The annual Iowa Summit on Justice & Disparities opens Tuesday at the F-F-A Enrichment Center in Ankeny. Iowa N-A-A-C-P Betty Andrews started the summit after becoming concerned about the number of African Americans in Iowa prisons. “At that time African Americans were 13-point-six times more likely to be incarcerated or caught up in the criminal justice system,”Andrews says. The first summit was five years ago.”At that time we were number one in the nation for this disparity. We are now at 11 times — which is still really high — but we are dropping,” she says.

Andrews says the summit tries to bring a lot of different people together. “The audience is pretty diverse…it is advocates, it is criminal justice professionals, it’s politicians, it’s people who have been incarcerated, the community at large,” Andrews says. “and anyone who is interested in addressing disparities in our state.” She says the goal is to bring people together to come up with solutions. “It’s not about pointing fingers, it’s about everyone coming together and working together to bring about change,” according to Andrews. “And when we are addressing these disparities, we are also addressing issues for people who are not of color for all. And it makes things better for all.”

Andrews says the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program for children who were brought the country illegally is one of the things they will discuss. “We do have a panel this year that is dedicated to DACA. And we are really excited to bring that so that pople can have an honest conversation about how the recent changes in the executive order will affect Iowans.”

The conference runs from 8:00 A-M to 4:30 P-M. To find out more about the summit and speakers — got to the website: www.IowaJusticeSummit.org

AMES, Iowa (AP) – The second of four finalists to be Iowa State University’s next president is senior vice president for academic affairs at the University of Georgia, Athens.

The Iowa Board of Regents says Pamela Whitten will visit the Ames campus Tuesday and meet with staff, students and community members. Her curriculum vitae and interview schedule are available on Iowa State’s presidential search website, presidentsearch.iastate.edu. The first finalist, Sonny Ramaswamy, is visiting the campus Monday. He’s director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture in Washington, D.C.

The regents are scheduled to meet Oct. 23 to choose the next president.

Iowa’s refugee resettlement agencies are expecting fewer arrivals and facing more uncertainty as the Trump administration continues to lower the cap on refugee arrivals. Carly Ross is director of the Des Moines field office for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. She says in past years, when she was notified that a refugee family would be traveling to the U.S., she could expect that family to arrive in two to three months. “But at this point, we are not as clear on those timeframes when we receive the notification,” Ross said. “We don’t know if they will be traveling within that same timeframe, two to three months, or if it could be even longer.”

That leaves refugees in Iowa with a lot of questions about when they’ll be reunited with their family members who are still overseas. According to Ross, one refugee family in Des Moines still has two teenage girls living in Malaysia.  “And they’re really fearful for those two girls’ safety, so they’re constantly just asking for updates about when they might be able to come to the U.S. and at this point, we just can’t give them very firm answers,” Ross said.

The Trump administration will admit 45,000 refugee arrivals this fiscal year — the lowest cap since the program’s start in 1980. The Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, recently criticized the State Department for failing to consult Congress on its refugee plan.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

AKRON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have released the name of a man who was shot to death in northwest Iowa. Plymouth County officials identified the man as 40-year-old Jeremy Hebert. The county Sheriff’s Office says he was shot early Friday morning at a residence about 5 miles northeast of Akron. Arriving deputies found him suffering from the gunshot wound, and he was taken to a Sioux City hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Thirty-three-year-old Becky Hebert was arrested later Friday in Le Mars and has been charged with second-degree murder.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Two people have been arrested in connection with a string of robberies of men in Omaha who thought they were meeting with a woman they had messaged on a dating application. Omaha Police say one of the suspects was linked to the robberies after he sold stolen cellphones at a kiosk and used one of the victims’ credit cards. The second suspect was arrested after a search warrant was served. Several items linked to the robberies, including two guns were found.

The suspects have both been charged in connection with seven robberies and one attempted robbery. Court documents say all but one of the victims used the dating application called “Plenty of Fish.” But instead of a woman, they met robbers.

Authorities in Montgomery County report two separate drug-related arrests, Sunday. At around 9:50-p.m., Red Oak Police arrested 37-year old Luke Daniel Rinehart, of Red Oak, for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Violation of a No Contact Order. Rinehart was taken into custody in the 300 block of 2nd Avenue and held in the Montgomery County Jail on $300 bond.

And, at around 5:15-p.m., Sunday, Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office arrested 23-year old Adam L. Schmidt, of Lincoln, NE., for Possession of Marijuana. Schmidt was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $1,000 cash bond.