The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A trial has been rescheduled for a Nebraska resident accused of stabbing to death a woman in northwest Iowa. Court records show the attorney for 20-year-old Melissa Camargo-Flores, of Dakota City, Nebraska, wanted more time to prepare her defense. The new trial starting date set Tuesday is Sept. 18th in Woodbury County District Court. The former date was July 10th.

Camargo-Flores is charged with first-degree murder in the Sioux City slaying of 24-year-old Kenia Alvarez-Flores on April 8. Court documents say Camargo-Flores admitted stabbing Alvarez-Flores and told investigators she’d been involved in a relationship with the victim’s boyfriend.

Authorities say the two women were not related.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The National Weather Service has confirmed that five tornadoes touched down in eastern Nebraska and one in western Iowa, Monday evening, but they caused little damage. There were also no injuries, only minor damage, and were rated EF-0, with winds from 65 through 85 mph. There were tornadoes in Nebraska,  around Louisville and Murray. One touched down near Elk Creek and one near Table Rock. The sixth was spotted in southwest Iowa, west of Thurman.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines homeless shelter is planning to use repurposed shipping containers to construct permanent apartments for chronically homeless people. The 24-unit project would be erected in the same drainage ditch where homeless people have set up camps. Central Iowa Shelter and Services’ director Melissa O’Neil told The Des Moines Register the shelter’s applied for $2.7 million from the National Housing Trust Fund.

The Institute for Community Alliances says the number of people living on Des Moines streets more than doubled to 107 in 2017 from 52 in 2016. In November dozens of the metro’s chronically homeless moved onto retention basin ditch, which sits within 100 feet of the homeless shelter.

The State Transportation Commission has given final approval to the updated five-year transportation improvement program. The program will spend three-point-four billion dollars on state roadways. That includes the reconstruction work on the interstate systems in Council Bluffs and Sioux City — as well as a section of I-35 from Ankeny to Ames. The plan calls for the completion of the final segment of the four lane expansion of U-S 20 in western Iowa by the fall. Four-lane improvements on U-S 30 in Tama and Benton County and on U-S 61 in southeast Iowa are also in the plan. The plan has one billion dollars targeted at bridge repairs. The state had 51 bridges listed as structurally deficient in 2017.

(Radio Iowa)

A spokeswoman for Governor Kim Reynolds has issued a clarification of the governor’s views on same-sex marriage after Reynolds seemed to call for a statewide vote on the issue. “People have traditional views on what they believe marriage consists of and they have every right to have that, but it was decided by the courts,” Reynolds says. “And I have said from the very beginning my position has been that it probably should go to a vote of the people and they should weigh in and then we would stop this back and forth.”

A few hours after Reynolds made those remarks, her communications director indicated those were the governor’s views in the past, not the present.The Iowa Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in 2009 that legalized same-sex marriage in Iowa. A U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2015 made it legal throughout the country. The governor’s spokeswoman says Reynolds believes the courts “weren’t necessarily the place” where the issue should have been decided, but Reynolds considers the issue “settled.

The Iowa Republican Party’s platform that will be ratified Saturday at the G-O-P’s state convention calls for repealing “any laws allowing any mar­riage that is not be­tween one natural man and one natu­ral woman.” Reynolds says the platform provides the “guidelines” grassroots Republicans hope elected officials will advance. “But it’s not something that every single candidate has to abide by,” Reynolds says. “It is kind of an over-arching goal of what the party is working on.”

Reynolds told a reporter who asked if she supported the party platform’s call for a ban on same-sex marriage that she’s focused on economic issues instead. “We’re going to talk about reducing taxes and continuing to create an environment where our job creators and businesses…will feel confident in investing and continuing to grow in the state of Iowa,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds made her comments Tuesday during a news conference in Pella.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa State Patrol is investigating separate, fatal crashes that took place Tuesday. In southern Iowa’s Clarke County, 25-year old Jesse John Ray, of Osceola died, when for reasons unknown, the westbound 2010 Toyota Camry he was driving on Highway 34, crossed the centerline of the road, and collided head-on with an eastbound 2017 Freightliner semi, driven by 33-year old Jesse Lee Bain, of Ottumwa.The accident happened a little after 4-p.m., Tuesday.

The semi came to rest in the south ditch, while car came to a halt on the road. Ray, who was not wearing a seat belt, died at the scene. Bain was wearing his seat belt. He was transported by Clarke County Ambulance to the Clarke County Hospital.

The Patrol says the other fatal accident happened in eastern Iowa’s Cedar County, when the driver of a 2004 Dodge Ram pickup attempted to make a U-turn from the right turn lane on northbound Highway 38. The pickup was struck broadside by a northbound by a 2003 Peterbilt semi registered to a trucking company out of Springfield, MO. The accident happened at around 9:45-a.m., Tuesday. No names had been released as of early this (Wednesday) morning.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:30a.m. CDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A former housing programs manager for the city of Davenport has pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of concealing a camera in an apartment employee bathroom. The Quad-City Times reports that 46-year-old Roy DeWitt pleaded guilty Tuesday to eight counts of invasion of privacy. Each count carries up to two years in prison, but in exchange for DeWitt’s plea, prosecutors agreed to a cap of six years in prison and to not file additional charges from video on the camera DeWitt hid.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Cathy Glasson, who lost her bid for Iowa governor in last week’s primary election, has made an unusual request to Iowa Democrats that she be allowed to address the party at its upcoming state convention. Glasson’s campaign manager Misty Rebik tells The Associated Press the former candidate asked the Iowa Democratic Party on Tuesday afternoon whether she can speak at the June 16 convention. Democratic Party spokeswoman Tess Seger says party leaders are reviewing the request.

SABULA, Iowa (AP) — A car ferry from Iowa to Illinois is up and running as residents wait for the opening of a bridge connecting the two states. The Telegraph Herald reports that the ferry between Sabula and Savanna, Illinois, began running Tuesday, providing direct access between the two communities for the first time in months. The ferry can hold 15 vehicles per trip, can be used for free and will run from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily until the new bridge is completed.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A central Iowa woman has been charged with insurance fraud after state regulators say she submitted an application for insurance coverage containing false information. Joy Marie Heldt of Madrid, who was an insurance agent, was initially charged last month after an investigation by the Iowa Insurance Division’s fraud bureau.

A man from Shenandoah was injured during a single-vehicle accident early Tuesday afternoon, in Fremont County. The Sheriff’s Office reports deputies responded at around 12:42-p.m. to the 2400 block of Highway 59, for a vehicle that had struck a tree head-on.

Deputies determined that Daniel Douglas, of Shenandoah, was southbound on Highway 59 in a 2015 Ford Focus, when the vehicle left the road and struck a guardrail on the west side of the road.  The vehicle continued south on Highway 59 before hitting a tree head on, and coming to rest.

Douglas suffered unknown injuries and was transported to the Shenandoah Hospital by Shenandoah Rescue. Deputies cited him for Failure to Maintain Control. Shenandoah Police and Shenandoah Fire and Rescue assisted the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office with the call.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Officials with the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources said Tuesday, that at around 7:40-p.m. Saturday, the Iowa DNR was dispatched to the west side of Lake Manawa near the entrance to the West Lake Village for a man that had been brought to shore by an individual on a personal watercraft after he was found in the lake.

Through the investigation, it has been determined that 54-year old Lawrence Wieneke, of Omaha, had somehow fallen into the lake from a personal watercraft operated by his wife, 59-year old Geralyn Wieneke, of Omaha, prior to a good Samaritan spotting Lawrence and bringing him to shore.

Lawrence Wieneke was transported to a Council Bluffs hospital in critical condition, but is expected to survive. Investigators believe alcohol may have been involved with this incident and toxicology results are pending. An investigation by the Iowa DNR Law Enforcement Bureau and the DNR State Parks Bureau continues, with assistance from the Council Bluffs Fire and Rescue and Council Bluffs Police Department.