Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa lawmakers expressed concern about a proposed performance-based funding model for the state’s three public universities. The funding model, which regents approved last year, bases 60 percent of funding allocation for the schools on the enrollment of in-state students. Legislative lawmakers must approve Gov. Terry Branstad’s budget proposal for the funding model to be applied.

CRESTON, Iowa (AP) — A south-central Iowa woman has been accused of stealing more than $500,000 from a local car dealership. Authorities say 44-year-old Lyndsay Jo Huntsman, of Creston, face charges of ongoing criminal conduct and five counts of first-degree theft. Police began investigating a report of missing money from a local Ford dealership, Creston Automotive, in October.

COLUMBUS JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) — A 4-month-old girl has died one week after authorities found her severely injured in her southeastern Iowa home. Officials say Marleen Jimenez of Columbus Junction died Saturday morning at the University of Iowa Hospital. An autopsy was performed Monday at the hospital. Results have not been released. Officials say the investigation is ongoing.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two state agencies say a process has been established to approve, administer and generate registration cards allowing the use of cannabis oil. An application form to obtain the card is now available online. The Legislature last year approved a law permitting the possession and use of a certain form of cannabis oil for patients with intractable epilepsy. Only patients and their primary caregivers can apply for the registration cards.

Officials with the Iowa Governor’s Office have provided an update on the Governor’s condition.   Spokesman Jimmy Centers said the Governors fell ill at an event earlier in the day, Monday. Centers said late Monday afternoon “Gov. Branstad is currently alert and resting comfortably at Iowa Methodist Medical Center. He is being observed and hydrated after having flu-like symptoms. The governor did have a flu shot this season. The governor has been admitted and will be kept overnight out of an abundance of caution.”

More information will be released as it becomes available. The governor and lt. governor have canceled their public events for Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2015, to rest and recover from seasonal illnesses.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines business college will become the University of Iowa’s Des Moines campus under an arrangement announced by the two schools. AIB College of Business President Nancy A Williams said at a news conference Monday the transition will take at least a year but that ultimately the 20-acre campus southwest of downtown would become part of the University of Iowa. All AIB students will then become University of Iowa students. AIB had a fall 2014 enrollment of more than 1,000 students.

Iowa President Sally Mason says the move enables the UI to achieve a goal of broadening services in the Des Moines area. Iowa Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter says he strongly supports the plan. AIB began in 1941 and moved to its Fleur Drive campus in 1972.

Officials with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Creston Police Department report a Creston woman was arrested today (Monday) at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, in connection with money reported missing from a local car dealership in Oct., 2014. 44-year old Lyndsay Jo Huntsman was  charged with On-going Criminal Conduct (Class B Felony) and five counts of Theft in the 1st Degree (Class C Felony).

Lyndsay Huntsman

An investigation determined in excess of $500-thousand dollars was missing from the accounts of Creston Automotive, a Ford dealership. In a criminal complaint affidavit, Huntsman is allegedly to have misappropriated funds and/or taken control of property, and committed multiple acts of thefts and/or embezzlement in excess of $10,000 each year between Jan. 1st, 2010 and Dec. 31st, 2014, while employed by Creston Automotive.

(DES MOINES) – Iowa Governor’s Office spokesman Jimmy Centers today released the following statement after Gov. Terry Branstad fell ill at an event at DuPont Pioneer:

“Gov. Branstad fell ill at an event today at DuPont Pioneer. An ambulance was called and he was transported to Methodist hospital in Des Moines. The governor is conscious and alert and was so during the transport to the hospital. During the transport, paramedics took the governor’s vitals and initial tests indicate that the spell was caused by a seasonal illness. The governor had been suffering from the effects of a cold.”

A man from Central Iowa was arrested Friday, in Cass County. The Sheriff’s Office reports 53-year old Kenneth Dean Colebank, Jr.,  of Boone, was arrested on a District Court warrant for Failure to Appear to Serve Jail Sentence. Colebank was taken to the Cass County Jail where he remains until sentence is served.

In an update to our earlier report, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office says deputies responded at around 12:15-a.m. Sunday, to a report of a one-vehicle accident two miles south of Atlantic at 610th Street and Lansing Road. A 97 Chevy K1500 driven by 21-year old Daylan Gene Kleen, of Audubon, was turning north on 610th Street from Lansing Road when Kleen lost control, causing the pickup to overturn into the east ditch.

A passenger, 20-year Jayce Marie Nelson, of Audubon, was transported to CCMH via Medivac. Damage to the vehicle is estimated at $3000. Kleen was cited for Driving Under Suspension and Failure to Maintain Control.

The Exira-EHK science department has entered the school in the Follett Challenge for its annual Earth Day activity and can win up to $60,000 for the school. The Follett Challenge showcases and rewards educators who are teaching the skills needed in the 21st century collaboratively. In order to enter, they filled out a long written application and made a five-minute video explaining the program with the help of the freshmen TAG students.

The video features pictures from previous Earth Days as well as interviews from students, teachers, and community members. But they need your help to win! The videos with the top 10 votes win $8,000 and can win up to $60,000 based on the written application and the total number of votes. Anyone with an e-mail account can vote once a day for the duration of the voting period.

Go to www.follettchallenge.com daily to vote for their video titled “Exira-EHK Earth Day” now through January 30th.

Governor Terry Branstad says his administration won’t be violating state law if they continue to run “significant” prison operations and a military-style academy on the Mental Health Institute campuses in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda.  “Those are now multiple-use campuses and both Mount Pleasant and (Clarinda) have significant operations there as well,” Branstad says. “And so those facilities will not be closed.” But a state senator from Mount Pleasant argues Iowa law requires the state to provide in-patient care for mentally ill patients at both sites. Branstad says the attorney general’s office has assured him what he’s proposing is legal.

“We’re not closing the facilities,” Branstad says. “…Neither one of them are accredited. At Clarinda, the psychiatrist is about ready to retire and Mount Pleasant has not been able to attract a psychiatrist, so to be able to provide quality mental health services to people we think they can better be served at the other two institutes and community mental health and with the help of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.” Key legislators says they were “disturbed” because they didn’t learn of Branstad’s plan to close the two mental health care facilities in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda until they were shown the details of Branstad’s proposed bugdet. Branstad rejects the complaint that he hid his intentions until the very last minute.

“We didn’t hide anything,” Branstad says. “We put a budget together that was not an easy budget to put together in light of the fact that the cost of Medicaid is going up dramatically.” The federal government is picking up a smaller portion of Medicaid spending in Iowa, because of a formula that sends states with better economies less than other states where the economy is dragging. Branstad says that means the budget for the Department of Human Services was tough to draft — and the Mental Health Institutes are managed by the department.

(Radio Iowa)