(Radio Iowa) — The Libertarian Party of Iowa and one of its 2018 candidates have filed a lawsuit challenging a recent change in Iowa election law. Jake Porter of Council Bluffs, last year’s Libertarian candidate for governor,  says it will likely reduce the number of third party candidates who run for office.

“Voters should ultimately have options on the ballot and it goes against our democratic process to deny them options and that’s what this does.” Since 1953, third party candidates have had until mid-August to submit the paperwork necessary to get their names on the General Election Ballot. The new state law that goes into effect for the 2020 election moves the deadline up five months, to mid-March. Porter says it increases the advantages Democrats and Republicans already have.

“I think it was done as part of what I call ‘The Incumbent Protection Act,'” Porter says. “A lot of times they don’t like challenges and I think that was probably why it was put in there.” Porter says if the law stands and there’s more than one candidate vying for an office, some candidates who file papers in mid-March won’t get their party’s endorsement at summertime conventions.

“The Libertarian Party of Iowa and the Green Party — all their candidates would have to file at the same time that the Republicans and Democrats do,” Porter says. “Now, if we had a primary, that would make sense, but since we don’t, that means we cannot get on the ballot later on like it’s always been done.”

The lawsuit has been filed in federal court. There’s been no comment on the lawsuit yet from Governor Reynolds or Republicans who hold the majorities in the Iowa House and Senate.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa Republican lawmaker says he’s holding a campaign fundraiser featuring U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley at a shooting range despite calls for him to cancel the gun-centered event following weekend mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

State Rep. Steve Holt says his Sweet Freedom Celebration in Denison remains scheduled Monday night. Holt posted on his campaign Facebook page Sunday that “mental deviants have killed innocent people in El Paso and Dayton” and he offered his prayers. A writer responded that gun safety legislation was needed more than prayers.

Holt then noted his support for the Second Amendment. He blamed the shootings on “the loss of our value system brought about in part by idiotic far-left ideology that forced Biblical values from our schools, the media and the public square…”

Grassley’s staff didn’t immediately verify whether he would attend the event.

A man from Lenox was arrested today (Monday), in Montgomery County. 21-year old Benjamin P. Moreno was taken into custody on a warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original OWI/1st offense charge. Moreno was processed at the Montgomery County Jail, and released after posting bond.

(Radio Iowa) — The Democrat who came within three points of defeating Republican Congressman Steve King in 2018 will run for congress again in 2020.   J.D. Scholten, of Sioux City, released a campaign video ad this (Monday) morning to make the announcement and he’ll hold a campaign rally in his hometown of Sioux City tonight (Monday). A rematch with King is not certain. King faces three G-O-P challengers in the fourth congressional district, although King could run as an independent candidate in November of next year if King loses the June Primary. Republicans hold a voter registration edge of 70-thousand in the fourth congressional district. In 2018, Scholten won the six largest counties in district.

Scholten’s first 2020 campaign video ad is narrated by actor Kevin Costner

CENTERVILLE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say two bodies were found in a rail car that had carried about 100 tons of steel from Mexico to south-central Iowa. The Daily Iowegian newspaper reports that Iowa Southern Railway workers discovered the bodies Friday when decoupling cars from an engine about 1.5 miles southeast of Centerville. The cars had been pulled there Friday after BNSF railroad dropped them off Thursday in Albia.

Authorities think the two people were killed by the tons of shifting steel that had been loaded in Monterrey, Mexico. It’s unclear when they got into the car. The pair have yet to be identified. The bodies were taken to the Iowa state medical examiner’s office.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — A second trial has been scheduled for a woman found guilty nearly five years ago of killing her daughter in south-central Iowa’s Mahaska County. Court records say the trial of Alicia Ritenour is set to begin Sept. 30 and has been moved to Henry County because of intensive news media coverage of the crime and her first trial. Ritenour was convicted of first-degree murder in November 2014.

Authorities went to Ritenour’s Oskaloosa apartment in January 2014 following a 911 call. Officers found 17-month-old Ava Ritenour dead. An autopsy showed she died of head trauma.
Judge Daniel Wilson set aside Ritenour’s conviction in December, agreeing with her arguments that her trial attorney had been ineffective.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says a Creston resident reported Sunday afternoon,  that sometime between 6-p.m. Saturday and Sunday, someone took his 2016 black single axle dump trailer, while it was parked on 240th, just east of Clover. The loss was estimated at $1,000. Friday night, 30-year old Robert Tyson Hall, of Texas, was arrested at Green Valley State Park, near Creston, for domestic abuse assault. Hall was later released from the Union County Jail on $2,000 bond.

And, a man from Creston, reported that sometime between July 14th and 16th, someone took Snap-On and Craftsman tools and a tool box, from his vehicle. The loss was estimated at $1,000.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A nurse anesthetist has pleaded guilty to tampering with opioid painkillers in northern Iowa. Records for the U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids say Christopher West also pleaded guilty to obtaining a controlled substance by deception. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that West had been accused of ordering extra painkillers so he could use the leftovers. Prosecutors also say West reported several times that painkiller vials broke when he dropped his anesthesia kit at the Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City.

Prosecutors say he actually stole the vials and used the painkillers himself. Hospital officials who’d grown suspicious of West last year also checked a supply of painkiller vials and ampules and found they’d been opened, the painkiller replaced with saline and then glued back together.