Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The White House is offering more details about President Barack Obama’s visit Wednesday to Iowa. Obama will visit Cedar Falls and speak on the issue of increasing access to affordable, high-speed broadband. The White House says Obama’s speech will be streamed live at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — MidAmerican Energy Company has completed work on three additional wind farms as part of an ongoing sustainable energy project. The Iowa-based energy company says the completion of these wind farms means four of the five farms that comprise the so-called Wind VIII project are now finished. The development project is the largest of its kind in Iowa history. The new wind farms are located in Webster County, Madison County and Wellsburg County.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A Waterloo teen has been arrested after allegedly stealing a rifle from a northeastern Iowa patrol car over the weekend. Authorities say the 15-year-old boy is charged with smashing the window of a patrol car parked across the street from the Waterloo police station Saturday afternoon and taking an AR-15 rifle from the vehicle. Police tracked the teen down and recovered the rifle within hours of the robbery. He has been charged with third-degree burglary, second-degree theft and trafficking in stolen weapons.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a former Fort Rucker soldier has been sentenced in the death of his 4-year-old daughter. Thirty-one-year-old Benjamin Schrad of Storm Lake, Iowa was sentenced to six years in prison in his daughter’s 2011 death. Prosecutors have said Schrad rushed his daughter to an emergency room on Aug. 1, 2011, telling doctors that the girl had collapsed while they were playing. Authorities said the girl’s injuries were consistent with being shaken, not with a fall.

DES MOINES, Iowa – (Jan. 12, 2015) – MidAmerican Energy Company has completed work on four of the five wind farms that make up its 1,050-megawatt Wind VIII project – the largest economic development project in Iowa history. The three wind farms completed in 2014 – Lundgren in Webster County, Macksburg in Madison County and Wellsburg in Grundy County – account for a total of 511.4 megawatts of wind generation capacity, to go along with the 44.6 megawatts of generation capacity at the Vienna II wind farm in Marshall County, which was completed in 2013.

The final piece of the Wind VIII project – the 495-megawatt Highland wind farm in O’Brien County – will be finished by the end of 2015. “With more than half the turbines in our Wind VIII project up and running, we’ve reached a major milestone in the development of another sustainable energy solution for our customers,” said Adam Wright, vice president, wind generation and development for MidAmerican Energy.

“By 2016, we’ll be able to produce enough energy from wind to meet the equivalent of approximately half of the electricity needs of our retail customers.” The Wind VIII project, announced in May 2013 during a joint press conference with Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, represents an investment by MidAmerican Energy of up to $1.9 billion.

With the addition of Wind VIII’s 448 turbines at the five wind farm sites, the company’s wind generation fleet will expand to 1,715 turbines, which can produce enough energy to power the equivalent of more than one million average Iowa homes. “We are extremely proud of our progress over the last decade in the development of wind energy,” Wright said. “We constructed our first wind farm in 2004, and today MidAmerican Energy is a national leader in wind generation.”

(Press Release)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad says a teacher licensing program aimed at helping veterans and their families is working. Branstad said at a Monday news conference that the military exchange license program has helped veterans and their spouses secure technical and provisional licenses that will keep them working in the state. The program allows participants to teach in the state for several years without having to immediately take additional college coursework.

Branstad says the program ties in with his separate Home Base Iowa initiative, which went into effect last year. That law is aimed at giving veterans incentives to work in Iowa once their military service is over. The licensing program is offered through the Board of Educational Examiners. A board report says more than 20 licenses were issued in 2014.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports today (Monday), that on December 16t, 2014, 30-year old Anthony J. Simmons, of Shenandoah, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge John A. Jarvey to serve 57 months (nearly 5-years) in prison for possession of child pornography, and to serve 10 years of supervised release following imprisonment.

United States Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt says during the Spring of 2013, investigators located sexually explicit pictures of a fifteen year-old female on Simmons’ computer. On June 5, 2014, Simmons entered a guilty plea to possession of child pornography.

The investigation was conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, Cyber Crimes Unit, and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.