A head-on crash in east central Iowa’s Powesheik County has claimed two lives. The Iowa State Patrol reports the crash happened at around 4:10-p.m. Friday, on Highway 146, just south of Interstate 80. Officials say a 2015 Toyota Sienna was traveling north on Highway 146 and a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero was traveling south, when for reasons unknown, the Toyota crossed the center line and struck the Oldsmobile.

Three people were injured in the crash: 69-year old Thomas Taylor, who was driving the Toyota, 67-year old Lourdes Taylor and 59-year old Gloria Smallwood. All three are from Oskaloosa.

The driver of the Oldsmobile, 31-year old Randall Paul, of Grinnell, along with Rosa Santos, of Oskaloosa, died from their injuries at the hospital in Grinnell. All of the victims were wearing their seat belts. The accident remains under investigation.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:00 a.m. CDT

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Utilities Board is defending its decision to spend thousands of dollars sending five employees to a conference in Portland this week. A list of attendees to the National Conference of Regulatory Attorneys shows Iowa and two other states sent five employees. The majority sent none, one or two. The four-day conference, which concluded Wednesday, charged $400 per employee in fees, plus hotel, airfare and meal charges.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has decided to keep open a longtime research center, though he still plans to remove its funding. Branstad used his veto power Friday to cut language in a roughly $7.2 billion state budget that would have eliminated the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. But he kept plans to redirect a tax worth roughly $1.5 million that helps pay for the center. The governor’s staff did not give a reason for the setup.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has rejected the University of Iowa’s request to delay the upcoming trial in a lawsuit filed by former women’s field hockey coach Tracey Griesbaum. Judge Eliza Ovrom says Griesbaum’s trial will go ahead June 5 as scheduled. Griesbaum alleges she suffered discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation in Athletic Director Gary Barta’s decision to fire her in 2014.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Top lawmakers in Minnesota and Iowa are trying to work out an arrangement allowing Iowa residents to immediately start buying medical marijuana from their northern neighbors. Iowa’s Legislature passed a tightly controlled medical marijuana program but it is still awaiting Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad’s signature. With Minnesota’s approval, Iowa House Speaker Linda Upmeyer says the arrangement could give sick Iowans immediate access while the state sets up its own program.

Governor Terry Branstad today (Friday) approved the legislature’s compromise plan to set up state-licensed operations in Iowa that will grow marijuana for the production and distribution of cannabis oil. Iowa doctors may now prescribe cannabis oil for treatment of 15 chronic and debilitating conditions, like epilepsy. In late April, Branstad had signalled this would be his decision.

“This is certainly a subject that has a lot of interest and support,” Branstad said. “…I’m pleased that the legislature was able to reach a consensus on this difficult and contentious issue.” Critics say the law so narrowly limits T-C-H content that the cannabis oil that will be available in Iowa will be like “baby aspirin.” Branstad took action on 10 bills today (Friday) and has now signed ALL the bills passed by the 2017 legislature. Nearly all aspects of the Republican-led legislature’s spending plan for state government got Branstad’s approval, including a proposal to “defund” Planned Parenthood.

“As your governor, I’m proud to be able to sign pro-life bills,” Branstad said last week. “I’ve done some over the years, but I think this year was really a banner year for the pro-life movement. History was made this session.” G-O-P lawmakers voted to forgo nearly three-million dollars in available federal funds that could have been used at health care organizations that perform abortions. Instead, three million in state tax dollars will be used on family planning services for Medicaid patients — for things like prescriptions for contraceptives and reproductive health exams.

Branstad faced a May 22nd deadline for either signing or vetoing ALL the bills the House and Senate approved before ending the 2017 legislative session in late April. The governor of Iowa also has ITEM veto authority on spending bills. He used that authority to erase language in a budget bill that called for closing the Leopold Center at Iowa State University that has financed hundreds of ag research projects aimed at reducing soil and farm chemical runoff. However, Branstad approved the legislature’s decision to shift state funds for the center to other research at Iowa State. The Leopold Center has relied on state funding, but it does have other sources of funding.

“There are bequests that have been made to the Leopold Center that I’m told could put it in jeopardy if it were eliminated,” Branstad said a week ago. The budget plan Branstad ratified for the state fiscal year that begins July 1st is about 14-MILLION dollars less than the current year’s budget. Branstad is calling the 2017 legislative session “one of the most significant and productive sessions in our history.” And the governor says Republican initiatives will “make Iowa more competitive and prosperous.” Senator Rob Hogg — the Democratic leader in the Iowa Senate — has the opposite view. Hogg says the 2017 legislative session was a “nightmare” and the G-O-P’s budget “is a mess.”

“Not because of a national or global recession, but because of their bad budgeting decisions and their failure to create jobs and raise family incomes as promised,” Hogg says. Hogg and other Democrats accuse Branstad and his fellow Republicans of approving too many “tax give-aways” over the past six and a half years.

(Radio Iowa)