Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:25 a.m. CST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Officials say tens of thousands of health care workers, nursing home residents and staff will be the first people in Iowa to get COVID-19 vaccines, likely in the next few weeks. Vaccine_Brief_Vaccine_Dec3_2020 (2) Officials said Thursday that Iowa expects to receive 172,000 doses of vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna over the next month, assuming they receive emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. Iowa will use a portion of its initial allocation for health care workers, storing the vaccines at six health care sites across the state. The state will reserve the rest for a federal program that will use pharmacies to vaccinate residents and employees at skilled nursing facilities across the state.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Losing can have an up side. Just ask Rep. Abby Finkenauer, Sen. Doug Jones and Rep. Donna Shalala. The list goes on. So does the age-old practice of an incoming president offering losing politicians a place in a new White House. As Biden fills out his administration, his team is looking to recently defeated members of Congress. Finkenauer, of Iowa, is being considered for labor secretary. Jones, an Alabama senator who earlier prosecuted Klansmen for murder, is in the mix for attorney general. And Shalala, of Florida, is perhaps the most administration-ready, having already served eight years as secretary of health and human services under Bill Clinton.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A woman has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for fatally stabbing another woman in April 2018 in Sioux City. Melissa Camargo-Flores was sentenced Thursday in the death of 24-year-old Kenia Alvarez-Flores. Prosecutors say 22-year-old Camargo-Flores, of Dakota City, waited outside Alvarez-Flores’ house and stabbed the victim as she left for work. Camargo-Flores was originally charged with first-degree murder but pleaded guilty in October to the lesser charge. The reason for the stabbing wasn’t made clear Thursday but police said Camargo-Flores told them she had been involved with Alvarez-Flores’ boyfriend. The two women were not related.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A former Cedar Rapids nurse has pleaded not guilty to federal charges after being accused of stealing the powerful painkiller fentanyl from a surgery clinic where she worked. Prosecutors say 52-year-old Sabrina Thalblum, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with two federal counts in the case. She has been released without bond while she awaits her Feb. 1 trial. Prosecutors say that for a year starting in 2018, she used fine gauge needles to withdraw the opioid from unopened vials of the drug, then used a needle to replace the missing painkiller with a clear substance. A settlement agreement filed in June with the Iowa Board of Nursing says Thalblum admitted to taking the fentanyl from the surgery center and to having a substance abuse problem.