DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — President Barack Obama is doubling down on criticism of rival Mitt Romney’s background as a venture capitalist. The president says there may be value in such experience “but not in the White House.” Speaking yesterday at the Iowa Fair Grounds, the president called Romney’s claims that his policies have increased debt, in his words, “a cowpie of distortions.”

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Firefighters have helped a man escape from a house fire in northwest Iowa’s Storm Lake. The Sioux City Journal reports that the fire was reported a little after 7:15 a.m. Tuesday. Officials say firefighters helped 26-year-old Justin Lovan get down after he climbed out of a window.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Officials say some Illinois students on a trip to Iowa have been taken to the hospital after their school bus was involved in an accident in Davenport. The accident happened yesterday afternoon. Holly Sparkman of the Rock Island-Milan School District in Illinois says some students were sent to the hospital as a precaution.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 55-year-old man has lost his appeal for release from the Iowa civil commitment facility for dangerous sex offenders. In a ruling Wednesday, the Iowa Court of Appeals rejected arguments from Daniel Scott. A civil jury had found Scott to be a “sexually violent predator,” so he was committed to the state center. In March 2011 a jury ruled against his release, finding that Scott’s “mental abnormality” meant he was likely to reoffend.