Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some farm groups and farm-state lawmakers are expressing anger at the Trump administration over final ethanol rules that they say fail to uphold the president’s promises to the industry. The Environmental Protection Agency has released final renewable fuel standard rules for next year that do not include language President Donald Trump agreed to that would guarantee 15 billion gallons of ethanol is blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. The EPA contends it’s fulfilling the promises. Industry groups say the language in the final rule is too vague and could allow EPA to miss the mandated ethanol requirements.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says his office has uncovered misuse of at least $1.8 million by a former employee of the Metro Waste Authority. The organization is the trash collection and disposal agency for one county and 16 cities in central Iowa including Des Moines. Sand said the state auditor’s office was contacted in October 2018 by the MWA executive director who noticed financial irregularities. Sand says an audit has discovered former Director of Operations Jeff Dworek had set up his own company to provide services to MWA without a bidding process and paid it $1.1 million. Another $458,000 was paid other vendors who paid Dworek kickbacks. He resigned in March 2017. He has not been charged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An election watchdog is filing a complaint alleging than an outside group founded by top political aides to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst violated campaign finance law in its efforts improve the Republican’s chance of reelection next year. It comes after The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Ernst’s work with the political nonprofit Iowa Values to raise money and build an electoral “firewall” potentially violated campaign finance and tax law. The complaint by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center requests that the Federal Election Commission launch an investigation. An attorney represent both Ernst and Iowa Values did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for burning an LGBTQ flag that was flying at a church in central Iowa. Story County court records show 30-year-old Adolfo Martinez, of Ames, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years for the hate crime of arson, as well as a year for the reckless use of explosives or fire, and 30 days for harassment. The sentences are to be served consecutively. A jury convicted Martinez in November. Martinez has said he burned the flag from the United Church of Christ in Ames because he opposes homosexuality.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says his office has uncovered misuse of at least $1.8 million by a former employee of the Metro Waste Authority. The organization is the trash collection and disposal agency for one county and 16 cities in central Iowa including Des Moines.

Sand said the state auditor’s office was contacted in October 2018 by the MWA executive director who noticed financial irregularities. Sand says an audit has discovered former Director of Operations Jeff Dworek had set up his own company to provide services to MWA without a bidding process and paid it $1.1 million.

Another $458,000 was paid other vendors who paid Dworek kickbacks. He resigned in March 2017. He has not been charged.

(Radio Iowa) — Plush toys that were once stuffed with fluff are now also bristling with technology, and Iowa parents are being warned to use caution when buying so-called smart toys as holiday gifts. Bess Ellenson, with the Better Business Bureau, says those fancy internet-connected playthings could put your family at risk.

“We’re seeing that some of these smart toys are collecting personal information, like names or email addresses, from the children that are using them,” Ellenson says. Some toys may also be able to report the user’s geolocations — and even recordings of the child’s voice.

Ellenson says some toys are capable of gathering personal data on a child which third parties can use to illegally open a credit card account. “They might not do it until years later because it doesn’t take a whole lot of personal information to be opening up accounts in somebody’s name,” Ellenson says, “but it’s probably not going to get known until they’re 18 years old and they go to open up their own credit card.”

The B-B-B urges consumers to research smart toys before buying them, and be sure to read the company’s privacy policy on data collection practices.

WASHINGTON (AP) – An election watchdog is filing a complaint alleging than an outside group founded by top political aides to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst violated campaign finance law in its efforts improve the Republican’s chance of reelection next year. It comes after The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Ernst’s work with the political nonprofit Iowa Values to raise money and build an electoral “firewall” potentially violated campaign finance and tax law.

The complaint by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center requests that the Federal Election Commission launch an investigation. An attorney represent both Ernst and Iowa Values did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A former campaign manager who was accused of faking signatures on a petition document for a U.S. House candidate has pleaded guilty. Noah Wasserman entered the pleas Wednesday in Des Moines to five misdemeanor counts of tampering with records. The Des Moines Register reported that prosecutors dropped other counts in return for Wasserman’s pleas. He’d been directing the 2018 Democratic primary campaign for Theresa Greenfield in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District. In March 2018 Greenfield withdrew her petition signatures shortly before the deadline and announced that her campaign manager had faked signatures.

(Radio Iowa) — The Federal Aviation Administration is proposing a $145,452 civil penalty against the Sioux Gateway Airport for numerous alleged safety violations at the Iowa airfield. The F-A-A inspected Sioux Gateway Airport in May 2018, June 2019 and September 2019 and says there were violations each time, including failure to maintain surfaces, runway and taxiway markings, and visual wind direction indicators. City Manager Bob Padmore says the city is disappointed with the report and that reconstruction of the runways has been underway for several months.

“I don’t know if the inspection took that into account. My understanding is some of these deficiencies were unrelated to the construction,”Padmore says. “The city is committed and has been since that inspection time to address those deficiencies and correct them. We are also taking a a long term look at what we need to do to prevent that from happening going forward.” The F-A-A report states that in 2018 and June 2019, inspectors found the airport did not properly grade the Safety Areas for both runways to eliminate hazardous ruts, depressions or other surface variations. The report also alleges the runway and taxiway markings were not properly maintained and that wind indicators were faded, making them difficult to see. Padmore assures air passengers using Sioux Gateway that the airport will be safe.

“The safety of our airport is paramount to — not only our community — but the members who work at the airport. And we will do everything we can to make sure it is a safe well-run airport,” he says. The FAA says two taxiways were not properly marked in the September 2019 construction inspection, and one not properly maintained, creating potentially hazardous debris.
Padmore again says safety of passengers and planes is the top priority. “We’ve had maintenance issues — but not related to the safety of planes coming and going to the airport. We’re committed to maintaining a very safe airport,” according to Padmore.

Airport Director Mike Collett says his staff is working to correct the deficiencies and develop a corrective action plan to eliminate those issues for the future.