CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A Dubuque woman tied to two drug overdose deaths has been imprisoned. Federal court records say 25-year-old Brianna Martin was sentenced last week to 27 months. She’d pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids to distribution of heroin. She must serve three years of supervised release after she leaves prison and pay $12,500 in restitution.

The records say Martin helped one person who died buy heroin and sold prescribed methadone to other people, including one who died from an overdose.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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KNOXVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A March trial has been scheduled for a south-central Iowa man accused of killing his mother. Marion County District Court records say a judge on Tuesday ordered the trial of 46-year-old Jason Carter to start March 4 in Pottawattamie County. The change of venue had been granted because of pretrial publicity .

In December 2017 Carter was charged with first-degree murder, accused of fatally shooting 68-year-old Shirley Carter in June 2015 in the kitchen of her rural Knoxville home. The charges were filed two days after a jury found him civilly liable and ordered him to pay $10 million to his mother’s estate.

Bill Carter had sued his son for wrongful death. The elder man said his son was financially strapped and killed Shirley Carter to gain access to his parents’ $10 million in assets. Jason Carter has denied that.

(Radio Iowa) — The clock continues to tick on the time to come to a budget agreement. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says President Donald Trump has tried to work with Democrats. “He has given on all sorts of areas — a matter of fact in just reopening the government this last weekend — he gave some great concessions in order to allow Democrats and Republicans to come together for an additional three weeks to work this out,” Ernst says. She says the effort to reach a compromise has been one-sided. “What we have seen so far, especially in the conference committee that is dealing specifically with Homeland Security, is a multitude of suggestions coming forward from the G-O-P, but an absolute refusal to budge at all from our Democratic colleagues,” according to Ernst.

Ernst says they need to work together to find a way forward to solve the issue and keep the government running. “I don’t want to see it shut down again. The president I don’t think wants to see it shut down again — but let’s not push him — lets make sure that we as Congress are stepping up and providing a pathway forward,” Ernst says.

Ernst says there have been a lot of proposals to keep the government from shutting down. She says they need to figure out a workable plan and move on it.”The president has made it very clear that he wants to see funding for border security,” Ernst says. “A lot of friends on the left have continually said ‘there’s no plan, there’s no plan.’ There is a plan folks — let’s make it very clear — that Customs and Border Patrol has a 33-point plan that they have outlined. They have had this on the table for a very long time.” Ernst says they can go through that plan point-by-point and come up with a solution that would take care of the issue.

(Coralville) — One person died, another was injured, during a multi-vehicle collision on a 100% ice and snow covered I-80 westbound Thursday afternoon, near Coralville. The Iowa State Patrol reports the collision involved seven passenger vehicles and four semi tractor-trailers. Diminished or reduced visibility was also a factor in the crash. The names of the victims has not yet been released. The patrol says both were wearing their seat belts. One person died at the scene, the other was transported to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics by Johnson County Ambulance.

The victims were in a 2004 Hyundai Sante Fe and a 2017 Ford Transit Connect van. The accident, which happened at around 3:30-p.m. near the 242.5-mile marker, remains under investigation.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A new report says a January survey of business supply managers is signaling solid economic growth over the next three to six months for nine Midwest and Plains states. The report issued Friday says the Mid-America Business Conditions Index rose to 56.0 last month from 55.2 in December. The November figure was 54.1.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the shortages of skilled workers and international trade tensions remain an impediment to even stronger growth. The survey results are compiled into a collection of indexes ranging from zero to 100. Survey organizers say any score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline.

The survey covers Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.

(Radio Iowa) — Two felons listed on the U-S Marshall’s “Most Wanted” list were caught after a high-speed chase that started in Sergeant Bluff and ended nearly 30 miles later in Le Mars.  The two have been identified as Gabriel Verbeski and Chase Riessen. They were seen driving a pickup truck and was clocked at going over 100 mph as they entered Le Mars. Police officers gave chase as the two tried to elude officers by traveling through streets and across residents lawns. The two left the pickup and fled on foot and were chased by both Le Mars Police officers and Plymouth County Sheriff’s deputies. They were arrested a short time later, and taken to the Plymouth County Jail.

Verbeski had felony warrants for running away from the Sioux City Residential Treatment Facility for a third time. Chase Riessen is also wanted on felony warrants for running away from Sioux City’s Residential Treatment Facility after assaulting two staff members. A woman identified as Holly Vandehoef was with the two felons, and was also arrested at the scene. The three face multiple drug charges, plus eluding. Additional charges are pending.

(Radio Iowa) — Ancient, unusual and a tongue-twister — just a few of the words Iowa lawmakers are using to describe a pre-historic weapon that’s made its way onto the pages of proposed legislation. A three-member panel of senators took up a bill this week that would let people use what’s essentially a spear-thrower to hunt deer in Iowa. The name of this weapon is a little weird. Pronouncing it properly is a challenge. “No, we don’t seem to have an agreement on that.” That is Senator Tom Shipley. He admits there was a good bit of laughter as senators in a subcommittee took at shot at it. “Everybody seems to know what we’re talking about when we mumble through it,” Shipley says. It’s called an atlatl (at-LAT-ull). That is the preferred pronunciation from hunters who’ve posted videos about the weapon online.

Archaeologists believe the atlatl was first used in North America about 13-thousand years ago. The bow-and-arrow began replacing the atalt for hunting about three-thousand years ago. Senator Shipley, who is from Corning, says some hunters from his area asked if hunting deer in Iowa with an atlatl could be legalized. “I looked into it and realized that two of our neighboring states close to me — Nebraska and Missouri — allow it,” Shipley said. Alabama does, too. So, Shipley’s sponsoring a bill to do the same in Iowa. “These things have been used for thousands of years to hunt with, so it’s probably the oldest form out there,” Shipley says.

According to the World Atlatl Association, atlatls are one of humankind’s first mechanical inventions. The atlatl is “essentially a stick with a handle on one end.” There’s a socket at the other. The spear is placed in that socket and “the flipping motion of the atlatl propels the spear much faster and farther than it could be thrown by hand alone.” As for whether it’s an effective hunting weapon, Shipley offers this opinion: “It’s just like everything else. It depends on who’s on the other end of it.”

Atlatls have long been legal to use in Alaska for spearing fish and big game animals.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:48 a.m. CST

CORALVILLE/IOWA CITY – One person is dead, another was injured during a multi-vehicle collision on a 100% ice covered I-80 westbound Thursday afternoon, near Coralville. The Iowa State Patrol reports the collision involved seven passenger vehicles and four semi tractor-trailers. Diminished or reduced visibility was also a factor. The names of the victims has not yet been released. The accident, which happened at around 3:30-p.m. near the 242.5-mile marker, remains under investigation.

CHICAGO (AP) — The bitter cold that gripped the Midwest forced commuters to bundle up like polar explorers. But by early next week, many of those same people might be able to get by with a light jacket or even short sleeves. Forecasts say temperatures could climb by as much as 80 degrees over the next few days. Experts say the rapid thaw is unprecedented, and it could create problems of its own _ bursting pipes, flooding rivers and crumbling roads.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than half of the Republican-dominated Iowa Senate is backing a constitutional amendment aimed at weakening the state court system’s power to review abortion restrictions. The move comes just days after an Iowa judge overturned what would have been the nation’s broadest such limit, banning abortions when a “fetal heartbeat” is detected.” The amendment would expressly state that the state constitution “does not secure or protect a right to abortion.

CRESCO, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Sherrod Brown is making his first trip to Iowa as a presidential prospect. The three-term swing-state senator is visiting the leadoff caucus state in Cresco, in the one county in the nation both Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Donald Trump won by at least 20 percentage points. Brown is testing a message aimed at reaching working-class voters who also lifted Trump to victory in 2016 in swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Joni Ernst is expressing frustration with Iowa Congressman Steve King’s comments about immigration and white supremacy. Ernst told Iowa reporters Thursday that she shouldn’t have to be “spending precious time talking about white supremacy and comments by a member of our delegation.” King claims his comments were taken out of context. The House rebuked him and he was denied any committee assignments.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A majority of legislators in the Iowa Senate, frustrated at repeated court rulings declaring anti-abortion laws unconstitutional, have introduced a proposed amendment to the Iowa Constitution that would declare it “does not secure or protect a right to abortion.”

The proposed amendment was introduced Jan. 24 by Republican Sen. Jake Chapman two days after a state court judge struck down yet another attempt by the Legislature to limit abortion. It has the backing of 29 senators.

Chapman says the court created a right that doesn’t exist in the constitution. The House must pass a similar resolution and the Legislature must pass it again next year before it would be placed on a statewide ballot. Voters in Alabama and West Virginia passed similar constitutional amendments in November.