IOWA CITY (AP) — State officials have nixed a $2.5 million grant for a firm proposing a technology to make fertilizer from corn cobs at a plant near Menlo. Iowa’s economic development agency said Tuesday that SynGest, Inc. defaulted on its contract by not disclosing in its 2009 application that Chairman Serge Randhava had been sued for racketeering and fraud.

HUXLEY (AP) — A semitrailer hauling pudding cups caught on fire on Interstate 35 in central Iowa. It happened Tuesday in the southbound lanes near the Huxley exit about 8 miles south of Ames. Pudding cups littered the interstate and both southbound lanes were blocked for over an hour as crews cleaned up the scene. Nobody was hurt.

IOWA CITY (AP) — A federal appeals court has held up an earlier ruling that could make it harder for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to pursue class-action sexual harassment cases against companies in the Midwest. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 2-1 ruling today dismissing most of EEOC’s claims on behalf of female truckers who claimed they were sexually harassed while working for Cedar Rapids-based CRST, Inc.

IOWA CITY (AP) — Lawyers have selected jurors in the trial of the director of an Iowa City neighborhood center charged with failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse for a teacher she oversaw. The Iowa City Press-Citizen says the jury was seated today in the case against Susan Freeman-Murdah in Johnson County District Court. Freeman-Murdah, director of the Broadway Neighborhood Center, was arrested in February.