SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Nebraska man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in northwest Iowa for the death of his estranged wife. A Woodbury County jury was in its second day of deliberation when it found 29-year-old Rogelio Morales, of Hubbard, Nebraska, guilty Thursday afternoon.

Prosecutors say he killed 21-year-old Margarita Morales on April 19, 2015, in his car near a Sioux City residence. Court documents say Morales told investigators a fight broke out when his wife told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship and that she was seeing another man. Defense attorney Mike Williams said in his closing arguments that there’s no doubt Morales killed the woman but said Morales “is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder.”

Republican Senator Joni Ernst is urging G-O-P leaders in the Senate to embrace “transparency” and give the public a chance to review the Senate G-O-P’s alternative health care bill BEFORE the senate votes on the plan. “Hopefully, we will be able to have a time period where we do receive feedback after the language is released,” she says.

Ernst is among the Republicans in the U.S. Senate who’ve been meeting privately to come up with an alternative to the health care bill that passed the U.S. House in April. However, Ernst says there’s no document, yet, to release. “‘We don’t have language,” Ernst says. “And what I am hoping is that language that will be presented to us includes all of the items in discussions that we have had in our informal work group.”

Earlier this week, Ernst sat beside President Trump at a White House meeting to discuss the health care bill. President Trump reportedly called the bill that passed the HOUSE “mean.” Ernst isn’t joining Trump and offering a negative analysis of the House bill, but Ernst says Republican senators “will make the revisions necessary.”

“We really have been working on our own thoughts and ideas in the senate, in our informal work group,” Ernst says. “We are making sure that we are representing our constituents in our own home states and find a way that we can best serve those constituents.” Unlike the House bill, Ernst suggests Senate Republicans are going to try to find a way to make sure Americans don’t lose their insurance policies because of pre-existing conditions.

Ernst says Iowans tell her affordability is their number one concern when it comes to health insurance.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials have hit a snag in implementing a new state law that is to forbid Medicaid patients from getting reproductive health exams and prescriptions for contraceptives at facilities where abortions are performed. The law goes into effect July 1st, but The Des Moines Register reports the Council on Human Services voted four-to-one to reject the rules written to implement the new law.

Republicans lawmakers who crafted the plan argue tax dollars that cover family planning services for low-income Iowans should not be spent at places like Planned Parenthood. The Register reports the Council on Human Services raised concerns Medicaid patients will be unable to find care because those patients won’t be able to use clinics associated with hospitals that provide abortion.

Plus, about three million dollars in a tight state budget will be shifted to cover the costs of reproductive care for Medicaid patients, since federal money now cannot be used. A spokeswoman for the Department of Human Services says the new law goes into effect, regardless of whether administrative rules are in place, but the Council on Human Services will reconvene Friday to reconsider its rejection of those rules.

(Radio Iowa)

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Former star of “The Bachelor” Chris Soules has waived his right to a speedy trial and has requested that his trial be postponed. Soules is charged with leaving the scene of a deadly crash and faces up to five years in prison if he’s convicted of causing the April 24 crash that killed 66-year-old farmer Kenneth Mosher.

The Des Moines Register reports that attorneys for Soules said Wednesday they need at least a 90-day extension to obtain items from prosecutors and schedule depositions. Soules’ trial is currently scheduled to start July 19.

Police say Soules rear-ended Mosher’s tractor and left the scene after calling 911 and seeking help for Mosher. He was arrested later at his home.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Bankers continue to expect little economic growth in rural parts of 10 Plains and Western states because of weak commodity prices. The overall economic index for the region slipped to the neutral score of 50 in June from May’s 50.1.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says grain prices remain below the breakeven point for most farmers, but commodity prices have stabilized and improved a bit.

Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.

The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office says a Nebraska man was arrested Wednesday evening after the truck he was driving with no license plates, was pulled over just outside of Council Bluffs. A Deputy saw the vehicle speeding north on Eastern Hills Drive at around 5:10-p.m. As the truck passed him, the Deputy attempted to turn around on Eastern Hills Drive. The truck then began to speed up as it headed northbound. When the vehicle finally stopped, the driver, 26-year old Jerrad Oren Nelsen, of Craig, NE., was arrested for Eluding.

A restored, vintage World War II era North American B-25N aircraft flew into Atlantic this (Thursday) morning. The plane is part of a pristine collection of fully operational, active aircraft and vehicles from World War II, at the Fagan Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, Minnesota (http://www.fagenfighterswwiimuseum.org) The collection is owned by ethanol plant builder Ron Fagan, who was in Atlantic for a business meeting at the Elite Octane Ethanol plant currently under construction.

Ric Hanson/photos

Keith Woods who works for Fagan, Incorporated, is also connected to the Museum. He talked about the history of the type of aircraft that rumbled over Atlantic on its way to the airport. Woods says most were used for low-level strafing, but the one that came to Atlantic would also have been used on bombing missions.

The “Paper Doll,” as she is known, did not see action in World War II. He said it was built in Jan. 1945 and was used as a trainer-bomber, hence the designation TB-25. She got the name “Paper Doll,” because the nose-art in the day was typically “risque,” and the family wanted something with “reasonable” nose art. The aircraft that arrived in Atlantic has more modest nose art, that shows a woman in a red, one-piece bathing suit with a see-thru cape. The actual “Paper Doll” flew 125 missions in Europe.

The plane that came here, was built to commemorate the original “Paper Doll” and her crew, who flew those missions. The crew compliment was five or six, depending on whether the mission was for strafing or bombing. If it was equipped with a bomb sight, there were six crew members on board. Woods said the plane would have carried six, 500-pound bombs or 12m 250-pound bombs. She’s also heavily armed with .50-caliber machine guns, one in the nose, one on each side aft (waist guns), one in the tail, 2 .50-cal’s in the rotatable turret topside, and 2 each, .70-mm “Blister guns” on the forward section, under where the cockpit crew sit, on the left and right sides

The plane has two large, prop-driven Wright Cyclone R-2600 cubic inch displacement engines, with 14 cylinders each making 1,750 horsepower, each. Woods says those engines are very loud, especially on take-off, when they consume the most fuel. It burns 420 gallons of fuel per hour at take off, and while cruising consumes 165-gallons per hour. It can fly about 1,000 miles before refueling.

Bomb bay with fake bombs.

It cruises at about 230-miles per hour. This “Paper Doll” was rebuilt by nearly a dozen people in Chino, CA, over a period of about three-years. The Fagan Fighters Museum currently has 14 vintage aircraft housed in its hangars.

Give dad something he will always treasure this Father’s Day – quality time together. Take dad fishing and create memories that you can relive every time you’re together. “Fishing is a fun way to celebrate special family events,” said Joe Larscheid, chief of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Bureau. “Enjoy your time together in Iowa’s great outdoors without the stress of busy schedules and interruptions from mobile devices.”

Snap a picture of you and your dad fishing and enter it in the 2017 #MissionFishin Photo Contest. Find the complete contest rules at www.iowadnr.gov/missionfishin. Visit the Iowa DNR website at www.iowadnr.gov/Fishing for tips on making the most of your fishing trip this Father’s Day including what’s biting where, fishing maps and great places to fish close to home.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Officials say a northwest Iowa jury will resume considering its verdict Thursday in the murder trial of a Nebraska man accused of killing his estranged wife. Twenty-nine-year-old Rogelio Morales, of Hubbard, Nebraska, is charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors say he killed 21-year-old Margarita Morales on April 19, 2015, in his car near a Sioux City residence.

The case went to the jury Wednesday morning. Court documents say Morales told investigators a fight broke out when his wife told him she no longer wanted to be in a relationship and that she was seeing another man. Defense attorney Mike Williams said in his closing arguments that there’s no doubt Morales killed the woman but said Morales “is guilty of voluntary manslaughter, not murder.”