CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids officials say an autopsy shows a man whose body was found outside a building died of natural causes. The body was spotted around 2:45 p.m. Sunday near an empty commercial building that is used to handle overflows from a homeless shelter. Authorities have identified the man as 77-year-old Joseph Botello.

ORANGE CITY, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa library is shifting how it categorizes books after some residents pressed for segregating materials containing LGBTQ themes. The Orange City Public Library’s board decided Tuesday to experiment with grouping books by subject and subcategory rather than alphabetical order by an author’s name. The library’s board president, Jared Weber, says the changes may start with a trial run on a few subjects over the summer and expand to the rest of the library if patrons like the new system.

The Sioux City Journal reports the move comes a month after some community members circulated a petition calling on the library to label and separate materials involving LGBTQ issues. The petition also asked the library to seek public input before acquiring new materials on LGBTQ topics. The library board will vote next month on revising the library’s policy to require an additional check on acquisitions.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports three men were arrested on assault charges over the past week. On Tuesday (March 20), Deputies arrested 20-year-old Justin Andrew Dickinson, of Harlan, on four active warrants from Shelby County District Court. Three warrants are for failure to appear in district court with a cash or surety bond amounting $30,000. The fourth warrant was for charges of domestic abuse causing serious injury, and held under additional $10,000 bond.

Last Thursday (March 15th), Shelby County Deputies arrested 36-year-old Werner Esquivel Y Esquivel ,of Harlan, on charges of domestic abuse assault with injury. Esquivel was brought to the Shelby County Jail without incident and held without bond pending initial appearance. He was seen the following morning by the magistrate and held under a $600 bond. Esquivel’s bond was later posted and he was transferred into the custody of the Department of Homeland Security Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Also on March 15th, 59-year-old Randy Lee Sorensen, of Irwin, was arrested and charged with assault on peace officer and interference with official acts. Sorensen was transferred by Irwin Rescue to Myrtue Memorial Hospital, and after being released medically was transferred to the Shelby County Jail without incident and held under $3,000 bond. A few days later, Sorensen posted bond and was released from custody.

Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman says Gronewold, Bell, Kyhnn & Co. P.C. CPAs have released an audit report on Cass County, Iowa for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017. The reports shows the County had local tax revenue of $30,897,717 for the year ended June 30, 2017, which included $3,032,484 in tax credits from the state.  The County forwarded $22,709,120 of the local tax revenue to the townships, school districts, cities and other taxing bodies in the County.

The County retained $8,188,597 of the local tax revenue to finance County operations, a 4.8 percent increase from the prior year.  Other revenues included $5,379,201 from the state, including indirect federal funding of $1,523,236, charges for service of $358,113, and $237,849 for the use of money and property.

Expenditures for County operations totaled $13,692,779, a 4.4 percent increase from the prior year.  Expenses included $5,298,103 for roads and transportation, $298,552 for mental health, $2,625,127 for public safety and legal services, $2,122,837 for capital projects, and $1,282,313 for administrative services.

A copy of the audit report is available for review in the office of the Auditor of State and the office of the Cass County Auditor.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A man has been accused of punching a woman, hitting her with a baseball bat and burning her while holding her at his Dubuque home. Court records say 43-year-old Lonnie Vandamme Jr. is charged with assault, false imprisonment and related crimes. Dubuque County Jail records say Vandamme remained in custody Wednesday, pending $50,000 cash bail.

Court records say she told police the beatings occurred Wednesday and Thursday last week after they argued. She said he also menaced her with a knife and threatened to kill her. Records say she suffered burns, a broken eye socket, a broken rib and severe body bruising. Vandamme is scheduled to be in Dubuque County Court on Thursday.

It appears the state’s 40-year-old “bottle bill” will remain intact for another year. There was a hearing Tuesday morning on a House bill that would have repealed the law, but Republican Representative Guy Vander Linden of Oskaloosa made it clear the bill was going nowhere. “This bill is dead, but it was dead before we came in the room and I just wanted to make that absolutely clear, because even the proponents have what they think is a better idea,” Vander Linden said. “The purpose of the meeting was to get everybody in the room and, hopefully, clear the air a little bit and come to a better understanding.”

Consumers pay a nickel deposit on bottles and cans of beer, soft drinks and wine and they can get the deposits back by returning the empties. Grocery stores object to being forced to redeem the cans and bottles, arguing the empties are filthy and pose a health hazard. A bill to repeal the state’s bottle deposit law and expand recycling programs across the state is still pending in the Iowa Senate.

(Radio Iowa)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — A trial has been delayed again for a northeast Iowa man whose dead 4-month-old son was found in an infant swing, his body infested with maggots. The delay in the trial of Zachary Koehn was granted Tuesday. Lawyers for both sides wanted more time to prepare. The trial in New Hampton had been scheduled to begin March 28 after being delayed from a Jan. 3 start. The new date is June 11.

Koehn and the baby’s mother, Cheyanne Harris, have pleaded not guilty to murder and related charges in the death of their son, Sterling Koehn. Her trial starting date also is June 11. They’re having separate trials. Authorities say deputies and medics called to the couple’s Alta Vista apartment on Aug. 30 found Sterling dead in the swing.

Republicans in the Iowa House have approved a plan to address an expected deficit in the current year’s state budget. Cuts are necessary because of lower-than-expected state tax collections. Representative Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, guided the plan through House debate.”We’re not Washington, D.C. We don’t print money,” said Grassley, whose grandfather is U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley. “We have to have a balanced budget at the end of each year, so we have to go in and make decisions, which they’re tough decisions. There’s a lot of decisions in here that are extremely tough. We have to try to do the best we can with our priorities.”

More than 40 percent of the cuts will fall on the state university campuses in Ames and Iowa City. Administrators will be asked to cut nearly 11 million dollars from the University of Iowa and Iowa State University budgets. “Yes, our universities take it on the chin and they deal with it, but at what cost to the students?” That’s Representative Vicki Lensing, a Democrat from Iowa City. Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, a Democrat from Ames, calls the cuts to the two public universities “simply irresponsible.” “We’re not going to stay top-of-the-line unless we invest in the universities,” she said. “Our students, our faculty and our staff can’t live on the bare bones.”

The University of Northern Iowa — the other state-supported university — will NOT be forced to make mid-year budget cuts. There are a little more than three months left in the current state budgeting year. Administrators in the Department of Human Services, the state’s prison system and the state’s court system also are being asked to make significant spending cuts. Senate Republican leaders have signaled they’ll support the plan House Republicans approved late Tuesday afternoon.

(Radio Iowa)

Former Texas Congressman Tom Delay — the former majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives — was among the speakers at a hearing in the Iowa Capitol Tuesday night. Delay is now part of a coalition of 120 groups pressing for bills — like the one pending in the Iowa House — that would ban abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.  “I am very proud of Iowa taking the lead on passing a heartbeat bill because it is time,” Delay said. “Ladies and gentlemen, it has been 45 years…Something has to change.” Delay is an opponent of the 1973 Roe v Wade decision that legalized abortion and he told Iowa legislators public attitudes are changing because of what people can see on a sonogram. “It’s not a piece of flesh. It’s not a bug. It’s not a parasite,” Delay said. “It’s a little baby.”

Delay resigned from congress in 2005 shortly after being accused of campaign finance irregularities. He spoke briefly with Radio Iowa after the hearing, suggesting his travels to Iowa and other states are a bit of penance for inaction during his 15 years in congress.  “I regretted all this time that I was in congress and, frankly, had the strength of power, that I didn’t get rid of abortion,” said Delay. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland C-E-O Suzanna de Baca testified immediately after Delay.  “We are once again being forced to plea for women’s basic reproductive rights,” de Baca said. “How insulting for women who remember what life was like before Roe v. Wade.”

According to de Baca, before 1973 — one in six deaths among pregnant women “were the result of an illegal abortion.” “If you advance this legislation, Iowa will be dragged back into the back alley days,” de Baca said. De Baca and others were cheered by a large contingent gathered outside the hearing room, watching the hearing on a large monitor. Dr. Amy Bingaman, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Des Moines, called the six-week abortion ban an attempt insert politics into the practice of medicine. “I am fighting for my patients, your wives, your sisters, your children,” she said.

The Iowa Senate passed a six-week abortion ban at the end of February. A similar ban attached to another abortion-related proposal and is now eligible for debate in the full House.

(Radio Iowa)