Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CST
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Newly released documents indicate a recently retired top official overseeing Iowa’s mental health and disability services programs knew of plans to perform sexual experiments at a state-run institution as far back as nearly two years ago. The Iowa Department of Human Services has released letters, emails, and other documents about Glenwood Resource Center indicating increasing concerns of staff members about sexual arousal experiments on patients. An email written to Rick Shults on May 21, 2018, shows he approved of a research plan drawn up by Jerry Rea, the former superintendent at Glenwood who was fired in December. It detailed experiments on patients at Glenwood and a separate state facility that holds sexual offenders.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has elected Justice Susan Christensen as its next chief justice. She becomes only the second woman in state history to rise to chief of the seven-member court. Appointed by Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2018, Christensen is part of a new more conservatively constituted court. Reynolds has named three justices to the court since becoming governor and will name a fourth after acting Chief Justice David Wiggins retires next month. Wiggins became acting chief after the unexpected death of Chief Justice Mark Cady in November from a heart attack.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For a majority of Democratic voters, going back to the days before Donald Trump isn’t good enough. In Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, the first three states to weigh in, voters have elevated the candidate promising the biggest departure from the politics of the past — not necessarily the clearest path to defeating President Donald Trump or a restoration of the Obama era. After fighting to a draw in Iowa, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who bills himself as the leader of a revolution, bested candidates in New Hampshire and Nevada promising a restoration of the pre-Trump era and those who focus mainly on their electability.
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Jurors have convicted a man of murder in the killing of an Iowa high school student more than 40 years ago. It took jurors about three hours to convict 66-year-old Jerry Burns of first-degree murder in the December 1979, stabbing death of 18-year-old Michelle Martinko. Her body was found inside her family’s car at a Cedar Rapids shopping mall. Police arrested Burns on Dec. 19, 2018, at his Manchester, Iowa, business. It was the 39th anniversary of Martinko’s death. Burns was linked to the crime by DNA evidence. Burns didn’t testify, and his defense called only one witness. In Iowa, first-degree murder carries a mandatory term of life in prison.
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