Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CST

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A second Republican has announced he’ll challenge embattled Iowa Rep. Steve King in the 2020 primary. The Sioux City Journal reports that 40-year-old Jeremy Taylor, a Woodbury County supervisor and former state legislator, announced his candidacy for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in a news release Thursday. Earlier this month, GOP state Sen. Randy Feenstra announced he’ll challenge the longtime congressman in the primary.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — An arctic wave has wrapped the Upper Midwest in numbing cold. But the worst may be yet to come. The deep freeze caused organizers of the Winter Carnival in Minnesota to cancel several events, including Thursday night’s parade through downtown St. Paul. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, has closed its six outdoor skating rinks because of the cold weather. Forecasters say the frigid weather is expected to linger into next week, with even colder temperatures midweek.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa county agreed to pay $50,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit against its top prosecutor last month, days before he applied for a seat on the Iowa Supreme Court. The payment settles a lawsuit filed against Muscatine County Attorney Alan Ostergren over his two-year prosecution of West Liberty City Manager Chris Ward that an appeals court eventually found unjustified.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa court judge has struck down a portion of a 2017 voting reform law that requires county election officials to call, write or email voters who do not completely fill out an application for an absentee ballot. The law was written to say county officials must use the best means available to find missing information.

Police in Council Bluffs were called to 35 N. 1st Street in Council Bluffs at around 1:23-p.m., Thursday, to check on the welfare of a person who has not been heard from for several days. Officers entered the residence and located a deceased person. The death is being investigated as a suspicious. The deceased person had not been identified as of the latest report. The cause of death was unknown, and pending autopsy.

The investigation is ongoing by the Council Bluffs Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with any information that was in the area at the time of this incident is encouraged to contact this Division at 712-328-4728 or they may call Crime Stoppers at 712-328-7867.

A collision on icy roads in Montgomery County Thursday afternoon resulted in two people being transported to the hospital. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened just before 2-p.m. on Highway 34, a little east of E Avenue. An investigation determined a 2002 Hyundai Sonata driven by 35-year old Leanna M. Jensen, of Shenandoah, was westbound on Highway 34, when it encountered a snow covered portion of the road. The snow caused the car to skid across the road before it struck an eastbound 2010 Toyota Highlander on the driver’s side. The Toyota was being driven by 57-year old Mark W. Euken, of Red Oak. The impact caused the SUV to enter the south ditch where it rolled over once and came to rest on its wheels. The car also came to rest in the south ditch.

All of the occupants of Jensen’s car declined medical treatment. Both occupants of the Euken SUV were extricated by Red Oak Fire and Rescue from the vehicle, by mechanical means. They were transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. Both vehicles were considered a total loss. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Red Oak Police and the Iowa State Patrol. The accident remained under investigation.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa court judge has struck down a portion of a 2017 voting reform law that requires county election officials to call, write or email voters who do not completely fill out an application for an absentee ballot. The law was written to say county officials must use the best means available to find missing information.

When Secretary of State Paul Pate wrote the administrative rules to enact the law, he prohibited election officials from looking up the needed information in their electronic voter registration system. He instead required election officials to contact voters by phone, writing or by email.

The League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued last year, saying Pate’s rule could lead to voter suppression. In a ruling Thursday, Judge Karen Romano said Pate’s interpretation of the Legislature’s language is erroneous, irrational and illogical. Pate says he will appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court.

Additional challenged sections of the law, which require voters to present government-issued identification at polls and shorten the time frame for casting absentee ballots, are scheduled for trial in June.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A second Republican has announced he’ll challenge embattled Iowa U.S. Rep. Steve King in the 2020 primary. The Sioux City Journal reports that 40-year-old Jeremy Taylor, a Woodbury County supervisor and former state legislator, announced his candidacy for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District in a news release Thursday. Taylor touted his conservative record on abortion, gun rights and tax relief.

Earlier this month, another Republican — state Sen. Randy Feenstra — announced he’ll challenge the longtime GOP congressman. At least two other Republicans have indicated they might too.
King is known for his caustic comments about race and immigration. He was stripped of his committee assignments and rebuked by the House in a 424-1 vote for recent comments about white supremacy.

Police in Council Bluffs report officers were dispatched a little after 10-a.m. today (Thursday), to the old, vacant No Frills Supermarket store at 1817 West Broadway, for a death investigation. While the store’s shelving and coolers were being removed by a contract firm, a body was found. The body appears to have been there an extended period of time.

The Pottawattamie County Medical Examiner’s Office responded, and is conducting an investigation along with the Council Bluffs Police Department. The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office has ordered an autopsy and the body will be transported their facility in Ankeny.

Officials with Southwest Valley Schools in Corning put out a statement Thursday on social media, with regard to students soliciting money for organizations. The statement said “If you are approached by a student claiming to represent a school organization soliciting money please remember the following:

1) Make sure the student soliciting funds has paperwork related to the fundraiser, especially if you give cash as payment so it can be tracked.

2) NEVER make out a personal check to a student. ALWAYS make out the check to the school or school organization.”

If you are suspicious, contact (S.W. Valley) immediately. Administrators have paperwork on file for all approved fundraisers and can check into the situation for you.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Sen. Joni Ernst says in an interview that she was raped by a boyfriend while she was a student at Iowa State University but didn’t report the assault. In an interview with Bloomberg posted online Wednesday night, Ernst disclosed the attack. She also clarified her discussions with President Donald Trump about becoming his running mate. Ernst, a first-term Republican from Iowa, this week has spoken about her troubled marriage and other aspects of her life after media disclosures based on court documents from her recently settled divorce from Gail Ernst, 65. They were married 26 years and have one adult daughter. Ernst, 48, told Bloomberg she decided to disclose the rape after the court filings were publicized, including her allegations that her husband assaulted her.

Ernst said she was in a relationship with a man who was “physically and sexually abusive.” She said he raped her at his home and threatened to kill himself if she ended the relationship. She called a campus sexual assault counseling center hotline and ended the relationship but didn’t report the attack to police. During her 2014 Senate campaign, Ernst noted she volunteered at the counseling center but didn’t acknowledge the assault. “I was embarrassed,” she said. “I didn’t know how to explain it. I was so humiliated. And I’m a private person, when it comes to those things.”

Ernst declined to name the man who attacked her, noting she’d described the assault to her former husband but not divulged the man’s identity. In court affidavits filed during the divorce hearings , Ernst stated that Trump interviewed her in 2016 to be his vice president. Ernst wrote, “I turned Candidate Trump down, knowing it wasn’t the right thing for me or my family.” In the Bloomberg interview, Ernst clarified that Trump didn’t offer her the job and that after thinking about it, she phoned then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort to withdraw from consideration. Trump eventually chose Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who is now vice president.

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — A former southern Iowa county attorney accused of driving while intoxicated is scheduled to begin trial April 8. Clarke County court records say 42-year-old Michelle Rivera pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the charge and a related crime. She’d been arrested last month in Osceola. Rivera lost her re-election bid in November after she was arrested in October on suspicion of being drunk on the job in a Clarke County courtroom. A sheriff’s deputy said in a criminal complaint that he noticed Rivera “slurring her words and stumbling on her feet” in the Osceola courtroom. He arrested her after she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with public intoxication. Rivera eventually pleaded guilty and was fined $65.

(Radio Iowa) — The annual University of Okoboji Winter Games kick off today (Thursday), bringing a huge winter boost to the Iowa Great Lakes area. Tourism generated about 286-million dollars for the region in 2017. Blain Andera, C-E-O of the Iowa Great Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, says the summer season is the main tourism driver, but the winter games run a close second. “On a typical year, the winter games will draw between 20- and 30,000 people to the area toward the end of January, where we don’t usually have a lot going on,” Andera says. “We’re thought of a summer tourist destination, and there’s a lot more to do here than just the summertime.”

Andera says the games draw people from all over the country and they’ve grown a lot since first being held in 1981. “It started with some folks who had cabin fever, wanted to get outside, started a broomball tournament,” Andera says. “Now, we’re up to four days of fun events with everything from broomball, to flag football, to softball, to polar plunge.”

Events also include scavenger hunts, ice fishing and a kite festival, which is something new this year. Kiting professionals will fly 16 kites through the air, measuring from 20 to 100-feet long. The games run through Sunday.