(Radio Iowa) – A fifth person associated with the City of Armstrong has been arrested in connection with a long-term investigation of alleged misconduct. Former City Clerk Mary “Kate” Staton was charged Monday with one count each of 3rd degree theft and tampering with records stemming from a multi-year investigation by the Emmet County Sheriff’s Office and Division of Criminal Investigation after discrepancies were allegedly found during a routine annual audit of city records.

Staton turned herself in at the Emmet County Courthouse Tuesday, just days after Police Chief Craig Merrill was taken into custody in Minnesota. Mayor Greg Buum, City Clerk Tracie Lang and former City Clerk Connie Thackery was all arrested last Friday.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An election watchdog group has filed a federal lawsuit in Washington claiming the Iowa-based nonprofit organization Iowa Values violated election laws by failing to register as a political committee while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst. Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group, filed the lawsuit on Friday. The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare that Iowa Values became a political committee as of June 2019 and order the group to register, file documents and to provide information on fundraising and expenditures. The lawsuit also seeks a civil penalty against Iowa Values along with court and attorney fee costs.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Years of corruption and mismanagement allegedly preceded the arrests of a northwest Iowa town’s mayor, police chief and three current and former clerks who are charged with theft and fraud. Officials in the city of Armstrong stole tens of thousands of dollars in public funds, falsified public records to conceal their wrongdoing and used city property for personal gain. Prosecutors allege in a court document that some of the wrongdoing dates back to 2013 and continued in 2020. The arrests over the weekend stunned the city of 900 people, which is located near Iowa’s border with Minnesota and about 40 miles from the popular Okoboji vacation destination in the state’s northwest corner.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 56-year-old Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to receiving more than $1.2 million in loans in a fraud scheme involving federal programs offering help for coronavirus-related losses. Donald Franklin Trosin, from Champlin, Minnesota, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa, to major fraud against the U.S. and money laundering conspiracy. Federal prosecutors said Trosin conspired to launder funds from loans he received from banks in northwest Iowa and Minnesota. Trosin admitted he defrauded the banks out of Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. After receiving the loans, he wired the money to other people in different states.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors have upgraded charges against an Iowa man who led a crowd of insurgents in taunting a police officer up several flights of stairs inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. Douglas Jensen has been seen frequently in video wearing a QAnon shirt and leading an angry mob toward an officer protecting the Capitol. An updated indictment filed in federal court in Washington D.C. now includes dangerous weapons charges to reflect that Jensen carried a knife in his pocket during the attack. Jensen remains in custody and has a court hearing on Feb. 23.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Prosecutors have upgraded charges against an Iowa man who led a crowd of insurgents in taunting a police officer up several flights of stairs inside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. Douglas Jensen has been seen frequently in video wearing a QAnon shirt and leading an angry mob toward an officer protecting the Capitol.

FILE – In this Jan. 6, 2021, file photo, Trump supporters gesture to U.S. Capitol Police in the hallway outside of the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Washington. Doug Jensen, an Iowa man at center, was jailed early Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021 on federal charges, including trespassing and disorderly conduct counts, for his alleged role in the Capitol riot. Jensen, 41, of Des Moines, was being held without bond at the Polk County Jail and county sheriff’s Sgt. Ryan Evans said he didn’t know if Jensen had an attorney. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File)

An updated indictment filed in federal court in Washington D.C. now includes dangerous weapons charges to reflect that Jensen carried a knife in his pocket during the attack. Jensen remains in custody and has a court hearing on Feb. 23.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 56-year-old Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to receiving more than $1.2 million in loans in a fraud scheme involving federal programs offering help for coronavirus-related losses. Donald Franklin Trosin, from Champlin, Minnesota, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Sioux City, Iowa, to major fraud against the U.S. and money laundering conspiracy.

Federal prosecutors said Trosin conspired to launder funds from loans he received from banks in northwest Iowa and Minnesota. Trosin admitted he defrauded the banks out of Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans. After receiving the loans, he wired the money to other people in different states.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa City police have identified a 19-year-old who was fatally shot last week. Police say Quincy Russom was found after he was shot Friday night at an apartment. Witnesses told police three men entered the apartment, shot Russom, and then ran.

An autopsy determined his death was a homicide. Police have not released information on possible suspects. Iowa City Area CrimeStoppers is offering a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects.

Officials with the Harlan Police Department report the arrest on Feb. 14th, of 43-year old Kori Ronee Henning, from Harlan. Henning was arrested for child endangerment and transported to the Shelby County Jail.

And, on February 9th, 38-year old Christopher Daniel Ivey, of Harlan, was arrested for violation of a no contact order. Ivey was also transported to the Shelby County Jail.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A 63-year-old Davenport man charged in a fatal hit-and-run has pleaded not guilty. The Quad-City Times reports that Mark Lance Blackwood entered the written plea Monday. Blackwood is charged in Scott County with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in the death of 60-year-old Eric Johnson, of Rock Island, Illinois.

Blackwood faces up to 15 years in prison if he’s convicted of both counts. Investigators believe Blackwood hit Johnson on a Davenport street on Jan. 18. Police say Johnson was carried on the car about 140 feet before falling and being dragged under the car for nearly 3,000 feet. Police say they found the hit-and-run vehicle the next day outside Blackwood’s home.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An election watchdog group has filed a federal lawsuit in Washington claiming the Iowa-based nonprofit organization Iowa Values violated election laws by failing to register as a political committee while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support the reelection of Sen. Joni Ernst. Campaign Legal Center, a Washington-based nonprofit campaign finance watchdog group, filed the lawsuit on Friday.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare that Iowa Values became a political committee as of June 2019 and order the group to register, file documents and to provide information on fundraising and expenditures. The lawsuit also seeks a civil penalty against Iowa Values along with court and attorney fee costs.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa continues to see thousands of people vaccinated, despite a weather system that has pushed freezing air and snow into the state in recent days. The Iowa Department of Public Health reported that there are now more people in Iowa who have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination dose than the number who have been infected by the coronavirus. By midday Tuesday, more than 487,000 people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

The state’s online virus-tracking dashboard showed more than 356,000 cases had been confirmed in the state. Still, hospitalizations for the virus in Iowa have ticked up in recent days, with 40 people admitted to Iowa hospitals in the last day.