Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa — Authorities have issued an AMBER ALERT for two Polk County boys who was allegedly abducted by their biological mother on Dec. 28th. 12-year old Morgan, and 11-year old Landon Griffin, are believed to be in a brown 2003 Chevy Suburban with Iowa license plate CRY 371. They, along with their mother, 32-year old Mary Purcell, are believed to be on their way to Minnesota or Oregon. If you see the vehicle, call 9-1-1.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A special election has been scheduled for a House seat that was vacated by an incoming state senator. Gov. Terry Branstad signed a proclamation Friday that directs a special election be held Jan. 31 for House District 89, which includes parts of Scott County in eastern Iowa. The House seat was held by Democrat Jim Lykam, who resigned after winning a special election on Dec. 27 for the Iowa Senate.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has found a man guilty of murder in the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend in Dubuque. The Telegraph Herald reports the judge on Friday found 28-year-old Eddie J. Hicks guilty of first-degree murder in the June 2015 death of Kahdyesha J. Lemon. Prosecutors say Hicks stabbed his girlfriend more than 100 times in her Dubuque home. Hicks will be sentenced Jan. 23. First-degree murder in Iowa carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

REMSEN, Iowa (AP) — A truck driver was hurt when his vehicle collided with a train near the northwest Iowa city of Remsen. The Sioux City Journal reports the crash happened Friday morning at a rural crossing north of Remsen, a Plymouth County community about 30 miles northeast of Sioux City. The state patrol says the driver, whose name wasn’t released, was being treated for broken legs and other injuries. It’s not clear how the crash happened. The westbound train was hauling corn syrup.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s maximum-security prison for male offenders will have the first female warden in its 178-year history. The Board of Corrections has approved the appointment of Patti Wachtendorf as warden of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Wachtendorf has been warden at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville, the state’s prison for female offenders, since 2009.

An accident involving a moving truck Friday afternoon damaged a local business. According to Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon, a U-Haul truck turning a corner clipped the roof on the corner of a building at 603 Poplar, which is the home of Princor Financial Services. The business is owned by Certified Financial Planner Mark A. Smith, of Atlantic. The accident happened around 2:15-p.m. No injuries were reported.

Kennon said a tow truck was called to removed the moving truck, which was wedged under the roof on a corner of the building. The incident caused some of the rear tires of the truck to be lifted off the ground.

No other details were immediately available.

Photo courtesy Mike Kennon, Cass County Emergency Mgmt. Agy.

REMSEN, Iowa (AP) — A truck driver was hurt when his vehicle collided with a train near the northwest Iowa city of Remsen. The Sioux City Journal reports the crash happened Friday morning at a rural crossing north of Remsen, a Plymouth County community about 30 miles northeast of Sioux City.

The state patrol says the driver, whose name wasn’t released, was taken to a hospital in Le Mars, where he was being treated for broken legs and other injuries. It’s not clear how the crash happened. The westbound train was hauling corn syrup.

It was the second time in a week that a train had crashed into a truck in Plymouth County. On Dec. 30, a Union Pacific train hit a trailer in Le Mars, cutting the trailer in half.

Sheriff’s officials in Pottawattamie County report an Oakland woman was arrested Thursday evening on four counts of Child Endangerment without injury. 26-year old Alexsandra Diane Sturm was arrested at around 7:10-p.m. following a disturbance at a home in the 100 block of Kearney Street, in Oakland.

Sturm’s husband called authorities to say his wife had been home all day, drinking alcoholic beverages, and was extremely intoxicated. The husband indicated their four children, ages eight and five, were dropped off by the Riverside school bus at around 4-p.m. The husband didn’t get home from work until at around 5:15-p.m.

When deputies spoke with the woman, they noticed she had a strong odor of alcohol, had difficulty standing and finishing her sentences. She admitted to consuming alcohol prior to her husband arriving home. She was booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail without incident.

Officials with the Cass County Memorial Hospital today (Friday), report the first baby of 2017 born at Cass County Memorial Hospital was Khaicyn Lee Bo Dean Benton, of Atlantic. He was born on New Year’s Day. The CCHS OB Department celebrates the first baby of the year with a gift of a special embroidered blanket, certificate, and a year’s supply of Pampers diapers.

In the photo, Khaicyn is shown with his mom, Kayleigh, and older brothers Kohldyn and Traevyn.

Governor Terry Branstad says recent employee misconduct at the state-run facility in Glenwood for patients with profound mental disabilities highlights the need for a law change. Six employees at the Glenwood facility were fired, six quit and five others were disciplined after an investigation found 20 residents had been physically and verbally abused by the staff.

“I have by executive order done some things to try to open up the process, but we have a provision in law that makes these personnel matters confidential and it’s a real problem, not just for state government, but for counties, cities and school districts, too,” Branstad says. “So if you have somebody that’s done something inappropriate — could be child abuse, could be abuse like at Glenwood — and then that person is terminated, is fired, that information is considered to be confidential personnel information.”

Branstad tried to get that changed in 2013. The Republican-led Iowa House passed a bill on the subject, but Democrats in the Iowa Senate were able to block it, arguing the move would expose the state to defamation lawsuits. Now that Republicans have majority control of both the House AND the Senate, Branstad hopes a bill will be passed that would make records about government employee firings open to the public.

“I do understand why state employees don’t want this made public if it’s just an accusation,” Branstad says, “but if there’s a final determination made that person has been guilty of wrongdoing and they are dismissed for it, that information should be made public and it should be available to future employers.”

Branstad would like the law changed to apply to the firing of employees in city and county government in Iowa as well as firings in the state’s schools. In 2013, Democrats objected to the move, arguing at the time that Branstad was seeking the change to deflect attention from “hush money” payments to state employees who were being laid off. Some state managers made confidential settlements to give workers a departing bonus if the employee agreed to keep the terms of their exit agreement secret.

(Radio Iowa)