaining law. An invoice provided Monday to The Associated Press shows the Belin McCormick law firm in Des Moines is seeking the money for its work in April involving a lawsuit filed by the Iowa State Education Association. Four attorneys collectively worked about 63 hours. One attorney who completed more than 45 of those hours is being paid an hourly rate of $345.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A group has taken out a billboard ad down the block from Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Des Moines offices calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman to allow an independent investigation of the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia. Jim Arkedis, a former Defense Department intelligence analysist who heads the 4DPAC, says the group took out the ad because it wants Grassley to know his constituents really care about the issu