DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds on Tuesday defended her decision to appoint her 78-year-old father to a panel that helps select judges in central Iowa, saying he was “just like” many others who serve on state boards.

Reynolds last month appointed her father, Charles Strawn, to an unpaid six-year term on the District 5A judicial nominating commission, which recommends candidates for judgeships to the governor in fast-growing Dallas County and three other counties outside of Des Moines.

Democratic critics of the Republican governor and some who follow the legal system have called the appointment unusual. A recent Quad-City Times newspaper editorial called it an example of “brash nepotism.”

In his April 13 application, Strawn wrote that he was “invited” to serve on the board. He was appointed four days later. The governor’s office announced the appointment May 1 along with dozens of others in a press release that didn’t mention that Strawn, of St. Charles, was her father.

Speaking to reporters after an event in Davenport on Tuesday, the governor said her father was a retired factory worker for John Deere and farmer. “This is an individual that loves the state and wanted to volunteer and give back, just like hundreds of other Iowans that we appoint to boards and commissions,” she said. “That’s a simple fact.”
Reynolds added that her dad had coached Little League baseball teams and been involved in county government.

The 11-member commission Strawn has joined will meet on Thursday in Indianola to interview finalists for an opening created by the retirement of District Judge Paul Huscher. The commission will recommend two finalists to the governor, who will make the pick. Iowa law doesn’t bar government officials from appointing relatives to unpaid jobs.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Twenty attorneys general (including Iowa’s A-G) are challenging Trump administration rule changes they say will reduce access to family planning services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Tuesday that the president is playing politics with patients by changing rules that would shift federal family planning funds toward organizations that stress abstinence.

The AGs filed a brief supporting lawsuits filed in Washington two weeks ago by Planned Parenthood groups in Wisconsin, Ohio and Utah, and the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association. The lawsuits target proposed rule changes for about $260 million in family planning funds.

The supporting brief was also signed by prosecutors in Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, and the District of Columbia.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa House Republicans have announced a new chairman for a key tax-writing committee. House Speaker Linda Upmeyer on Tuesday named Rep. Peter Cownie, a West Des Moines Republican, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Cownie replaces Rep. Guy Vander Linden, an Oskaloosa Republican who is not seeking re-election.

Cownie was the floor manager for the tax cut legislation passed by lawmakers in the final hours of the session earlier this month. He has been the chair of the House Commerce Committee since 2013. He was first elected in 2008.

Cownie will face Kristin Sunde, a West Des Moines Democrat, in the November general election. Neither faces a primary opponent. If Democrats win control of the House, they would appoint their own members to chair committees.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have arrested 78 people in a five-state immigration sweep in the Midwest. Officials say the arrests happened over six days. Iowa and Nebraska each saw 25 arrests, while there were 15 arrests in Minnesota, 10 in South Dakota and three in North Dakota.

ICE says the operation targeted those who have criminal records, are public safety threats or violated immigration laws. Sixty-two of the people arrested had prior criminal convictions; 31 had illegally re-entered the United States after having been previously deported.

Most of the people arrested are from Mexico. The arrests also included people from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Kenya, the Ivory Coast and Sudan. They will remain in ICE custody pending additional proceedings.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Abortion-rights groups said Tuesday that they had filed a lawsuit challenging the nation’s most restrictive abortion law, an Iowa provision that bans most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected, around the sixth week of pregnancy. The state’s attorney general said he would not defend the law, which was slated to take effect July 1. Democrat Tom Miller said he based his decision on a belief that the measure “would undermine rights and protections for women.” Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union are seeking an injunction that would put the law on hold during the lawsuit, a process that could take years.

Republicans want any legal challenge to reach the U.S. Supreme Court in hopes of overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The law is the latest to test the legality of abortion restrictions. GOP lawmakers in Mississippi earlier this year passed a 15-week abortion ban. It was signed into law by Mississippi’s Republican governor and quickly put on hold after a court challenge. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who signed Iowa’s ban earlier this month, indicated she expected the measure to face litigation.

The law is evidence of the state’s conservative shift after the 2016 election, when Republicans gained control of the Legislature and the governor’s office for the first time in nearly 20 years. Last year, they approved a 20-week abortion ban and required women to wait three days before they could have an abortion. The waiting provision is on hold because of a separate lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood and the ACLU.
Iowa Republicans last year also gave up millions in federal dollars to create a state-funded family planning program that prohibits participation from abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.

The Harlan Police Department reports two, separate arrests. On Sunday, 31-year old Joseph Schuemann, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant. Schuemann was transported to the Shelby County Jail where he was also charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and interference with official acts.

And, on May 10th, 33-year old Aaron Robert McCutcheon, of Harlan, was arrested on an active Shelby County warrant following a traffic stop. McCutcheon was transported to the Shelby County Jail, where he was also charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.