Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:05 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa public health officials have posted another 99 coronavirus related deaths, raising the state’s death toll to 3,120. The state this week modified the methodology for counting COVID-19 deaths and that added 399 deaths to the state total in the past three days. Iowa coronavirus positive cases increased by 2,246 Thursday pushing the state total to 251,028. Hospitalizations and admissions are lower with 863 people hospitalized with COVID-19. Hospitalizations and new positive cases have been trending lower, giving health care officials hope that Iowa may have avoided a post-Thanksgiving surge. Concerns remain around Christmas and New Year holiday gathering activities.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Republican governor prevented Democratic Attorney General Tom Miller from joining on Thursday a brief opposing the Texas legal challenge to the 2020 presidential election in four other states filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Miller says if he had been asked to join a Republican led brief supporting the Texas lawsuit he would have declined because he believes the 2020 elections were fairly and safely conducted by election officials of both parties. He said he was asked Thursday by a group of Democratic attorneys general to join a brief supporting the four states the Texas attorney general is suing but Reynolds refused to allow him to join.

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) — The Trump administration has carried out its ninth federal execution of the year in what has been a first series of executions during a presidential lame-duck period in 130 years. Federal prison officials in Terre Haute, Indiana, on Thursday executed a Texas street-gang member for his role in the 1999 slayings of an Iowa religious couple. The case of 40-year-old Brandon Bernard was a rare execution of a person who was in his teens when his crime was committed. He was 18 when he and four other teenagers abducted and robbed Todd and Stacie Bagley, of Iowa, on their way from a Sunday service in Killeen, Texas. Four more federal executions, including one Friday, are planned in the weeks before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s Republican governor prevented Democratic Attorney General Tom Miller from joining on Thursday a brief opposing the Texas legal challenge to the 2020 presidential election in four other states filed with the U.S. Supreme Court. Miller says if he had been asked to join a Republican led brief supporting the Texas lawsuit he would have declined because he believes the 2020 elections were fairly and safely conducted by election officials of both parties.

He said he was asked Thursday by a group of Democratic attorneys general to join a brief supporting the four states the Texas attorney general is suing but Reynolds refused to allow him to join.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. government advisory panel has endorsed Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, in a major step toward an epic vaccination campaign that could finally conquer the outbreak. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to follow the recommendation issued Thursday by its expert advisers. The group concluded that the shot appears safe and effective against the coronavirus in people 16 and older. A final FDA decision is expected within days.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds released the following statement Thursday, on FDA emergency approval of the Pfizer vaccine:   “The FDA approval for the Pfizer vaccine is great news for the state of Iowa and the entire country, and will allow us to move forward in our recovery from COVID-19 with even greater certainty.  Because of our proactive planning, our state is ready to receive shipments and quickly distribute them so that our health care workforce and long-term care residents will be vaccinated first.

“While this is a positive step forward, it will take time until the vaccine is widely available. Until then, we must continue to mitigate the virus by practicing public health measures so we can protect the most vulnerable and preserve hospital resources, while keeping our economy open and our kids in school.”

DES MOINES, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports that on December 3rd, 2020, a United States District Court Judge sentenced 52-year-old Joseph Lee Fultz, of Des Moines, to 324 months (27 years) in prison, for Production of Child Pornography. Fultz was ordered to serve ten years of supervised release to follow his prison term and comply with sex offender registry requirements upon release.

An investigation into his activities began in May of 2019, when the Des Moines Police Department received a report that Fultz produced child pornography of four minors, ages 10 and under, while they were under his care. Subsequently, Des Moines police officers executed a search warrant at Fultz’s apartment where they seized his computers and electronic devices. The investigation showed that Fultz produced and possessed child pornography images of the four minors, as well as two additional children, including an infant. All six children were located and identified.

The case was investigated by the Des Moines Police Department, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the United States Department of Justice’s “Project Safe
Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nationwide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children.

Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821.

The Glenwood Police Department reports 23-year old Dakota Swain, of Glenwood, was arrested Tuesday. Swain was taken into custody on a Mills County County warrant for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. His cash-only bond was set at $300.

And, no injuries were reported following a collision Tuesday morning in Glenwood. Authorities say a 2006 Pontiac G6 driven by 19-year old Owen Riley Smith, of Glenwood, was traveling south from a stop sign at Sharp and Linn Streets at around 7:35-a.m., as a 2013 Hyundai Elantra driven by 33-year old Jordan Scott Bueltel, of Glenwood, was traveling east on Sharp Street with no signs or signals, and having the right-of-way.

Smith told police he didn’t see Bueltel’s car and began to cross Sharp Street from the stop sign. Bueltel did not have time to take evasive action. His car hit the Pontiac and continued on before hitting a 2014 Dodge Durango, which was parked on Best Finish Auto’s car sales lot.

Police say no citations were issued. Damage during the accident totaled $11,500.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified a man whose body was found last week inside a Sioux City apartment used by transients. The Sioux City Journal reports that the body of 61-year-old Daniel Harden was found Dec. 1 inside the apartment building. An autopsy used to identify the body ruled Harden’s death as a homicide. Investigators have said Harden appeared to have been beaten and had likely been dead for about a week when his body was found.

The apartment is part of a complex where 33-year-old Solomon Blackbird was shot on Nov. 1. He later died. Police have said the two deaths did not appear to be related.

(Radio Iowa) – A second former employee of a Denison credit union has been charged with embezzlement.  The former manager of Consumer Credit Union, Janine Keim of Denison, was indicted on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City of embezzlement by a credit union employee and making false statements. Keim is accused of working with former head teller at the Denison institution, Brenda Jensen, also of Denison, to misallocate funds from 2012 to 2018. Jensen pleaded guilty in October in federal court to embezzlement and awaits sentencing. Keim’s arraignment hearing has been scheduled for December 16th in Federal Court in Sioux City.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office report Iowa’s six presidential electors will meet Monday, December 14 at 10:30 a.m. at the State Capitol to cast their votes for President and Vice President of the United States. Governor Kim Reynolds will preside over the meeting and Secretary of State Paul Pate will distribute and collect the electors’ ballots. Iowa law requires electors to cast ballots for the candidates who received the most votes in the state.

(Noon News) – Police in Glenwood report two men were arrested on numerous drug charges, Wednesday, following the execution of a search warrant at 207 N. Locust Street, in Glenwood. Authorities say 27-year old Patrick Clayton Giesting, and 33-year old William Dean Meredith, both of Glenwood, were arrested. Each was charged with Felony, Gathering where controlled substances are used. Giesting was additionally charged with: Possession of a controlled substance/methamphetamine; Possession of Marijuana; Unlawful possession of a prescription drug, and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond was set at $8,300.

Meredith was additionally charged with Felony Possession of Meth/3rd offense. His bond was set at $10,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The trial for a man charged with first-degree murder in the July 2018 death of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbitts has been moved once again. KCCI reports court documents filed Wednesday in Poweshiek County indicate that Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s jury trial will take place May 17 in Scott County. The trial had been scheduled for Jan. 25. According to court documents, the trial delay is in accordance with an order from the Iowa Supreme Court to postpone trials due to the pandemic.

Mollie Tibbetts

A pretrial conference scheduled for Jan. 12 is continued to April 14 and will be held at the Poweshiek County Courthouse. The trial has already been delayed at least three times from the original date in April 2019.

Tibbetts, a psychology student at the University of Iowa, went missing after going for a jog in her hometown of Brooklyn. Investigators say Rivera stalked Tibbetts while she was out for a run in July 2018 in Brooklyn, Iowa, and stabbed her to death. After a massive police and volunteer effort to find Tibbetts, authorities say, Bahena Rivera led them to her body, which was found Aug. 21, 2018, in a cornfield.