RED OAK, Iowa (AP) — Iowa authorities say an 18-year-old Nebraska man is expected to live after accidentally being shot by his father while the two were hunting pheasants in southwest Iowa. Iowa Department of Natural Resources spokesman Kevin Baskins says Ryan Rearick, of Omaha, was shot at fairly close range in the back of his head by a shotgun being carried by his father, Christopher Rearick, also of Omaha. The two were hunting in Page County when the accident happened around 10:30 a.m. Saturday.

The younger Rearick was taken to a Red Oak hospital, then flown to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. Baskins says Rearick is in stable condition and expected to survive. Baskins says the shooting likely would have been fatal if the gun had been loaded for deer instead of pheasant.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Republican state lawmaker says he plans to introduce a bill to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa, and he’s pointing to the deaths of two Iowa girls as his motivation. State Sen. Kent Sorenson, R-Milo, told The Des Moines Register that he intends to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that begins in January. Sorenson says the discovery Wednesday of the bodies of 8-year-old Elizabeth Collins and her cousin, 10-year-old Lyric Cook, have brought the issue of the death penalty to the forefront.

But the chairman of the Iowa Senate’s Judiciary Committee, Sen. Gene Fraise, D-Fort Madison, says there is not enough support in the Iowa Legislature for reinstating the death penalty. Iowa repealed capital punishment in 1965.

The Sheriff in Adair County is warning area residents of mail thieves in the region. Sheriff Brad Newton says his office has received about 30 reports of theft from mailboxes since Thursday, stretching from Greenfield to Stuart. Deputies say people are finding piles of mail in the middle of the street. Investigators believe the thief or thieves are taking all the contents from mailboxes, rifling through them for the items they want, then dumping the rest. Newton says he believes the thieves are looking for Christmas cards with cash in them.

The sheriff says the best way to thwart the thieves is to beat them to your mailbox. He says residents should retrieve their mail as soon as it’s delivered, if possible. He also advises residents who see any suspicious vehicles in their area to write down the license plate numbers, and call the Adair County Sheriff’s Office at 641-743-2148.

Newton says they believe a white vehicle carrying two young male subjects may be connected to the thefts, but no other descriptions are available.