The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says three people face burglary charges following an incident in Corning Thursday. Deputies were called to a burglary in progress around 5:40 p.m. in the 2000 block of Quincy Street in Corning. Following an investigation, 48-year-old Fred William Ehrman, of Des Moines, 64-year-old Stanley Wayne Roberts, of Corning, and 47-year-old Michelle Lyn Paradise, of Des Moines, were arrested for second-degree burglary.

Two Polk County residents were arrested Thursday evening following a traffic stop in Adams County. The Adams County Sheriff’s Office reports deputies conducted a traffic stop around 4:30 p.m. near 9th and Quincy streets in Corning. The driver, 42-year-old Lamont Arthur Mitchell, of Des Moines, was arrested for of driving while barred. His passenger, 42-year-old Tracy Lehmann, also of Des Moines, was arrested on an Adair County warrant for third-degree burglary.

Authorities also say they located used hypodermic needles in the vehicle and charged both individuals with possession of drug paraphernalia. Both suspects are being held at the Adams County Jail.

DENVER (AP) — A pair of Republican senators won’t say if the president can ask another country to investigate a political foe. Sens. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Cory Gardner of Colorado wouldn’t answer that question Thursday in light of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump. Trump last week insisted he had the right to ask Ukraine and China to investigate his possible Democratic opponent next year, former vice president Joe Biden.

Ernst and Gardner are both up for re-election next year in competitive states. Their approach mirrored that of Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, also a top Democratic target next year. McSally on Monday wouldn’t address the appropriateness of Trump’s requests for help from overseas. Some other Republican senators who don’t face voters next year have said it was inappropriate.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the name of a man who was shot to death on the north side of Des Moines. Police identified the man as 23-year-old Rashid Mohamed Ibrahim, who lived in Des Moines. Ibrahim was found around 1:30 p.m. Thursday by officers sent to investigate reports of a shooting. He was pronounced dead at a hospital.
No arrests had been reported. Police say the shooting death is the city’s 13th homicide this year.

(Iowa News Service) — The Trump administration has approved a new regulation allowing states to include drug testing as a condition for anyone receiving unemployment benefits. Generally, workers can collect unemployment if they’ve lost their jobs by no fault of their own and meet other eligibility criteria. Michele Evermore with the National Employment Law Project points out that the low unemployment rate means businesses already are paying less in unemployment benefits. She calls the regulation “an expensive solution in search of a problem.”

“I think at the end of the day what this rule is about is just making it harder to get benefits, and it’s a not-so-subtle attack on the character of unemployed workers – who, by definition, are involuntarily unemployed.”

Evermore adds if the economy cools down in states that implement drug testing, local business could suffer, because every dollar spent during the height of a recession generates one-dollar-and-60 cents in economic activity. Iowa is one of eight states that doesn’t require a waiting period for unemployed workers to qualify for benefits, although legislation was introduced last session to try to overturn that.

With more states decriminalizing marijuana, opponents of the new regulation fear fewer workers may apply for jobs that require drug screening. Evermore says states that adopt the drug-testing requirement could create unnecessary hurdles for people who’ve lost their jobs. “I don’t really get the sense that people are that overly concerned that somebody might have some marijuana and then get an unemployment check. I honestly don’t think that that’s a public-interest concern that very many people share.”

Iowa’s attempt to make workers wait to collect unemployment was one of nearly 170 laws introduced in multiple states this year to alter unemployment benefits. The new regulation comes at a time when more Iowans than ever are working: the state’s unemployment rate of two-point-five percent is among the lowest in the nation. Mississippi, Texas and Wisconsin had enacted drug-testing laws that were put on hold while the regulation was pending.

(Radio Iowa) — A new analysis shows Iowa and the Midwest have some of the widest disparities in racial equality in the country. A researcher at the Iowa Policy Project found patterns of segregation and discrimination are pervasive in employment, home ownership, infant mortality and prison sentences as well as test scores and suspensions in schools. State Representative Ras Smith is one of five African Americans in the Iowa House. Smith says he’s very aware of these disparities, but he feels many white Iowans are not.

“Honestly I think sometimes in our Midwest mindset of being very neighborly people, it really sometimes serves to kind of cloud our…perspective or our view to see things as really what they are,” Smith says. Smith is from Waterloo. Last November, a financial website owned by Huffington Post called Waterloo-Cedar Falls the worst metro area in the country for blacks.

“For me I don’t know what it’s like to operate from a privileged position. I’ve just never had that benefit,” Smith says. “In the same that way it’s going to be hard for my white counterparts to really understand what it’s like to live with disparities all of the time.” The Iowa Policy Project report found black residents are less likely than whites to get a college degree and black students in elementary and high school are five times more likely to be suspended than are white students.

The latest information from the State Data Center show the poverty rate among black Iowans is about three times greater than for the general population. The unemployment rate for black Iowans is significantly higher, too.