Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:00 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa corrections officials say all but three of Iowa’s 46 juveniles sentenced to life in prison without parole have been given new sentences with a chance for freedom. The Associated Press found after a 50-state examination of juvenile life sentence cases that in many states the chance at eventual release has been halting, inconsistent and often elusive. Iowa began resentencing juvenile lifers in 2012 after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded juvenile life prison sentences should be rare.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa has opened its newest and biggest residence hall to meet its student housing needs for the next few years. The Catlett Residence Hall officially opened Friday, in time to serve students for the fall semester. The 12-floor, 1,049-bed residence hall is named after world renowned sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett, a university graduate who was one of the nation’s first students to earn a Masters of Fine Arts degree

MCGREGOR, Iowa (AP) – A small city in northeast Iowa still shows the scars of a tornado that hit the community earlier this month, but businesses have reopened and visitors are shopping in local stores even as repairs continue. The Telegraph Herald reports that electric service has been restored to nearly all buildings in McGregor following the July 19 tornado that pummeled the city. The McGregor and Marquette Chamber of Commerce president estimates that at least 75 percent of businesses were operational this week.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Trees that suck up sunlight and groundwater at the expense of other plant life are creating new headaches throughout the Plains, including Nebraska, Iowa and the Dakotas. The eastern red cedar tree spreads rapidly, consuming huge areas of productive ranchland and threatening many of the area’s original prairies. Some landowners and conservationists are now working to try to address the problem.

Two people were injured during a collision between a motorcycle and a car Saturday afternoon, in central Iowa’s Warren County. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 1999 Honda Trike driven by 69-year old Russell L. Greer, of Grinnell, was headed eastbound on Highway 92 at around 4:05-p.m., when he failed to stop for a 2005 Toyota Corolla driven by 38-year old Rongong Liang, of Ames.  Liang was stopped on Highway 92, waiting to make a left turn.

The Honda Trike struck the rear of the car and rolled onto Johnson Street. Russell Greer, and his passenger, 59-year old Tammi J. Greer, also of Grinnell, were transported by Mercy One helicopter to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. A report on their conditions was not immediately available.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa has opened its newest and biggest residence hall to meet its student housing needs for the next few years. The Catlett Residence Hall officially opened Friday, in time to serve students for the fall semester.

The 12-floor, 1,049-bed residence hall is named after world renowned sculptor and printmaker Elizabeth Catlett, a university graduate who was one of the nation’s first students to earn a Masters of Fine Arts degree.

Catlett came to Iowa City in the late 1930s. She lived off campus because university housing was unavailable to African Americans until the desegregation of Currier Hall in 1945. Catlett, who is black, was influenced by Grant Wood, the Iowa painter who urged students to portray the subjects they knew best.

Jackson Kimle, vice-president of Inland Sea, says Reicks View Farms of Lawler, Iowa, recently made an anchor investment in a proposed $50 million salmon aquaculture construction project slated to begin late this year or early 2018. Kimle says Reicks View Farms Investment brings Inland Sea-Harlan LLC closer to their equity capital goal although investment opportunities are still available for accredited investors.

He says the salmon raising facility, as proposed, will have a two-acre footprint in Harlan, chosen due to its readily available, low-cost utilities and water and excellent access to highway, interstate, and air transportation. The proposed facility will include a technologically advanced, highly automated recirculating grow-out tank system designed to capture economies of scale and world-class bio-security.

When fully operational, Inland Sea-Harlan expects to produce and harvest approximately 5.3 million pounds annually. Kimle says the company believes inland salmon production represents a significant opportunity because of its broad market appeal and supply constraints in both wild-catch and seaside aquaculture. Per capita, salmon consumption in the U.S. is second behind shrimp as the most consumed seafood and has the most upside potential.

The primary sources of salmon consumed in the U.S. are Norway, Scotland and Chile with most salmon consumed in the Midwest coming from approximately 4,500 to 6,500 miles away. Inland Seas-Harlan believes there is a global need to increase and shift salmon production to scalable, sustainable methods like those proposed by the company.

(KNOD/Harlan)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Iowans no longer have to retreat in a public place before using deadly force – that’s the result of a new gun law that took effect in the state this month. But it’s creating an abundance of concern and confusion.

Sheriff Dave Drew of Woodbury County says he’ll continue to enforce a no-guns-allowed policy at the county courthouse, even as the county supervisors insist the courthouse ban should no longer apply. Drew says he is complying with a June order from the Iowa Supreme Court, which limits the ability to carry weapons in justice centers. “I’m an officer of the court, I have been for the 36 years I’ve been doing this job, and I don’t have that luxury to tell the judge, ‘You know, I don’t agree with that,'” he says.     

Opponents of the law are worried that it may actually increase violence in the state.

Meanwhile, the Iowa Legislature has been criticized for the vagueness of the bill. Drew says he’s aware that by limiting where firearms can be carried, he’s opening himself up to lawsuits – but believes he’s on solid legal ground to win such a case.

The state law now says an Iowan can sue any city, county or township that passes a firearms ban if the individual believes they are adversely affected by it. And as county officials butt heads over how to interpret the new law, Drew says the disagreement in his county isn’t personal – just part of the nature of county business. “Each elected official, office holder, is autonomous, in that they don’t answer to the Board of Supervisors – but they answer to the public every four years,” he explains.

Elsewhere in the state, the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors has publicly stated that it will also abide by the state Supreme Court order, noting it will likely take a legal battle to ultimately resolve the issue.

(Iowa News Service)