Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Grocery distributor Nash Finch Company says its subsidiary U Save Foods Incorporated has agreed to buy Omaha-based No Frills Supermarkets. The deal adds 18 stores to the Nash Finch company. Fourteen are located in Nebraska, 12 of which are in the Omaha market. Four stores are located in western Iowa.

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — No injuries have been reported from an explosion at a biodiesel plant in Mason City. The Globe Gazette in Mason City reports the explosion happened late yesterday afternoon at the Soy Energy plant on the city’s southwest side. The explosion was reported about 6 p.m. yesterday.

ELKADER, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa teenager accused of killing his grandparents at their home in Manchester has been formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder. 17-year old Isaiah Sweet made his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Clayton County District Court in Elkader. He’s charged in the deaths of Richard and Janet Sweet. Their bodies were found Sunday afternoon when relatives arrived for a Mother’s Day gathering.

PEOSTA, Iowa (AP) — Workers at a printing company may have to return to college for a spelling refresher. Because of an error, hundreds of Northeast Iowa Community College diploma covers featured a misspelling — the state was spelled “Ioma.” Tracy Kruse, the college’s director of external relations, said the error wasn’t noticed until shortly before last week’s ceremonies at the Peosta and Calmar campuses. About 300 graduates saw the misspellings.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a former employee has been charged with stealing over $13,000 worth of artifacts from the Cedar Falls Historical Society museum. Police say 58-year-old David Arnold of Waterloo, was arrested yesterday for first-degree theft. He was taken to the Black Hawk County jail. The museum reported the theft on April 25th.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The hiring of a new Sioux City West High School boys and girls track coach based on tenure has raised complaints that the district may have overlooked better qualified candidates. Bruce Lear, director of the teachers union, says the district had to hire Rochelle Babcock in accordance with the union’s contract language on tenure and the district should have never suggested others would be interviewed.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An environmental research center at the University of Iowa has received a $7.9 million grant to help support research of rural health issues. The Iowa City Press Citizen reports that the Environmental Health Sciences Research Center is getting a five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. The center has 65 faculty researchers and was founded in 1990.

ONAWA, Iowa (AP) – A western Iowa woman charged with drowning her 15-month-old son has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.  Twenty-four-year-old Ashley Cameron, of Onawa, entered the plea on Monday in Monona County District Court. Her trial is set for July 31st. 

Cameron is charged in the Feb. 11th death of Markis Dahms. Police say she held her son under a running faucet in the bathtub in their home until he drowned. The boy was found after officers responded to an emergency call about a child who wasn’t breathing.

A Shelby County resident lived out a life long dream for the entire world to see. Greg Gaer, of Irwin, had long dreamed about appearing on “The Price is Right.” Gaer lived out that dream on May 1^st in California.He says his morning began with a 10-a.m. wait to get in to the studio. Once inside the doors, potential contestants were interviewed by the show’s producer. He says there were lines of 15 people each, who were screened to see who was excited and had a good attitude about the experience and the show. Afterward, prospective contestants receive a name tag, chow down on some food while still in line, and view the first taping of the show, before finally moving into the studio for their taping of the show. Gaer says he got on contestants row in the second half of the show.

He says he was the second to last on the second half of the show, and made it very close to being on stage but came up short in the bidding process on the products shown. Even though he never made it on stage, Gaer says he had a great moment with host Drew Carey. He says he accidentally yelled out a bid, followed by “Bob”, a reference to Bob Barker – the former host of the show – when he was making a bid. Carey joked that Barker would have enjoyed that, but that he was “probably on the golf course.” 

Gaer’s sister put the entire California trip together which was more than just being on “The Price is Right.” For a parting gift, Gaer and the rest of the contests received $300 for being on the show. If he were to ever to try and get back on the show, he would have to wait 10 years to be a contestant. The game show with Gaer will be aired at 10-a.m. Thursday, May 24^th on CBS.

(Courtesy Joe McCall/KNOD-Harlan)

The Iowa Department of Public Safety says the names of two officers will be added to the Iowa Peace Officer Memorial during a ceremony to he held this Friday, May 18th, in Des Moines. The ceremony coincides with National Police Week, and will pay tribute to Des Moines Police Officer Roger Ray Hildreth, and Iowa State Patrol Trooper Mark Toney.

DM PD Officer Roger Ray Hildreth

Des Moines Police Officer Roger Hildreth suffered a fatal heart attack on February 21st, 2008, at the age of 48. Hildreth had been running on a treadmill in the department’s gym, after having just completed responses to a burglary in progress call and a call involving two dogs loose in a neighborhood before collapsing. Officer Hildreth was a U.S. Navy veteran and had served with the Des Moines Police Department for 18 years.

43-year old Trooper Mark Toney was killed during the afternoon of September 20th, 2011, in an automobile accident on U.S. Highway 65/69, south of Indianola. He was traveling with emergency equipment activated when the patrol car left the roadway and overturned several times, landing in a field. The vehicle burst into flames during the accident.

Trooper Mark Toney

 The crash investigation determined that Trooper Toney’s patrol car was traveling at approximately 115 mph when it left the roadway. Trooper Toney had served with the Iowa State Patrol for 24 years.

The ceremony honoring the two men, along with the 164 other Iowa officers who gave their lives in the line of duty over the past 140-years, will take place 10-a.m. Friday, at the Peace Officer Memorial, located at the Lucas State Office Building, which is at the corner of East Grand Avenue and East 12th Street, in Des Moines. Governor Terry Branstad, Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds, DPS Commissioner Larry Noble, and officers from local, county and State law enforcement agencies will be on-hand for the event.

The Missouri River is number-four on the new list of the country’s “most endangered” waterways, according to an environmental conservation group. Eileen Fretz, spokeswoman for American Rivers, says last year’s historic, months-long flooding of the Missouri showed how management of the river is at a crossroads. Fretz says, “We can either keep going on levees and dams that have failed to provide adequate flood protection, as they did last year, or we can take a broader look and look at some other changes, such as the natural ability of the river’s floodplains and wetlands to absorb and store floodwaters.” The 2011 flooding caused hundreds of millions of dollars damage to homes, businesses, farmland and infrastructure. Many blamed the U-S Army Corps of Engineers for not acting quickly enough to avert the flooding, but Fretz says there needs to be more long-term planning to prevent future flooding disasters.

“Just relying on dams and levees hasn’t been enough to protect us and we need to acknowledge that flooding happens and we need to accommodate for a little bit of that,” Fretz says. “We think that flood plain restoration can help us meet those needs.” She encourages Nebraskans and Iowans to take action by going to the Washington D-C-based group’s website, www.americanrivers.org.”   “There’ll be a link where you can send an email to decision makers,” Fretz says, “encouraging them to support their rivers.” The nation’s top three most endangered rivers, according to the report, are: the Potomac, the Green River and the Chattahoochee.

American Rivers calls itself “the nation’s voice for clean water and healthy rivers,” and releases the report every year to shine a public spotlight on threats facing rivers and how citizens can take action to help.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)