Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a popular park near downtown Des Moines that was closed due to flooding will reopen soon. City officials for Des Moines say Gray’s Lake Park will reopen Friday morning at 5 a.m.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad has vetoed $55.7 million in one-time education funding as well as a bipartisan deal to keep two state mental health institutes open. Branstad announced the vetoes late yesterday afternoon, as he approved a slew of budget bills. The fate of the two mental health institutes — in Mount Pleasant and Clarinda — was hotly debated. After Branstad sought to end funding for the facilities, lawmakers reached a deal to keep the Mount Pleasant center open and to seek a private provider to run the other.

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — State and local leaders in Dubuque celebrated the start of construction on the largest phase of an estimated $200 million flood mitigation project aimed at avoiding future property damage and adding green space to a key part of the city. The Telegraph Herald reports the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday marked work that has been underway for several weeks.

WALL LAKE, Iowa (AP) — A northwest Iowa woman is scheduled to be sentenced August 5th after pleading guilty to selling marijuana from the home she shares with her four children. The Sioux City Journal reports that 37-year-old Laura Lawler was convicted Wednesday in Sac County District Court.

A man on a motorcycle who tried to avoid a deer on the road in Mills County, was reported to be in critical condition Thursday night, after his cycle hit the deer on Highway L-45, at around 8:50-p.m.   The Iowa State Patrol says 32-year old Shawn Lee Richter, of Malvern, was flown by LifeNet helicopter to Creighton Medical Center in Omaha, following the crash that happened in rural Mills County, between Glenwood and Tabor.

The Patrol said after Richter’s 1999 Yamaha hit the deer, Richter was thrown from the cycle and came to rest on the road just south of 66303 235th Street. He suffered severe, incapacitating injuries.

Iowa State Patrol Trooper Marc Griggs was recognized today (Thursday) for hitting a major milestone in the fight against drugged driving in Iowa. Griggs, one of 125 certified Drug Recognition Experts (DRE) in Iowa, recently completed his 500th Drug Recognition Expert evaluation—the first ever to accomplish this in Iowa. Griggs has been a certified DRE since 2001 and is a 22 year veteran of the Iowa State Patrol.

GTSB Bureau Chief Patrick Hoye said “His commitment and dedication to keeping motorists safe is certainly worthy of special recognition and we are pleased to be able to recognize his efforts.” The DRE program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Public Safety’s (DPS) Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau (GTSB). The GTSB works closely with many law enforcement agencies (police departments, sheriff’s offices and the Iowa State Patrol) across Iowa with the ultimate goal of reducing fatality serious injury crashes.

The latest trends show that impaired driving is not just drunk driving in the U.S. Impaired drivers are under the influence of illegal and sometimes even legal drugs that pose just as much of a threat to motorists as drunk drivers.  In Iowa, approximately 30% of fatalities are impaired driving related. One of the issues for law enforcement is determining impairment for a driver that is under the influence of drugs. The indicators for impairment are different for alcohol and certain drugs. That is where the DRE’s and the DRE program has had a positive impact. Officers receive specialized training that allows them to asses a driver’s condition and then take appropriate action.