Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:52 a.m. CDT
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Law enforcement in North Dakota moved in Thursday to remove activists protesting the Dakota Access oil pipeline who had set up a camp on private property owned by the pipeline developer. It was the latest development in a long-running dispute over a thousand-mile pipeline that protesters say threatens drinking water.
CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Authorities have updated to 141 the number of people arrested when law enforcement officers evicted protesters from private property in the path of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Donnell Hushka, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, says most of the protesters were arrested for conspiracy to endanger by fire or explosion, engaging in a riot and maintaining a public nuisance. The nearly six-hour operation to evict the protesters began at 11:15 a.m. Thursday.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines hospital says a pharmacy tech removed a potent painkiller from hundreds of vials and replaced it with saline solution. UnityPoint Health – Des Moines spokeswoman Amy Varcoe says Methodist Medical Center contacted 731 patients because they may not have received full doses of fentanyl. Varcoe says about 250 vials were affected, but that she doesn’t know how many patients received vials containing saline.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office says one of its deputies accused of having a weapon with him while drunkenly assaulting someone has resigned in lieu of being fired. The former deputy, 34-year-old Erick McFerran on Friday, is charged with carrying weapons, assault causing bodily injury and harassment. He was charged after Waterloo police say they were called to a gas station on Oct. 14 and found that McFerran had assaulted someone.