Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has been accused of unfairly targeting a gay Democratic state senator when he was a federal prosecutor in Iowa. Whitaker pursued an attempted extortion case against Matt McCoy in 2007, alleging the lawmaker tried to shake down a businessman for payments. But the case fell apart at trial, and McCoy was quickly acquitted. McCoy says the case destroyed his finances and stalled his political career.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Des Moines say they have arrested a suspected driver of a cement truck who ran from the scene after plowing into a van and then a house, seriously injuring one person. The Des Moines Register reports that the crash happened Thursday morning when the cement truck ran two stop lights and hit the van. Two people in the house were unharmed; the driver of the van was hospitalized.
ANAMOSA, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa man has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography. Federal prosecutors in Iowa say 23-year-old Austin Marek, of Anamosa, was sentenced Thursday to 136 months in prison after pleading guilty in June to one count of possession of child pornography.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The governors of Iowa and Nebraska have ordered flags lowered to half-staff at state buildings to honor the victims of the nightclub massacre in Thousand Oaks, California. Orders from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts were issued Thursday in conjunction with President Donald Trump’s order to lower all U.S. flags to half-staff through sunset Saturday.