Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Drake Bulldogs will soon be represented by a real bulldog. The school announced on Friday that it will begin searching for an English bulldog to represent Drake at live sporting events, much like Georgia and Butler do.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) — Police have arrested an Iowa teen accused of setting the same vacant house on fire three separate times last year. The Iowa Department of Public Safety says 19-year-old Coty Cates of Missouri Valley is charged with three counts of second-degree arson in connection with the October fires. The Omaha World-Herald reports the house is a complete loss.

SLEEPY EYE, Minn. (AP) — A 14-year-old girl from Iowa has died and three others have been injured in a two-vehicle crash in southern Minnesota. The State Patrol says Daisy Rodriguez died in the crash at a rural intersection near the Brown County community of Sleepy Eye Thursday about 5 p.m. The 22-year-old woman driving the car and a 17-year-old passenger were injured. KTOE radio reports the State Patrol says the three are related and from New Hampton, Iowa. The driver of the other vehicle was also injured.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kirani James shattered Michael Johnson’s 400-meter Drake Relays record Friday, finishing in 44.22 seconds. Johnson ran 44.41 in the 1996, the season in which he broke the Olympic record at the Atlanta Games. Aleec Harris stunned the 110-hurdle field, winning in 13.16.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – A new initiative of the Iowa West Foundation is giving 45 Pottawattamie County students the chance to attend Iowa Western Community College for free. The Daily Nonpareil reports that Pottawattamie Promise aims to help future first-generation college students who qualify for a federal Pell grant, and those students who would not have considered college a possibility without assistance. The program will be piloted for three years in the Council Bluffs and Riverside community school districts.

The foundation estimates about 400 students in Pottawattamie County are falling into the gaps between existing education support systems. Each student will receive a scholarship that pays for tuition, room and board at the college. Advisors will also keep students on track with attendance and coursework.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Cross-country efforts to track down a photo of an Iowan killed in the Vietnam War have turned up an image of the man when he was 14 years old. Chris Mudge, executive director of the Iowa Newspaper Association, says the photo of Staff Sgt. David L. McCombs was provided Thursday by an Illinois man.

The photo of McCombs, a U.S. Army soldier who was born in Oskaloosa and died at age 26 in Vietnam, was the last one needed to complete Iowa’s contribution to the Vietnam Memorial Fund’s “Wall of Faces.” The tribute aims to put a face to the more than 58,000 names listed at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

Mudge says efforts are ongoing to find a photo of McCombs closer to his death in 1969.

Employees at the state-run Mental Health Institutes in Clarinda and Mount Pleasant that are being closed say the hospitals have provided high-quality care, even if the facilities do not have the “gold star” of accreditation. Cindy Fedler, a nurse clinician, was hired at the Mental Health Institute in Mount Pleasant in 2007 — to prepare for the tests required for the accrediting process. “That plan was aborted due to financial reasons,” Fedler says.

Fedler worked at the M-H-I in Mount Pleasant until April 6th, when she was laid off. “The accreditation would not have changed the way we admitted folks,” she says. “It would not have changed the way those who had payment, insurance — the way they paid, it would not have changed that.” And Fedler says Mount Pleasant’s M-H-I met all the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “best practices” guidelines.

“The accreditation we keep hearing in the media, I want the truth to be known that that would have affected us not at all,” Fedler says, “other than a nice little title and a gold star behind our name.” Governor Terry Branstad has said the two M-H-I’s are being closed because they’re antiquated and are not accredited. Ann Davison, a nurse clinician at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute, was hired in 2005 to prepare for the accreditation process there — but the state decided not to spend the money.

Davison and Fedler made their comments this week during testimony before the Iowa Senate Government Oversight Committee.

(Radio Iowa)