IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The execution date for a notorious Iowa drug kingpin who killed witnesses and children in 1993 has been scheduled for Jan. 15. Dustin Honken is among five federal death row inmates whose execution dates were announced Thursday by the Justice Department. The announcement came as Attorney General Bill Barr directed federal capital punishment to resume for the first time in nearly two decades.

Honken was convicted at trial in 2004 of five counts of murder during a continuing criminal enterprise and numerous other counts. The jury found that he killed two dealers who were to testify against him during a 1993 investigation, a mother and her two children. Their bodies weren’t recovered for years. Honken, a resident of Britt, expanded his meth-making and distribution enterprise in the following years.

Iowa doesn’t have the death penalty, but the federal jury recommended a death sentence for the children’s murders. Honken’s girlfriend, Angela Johnson, also was sentenced to death but her punishment was reduced to life in prison in 2014.

Officials with the Iowa Judicial Branch report 16 Iowans have applied with the State Judicial Nominating Commission to fill the vacancy on the Iowa Court of Appeals that occurred when Judge Gayle Vogel retired on July 1, 2019. Among the applicants scheduled to be interviewed Monday, August 5th, is Julie Schumacher, District Court Judge, Third Judicial District in Schleswig, and Molly Weber, Assistant Attorney General, Iowa Attorney General’s Office, in Adel. (You can view the entire list of applicants here: https://www.iowacourts.gov/newsroom/news-releases/list-of-applicants-and-interview-schedule-for-iowa-court-of-appeals-vacancy/ )

The commission welcomes written comments from the public about the qualifications of any of the applicants. Comments must be submitted to the commission members via email no later than 5:00 p.m. August 2, 2019 at the email addresses on the State Judicial Nominating Commission website and by email to the Secretary of the commission at sjnc@iowa.gov.

The commission will meet Monday, August 5, 2019, in the Iowa Supreme Court Courtroom on the fourth floor of the Judicial Branch Building to interview the applicants for the vacancy. The public is invited to observe the interviews in the courtroom. The interviews will be live streamed and the videos archived on the Iowa Judicial Branch YouTube channel. Immediately following the interviews, the commission will begin deliberations to select a slate of three nominees from the group of applicants.  Once the commission selects its slate of nominees, the commission will forward those names to the governor. The governor will then have thirty (30) days in which to appoint the new judge.

A Council Bluffs man already being held in the Pottawattamie County Jail, was served Wednesday with felony warrants for Lascivious Acts with a Child and Sexual Abuse/2nd offense, involving a child under the age 12/1st offense. 33-year old Jacob Russell Kolhof was read the warrant and returned to the custody of Corrections Staff. 25-year old Jayd Benjamin Speck, of Murray, NE., was brought to the Pott. County Jail, Wednesday, to address a warrant for Credit Card Fraud-Automatic Teller Machine related (amounting to less than $1,500). Speck was being held in the Pott. County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

42-year old Gabriel Angel Rodriguez, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Wednesday night, following a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Council Bluffs. He was taken into custody for Driving While License Suspended or Revoked. Bond was set at $1,000. And, 53-year old Paul David Goldapp was arrested at around 1:50-a.m. today (Thursday), following a traffic stop on Interstate 29. He was taken into custody for Driving While Barred/Habitual Offender.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Northern Iowa and University of Iowa are identifying areas that could be trimmed to handle revenue limitations. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that officials say in budget documents sent to the Iowa Board of Regents that Northern Iowa expects to receive $3 million less to spend this coming year than last, in part because of stagnant tuition rates and declining enrollment. Northern Iowa plans to cut the number of course sections and reduce the teaching force.

The University of Iowa expects to have $1 million more to spend next year, but officials say that may not be enough to prevent future cutbacks. University officials told the regents about efforts to review activities for elimination. Iowa State officials expect to collect $9 million more in revenue in the coming year.