DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – New data show there’s an increase in the number of former Iowa inmates returning to prison, and corrections officials are still figuring out why. The Iowa Department of Corrections measures recidivism as the percent of offenders released from prison or work release who return to corrections within three years. For the budget year that ended in June, just over 1,600 offenders were in that category for a rate of 34.2 percent. That’s up from 31.9 percent the previous year, when just over 1,500 inmates returned.

Lettie Prell, research director for the department, says her office is reviewing the possible causes and plans to release a report this fall. Department officials have tracked the recidivism rate for decades. They say a low rate helps inmates and keeps the public safe.

Police in Red Oak, late Saturday night, arrested Nicholas Allen Philby, of Red Oak, for Public Intoxication. Philby was taken into custody at around 11:55-p.m. in the 700 block of N. Broadway Street. He was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on a $300 cash bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:57 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — University of Iowa officials have revamped the university’s 6-year-old sidewalk chalk policy months after an anti-abortion group’s sidewalk art caused a flap. The school already had a policy requiring chalked messages to advertise upcoming public events hosted by a recognized student organization. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports that under the new policy, student organizations must limit messages an event title, time, location and name of the organization.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A retired Catholic priest in western Iowa has been charged with five counts of invasion of privacy over an alleged incident at a high school track meet in April. The Des Moines Register says a news release Friday from the Diocese of Des Moines announced that the Rev. Paul Monahan had been suspended on July 8 after the diocese learned of the investigation. Monahan was charged by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, which has not released details of the April incident.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a 39-year-old inmate who escaped from work release while serving a murder sentence has been captured. Officials listed John Mohr as escaped from the state work release facility in Davenport on Friday when he didn’t return to the facility from his job as scheduled. The Iowa Corrections Department said in a news release Saturday that Mohr had been apprehended and was in custody in the Scott County Jail.

OSAGE, Iowa (AP) — A Hampton man has been convicted of first-degree murder for killing his girlfriend. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that a Mitchell County jury found 61-year-old Ronald Rand guilty on Friday after three hours of deliberation. Rand had pleaded not guilty to the charge earlier this year in the Dec. 13 shotgun death of 51-year-old Michelle Key in Rand’s home.

Iowa Department of Corrections Assistant Director Fred Scaletta said today (Saturday), a prison inmate serving time for the death of a child, and who was listed Friday as escaped from a facility in eastern Iowa, has been apprehended. Thirty-nine-year-old John Mohr had failed to return from his job to a work release facility in Davenport.

Mohr was sent to work release back in April. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder in 1997 for the death of his girlfriend’s 13-month-old son in Clinton. Mohr was 19 at the time. The child was the victim of shaken baby syndrome.

John F. Mohr

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A retired Catholic priest in western Iowa has been charged with five counts of invasion of privacy over an alleged incident at a high school track meet in April. The Des Moines Register says a news release Friday from the Diocese of Des Moines announced that the Rev. Paul Monahan had been suspended on July 8 after the diocese learned of the investigation.

Monahan was charged by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, which has not released details of the April incident. The Diocese says Father Monahan plans to plead not guilty. According to diocesan protocol, Bishop Richard Pates immediately suspended the retired priest from all public ministry, while the investigation and adjudication are ongoing. The suspension will remain in place until the matter is legally resolved. An independent third party conducted an audit of all diocesan files of living priests, including Father Monahan, in July 2014. Officials say the audit contained no evidence of inappropriate conduct by Father Monahan.

Monahan was ordained in 1960 and retired in 2004. He served St. Columbus in Weston, St. Mary’s in Avoca, St. Patrick’s in Walnut, Holy Family in Council Bluffs, St. Mary’s in Portsmouth, and Our Lady of Holy Rosary, in Glenwood.  In his retirement, Monahan also served as a senior chaplain at St. Albert Schools in Council Bluffs.

On behalf of the Diocese of Des Moines, Bishop Pates said he extends apologies to those who perceived violation of privacy. He urges prayer for all involved, including Father Monahan. The Bishop said “We must allow the law to run full course before further steps are taken by Church authorities.”

w/ Chris Parks

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The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest of two men early Saturday morning.  At 1:21am officers arrested 24-year-old Nathan Allen Aldrich of Red Oak and 30-year-old Jesse Ray Nelson of Red Oak for Disorderly Conduct.  Both men were arrested in the 300 block of East Joy Street.  Both were taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 cash bond each.

Republican Congressman Steve King says he has “an uneasy feeling” about Donald Trump’s “softening” immigration stance. King told A-B-C News there is “not much” about Trump’s evolving comments about immigration that have “encouraged” him. King has been one of the most vocal opponents in congress of what King calls “amnesty” for people who entered the country illegally.

King told A-B-C is it “okay to soften some things,” but King says it is “not okay to let people violate the law and be rewarded for it.” King is calling on Trump to “reject real amnesty with clarity.”

King backed Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucuses. King has said he will vote for Trump in November. But King told Radio Iowa earlier this month saying he’ll vote for Trump is not a “full-throated” endorsement.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Senator Joni Ernst will host her second annual “Roast and Ride” fundraiser Saturday (Today) and the featured speaker will be G-O-P presidential nominee Donald Trump. Ernst says the event is a “build-up” to November “It is about exciting our base and energizing them and this is perfect opportunity,” Ernst said. “We’re right coming up against that Labor Day weekend which traditionally kicks off the campaign season.” Ernst will be the lead motorcyclist on a late morning ride that will start at the Harley Davidson dealership on the north side of Des Moines.

Sen. Joni Ernst on last year’s “Roast and Ride.” (pic from Radio Iowa)

Last year’s ride raised about $15,000 for a veterans charity known as the America’s Fund. This year’s beneficiary of ticket sales for the motorcycle ride will be Soldier Strong. It’s a non-profit that partners with high tech companies that help wounded veterans. The ride will cover about 42 miles and end at the state fairgrounds early Saturday afternoon. That’s where crews have set up a stage — complete with bales of straw — inside the fair’s huge livestock show ring.

“We did choose to do it inside the pavilion,” Ernst says. “We were a little concerned aboutg the rain, so in order to get it set up on time we just made that call.” Ernst gave about a dozen members of the media a tour of the set-up late Friday afternoon. During a news conference, Ernst was asked about the current campaign charges of racism and bigotry being thrown about between Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“I’m not going to get into that,” Ernst said. “What I would say with both of them, because there have been a lot of barbs thrown at each other, is that they need to take this into a civil discourse and we’re not seeing that right now. I don’t like it when campaigns go that direction and I would say of both of them, you know, ‘Back down and let’s really talk about the policies and the issues.'” Ernst says the bleachers that ring the livestock pavilion can seat about two-thousand people and there will be more seating inside the show ring, in front of the stage. Senator Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s three Republican congressmen and Republican congressional candidate Chris Peters will speak to the crowd, along with Trump, Governor Terry Branstad and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds.

(Radio Iowa)

Some common August threats are showing up in Iowa soybean fields. That’s according to agronomist Randy Kool, with Syngenta, in Adel, who says spraying for insects is coming to an end for most growers. “Usually R5.5 to R6 (development stage) is about the end of any application treatments for insects. We’ve had some spraying for soybean aphids and we’re starting to hear about the second generation of bean leaf beetles,” Kool said. Kool’s territory includes parts of western Iowa where excessive rainfall has disease pressure mounting.

“I would say (we’re starting to see pockets of) SDS in the western half of Iowa, but it’s not as prevalent as on the eastern side of the state.” Kool says variety selection and seed treatments are ways to manage Sudden Death Syndrome and other diseases moving forward. And late emerging weeds like water hemp are causing problems again. “That’s a little bit more of an issue this year since beans were a little slower to canopy. We’ve got good bean height now, but its been a challenge to take care of some of those weeds earlier,” Kool said.

Kool recommends cleaning harvest equipment before switching fields to limit the spread of weed seeds. The most recent report from the USDA placed 82-percent of Iowa’s soybean crop in good or excellent condition.

(Radio Iowa/Brownfield Ag News)