Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest early Sunday morning of a Red Oak man on an assault charge. 20-year old Justin L. Marsden was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault, after deputies investigated an incident that allegedly took place at around 12:45-a.m., in Coburg. Marsden was brought to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held on $300 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police say a 12-year-old missing Des Moines girl may be with a wanted man. Des Moines television station KCCI-TV says Karina Rodriquez Resendiz was reported missing by her parents. Police say the girl has been missing for two weeks, when she failed to show up for class after her mother had taken her to school. Police believe she may have willing gone with 18-year-old Sergio Lopez, whom police say is wanted on a sexual abuse charge. He also has been charged in a warrant for failing to appear in court on the sex abuse charge. Police say they believe Lopez has violated a protection order prohibiting him from contacting the missing girl

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Deputies with the Red Oak Police Department responded to Hope’s Bar in Montgomery County last (Friday) night on a call of two men involved in an altercation. Dean Glen Heideman Jr. and Rodney Lynn Vanderhoof were both arrested for disorderly conduct and taken to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center. They are both being held on $300 cash bond.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office received a call today (Friday) stating that a Corning man had driven his truck onto someone’s property with the intention of “tearing the property up.” After arriving at the scene and seeing the damage caused, Adams County Deputies arrested, 34-year old Ricky Ewart of Corning. Ewart was charged with criminal mischief and arrested. Ewart posted $300 bond and is awaiting a court appearance.

Officials with Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s Office say the Governor will be in Greenfield, Corning and Creston next week, to hold “Our Opportunity. Our Iowa,” town hall meetings. Branstad will be at the Nodaway Diner in Greenfield (near the intersection of Highways 92 & 25) at 9-a.m. Friday, March 1st. Afterward, Branstad will travel to Creston, where his 10:30-a.m. town hall meeting takes place at the Adams Street Espresso and Soda Shoppe (213 W. Adams St.) . In Corning, the Governor will meet with residents in The Turner Room (724 Davis St.), beginning at 12:30-p.m.

The meetings are a part of Branstad’s plan he announced during his January 2013 “Condition of the State Address,” to focus on: Property tax relief, economic development and job creation; Education, and  improving the quality of life for all Iowans by ensuring greater access to health care.

There are no surprises in the statewide outlook being issued for the spring flood season. Jeff Zogg, senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service office in metro Des Moines, says it appears the drought that plagued Iowa most of last year will continue into 2013. One upside of that is — flooding is less likely. “The spring flood risk is lower than normal statewide, however, across the north-central part of the state, there’s a little bit of a different situation,” Zogg says. “We have a combination of frozen ground and some ice in the upper layers of the soil which may result in more runoff than we’d otherwise expect once the snow melts and we get any kind of rainfall in the spring.”

While 2012 was one of Iowa’s driest years in decades, the report indicates there’s no alteration in course coming in the weeks ahead. “Since the risk of flooding is lower than normal, that just infers that the drought conditions are continuing,” Zogg says. “We see no indications right now that there’s going to be a significant change in the dry conditions we’ve been experiencing.”

The worst drought conditions are in the northwest half of Iowa. The state’s snow pack is below-normal, except for the upper-most portion of the Des Moines River basin in southwest Minnesota where it is above normal. For Iowa’s farmers, the report means more headaches and scanning the skies, praying for rain. “The soil moisture conditions statewide are below normal,” Zogg says. “They’re driest across the northwest part of the state and a little bit closer to normal across the southeast part of Iowa and that’s been the theme since last summer.”

A report in December claimed Iowa would need eight feet of snow this winter to make up for the rainfall we lacked all of last year. Zogg isn’t sure about that eight-foot figure but says the end result is still the same. “The fact of the matter is, we are definitely dry and we are going to need a prolonged period of above-normal precipitation to end the drought,” Zogg says. “Unfortunately, with snowfall, the water content is lower obviously than if it falls as rain, so snowfall itself won’t make much of an impact. It’s also important that we don’t receive it all at once, especially as rainfall, because that will result in flooding.”

(Radio Iowa)

The driver of a pickup and three passengers were injured during a rollover accident about two-miles northeast of Audubon, Thursday night. Sheriff’s Officials say 30-year old Kyle Edward Lauridsen, of Audubon, was driving a 2005 Dodge Ram pickup west on 190th Street at around 10:30-p.m., when the vehicle hit a snow drift and went out of control just west of Lark Avenue. The pickup rolled over and came to rest on the passenger side.

Lauridsen, and his passengers: 23-year old Rebecca Sue Brookshire, of Wiota; 37-year old Julie Lynn Finnell, of Griswold, and 30-year old Christopher Roger Bylund, of Audubon, were injured and transported by private vehicle to the Audubon County Hospital.

Damage to the pickup was estimated at $7,000. The accident remains under investigation.