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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A judge blocked Iowa’s secretary of state Monday from enforcing an order that barred counties from sending absentee ballot applications to voters with their identification information already filled in. Judge Robert Hanson ruled in favor of state and national Democratic Party groups, who contended that Secretary of State Paul Pate exceeded his authority when he told counties that absentee ballot request forms must be blank when mailed to voters. Hanson ordered Pate to put enforcement of his directive on hold. Local elections officials said they were studying the ruling to determine the impact, including whether they could take steps to mail ballots to thousands of voters whose requests were previously invalidated based on Pate’s directive.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Five Des Moines Black Liberation Movement protesters have filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to block Iowa State Patrol troopers from arresting them for trespassing if they return to the Iowa State Capitol or property surrounding it. The four women and man were among 17 people protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement at the Capitol on July 1. They were arrested after a scuffle broke with officers. They were told by troopers they couldn’t return, some for six months and others for a year. They claim the ban blocks their fundamental constitutional rights of free speech and assembly. A spokesman for the Iowa Attorney General’s office, which will represent the troopers, says they will respond in court.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa public health officials reported 356 new positive coronavirus cases on Monday, significantly lower than the daily average last week of more than 1,000 new cases and likely a reflection of lower testing over the weekend. There also were seven additional deaths. The state now has 92,901 positive cases since March and 1,388 deaths. The seven-day rolling average of the positivity rate in Iowa has risen over the past two weeks and was 17.64% on Sunday, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. That is the fifth-highest positivity rate in the nation.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The family of a Tyson Foods worker who died of the coronavirus in April has filed a lawsuit claiming his plant took few safety precautions before he and others became infected. Pedro Cano worked on the kill floor elbow-to-elbow with others at Tyson’s pork processing plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa. A wrongful death lawsuit filed by his three adult children says that Cano developed COVID-19 symptoms April 2, days before Tyson announced that two dozen workers had tested positive and that production would be suspended. The lawsuit says Cano died April 14 at age 51. The plant resumed production with new safety measures a week after his death.