Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A western Iowa youth softball coach accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old friend of his daughter has been convicted of four counts of sexual abuse. The Omaha World-Herald reports that 47-year-old John Osborn, of Council Bluffs, was found guilty Thursday of third-degree sexual abuse in a nonjury trial. He faces up to 40 years in prison at his May 1 sentencing hearing.

Council Bluffs police say the girl and Osborn began exchanging text messages in June and had phone conversations about sex. Court documents show the girl reported that she and Osborn engaged in sexual acts in July when the girl stayed at Osborn’s house for a sleepover with his daughter.

Osborn has denied willingly touching the teen and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In a very brief, Special Session Thursday evening, the Atlantic Community School District’s Board of Education ratified the 2015-16 tentative agreement with the district’s Non-Certified Employees Association.

Board President Kristy Pellett opened the meeting by acknowledging that during their last, regular meeting on March 15th, they opted not to ratify the agreement at that time because they needed additional information. The information necessary to make the decision was available to the Board for the Special Session.

Board member Phil Hascall, who was vocal during the last meeting about not wanting to ratify the agreement, made the motion to reconsider at Thursday’s meeting. The motion was seconded by Rod Hartwig, and passed unanimously. Superintendent Mike Amstein said the agreement that was tentatively agreed to by the district’s negotiating team will cost the district $87,584. That’s the same amount mentioned during the March 15th meeting, and the same increase in pay for the affected staff.

Amstein says “We feel that [the amount] comes within the range that we had looked at. That it is a 3.26 [percent increase], based on new money and the reductions that we’ve made, and also with no increase to our insurance, we believe that [the] amount is acceptable, and I recommend the tentative agreement with our non-certified folks.”

With no further comments having been made, the Board heard a motion and second to approve the agreement, and it passed without objection.

Police in Council Bluffs located a missing juvenile this (Thursday) morning. Officials say at around 9:45-a.m., an 11-year-old male decided to leave Edison School without permission. Upon arriving in the area, several officers began searching for the child who was on foot. The 911 Center was successful in utilizing cell phone technology to locate the child, which indicated the child was in the area of Big Lake Park off N. 16th Street and was moving in a northeast direction.

Officers on foot and in vehicles concentrated their efforts in this area. Additional cell phone information had the child about a half mile north of city limits east of Monument Road. Officers converged on the area and observed the child running into a heavily wooded area on a ridge where he was located and apprehended without incident.

The child was uninjured and then transported to his residence where he lives with his grandmother. Pottawattamie County Deputies assisted Council Bluffs Police Officers in the two-hour search.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The trial of a 20-year-old Denison man accused of slaying two elderly people and trying to burn their bodies has been moved to Sioux City. A judge on Wednesday announced that the trial of Jayden Chapman will take place April 28 in Woodbury County District Court. He is charged with first-degree murder and second-degree arson in the murders of 80-year-old Marvin Huesling and 81-year-old Alice Huisenga.

Another man, 26-year-old Michael Schenk, was sentenced earlier this month to two consecutive life terms in prison in connection with the murders. The Sioux City Journal reports that a change of venue was ordered prior to Schenk’s trial. Authorities say Schenk and Chapman shot the pair at a trailer home in Deloit in March 2014 and then set it on fire.

The Iowa House has unanimously passed a bill that would double the size of the “buffer zone” that can be enforced between protesters and mourners at an Iowa soldier’s funeral. Representative Zach Nunn, a Republican from Bondurant, says there should be a “reasonable expectation of privacy” at the funeral of a soldier. “This bill addresses specifically the respect and the sanctity of a passing of a human life,” Nunn says.

The thousand-foot buffer zone around the site of a funeral, a memorial service, a burial or a funeral procession would be in force an hour before the ceremony, during the ceremony and an hour after it’s over. The bill is designed to respond to funeral protests organized by the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton who is the bill’s sponsor, calls the church members “verbal domestic terrorists.”

“You do not have a constitutional right to infringe on the constitutional rights of the families who are laying their fallen loved ones to rest,” Kaufmann says. “…I was contacted by a widow in Ohio who was moved to tears on the phone because she herself was subjected to the actions of this despicable group of people at her husband’s funeral and she’s just happy that Iowa is extending that buffer zone to 1000 feet.”

Current Iowa law, passed in 2006, forbids protestors from being within 500 feet of a military funeral. The Phelps family from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, has staged dozens of anti-gay protests at military funerals and a handful of church members protested in Des Moines in January to show their opposition to this bill. A few months ago a member of the Phelps family told The Cedar Rapids Gazette “whiny, crybaby legislators” in Iowa were pushing this bill. Similar legislation has passed in other states and been upheld in the courts.

(Radio Iowa)

Domestic abuse victims trying to keep their “ex” from finding out where they’ve moved would get some help from the “Safe at Home Act” that cleared the Iowa House today (Thursday). “This bill will be a step forward in our work to assist the victims of domestic and sexual violence.” That’s Representative Dean Fisher, a Republican from Garwin who is the bill’s chief sponsor.

The bill sets up a process so victims of domestic abuse as well as victims of sexual assault, human trafficking and stalking can get a new legal address, so they don’t have to list their home address when applying for a job, signing their kids up for school, registering to vote or taking some other action that requires disclosure of a home address — which might be discovered online.

Representative Fisher says the bill was inspired by the story of a young mother who was the victim of domestic abuse. “She was suffering the threats from her ex-husband over a bitter custody battle,” Fisher said. “She ultimately left Iowa for a state that already had a ‘Safe at Home’ problem. It bothered me greatly that (she) did not feel safe at home here in Iowa and felt the need to move to another state to achieve that safety.”

Secretary of State Paul Pate and his staff would administer the program and provide the victims with a Post Office Box in Des Moines as their new legal address. Mail sent to that P.O. Box would be forwarded back to the victim wherever they may live in Iowa. “The Secretary of State’s office is the only entity that will have the physical address of the participant unless there are extenuating circumstances that require it,” Fisher says.

The bill is fashioned after similar laws in 33 other states. If the bill becomes law in Iowa, the names and addresses of Iowans who participate in the “Safe at Home” program would not be listed on voter registration records. Secretary of State Paul Pate, a backer of the bill, says victims of these types of crimes too often become reclusive and this program to shield their home addresses “is a tool that can help rebuild lives.” The bill passed the House on a 100-to-zero vote and is now eligible for consideration in the Senate.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An effort to expand access to medical marijuana in Iowa is moving forward in the Democratic-majority Iowa Senate, though it is unlikely the bill will find favor in the Republican-controlled House.

The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would make medical marijuana available to people with a number of chronic diseases, including cancer, multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Those approved by a doctor could then purchase marijuana products produced in Iowa at state-run dispensaries.

Last year, the Legislature approved a law that allows some residents with epilepsy to use oil with an ingredient derived from marijuana for treatment. But the law did not establish an in-state program for the production and distribution of the oil. Critics say that as a result, the law is effectively useless.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The latest U.S. Census estimates show the Des Moines metro area is growing quickly while most Iowa counties have declining populations. According to data released Thursday, the Des Moines-West Des Moines metro area population reached an estimated 611,549, up 7.4 percent from the 2010 U.S. Census. The majority of Iowa counties, however, saw declines, as only 31 of 99 experienced an uptick.

The data show Dallas County had a 17 percent increase, the largest among Iowa counties. The biggest decline was in Fremont County, where population dropped 5.6 percent. All of Iowa’s nine metro areas saw growth. The Iowa City metro led the pack, up 7.7 percent since 2010. Gary Krob, coordinator of the State Data Center, says having growth across Iowa rather than concentrated in one area is promising.