Authorities in Montgomery County, Tuesday night, arrested three people in connection with a plot to sell a vehicle for cash at a scrap yard. Officials say 23-year old Amanda Joy Huebner, of Red Oak, faces felony Theft in the 2nd degree charge, after she asked 26-year old Sara Ann Billie and 30-year old Lovelle Joseph Ward, both of Red Oak, to take a 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee to a scrap yard in Omaha, and obtain cash for the vehicle so Huebner could pay some bills. All three suspects knew the SUV did not belong to Huebner.

Instead of taking the vehicle to the scrap yard, Billie and Ward used it for their own personal use. They brought the SUV to the police department after they spoke on the phone with officers. Billie and Ward were arrested for Operating (a vehicle) with the Owners Consent. Their bonds were set at $2,000 each. Huebner’s bond was set at $5,000.

Sheriff’s deputies in Montgomery County early this (Wednesday) morning, arrested a man for Driving While Barred. 42-year old Jerry Lee Dawson, of Hastings, was taken into custody at midnight and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on full bond.

Advocates to expanding Iowa’s limited medical marijuana law held an emotional rally at the statehouse Tuesday afternoon. Michelle Richardson of Norwalk has multiple sclerosis and she wants lawmakers to set up a growing and distribution operation here in Iowa for cannabis oil, pills and vapor. “If I have to cross state lines to get the medication, I’m not going to do that,” Richardson says. “Look at me. I’m not going to go to jail for that.”

Monday night, 31 House Republicans unsuccessfully offered a proposal that would have expanded the list of ailments Iowans can possess cannabis oil to treat. Sally Gaer, of West Des Moines, has been lobbying legislators to set up an Iowa-based growing and distribution system for the cannabis oil her daughter takes to control her chronic epilepsy. “I’m disappointed. I feel misled by members of the Iowa House,” Gaer says. “We’ve been working on this for months and what they did last night shows they have no conscience.”

Bob Lewis of Windsor Heights cried as he described the G-O-P plan. “I’ve been fighting so hard for this. My illness wasn’t even covered in the bill that was diluted,” Lewis said. “I have lived in pain for 42 years.” Thirty-six-year-old Laura Jumper and her family are moving from Mason City to Ankeny to be closer to other relatives. She has ulcerative colitis, Graves Disease and a rare form of arthritis that attacks the spine. Jumper wants to take cannabis because prescription drugs are no longer working. “I used to be a fitness instructor and now I barely can walk and have trouble doing everyday things like showering,” Jumper says. “and just getting in and out of the car.”

House Democrats say they’ll try to force a vote this week, somehow, on a plan to grow and distribute marijuana by prescription in Iowa. Leaders say they’re hoping this is the final week of the 2016 legislative session and a limited number of bills remain eligible for debate.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources recently held a public hearing on the rules covering the new apprentice hunting licenses and are moving ahead with implementation. D-N-R hunter education administrator, Megan Wisecup, says it allows people to bypass the hunter education requirement while they learn. She says the program is for people over the age of 16 to try and get them interested in hunting by giving them a chance to go out before they need to invest in any equipment. Providing supervision is a key part of the apprentice license.

“It requires that they have a mentor with them, which is another hunter who is 18 or over and properly licensed as well. And they must maintain direct supervision between that mentor and menteee,” Wisecup says. She says once someone learns more about hunting, they are more likely to continue going out. “There’s 36 states that currently an apprentice license of some sort in place and they’ve attributed over one million new hunters coming into the fold since those programs went out. So, definitely once they have the opportunity to try it, they get hooked and then they come back and meet the hunter education requirements and successfully hunt on their own,” Wisecup says.

She says they already have thousands of people signed up for the hunter safety courses and hope this program brings in more. “There’s around 10 to 12-thousand that kind of fit in that age group that we are trying to reach out to, so we are kind of hoping we might double or triple that number,” Wisecup says. A person may purchase the apprentice hunting licenses two times without having completed hunter education course.

The apprentice program was approved by the Iowa legislature and signed by Governor Terry Branstad during the 2015 legislative session.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An attempt in the Iowa Legislature to expand medical marijuana access in the state may have reached its end this session with a failed vote in the House. Some Democrats said Tuesday they would keep pushing the issue in the days before a possible adjournment. The Monday night debate, which ended with a 31-63 failed vote, highlights the challenges of passing legislation that includes a production system for the drug.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A competency hearing and murder trial for a 30-year-old man charged with killing his mother and grandmother in Council Bluffs have been delayed. A hearing to determine whether Michael Dieckmann is mentally fit to stand trial was set for Monday but a prosecutor and defense attorney asked for more time. The competency hearing is now set for June 27, and the trial was moved to Aug. 23.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House have passed a bill that could change decision-making within a Des Moines utility that sued three Iowa counties over polluted water. The chamber voted 52-39 Tuesday for the standing bill, which often includes language on unrelated projects. The House bill would change the board that oversees decisions by Des Moines Water Works to ensure representation from different areas the utility serves. The utility has sued three counties over polluted water.

NASHUA, Iowa (AP) — A Mason City man who stopped to change a flat tire on the shoulder of a highway has died after being hit by a pickup truck. Twenty-one-year-old Zachery Gueller stopped because of a flat tire Monday evening on the shoulder of Highway 218, just north of Nashua. An Iowa State Patrol report says he turned on his emergency flashers and got out of the vehicle to change the tire. A pickup hit the vehicle, killing Gueller and injuring three passengers.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Sioux Falls police say a 26-year-old woman has been arrested in Le Mars, Iowa, in connection to a man wanted on a warrant issued in a Sioux Falls homicide. Police spokesman Sam Clemens says the woman was arrested early Tuesday morning on two counts of accessory to murder.

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant for 21-year-old Jared Stone in the killing of 28-year-old Baptiste White Eyes, who was shot in the head outside a Sioux Falls casino Friday evening and died at a hospital.

Stone remained at large on Tuesday. Clemens says Stone is likely in Iowa. Police haven’t commented on the relationship between Stone and White Eyes other than that they knew one another. Authorities do not believe the shooting was a random act.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A competency hearing and murder trial for a 30-year-old man charged with killing his mother and grandmother in Council Bluffs have been delayed. The Daily Nonpareil reports a hearing to determine whether Michael Dieckmann is mentally fit to stand trial was set for Monday but a prosecutor and defense attorney asked for more time. They say doctors are still evaluating Dieckmann.

He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the March deaths of his mother, 63-year-old Jacqueline Dieckmann, and his grandmother, 91-year-old Illa Pfeiffer. The competency hearing is now set for June 27. Dieckmann’s murder trial was originally scheduled to begin June 1, but will now be held Aug. 23.

Dieckmann remains in the Pottawattamie County Jail on $1 million bail.

The Page County Sheriff’s Office says charges are pending following an injury accident that took place Monday evening, about 1.5-miles east of Shenandoah. Sheriff Lyle Palmer reports, the accident occurred at around 5:40-p.m. on Highway 2m near the intersection with C Avenue.

An accident investigation determined a 2016 Jeep Cherokee driven by 28-year old Dustin Richard Comstock, of Shenandoah, was stopped in the westbound lane of Highway 2 waiting for eastbound traffic, to clear so he could turn south onto C Avenue.  20-year old Drew Alexandria Ann Esque, of New Market, was traveling westbound on Highway 2 east of the intersection in a 2001 Ford Taurus.

For unknown reasons, Esque didn’t see Comstock’s stopped SUV. Her car hit the rear end of the Jeep, causing the SUV to move west in the westbound lane before it came to rest.  Esque’s car continued west in the eastbound lane before finally coming to rest in a ditch southwest of the intersection.

Both Comstock and Esque were transported to Shenandoah Memorial Hospital for treatment of unknown injuries. Citations are pending against Esquel. The Page County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by Shenandoah Ambulance Service and Shenandoah Fire Department.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The lawsuit filed by the Des Moines Water Works against several upstream agriculture drainage districts will not go to trial in August. A three-week federal court trial was initially set to begin Aug. 8 but on Monday Judge Leonard Strand issued an order continuing it due to scheduling conflicts. A new date will be set when he meets with attorneys on May 11.

The water utility for about 500,000 central Iowa customers blames farmland runoff for high levels of nitrate that has caused it to spend millions of dollars to remove the contaminant to comply with federal water quality regulations.

Water Works officials want farm drainage districts to have to get pollution discharge permits under the federal Clean Water Act to help control farm contaminants leaching into rivers and streams.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources say they will release two trumpeter swans at Lake Icaria Recreation Area, near Corning, rain or shine at 1 p.m. Thursday, May 12th. The release site is located 5 miles north of Corning on Hwy. 148, and then three miles east on 160^th Street (gravel) to the east boat ramp on the north side of Lake Icaria.

The release includes a 20-minute swan/wetland presentation, a unique opportunity to touch and view the swans up close and a historic photo opportunity with the kids. As the largest North American waterfowl, these magnificent all-white birds can weigh up to 32 pounds with an 8-foot wingspan.

Trumpeter swans were once common in Iowa, but were gone from the state by the late 1880s.  By the early 1930s, only 69 trumpeter swans remained in the lower 48 states.  The trumpeter swans being released are part of the Iowa DNR’s statewide trumpeter swan restoration effort, with hopes that they will help restore a wild free flying population to Iowa.