DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Des Moines City Council has been urged to adopt a ban on racial profiling by police. Creation of a civilian review board was among the proposals aired at the council meeting Monday night. The proposals include bans on what were described as “pretextual stops”: traffic stops in which police use minor traffic violations as excuses to pull over people officers find suspicious because of their race or sex.

The council also was urged to make marijuana possession Des Moines’ lowest police enforcement priority because, the activists said, it unfairly targets minorities. The council voted to instruct City Manager Scott Sanders to research and report on each of the proposals. Des Moines Police Chief Dana Wingert disagreed that the city needs a civilian review board. He says that’s something for cities with major problems within their police departments.

Sheriff’s deputies in Adams County arrested an Adair County man at around 2:35-a.m. today (Tuesday). Delson Grantham, of Fontanelle, was taken into custody after authorities received a call at around 2:15-a.m., about a suspicious vehicle in the 1300 block of Walnut Avenue. Upon further investigation, Grantham was taken into custody for OWI/1st offense, Carrying a firearm while under the influence, and Driving Under Suspension. His bond was set at $2,300.

(Radio Iowa) — A northwest Iowa man has returned home from the West Coast, where he tried to save his mother’s home from wildfires that destroyed much of the town of Paradise, California. Andrew Duran of Sioux City is a retired carpenter who had been working on his mother’s home in the days before the fires swept through the area. He stayed behind as his mother and two brothers fled the approaching flames. Duran says he used a hose to “drench” the outside of their homes.

“I just kept watering around the house, under the car port and everything, just trying to get it as wet as I could,” Duran said. “About 45 minutes later, I saw the house across the street go up (in flames). Then, the next door neighbor’s house went up.” Duran quickly found himself fighting a losing battle and realized he was also in danger of being trapped. He shot and narrated a cell phone video of the homes going up in flames around him as he made his way towards nearby firefighters.

“There’s my mom’s house, going up right now. Sorry, mom,” Duran says in the video. Looking back, Duran said he was focused on saving his mother’s home and not worried about his own safety at the time. “I didn’t have time to think about me,” Duran said. “My number one concern was not to let my mother’s home burn…she’s not going to be homeless.”

Duran’s mother and other family members made it safely to a nearby Wal-Mart that was transformed into a make-shift “refugee site.” They are currently staying with other relatives in California and trying to decide if they’ll eventually rebuild or move elsewhere.

The director of the Iowa Department of Revenue says she’s living through a thrilling, “once in a lifetime” experience. Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson reports. (Click on the left side of the audio bar below to listen)

Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City has been the top-ranking Democrat on the Iowa Senate’s tax committee. He says: “It would be really fun if the Department of Revenue would send out refunds to Iowans in a timely manner this year.”

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The 2018 midterms are barely history, but the next campaign is already in full swing in Iowa, home to the first caucus of the 2020 Democratic presidential nominating campaign. In the two weeks since the election, potential White House contenders have intensified their effort to recruit operatives who could help them navigate an Iowa campaign. The competition is shaping up to be especially fierce because the field could include as many as two dozen candidates.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A judge has sentenced a second man to life in prison for the 2016 killing of a gender-fluid Iowa teenager. The Des Moines Register reports a judge Monday sentenced 26-year-old Jaron Purham to life in prison, which was mandatory because of his October conviction of first-degree murder. Another man, Jorge Sanders-Galvez, already is serving a life term for the March 2, 2016, fatal shooting of 16-year-old Kedarie Johnson of Burlington. Johnson’s relatives say he identified as both male and female.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa farmers are nearing the end of this year’s harvest of corn and soybeans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday that 91 percent of the corn crop had been harvested by Sunday. That matches last year’s harvest but was three days behind the five-year average. About 97 percent of the soybean crop had been harvested, which is just behind last year’s 98 percent and the five-year average of 99 percent.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A woman has filed an ethics complaint against state Sen. Nate Boulton, detailing allegations she initially made in May that led the lawmaker to drop his campaign for governor. The Des Moines Register reported Monday the woman filed the complaint with the Iowa Senate. The complaint alleges that in November 2015, Boulton repeatedly grabbed her buttocks. The Register had previously reported the allegations as well as allegations from two other women regarding incidents more than a decade ago.