Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Lawmakers in the Iowa Legislature have approved legislation that would increase K-12 education spending for the upcoming fiscal year. The Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-majority House both voted Wednesday in support of the legislation, which would increase basic aid for K-12 schools by 2.25 percent for the next academic year.

NORWALK, Iowa (AP) — Norwalk police say they have captured an escaped kangaroo. Police received a call Tuesday night reporting that a kangaroo was wandering around Norwalk. Police quickly captured the animal and transferred it to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Police say the 3-foot-tall animal is owned by a man in Norwalk who had intended to keep the animal as a pet while living in a rural area.

POMEROY, Iowa (AP) — A court says Iowa authorities had no duty to protect residents of a nursing home from a sexual predator who assaulted a 95-year-old woman after being placed there by court order. The Iowa Court of Appeals says the state had no duty to supervise William Cubbage once he was discharged from its treatment program for dangerous sex offenders in 2010.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An appeals court says Iowa State University can get out of paying some legal fees to a whistleblower who was viciously mistreated by his superiors. The Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 on Wednesday that a judge erred in awarding $368,000 in legal fees to Dennis Smith, sending the case back for a lower award. Smith was awarded $500,000 for emotional distress and $150,000 for reputational harm he suffered after reporting financial misconduct by his boss. The majority says Smith can recover attorneys’ fees only for the whistleblower claim, and the judge should have cut the fee award since that claim was only partially successful.

Atlantic Parks and Recreation Dept. Assistant Director Seth Staashelm reports the Buck Creek Dog Park at the Schildberg Recreation Area remains open, despite the beginning of construction on a parking area. Staashelm says they hope to have the parking lot in-place within a couple of weeks. In the meantime, persons bringing their animals to the park, are asked to park on the street.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office says one person is dead, another was critically hurt during a rollover accident Tuesday afternoon. In an update to our earlier report, authorities say a passenger in the car, 47-year old Theresa Moses, of Lenox, was flown to a hospital in Des Moines, where she later died. Another passenger, 54-year old Junior Chumbley, Jr., was flown to a Des Moines hospital, where he was reported to be in critical, but stable condition. A third passenger, 32-year old Kyle Gile, was flown to Des Moines and later released from the hospital. The driver of the car, 46-year old Rachel Reed, of Lenox, was treated and released from the hospital in Creston.

Officials say the accident happened at around 4:15-p.m., as Reed and her passengers were traveling west on 130^th Street near Yellowstone Avenue. Her 2005 Kia Sorento went out control on the gravel and rolled several times. Three occupants of the car were not wearing their seat belts and were ejected and a fourth was trapped in the vehicle.

The circumstances that led to the accident are still under investigation by the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors have once again tabled action on approving funds  in support of an Atlantic Parks and Recreation Department application to Vision Iowa for a Community Attraction and Tourism (CAT) grant. The grant application is for $360,000 from Vision Iowa, for improvements and further development of the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, and the Pellet Wildlife Refuge Park.

The Board, after much discussion, decided it wanted Atlantic Parks and Rec Director Roger Herring to come up with some figures with regard to how proposed improvements to the campground at the Schildberg Recreation Area, would benefit the county as a whole, and not just Atlantic. Prior to their decision to table the matter until next week, most of the Board made it clear they were not in support of the County vowing to contribute $40,000 to help secure the Vision Iowa grant.

Supervisor Frank Waters was the first to say he was not for the County chipping in to secure the grant.  He says the people he’s spoken with in his district opposes the funds using tax dollars. Using the Local Option Sales Tax monies was brought up as a possible means of committing to the requested funds, but the Supervisors say they intended to use much of those funds to pay down existing debt, especially with regard to improvements for the ethanol site. Supervisor Mark Wedemeyer, who attended last week’s meeting of the Cass County Conservation Board, said that Board didn’t want to upgrade the Pellet Wildlife Refuge – an area tentatively included in the grant application – because it tends to flood, and because they don’t have the funds necessary to maintain it.

Supervisor Chuck Rieken said roads and bridges are the county’s prime focus right now, along with reducing the debt, so that other projects can be funded in the future. Frank Waters agreed. The City of Atlantic earlier this month committed $100,000 in support of the grant application, which requires a 50-percent local match in order for it to be considered. Parks and Rec Dept. Director Roger Herring has said other funds and donations of time, labor and resources would meet the 40-percent requirement for the in-kind portion of the local match. The grant application needs to be submitted by April 10^th.

In other business, the Supervisors approved the hiring of a temporary, full-time employee in the Treasurer’s Office during a time an employee there will be on medical leave. The Board however DENIED a proposal from the Cass County Secondary Roads Employee Group (CCSREG) for personnel to work four, 10-hour days from May 30^th through September 2nd. They would then return to their regular 8-hour per day shift effective Sept. 5^th.  Chuck Rieken was one of the Supervisors who opposed the request, because it hasn’t worked before, and because that’s not what the public wants.

POMEROY, Iowa (AP) – A court says Iowa authorities had no duty to protect residents of a nursing home from a sexual predator who assaulted a 95-year-old woman after being placed there by court order. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the state had no duty to supervise William Cubbage once he was discharged from its treatment program for dangerous sex offenders in 2010.

The court says state officials didn’t have to develop a safety plan for Cubbage once he was at the Pomeroy Care Center. Willis Hamilton is a lawyer representing the estate of the victim, who has since died. He says he can’t understand how state officials can argue Cubbage was too dangerous to be released but “put him in a nursing home with little old ladies” with no protections.

(In an update to our earlier post) The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says the fisherman who died Tuesday evening after falling from his boat on the Cedar River in Charles City has been identified as 54-year old Kevin Neal Endelman, of Charles City. Endelman had his small boat anchored just above a low-head dam on the Cedar River when he apparently fell out and went over the dam shortly after 7 p.m.

The man was pulled from the river downstream of the dam by the Charles City Fire and Rescue and was taken to Floyd County Medical Center in Charles City where he was pronounced dead. Also assisting at the scene were the Charles City Police Department and Floyd County Sheriff’s Department. The incident remains under investigation by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

A man from Hastings was transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, Monday, after he swerved his vehicle in an attempt to miss a deer on the road. The Mills County Sheriff’s Office says Brandon Feller was driving a 1995 Honda on Highway 59 at around 9-p.m., when the accident occurred. Officials say his car left the roadway and rolled over, possibly ejecting Feller.

The Mills County Sheriff’s Office reports three recent arrests. On Monday, 47-year old John Ray Nolan Jr., of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail on a Mills County warrant for Violation of Probation. His bond was set at $5,000. That same day, 35-year old Cherokee Nicole Tuttle, also of Council Bluffs, was arrested at the Pott. County Jail, on a Mills County warrant for in the Theft 2^nd Degree. Her bond was also set at $5,000.

And, on Tuesday, 35-year old Zachary Robert Jones, of Council Bluffs, was arrested following a traffic stop in Mills County, on a warrant out of Pottawattamie County. He was being held without bond.

The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), along with the Union County Sheriff’s Office, Tuesday, arrested 43-year old Jennifer Jean Hartley, of Thayer,  on a charge of Murder in the First Degree, a class A Felony, in the death investigation of Loretta Dillinger.

On December 2nd, 2015, a hunter located a decomposed body in a pond at 1024 Redwood Avenue near the Union County and Madison County line. The Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny performed an autopsy and determined the body to be that of 37-year old Loretta Dillinger.

Jennifer Jean Hartley

Through the investigation, DCI Agents determined that Jennifer Hartley acted with Jerry Dillinger to kill Loretta Dillinger. Hartley was part of a plan to have Loretta set fire to two residences, one in Greenfield and one in Thayer. Hartley provided her pistol to Jerry Dillinger to kill Loretta so she wouldn’t disclose any information about the fires. After the fires and death of Dillinger, Hartley knowingly helped conceal Loretta’s death.

Jennifer Hartley is being held in the Ringgold County Jail on $1 million cash-only bond. Jerry Dillinger plead two counts of first degree murder back in January. He was found dead in his jail cell last month, in what officials at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Oakdale said, was an apparent suicide.

Officials with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce have announced a new program helps to better the community and bring fun for the whole family. The Chamber is unveil two new campaigns for the year. The Explore, Discover, Share
campaign to raise community awareness, and, the Passport to the Atlantic Area, a shopping incentive program to encourage shopping local.

The goal of the Explore, Discover, Share campaign is to build community awareness and pride by exploring the community and then sharing those experiences. The campaign will kick off in June and continue through November and include multi-media marketing and an Explorer Challenge to engage community members.

Community members will be encouraged to visit participating locations, take a photo and learn something new to share. Participants will upload their photos and experiences to a dedicated website by clicking on the business they visited. Community members will use the same website and vote on their favorite photos. Prizes will be given throughout the campaign to participants with the most photos and votes with a grand prize winner at the end of the campaign.

Chamber businesses and tourist attractions that purchase sponsorships will be a part of the campaign, each receiving an Explore, Discover, Share sign or decal to designate them as a participant. The success of the campaign will be determined by the amount of overall support and excitement within the Chamber membership and community.

The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce partnered with several retail based businesses to create a Shop Local campaign for the entire year including the Passport to the Atlantic Area. The year-long campaign will educate the community on why it is important to shop local. Shopping local keeps dollars in our community; supports families, employees and business owners; provides you with great customer service and selection; benefits local schools and community projects; and encourages Atlantic’s unique character.

The Passport to the Atlantic Area gives shoppers an additional incentive to keep their dollars in the community. The Passport to the Atlantic Area is a shopping reward program to entice community members to shop at the participating businesses. The more you shop at the participating business the better your chance is to win Passport Dollars to spend.

The Passport program will kick off in late May or early June. Passports will be available for pick at all the participating businesses. Participants will receive stamps in the amount of purchases made at the local businesses. Once a participant’s passport is complete, they have the option to return the passport to the Chamber or participating businesses to be entered into a monthly drawing to win Passport Dollars, only redeemable at participating businesses. At the end of the year, all the completed passports will be eligible for a Grand Prize drawing.

Details regarding participating businesses and attractions for the campaigns will be released at a later date.