Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A 39-year-old man accused of attempted murder has been taken into custody after escaping from an Omaha hospital where he was being treated for stab wounds. The Daily Nonpareil reports David Leroy McKee of Council Bluffs left the hospital yesterday afternoon. He was being treated following a stabbing incident Sunday.

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — The trial of a Prairie City woman facing charges stemming from her dog’s fatal attack on a 4-year-old girl is set to begin. Jurors were selected yesterday in the trial of 26-year-old Jena Wright in Newton. She is charged with child endangerment, neglect or abandonment of a dependent person, assaulting a police officer and interfering with official acts. A jury of 10 men and four women was seated Wednesday. Opening statements will be delivered today.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa City man has taken a plea deal in the beating death of a toddler. Online court documents say 23-year-old Jorge Perez entered an Alford plea Monday to one count of child endangerment resulting in death. He and his then-girlfriend Mireya Balderas are accused of beating to death 20-month-old Marcus Balderas in April 2012.

SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — A couple looking to retire wants to sell a Sibley movie theater after running it for several decades. The Sioux City Journal reports Larry and Aileen Pedley bought Max Theatres from the children of Richard Carl Max after he died in 1981.

A flurry of high-level negotiations at the statehouse on Wednesday may have yielded a tentative agreement on how to resolve the impasse over state funding of public schools. According to the Facebook post of an eastern Iowa legislator, the tentative deal would give K-through-12 schools a one-and-a-quarter percent increase in general state aide for the next school year — the Republican bargaining position since January — along with a one-time boost of 55-million dollars in state support — so the total amount of new money for schools would equal what Democrats in the legislature had been seeking.

Brian Schoenjahn — a Democrat from Arlington — is a former educator who leads a subcommittee that’s been wrestling with education funding issues. “From our perspective it is absolutely necessary to keep our rural schools open,” Schoenjahn says. “I think this is serious funding.”

School officials, by state law, had to certify their districts’ budgets for the next school year by April 30th. Since legislators had failed to make the decision on school funding by then, Iowa superintendents issued more than 11-hundred layoff notices to teachers and staff last week.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A proposal that would legalize more fireworks sales in the state has moved forward in the Iowa Senate. The legislation won approval in the Senate Ways and Means Committee in a 9-6 vote Wednesday. Under the proposal, retailers could sell firecrackers, roman candles and other fireworks. Currently, the state allows sales of sparklers or snakes.

Supporters argued that the legislation would better regulate activity that is happening anyway, noting that Iowa residents are already going to border states to buy fireworks. But critics questioned the safety impact, saying there would be more fires and injuries. The bill will next move to the full Senate for consideration.