Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Republicans in the Iowa Senate have approved $46 million in new funding for K-12 education for the upcoming budget year. The GOP-controlled chamber voted 29-21 Wednesday night for the measure. It must now bounce back to the Republican-controlled House, which voted 57-40 Wednesday morning for $32 million in new funding. Lawmakers will need to agree on a total before it can reach Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk. The Senate approved an extra $14 million for various expenses.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Sioux City man in the stabbing death of a man last summer. The Sioux City Journal reports a Woodbury County grand jury in November indicted 44-year-old Jeremy Lillich on one count of involuntary manslaughter. He was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Woodbury County Jail. He’s charged in the June 3 stabbing death of 21-year-old James R.D. Purcell, of Sioux City.

BLOOMFIELD, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have identified human remains found in a burned-out car in southeast Iowa. The Iowa Department of Public Safety said Wednesday the remains found Saturday were of 63-year-old Sharon Kay Moritz, of Northwood. A farmer found the burned-out car in Davis County, southeast of the small community of Pulaski. Deputies responded and found the human remains inside. The car was a 2006 white Chevrolet Impala registered to Moritz. Investigators say Moritz has family in the Davis County area.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A jury has convicted a man of voluntary manslaughter in a shooting on the Iowa City pedestrian mall that left one person dead and two others injured. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports the jury on Wednesday found Lamar C. Wilson guilty of voluntary manslaughter, two counts of assault with the intent to inflict serious injury and intimidation with a dangerous weapon. Wilson didn’t dispute he fired five bullets on the crowded pedestrian mall but said it was in self-defense.

A bill that would hike the penalty for protesters who block highway traffic has cleared a Senate committee. All the Republicans on the panel voted for the measure, including Senator Jason Schultz of Schleswig. “Standing on an interstate is not a good place to have a temper tantrum,” Schultz says. “Somebody could get hurt and it could be the person angry or it could be a driver. You could have ambulances…(and) essential services held up and it is not appropriate.”

After the 2016 election, an anti-Trump protest in Iowa City wound up blocking traffic on Interstate 80. Schultz says the passions of protesters weren’t the only concern. “If you went on social media, you had plenty of people who were happy with the outcome of the election and they would say: ‘Well, I wish they would be on the highway when I was driving through,'” Schultz says. “None of that is healthy. None of it is good and I think it is beneficial for the Iowa Code to say: ‘That activity has got to stop.'”

If the bill were to become law, a protester caught blocking traffic on a road with a speed limit of at least 55 miles per hour would be charged with a serious misdemeanor. That could land someone in jail for up to a year. A similar legislation was considered in at least 18 states last year. Critics say the measures infringe on free speech rights.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have arrested a Sioux City man in the stabbing death of a man last summer. The Sioux City Journal reports a Woodbury County grand jury in November indicted 44-year-old Jeremy Lillich on one count of involuntary manslaughter. He was arrested Wednesday and booked into the Woodbury County Jail.

He’s charged in the June 3 stabbing death of 21-year-old James R.D. Purcell, of Sioux City. Officers were called to a disturbance at a home and found Purcell had been stabbed. He later died.

Lillich had been serving a prison sentence on a drug conviction, but Corrections Department records show he would have been either on work release or parole when the stabbing occurred.

Republicans in the Iowa Senate have approved $46 million in new funding for K-12 education for the upcoming budget year. The GOP-controlled chamber voted 29-21 Wednesday night for the measure. It must now bounce back to the Republican-controlled House, which voted 57-40 Wednesday morning for $32 million in new funding. Lawmakers will need to agree on a total before it can reach Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk.

The Senate approved an extra $14 million for various transportation expenses and to close some inequity in cost-per-pupil spending across school districts. The $32 million that both chambers appear to agree on is a 1 percent increase to Iowa’s $3.2 billion K-12 education budget.

Officials in the Des Moines school district, the state’s largest, say it will lead to more than $11 million in cuts. In more rural school districts, superintendents warned financial obligations like putting new money toward employee retirement plans will eat up a lot of the new appropriations.

Republicans say public education is a priority at the Capitol amid budget constraints.

Another Republican candidate has thrown his hat into the ring to run for the Cass County Board of Supervisors in District 3. Atlantic At-Large City Councilman Dana Halder announced his intentions to run for the seat being vacated by current District 3 Supervisor Mark Wedemeyer, who has decided not to run for re-election during the June 5th Primary. He’ll face a challenge from fellow Republican John P. Hartkopf for the seat.

Halder spoke with the media following Wednesday night’s City Council meeting. He said he’d considered running for the Board of Supervisors as an option, in the past. “I’m to the point where I’m ready to kind of step back in my current job, and I felt like this would be a good fit for me.”

Dana Halder (City of Atlantic photo)

Halder has worked for the past 24-years as the Meat Department Manager at Fareway, in Atlantic. He’s been with the company for 38-years. He’s also served on the City Council for more than eight-years. That experience he says, has left him “With a good feeling for what’s going on, and I think there’s a lot of great things that the County’s doing [but], obviously, there’s always room for improvement.” He added that if Wedemeyer had decided to run for re-election, he wouldn’t be running for the Board of Supervisors, but that now is a good time for him to step in and make some changes to the face of that Board, and to his own life, such as cutting back on the number of hours he works at the grocery store, which sometimes amounts to 65-to 70-hours per week.

He explained some of the things he’d like to see includes more communication between the County and the Cities, and knowing what the expectations are of each entity. “I think a person can do the job if he’s willing to do the research and cover the situations that come about.”

Halder also thinks that in the time he’s been on the City Council, he’s done a good job, and that “We’ve done a lot of things to increase the look of Atlantic, and I just want to continue on that path.” Halder has served on the Chamber Board of Directors, he’s a member of the Knights of Columbus, a member of the Lions Club and has served on their Board over the years.

Republicans in the Iowa House have voted to increase general state support of Iowa’s public schools by 67-dollars per student. Republican Representative Cecil Dolecheck,  of Mount Ayr says given state budget constraints, that one-percent boost is a commitment legislators can keep “no matter what.”

“We want to continue to maintain our priority to Iowa schools and Iowa students,” Dolecheck says. “…One percent is the most we can do.” Democrats say schools are struggling to make ends meet and need at least a three percent boost in general state taxpayer support. Representative Jo Oldson is a Democrat from Des Moines.

“We’re going to short-change our kids in the K-12 system,” Oldsen says, “the very kids we’re going to rely on to be our workforce in the future.” Other Democrats complained the state would have more to spend on schools if big businesses like Apple and Google hadn’t been handed big state tax breaks. Democratic Representative Todd Prichard of Charles City says it’s time to set new priorities.

“We are adding to the decay of rural Iowa by not making the proper investments into our public education system,” Prichard says. Representative Walt Rogers, a Republican from Cedar Falls, says Republicans in recent years have either voted to forward the same amount or approved an increase in state support for K-through-12 public schools.

“In an economy that has been stagnant in the past eight years, we have done a pretty good job of taking care of education,” Rogers says. Senate Republicans are planning to endorse the one percent general state funding boost for schools this (Wednesday) evening. That would send the proposal to Governor Kim Reynolds. Reynolds signaled Monday she’d approve the plan.

(Radio Iowa)