IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa City woman who told police she drank several cans of beer before providing day care to an infant who died later that day has been given two years of probation. Johnson County District Court records say 49-year-old Wendy Young also was sentenced Monday to two years in prison and fined $625, but both were suspended. She’d entered an Alford plea to a reduced charge of child endangerment, no injury. In an Alford plea, a person doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges there is enough evidence for a likely conviction.

Officers called to Young’s home on Oct. 18, 2017, found the child unresponsive . The infant was pronounced dead later at a hospital. The records say Young acknowledged drinking 10 to 12 cans of beer before the child arrived. Authorities haven’t provided more information about the child.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies, Wednesday, arrested two Red Oak women on drug charges, in Red Oak. Rebecca Lynn Ceranek and Vicki Jo Straight, were arrested in the 500 block of E. Coolbaugh Street. Ceranek faces three felony charges, including Delivery of Marijuana and two counts Possession of a Controlled Substance, along with a serious misdemeanor Unlawful Possession of Prescription Medication, charge.

Straight was charged with Possession of a Controlled Substance. Both women were being held in the Montgomery County Jail, with Ceranek’s bond set at $5,000, and Straight’s bond at $1,000.

(Radio Iowa) — Five members of the Iowa House have signed off on the IDEA of charging a new fee to the owners of electric vehicles AND a new, per-kilowatt-hour tax at public charging stations. Michael Triplett, a lobbyist for the Automobile Manufacturers Association, urged legislators not to set the fee higher than what electric car owners are paying in neighboring states.

“This is the future,” Triplett said. “These are drivers currently who are little bit wiser in their use of their car and its sound to some of our members like they’re being punished for choosing the most economical, environmentally-friendly option.”

The Iowa D-O-T has recommended a 130-dollar annual fee for electric vehicles. That’s
higher than what’s being charged in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri and Nebraska. Drivers of gas-powered vehicles pay the state fuel tax which finances the upkeep and construction of roads and bridges. Scott Newhard, a lobbyist for the Associated General Contractors of Iowa, says electric vehicles should pay into the Road Use Tax, too.

“One thing about electric vehicles — they do use the roadway,” Newhard said. “…Their presence on the roadway requires them to pay a user fee.” Representative Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says automobile makers are promising to produce more electric vehicles — displacing the gas-powered vehicles that are generating the tax revenue for roads now.  “We need to be making these decisions so the infrastructure is in place, so we’re ready for that,” Hinson says.

By late last year there were 800 battery-powered vehicles registered in Iowa. There were about 19-hundred plug-in hybrids that can switch to gas power when the charge runs out.

(Radio Iowa) — A bill that would re-establish the death penalty in Iowa has emerged in the Iowa SENATE, but it’s unlikely to become law. A key member of the Iowa HOUSE who supports the concept of capital punishment tabled a similar plan last year. He concluded it costs taxpayers less to put someone in prison for life than to pay for years of legal challenges to a death sentence.

Governor Kim Reynolds says SENATORS now have an opportunity to discuss the issue. “But there’s a lot of things that go into considering that and I haven’t seen any shift from where we were last year,” Reynolds says.  House Speaker Linda Upmeyer of Clear Lake doesn’t sense a death penalty bill is a priority for her fellow Republicans in the House. “Sometimes I hear from people: ‘I want to do this.’ ‘I want to work on this,'” Upmeyer says. “I have not heard that, so I guess that would surprise me if that became an issue.”

Another wrinkle in this year’s debate is an announcement last August from the head of the Catholic Church. Pope Francis said the death penalty is “inadmissable” and it’s the goal of the church to abolish capital punishment worldwide. Tom Chapman of the Iowa Catholic Conference says priests are talking about the issue in their parishes. “We don’t want to commit violence to try to protect people from violence,” Chapman says.

Twenty Republicans in the Iowa SENATE are co-sponsoring a bill to impose the death penalty on those found guilty of kidnapping, raping and killing a child. It takes the support of 26 senators to pass a bill. Iowa abolished the death penalty 54 years ago.

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

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The nation’s farmers are struggling to pay back their loans after years of low crop prices, with nearly one out of five loans in a government farm program now delinquent for the worst January default rate in at least nine years. The bulk of the nation’s agricultural loans typically come due around Jan. 1 for seasonal and tax planning purposes.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Twenty Senate Republicans have signed on to a bill that would reinstate a death penalty in Iowa, a state that hasn’t put anyone to death in more than 50 years. A Senate subcommittee on Wednesday approved the bill with only Republican support. It would make it a capital offense to kidnap, rape and murder a minor. A similar bill failed last year, and this year’s bill isn’t expected to be approved by the Legislature.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s cold and snowy winter has been especially difficult on livestock producers who’ve often struggled just to reach their animals. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa has seen an average of 21 inches of snowfall so far in February, just short of a record set in 1962. One rancher says he had to ride a snowmobile 50 miles Sunday to check on his pigs, and that snow is causing an overwhelming amount of maintenance issues.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A 37-year-old western Iowa woman has been sentenced to three months in prison for Social Security fraud. Prosecutors say Jamie Opalia, of Council Bluffs, was sentenced last week and told to pay nearly $22,600 in restitution. Federal court records say she’d pleaded guilty, admitting that she used for herself Social Security benefits that were granted to support another person.