Two Iowa Republicans have redirecting campaign donations from a white supremacist who reportedly influenced the man accused of murdering nine African Americans in a South Carolina church last week. Senator Joni Ernst and Congressman Steve King are giving the money to the church in South Carolina as well as the families of those murdered there.

Earl Holt of Longview, Texas, donated a thousand dollars to the Ernst campaign last fall and made 25-hundred dollars in donations to King’s last two reelection campaigns. Holt is a leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The church shooter has said he was inspired by information he found on that group’s website. Holt’s occupation is listed as “retired” alongside the F-E-C’s record of his donations to both Ernst and King.

King posted a statement on his campaign website, saying his prayers are with the families and friends of those affected by the tragedy in South Carolina. Holt also donated to presidential candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum, all of whom have denounced Holt in the past two days and redirected his campaign money to help the South Carolina church and those who were slain there last Wednesday.

Holt has called African Americans “the laziest, stupidest and most criminally-inclined race in the history of the world.” Holt has posted a statement on the web saying his group is “hardly responsible” for the actions of a “deranged” shooter “merely because he gleaned accurate information from our website.” The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Holt’s “Council of Conservative Citizens” as the “reincarnation” of “White Citizens Councils” of the 1950s and ’60s that served as a national network for white supremacists.

(Radio Iowa)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking steps to reduce flooding risks in the Missouri River Basin after recording higher than expected water levels at many of its reservoirs. Corps officials said Monday they expect to hold more water back over the summer, using the storage capacity of reservoirs to limit downstream flooding when possible.

Jody Farhat of the Missouri River Basin Water Management Division says the Corps anticipated drought conditions earlier this year, but shifted its focus after the Midwest and Plains states experienced far more rain than predicted. Some states have seen as much as 10 inches in the last 30 days.

The basin covers parts of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas and all of Nebraska.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former Des Moines police officer convicted in March of using excessive force has been sentenced to more than five years in prison. Colin Boone was sentenced to 63 months in prison. He will be required to serve 85 percent of his sentence. A jury convicted the 39-year-old Boone following allegations he kicked a man in the head during a traffic stop in 2013. The kick knocked out two of the man’s front teeth.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man in Mason City fired a gun at an officer shortly before killing himself. The Mason City Police Department says an officer stopped a man suspected of drunken driving early Monday morning. The officer reports the man at one point had a gun pointed at himself. The man is accused of firing a handgun in the direction of one of the officers. The officers say the man shot himself with the handgun about one minute later.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — After years of arguing that liberal Iowa law professors illegally derailed her career, a conservative lawyer will get a second chance to prove her claim to a jury. Jury selection started in federal court in Davenport in a lawsuit filed by anti-abortion activist Teresa Manning, who contends that the University of Iowa College of Law refused to hire her for teaching jobs because of her beliefs and associations. The long-running lawsuit has been closely watched in higher education.

GRIMES, Iowa (AP) — The owners of an art gallery and bistro in suburban Des Moines will close the business, saying it wasn’t financially viable following a dispute about using the venue for a same-sex wedding. Dick and Betty Odgaard say they would close the Gortz Haus in Grimes because their decision to stop renting a gallery for weddings made the business unsustainable.

A Pottawattamie County man who plead guilty June 1st to one felony count of Sexual Abuse Assault in the second-degree, was sentenced today (Monday, June 22nd), to serve a maximum of 25-years at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center. Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Jeffrey L. Larsen said 56-year old Roger Allen Ericksen was also ordered to pay a fine amounting to $1,000. Cass County Attorney Dave Wiederstein says at a minimum, Ericksen will be incarcerated for 17 and a half years before being eligible for parole, with credit given for time already served.

In exchange for his plea of guilty to Count I, the remaining nine counts of sexual abuse in the second degree were dismissed. Ericksen is required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life under the sex offender registry rules, pay all related court costs and fines, and his court appointed attorney fees. He is also required to submit a DNA sample for profiling.

There is also pending parole violation arising from his conviction in Cass County to Sexual Abuse in the 3rd Degree, on December 4th, 2012.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A consultant’s report says funding to build a replacement for Omaha’s aging Department of Veterans Affairs hospital may be even further away than expected. In 2011 the VA unveiled plans for a 1 million-square-foot replacement in Omaha to serve Nebraska and western Iowa veterans. Congress approved $56 million to start the project planning, and it tentatively was scheduled to open in 2018.

The analysis by Omaha-based Booz Allen Hamilton released Monday says funding now could be delayed until the late 2020s. The analysis points to a $9 billion backlog of approved projects and VA infrastructure needs that could reach $60 billion. “There never really was any real chance there was going to be a new hospital here,” said U.S. Rep. Brad Ashford, D-2nd District.