NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — The trial of a second person accused in the beating death of a Des Moines man has been delayed. A Jasper County judge granted the request from the attorney for 51-year-old Jeffrey Stendrup, of Clive. Stendrup and 26-year-old Jaycie Sheeder were charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the slaying of Jeremy McDowell. His body was found June 22 last year in Newton in the back of a vehicle Sheeder had been driving.

She was sentenced Oct. 3 to life in prison and last week filed notice of her attention to appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court. Authorities say Sheeder, of Coon Rapids, kept silent about Stendrup’s involvement in the attack and never tried to stop it. Jasper County court records say Stendrup’s new trial starting date is Feb. 12. It had been scheduled to start next week.

Two people were arrested on separate charges Tuesday, in Creston. According to Creston Police, 26-year old Jacob Cauthorn, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Revoked. He was later released on a $1,000 bond. And, Melissa Clark, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Suspended, the bond for which was $300. Clark faces additional Union County charges/warrants for two counts of Violation of Probation on original charges of Forgery, and an Adair County warrant for Violation of Probation. Clark was being held without bond on the warrants.

NORTHWOOD, Iowa (AP) — A trial has begun for the owner of a northern Iowa dog breeding operation who’s been charged with several counts of animal neglect. Opening statements were made Tuesday regarding the case against 66-year-old Barbara Kavars, of Manly. Court records say Kavars was holding Samoyed dogs in inhumane conditions when officials raided her operation on Nov. 12 and visited at other times. The records also say the dogs’ kennels lacked food and had water containers that were filled with ice.

Kavars denied any wrongdoing and told officials she didn’t think the dogs needed additional care. Station KIMT reports that a Worth County sheriff’s deputy testified Tuesday that he saw dogs with matted hair and feces on the snow-covered ground. The testimony is scheduled to resume today (Wednesday).

(Radio Iowa) — A former Des Moines Register columnist who hosted many of the newspaper’s yearly bike rides across the state of Iowa is hoping for a reconciliation that keeps the event’s management team in place. The man who’s managed the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa for the past 16 years resigned yesterday, along with the rest of the RAGBRAI staff, and announced plans for a competing “Iowa’s Ride” during the same week as RAGBRAI next July. Chuck Offenburger was the “Iowa Boy” columnist for the Register for 21 years. “I was surprised and shocked when I heard this,” Offenburger told Radio Iowa Tuesday evening. “I had no idea that this was in the works or that this might happen.”

In a statement posted online, the RAGBRAI director T.J. Juskiewicz who resigned said the decision was based on how The Register and its owner handled its story about Carson King. King is the former I-S-U student who raised three MILLION dollars for the University of Iowa children’s hospital with a poster he held up during an E-S-P-N broadcast. Offenburger, who resigned from the Register in 1998 to protest treatment of other veteran reporters, says in his view the paper “handled the story appropriately,” but Offenburger is hoping the RAGBRAI staff who resigned and The Register’s management can meet and resolve the dispute. “Visit about this and see if they can put it back together and move forward,” Offenburger says.

Offenburger, the newspaper’s “co-host” of RAGBRAI for 16 years, says the annual, week-long ride is one the most important tourism events in the state. “In some ways, it’s more important than the State Fair from the standpoint that it brings people from all over the nation and all over the world into Iowa and shows them our towns, our small towns and cities all the way across the state,” Offenburger says, “so we take the crowd to these communities.”

The RAGBRAI’s now-former manager says the newspaper’s executives blocked him from responding the way he wished to RAGBRAI enthusiasts who had questions about the paper’s Carson King story. The Iowa Bicycle Coalition issued a written statement expressing extreme concern about the future of RAGBRAI, which the coalition described as “iconic” and both culturally and economically important to the state of Iowa. The group expressed hope that a cross-state bike ride continues — in whatever version that may be — in a way that elevates bicycling and promotes safety. The Register said Tuesday, the 2020 RAGBRAI will be held as planned.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Organizers of the popular summer bike ride across Iowa are cutting ties with its longtime sponsor, the Des Moines Register, amid backlash over the newspaper’s handling of a story. The staff of the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa resigned en masse from the Register and its parent company, the Gannett Corp., on Tuesday. The group immediately launched a competing event, Iowa’s Ride, that will be held next July during the same week that the Register’s ride had been scheduled.

WORTHINGTON, Minn. (AP) — An Iowa man who was arrested by Minnesota police in January is now suing the city and the department, alleging his encounter with officers left him with four broken ribs and internal bleeding. Thirty-three-year-old Kelvin Rodriguez of Sheldon, Iowa, filed an excessive force lawsuit Monday against Worthington and its department. The American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota says Rodriguez’s injuries required multiple surgeries. The city’s attorney had no immediate comment Tuesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Des Moines have announced the arrests of two men in the fatal shooting of another man on the city’s north side earlier this month. Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said in a written statement Tuesday that Gregory Samuel Hampton Jr. and Adam Ahmad Ismail _ both 18 and Des Moines residents _ were being booked into the Polk County Jail. Each is charged with first-degree murder and robbery in the Oct. 10 shooting death of 23-year-old Rashid Mohamed Ibrahim.

ANKENY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is forming a working group to be chaired by the lieutenant governor to make recommendations for removing racial bias from the criminal justice system and to help offenders re-enter communities in a way that reduces repeat offenses. Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg is a former state public defender.