And now there are seven. Another person has entered the race for U-S Senator-Elect Joni Ernst’s vacant Iowa Senate seat. The Daily NonPareil reports David Sieck, a Mills County area farmer, announced on Monday, he’s running for the District 12 senate seat. Sieck decided to run in hopes of giving a stronger voice and representation to the district.

Sieck is a lifelong resident of Iowa and a founding member of Responsible River Management, which works to find solutions to river management issues on the Missouri River, among other duties. He was vice chair of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee and a recipient of the Grassroots Award in 2014 with the Iowa and National Corn Growers Association.

His Mills County family farm is a fourth-generation operation. Sieck says he’s concerned the district could lose out on its potential if not represented properly. Fostered correctly, he said, the district’s businesses and families could prosper greatly.

In addition to Sieck, the other six candidates are Redding-area cattle rancher Tracee Knapp, former Montgomery County Supervisor Margaret Stoldorf of Red Oak, farmer Seth Watkins of Clarinda, Charla Schmid of Red Oak, Fremont County Supervisor Cara Marker-Morgan and State Rep. Mark Costello.

The Republican convention for the special election will be held in Clarinda on Thursday night. The special election itself will take place on Dec. 30th.

Senator Tom Harkin flew to Oslo, Norway, Tuesday so he could attend today’s (Wedneday) Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and see the man he nominated win the award. Harkin nominated Kailash Satyarthi for the Nobel Prize, for his campaign against child slavery. “What he would do is he would get people together, he would find a factory where they have a lot of these bonded kids working in bad conditions…and they would go there and rescue these kids,” Harkin says, “hurry them out, put ’em in their trucks and take ’em back to a sanctuary.” Harkin first met the man in 1991.

“And so, in 2005, I said to Ky: ‘I’m going to nominate you for the Nobel Prize,'” Harkin said. “He’s such a modest person…In 2006, I renominated him, then I started bringing in more people.” Satyarthi, who is from India, calls child slavery an “intolerable….crime against humanity” and he has said that he hopes by winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, more people will acknowledge that child slavery exists — and must end in our lifetime.

This year’s other Nobel Peace Prize winner is 17-year-old Malala, the young Afgan girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for being an advocate of women’s education. It will be followed by an evening banquet that Harkin will attend, along with past Nobel laureates and other dignitaries, like Norway’s royal family. The banquet will begin at noon Iowa time. Harkin’s trip is a quick one. He plans to fly back to Washington, D.C. Thursday, anticipating votes in the U.S. Senate.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES – The State Interagency Missouri River Authority (SIMRA) will meet in Des Moines Dec. 12 to hear a presentation of “Navigation on the Missouri River” from Steve Engemann, president, Hermann Sand & Gravel, and a presentation from Seth C. Wright, attorney with Polsinelli PC about the Missouri River flooding lawsuit, Ideker Farms, Inc., et., al. v. United States of America, currently pending in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

The lawsuit is brought by farmers, landowners and business owners who sustained losses from one or more floods occurring in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.

SIMRA seeks stakeholder input and makes recommendations on policies affecting the Missouri River. The group will meet at 10:00 a.m. to noon in Conference Room 3E/W in the Wallace State Office Building, 502 E. Ninth St., Des Moines. The meeting is open to the public.

The complete agenda is available on the SIMRA website at www.iowadnr.gov/InsideDNR/BoardsCommissions/InteragencyMoRiverAuthority.aspx

FORT DODGE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of a Georgia man charged with first-degree murder in the death of a roommate whose skeletal remains were found in an Iowa basement in 2012. The Fort Dodge Messenger reports Judge Gary McMinimee ordered the mistrial Tuesday in the case of 55-year-old John Green, of Blairsville, Georgia. Green is accused of killing 58-year-old Mark Koster, who was reported missing in 2010. His remains were found buried in the basement of Koster’s Sac City home.

McMinimee made his decision after Sac City Police Chief John Thomsen testified investigators interviewing suspects “minimize the crime” because “bad people” don’t want to admit their roles. Defense attorney Charles Kenville argued that mischaracterized Green. McMinimee agreed, declaring a mistrial. A new trial will be scheduled.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Officials have apprehended a man accused of escaping from a work release facility in Iowa. The state Department of Corrections says 29-year-old Justin Lee Miller was back in custody Monday. He is being held at the Polk County Jail.

Officials say Miller was placed on escape status from a Sioux City work release program in August, after an unexcused absence. Additional information about Miller’s return is not available. He is serving time for convictions of willful injury, assault and escape. He was transferred to the work release program in June.