IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The former top accountant for the state agency that oversees Iowa alcohol sales claims in a new lawsuit that it marked up the price of liquor products illegally and excessively for years. Todd Halbur, former comptroller of the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division, alleges in the lawsuit that he was fired last year after questioning the illegal price markups and payments made under an improper no-bid contract.

Halbur’s lawyer, Stuart Higgins, says his client is a “dedicated public servant” who was improperly fired for blowing the whistle. Division spokesman Tyler Ackerson says the allegations in the lawsuit are “untrue” but declined further comment, citing the pending litigation

(A-P) — Authorities have released the name of a Fort Madison officer who fatally shot an armed man at a warehouse. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation on Tuesday identified the officer as Cory Brown, a six-year-veteran of the police department. On the night of Dec. 10, Brown was called to a Scott’s Miracle-Gro warehouse in Fort Madison and encountered a man who was armed with a handgun. Brown shot the man, identified as 42-year-old Robert Allen Elfgen, of West Point. Elfgen died at a Fort Madison hospital. Brown is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation of the shooting.

The Iowa State Patrol, Tuesday, said a central Iowa man died in a single-vehicle accident Monday evening, in Adair County. 59-year old Gregg Schochenmaier, of Norwalk, was driving a 2019 Ford F-150 pickup eastbound on I-80 near mile marker 91, when for reasons unknown, the pickup left the road and entered a ditch before striking a tree and coming to rest.

The crash was called-in at around 6:30-p.m., by a passing motorist who saw the pickup in the ditch. It’s not known when the accident took place. Schochenmaier, who was wearing a seat belt, died at the scene. The State Patrol was assisted by the Guthrie County Medical Examiner and the Johnson Family Funeral Home.

(Radio Iowa) — Lobbyists from business groups used a public hearing in the governor’s office to tout proposals that would improve and expand affordable housing and child care options for working parents. J.D. Davis is a lobbyist for the Iowa Association of Business and Industry. “We know that we have to get kind of in the weeds now,” Davis said, “and when we talk to our members throughout the state of Iowa, in some places it’s housing; in some places, it’s child care and we look forward to working on those issues and solving those with others that are experiencing the same issues that we have.”

Iowa Chamber Alliance executive director Dustin Miller says his group supports an increase in the state tax credits for workforce housing. “And I don’t think it gets mentioned enough, but the historic preservation tax credit in urban and rural settings has the ability to impact housing as well,” he said. Others who spoke at Tuesday afternoon’s hour-long public hearing addressed issues like criminal justice reform and expanding the sale of bio-fuels.

Kevin Kuhle of the Iowa Farm Bureau urged the governor to change the way mental health services are financed. “Mental health funding should be included in the state budget and remove this cost from property taxes. Iowa is one of only a handful of states where property taxpayers fund mental health services, creating inequities for property taxpayers,”Kuhle said. “Now is the time to transition to an equitable funding source, with the state assuming the costs of the mental health system.”

After the hearing, Governor Reynolds told reporters while she’d consider increasing state spending on the system, she believes property taxes should continue to support mental health services — and some counties may have to increase their levies. “We’re taking all of those things into consideration when we try to figure out what is a sustainable funding mechanism for…both adult and children mental health services,” Reynolds said.

Representatives of Des Moines University asked the governor to continue state funding for courses to help medical students recognize and treat mentally ill patients.

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) — A jury convicted a woman Tuesday whose attorney had said his client was insane when she stabbed to death her former husband in northeast Iowa. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that Hillary Hunziker, was found guilty of first-degree murder and will be sentenced later to life in prison.

A Buchanan County District Court document says a child called 911 early on Nov. 6, 2017, and said, “My mom just stabbed my dad.” That was followed by a call from Jason Hunziker, who said his former wife had stabbed him. The complaint says deputies later found Jason Hunziker dead in his Independence home.