Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Des Moines police are investigating an early morning shooting death in a neighborhood west of downtown. Police say officers were called about 2:15 a.m. Sunday to a report of shots being fired. When officers arrived at the home, they learned a shooting victim had been driven by a private vehicle to a hospital. The 40-year-old man later died. His name isn’t being released until relatives can be notified. Police say the shooting appears tied to a domestic dispute.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s upcoming primary will mark the first statewide test of a new law that requires voters to show identification at the polls. State officials and voting advocacy groups say they’re keeping a close watch on its rollout Tuesday. The law, which was passed last year and is being phased in, requires voters in 2018 to be asked for approved ID to vote. If someone doesn’t have that identification, they can sign an oath verifying their identity and cast a regular ballot.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The Dubuque library plans to start a service delivering books and other material to people unable to leave their homes. The Telegraph Herald reports that Carnegie-Stout Public Library officials hope to launch the service in July. Library staff say the program will give access to library resources and provide enrichment to people who need it.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa teen has been given a suspended prison sentence and probation for torching a famed covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa, that featured on the cover of the novel “The Bridges of Madison County.” Television station KCCI reports that 18-year-old Alexander Hoff was sentenced Friday, getting five years’ probation and a suspended 10-year prison sentence. He had pleaded guilty in March to second-degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s upcoming primary will mark the first statewide test of a new law that requires voters to show identification at the polls. State officials and voting advocacy groups say they’re keeping a close watch on its rollout Tuesday.

The law, which was passed last year and is being phased in, requires voters in 2018 to be asked for approved ID to vote. If someone doesn’t have that identification, they can sign an oath verifying their identity and cast a regular ballot.

A person without proper identification in 2019 will have to vote by provisional ballot. That requires the voter to return within a few days with ID or the ballot won’t count. Voting advocacy groups are monitoring the law’s implementation, and several county elections officials say they’ve done extensive training and outreach.

BERTRAM, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have identified a 60-year-old man who died after crashing his bicycle in eastern Iowa. The Linn County Sheriff’s office says Charles Cephas Peal of Bertram, Iowa, died after the bicycle crash around 9 p.m. Friday.

Peal was riding down a steep hill when he fell off the bike. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Investigators say the man was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — The Dubuque library plans to start a service delivering books and other material to people unable to leave their homes. The Telegraph Herald reports that Carnegie-Stout Public Library officials hope to launch the service in July.
Library staff say the program will give access to library resources and provide enrichment to people who need it.

The service will have three-week checkout periods, said Susan Henricks, the library’s director. Books, audio books and CDs will be eligible for the service, she said.
Participants will complete an application including information about what they like to read so library staff can make recommendations.

The program’s scope will depend on how many people volunteer to staff it, Henricks said. Officials plan to start advertising the program and seeking volunteers this week. The library currently provides bulk loans to more than a dozen nursing homes and residential care facilities, as well as the state correctional facility.

A Ringgold County man was transported to a hospital following a single-vehicle accident Saturday night, in Taylor County. The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports 54-year old Anthony Sickels, of Mt. Ayr, was traveling south on Highway 25 at around 10:30-p.m., when his 1994 Jeep Wrangler left the road for unknown reasons, near the intersection with 190th Street.

Sickels suffered minor/possible injuries, and was transported to the Ringgold County Hospital in Mt. Ayr by Taylor County EMS. The accident remains under investigation by the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office. The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office was assisted on scene by Taylor County EMS and Clearfield First Responders.

One of the stars of the original T-V series “Star Trek” is in Iowa this weekend, reflecting on a long, prosperous life which she says has been one bold adventure after another. Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Uhura, a bridge officer on the Starship Enterprise, is considered by many as not just an iconic actress, but as a heroine in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “I’m honored to be thought of that way,” Nichols says, “but it was just my life. That’s the way I was.”

Nichols planned to leave the show after the first season, but had a chance meeting with a fan, Dr. Martin Luther King Junior, who convinced her to stay on as she was such an incredible role model in the multiracial cast. Nichols, who’s black, and white actor William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk, shared what’s celebrated as the first interracial kiss on American television in 1968. In later years, Nichols helped NASA recruit women and minorities to join the astronaut corps. She’s credited with bringing aboard Sally Ride, who became the first American woman in space, as well as Mae Jemison, the first black woman in space. Nichols says her first love is musical theater and she toured the country in the 1990s singing in a one-woman tribute to female jazz and blues singers. “I sing, I’m a dancer, I’m a ballerina, I talk too much, I’m an actor,” Nichols says, laughing. “I’m all of those things. I’m in all of those areas that are fascinating to me.”

The 85-year-old Nichols is still involved in the television industry. Lately, she’s been crafting a potential new show to be called “Noah’s Room,” about an white astronaut who looks back on his experiences, including the black family who adopted him and, in her words, saved his life. “I’m still working on it and I’m developing it and as I work on it, things pop up out of it, it’s real fun,” Nichols says. “If I’m involved in the producing of it or the directing of it, I’ll be really very happy.” Speaking with Radio Iowa at the Wizard World Comic Con in Des Moines, Nichols says it’s energizing to see so many fans lining up to see her, to get an autograph or a selfie with her, even more than 50 years after Star Trek debuted. It’s an incredibly loyal fan base, “just wonderful,” she says. “You would be shocked at the many people that are Star Trekkers and know more about Trekdom than I do,” she says.

The original T-V show continues to spawn spin-offs and movies, but also lives on in reruns and is still finding new, adoring viewers. In the autograph line Saturday was a young girl of around eight, clad in boots and a red skirt with a triangular gold emblem on the black lapel, a miniature version of the uniform Nichols wore as Uhura decades ago.

(Radio Iowa)