Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 4:55 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ruled that an Iowa Transportation Department officer didn’t have legal authority to issue a speeding ticket. A Polk County judge said in her Thursday ruling that the Iowa Supreme Court declared nearly 70 years ago that the department officers didn’t have power over most moving violations. The Des Moines Register reports that if the ruling survives a possible appeal, legal challenges could follow on thousands of tickets.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Early voting data shows Hillary Clinton seems to be showing strength in the battleground states of North Carolina and Florida. The Associated Press is collecting data that also indicates Donald Trump is holding ground in Ohio, Iowa and Georgia. More than 4.4 million votes have been cast already, far outpacing the same period in 2012.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A Des Moines man has pleaded guilty to murder in the death of his wife and was sentenced to life in prison. The Des Moines Register reports 48-year-old Barney Fraaken pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife, Amy Fraaken, in November 2015. He originally also was charged with murder in the death of the couple’s 16-year-old daughter, Amber, but that charge was dropped in a plea deal. The life sentence includes no possibility of parole.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former city clerk for the small western Iowa city of Casey has been sentenced to five years in prison and will be required to pay restitution in an amount to be set later. Dorothy Dillinger was sentenced Friday. She pleaded guilty to mail fraud and malicious use of fire.

The driver of a 2008 Subaru Legacy was transported to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, Friday morning, following an accident at the Interstate 29 southbound exit ramp to I-80. The Iowa State Patrol said 53-year old Patrice Mare Northam, of Council Bluffs, was preparing to merge onto I-80 eastbound at around 8:25-a.m., when she lost control of her vehicle. The car spun around and traveled through candle stick cones which had been set up along the south 24th Street exit ramp.

The driver’s side of the car hit the traffic ones, breaking the side view mirror and causing scuff marks to the side of the vehicle. The car came to rest on the should of the off-ramp of South 24th Street. Northam, who was wearing her seat belt, was transported to the hospital by Council Bluffs Fire and Rescue.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The former city clerk for the small western Iowa city of Casey has been sentenced to five years in prison and will be required to pay restitution in an amount to be set later. Dorothy Dillinger was sentenced Friday.

She had entered a plea agreement in May admitting she lit the City Hall building on fire in August 2014, the night before state auditors were to arrive to investigate missing money she’d taken and used for personal expenses since 2009.

She pleaded guilty to mail fraud and malicious use of fire. Federal prosecutors are seeking more than $2 million in restitution to pay for rebuilding City Hall and replacing contents including tax returns, tools, city maps and a Santa suit.

Dillinger, who is 61, was city clerk for 30 years.

Iowa’s secretary of state predicts “millennial” voters will decide this year’s election. “Specifically the 18-to-26 year olds. That’s my prediction. Watch that group.” That’s Paul Pate, the state official who oversees elections in Iowa. Pate says most voters above the age of 26 have become allied with either the Republican or Democratic Parties, but not millennials. That means in a close election where undecided voters are key, millennials who haven’t been disillusioned by politics have an outsized role according to Pate.

“They are still fresh,” Pate says. “They have not been tainted. They have a passion still because they want a piece of the American dream and as I go visit with them on the campuses of our colleges, they haven’t made their mind up. They haven’t said: ‘I’m a Republican’ or ‘I’m a Democrat.’ They’re listening — so candidates, go! Listen!” Iowa State University political science professor David Andersen says turn-out is “the big unknown.”

“Who’s going to show up to vote? We have an electorate unlike any we’ve seen before,” Andersen asks. “It continues to get more diverse, but it seems like this year the normal partisan groupings are breaking down. Donald Trump may attract some Democratic voters. Some Republican voters may turn out for Hillary Clinton. We really have no idea what the election’s going to look like on November 8.”

Andersen and Pate made their comments during taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press” program that airs at 7:30 tonight (Friday).

(Radio Iowa)

An Iowa lawyer connected to a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case has died. Dan Johnston was just 30 years old in 1969 when the Supreme Court issued its ruling on the so-called Tinker case. Johnston represented two students who were suspended from Des Moines Public Schools for wearing black arm bands to protest the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court ruled school officials had violated the free-speech rights of John and Mary Beth Tinker.

Johnston is a native of Montezuma who got his law degree from Drake University. He had just graduated from law school when he took on the Tinker case. Johnston died this (Friday) morning at a Des Moines hospice. He was 77 years old.

(Radio Iowa)

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa said today (Friday), a Shelby County man was sentenced to prison on a Child Pornography charge. A District Court Judge Thursday, sentenced 55-year old Michael Charles Garreans, of Harlan, to 60 months in prison for possession of child pornography. Garreans’ term of imprisonment is to be followed by seven years of supervised release.

On June 9, 2016, Garreans entered a guilty plea to a federal indictment, charging Garreans with possessing child pornography on or about July 18, 2014. The charge was the result of an investigation into the posting of a video, which contained images of two unclothed minor girls, on a web site being monitored by law enforcement. Law enforcement followed up with a search warrant of Garreans’ residence and located a computer that contained hundreds of images of child pornography.

The investigation was conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Harlan, Iowa Police Department and the United States Marshal’s Service. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

(12-p.m. News)