Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 5:15 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The proliferation of digital tools that can make text and email messages vanish may be welcome to Americans seeking to guard their privacy, but open government advocates fear they are being misused by public officials. Some are using them to conduct business in secret and evade transparency laws. Whether communications on those platforms should be part of the public record is a growing but unsettled debate in states across the country.

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — Workplace safety officials are investigating the fatal injury of a man at a manufacturing plant in north-central Iowa’s Fort Dodge. The Messenger reports that the man died after being hit by and pinned under a steel beam Thursday evening. Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration spokeswoman Deborah Babb says the beam was being erected as part of a construction project at CJ Bio American in Fort Dodge when the accident happened. Babb declined to release the victim’s name.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Businesses and volunteers are pitching in to provide more than cleanup in the wake of the destructive tornadoes that swept through three cities in central Iowa earlier this week. Organizations were helping and housing injured pets and a meatpacking plant was providing hot meals to residents in need Saturday in Marshalltown. The city of 27,000 people suffered the most damage during the Thursday storms, which surprised residents and weather forecasters.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A newspaper’s analysis shows Iowa has spent nearly $500 million in public money in the past decade to support private schools and home-school programs. The Des Moines Register found that state money goes toward supporting private-school operations through busing assistance, textbook purchases, special education funding and scholarship support. The state also offers a tax credit for those who pay private-school tuition.