WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Police in West Des Moines are investigating the death of a woman. Police were called late Friday night to an area west of Interstate 35 near a busy retail district for reports of a woman lying in the road. Police say as officers were en route to the area, other reports of gunshots from the same area were reported. Arriving officers found the woman, who was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she died. Station KCCI reports that police have identified the woman as 18-year-old Sakira Kezia Tamara Bonner, of Des Moines.

Her cause of death has not been released, but police are calling her death a homicide. No arrests have been reported.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa couple is appealing a judge’s order to pay a lawyer $2.18 million more for representing them in talks that resulted in a $7.5 million settlement with Sioux City. The Sioux City Journal reports that Chad and Rosanne Plante, of Hinton, filed notice of the appeal earlier this week.

District Judge Nancy Whittenburg ruled last month that attorney Stan Munger’s contingency fee contract with the Plantes was “reasonable and valid.” She found that Munger was entitled to receive 33 percent of the settlement the city paid the Plantes to resolve claims from a 2016 bus crash that caused serious injuries to Chad Plante.

The Plantes authorized Munger to withdraw only $380,000 from the settlement, arguing that the contingency fee agreement was “against public policy.”

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — A Marshalltown group is delivering cards and letters to dozens of local businesses to raise awareness of human trafficking. The group Labor and Sex Trafficking Watch has joined with the Marshalltown Police Department and the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office in the new effort.

The 47 businesses include hotels and motels, gas stations and fast-food restaurants. The cards are aimed at helping train employees working with the public to recognize signs of human trafficking and provide guidance on what to do when human trafficking is suspected, said the group chairwoman, Lynne Carroll.

“Members of our group are delivering the packet (the card and the letter) to those 47 different businesses instead of mailing, so we can have a conversation about it,” Carroll said. She told the Times-Republican that training was provided to hotel and motel managers a couple of years ago, but there’s since been turnover in the staffs of those businesses.

“So I thought a training card would be good for staff and be a resource for every new person coming on board” at a business, Carroll said. “We want managers to implement this as part of their training for staff and to also use it as an ongoing resource.”

The card information was compiled by Marshalltown Police Lt. Tricia Thein. “It is important to recognize that not every victim will identify as a victim and reach out for help,” Thein said. “In fact, they may be resistant to attempts to help them. This is one reason why it is so critical for people to refer all information to the police, as we have the ability, through networking, to follow up on these cases across different jurisdictions.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A 7-mile nature trail east of Cedar Rapids has been closed for repair following flood damage. The city of Cedar Rapids says in a news release that the Sac and Fox Trail is expected to be closed for several weeks because of the severity of the damage. The crushed rock trail follows Indian Creek and the Cedar River and is popular with hikers, horseback riders and mountain bikers.

(Iowa News Service) DES MOINES, Iowa – On any given day in Iowa, about 6,000 children are in foster care, but the number placed with families instead of in group or institutional settings is on the rise. A new report looks at data from the child-welfare system over a 10-year period to see how placements for young people in foster care have changed. The report says nationwide, care systems placed 86% of foster children in families in 2017, compared with 81% in 2007.

Ann Discher, executive director for the Child and Family Policy Center, says the rate in Iowa was even better, with 88% placed in 2017, up 10 percentage points from 10 years earlier – but the picture isn’t as bright for older kids. “For teenagers, progress has actually been a lot slower, moving kids out of group settings and into family settings,” says Discher. “And that’s really a big deal, because actually, older children are far more likely to be placed in group or institutional settings than younger children.”

The report was released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of its KIDS COUNT project. Rob Geen, director of policy and advocacy reform with the Casey Foundation, says persistent racial disparities also showed up in the data, and states need to address them. “While I’m talking about a 10-year trend to show a fairly significant increase in placing kids in families, we’re seeing much greater gains for white children than we are for African-American Children,” says Geen. “So, there’s more that we can do for African-American children that we need to work on.”

Discher says the research shows that any child removed from a home by the state does better when they’re placed in a family setting than in a group or institutional setting. “Kids who are with families, they tend to do better in school, they are much less likely to have an early pregnancy, they are much less likely to run away,” says Discher. “They’re far more likely to stay in school and graduate from high school or get a GED.” She’s also pleased about a new federal law, the Family First Prevention Services Act, signed into law last year. She says it shifts funding away from group placement and requires that the child-welfare system find families more quickly for teens and young people of color.

It’s Bernie versus Beto in Iowa on a busy campaign weekend in the early nominating states. The two 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are holding dueling events just days after Bernie Sanders won the campaign cash derby for the first quarter of the year. The Vermont senator raised more than $18 million in 41 days, while Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, reported $9.4 million in 18 days. The money is important in their efforts to meet a new Democratic National Committee threshold for 20 coveted spots in presidential debates that begin in June.

But their stops in Iowa, with an emphasis on young people, are key gauges of support in a state that hosts the nation’s first nominating caucuses. Sanders planned two town halls and a rally, part of a three-day swing. State Republicans criticized Sanders and other Democrats for politicking in Iowa while the state recovers from Missouri River flooding that has caused a crisis. O’Rourke scheduled six house parties around the Des Moines area. His five-day swing through the state has focused on student town halls, and he intended to cap his visit with one more on Sunday, at the University of Iowa.

Other declared or prospective candidates were set to tour the early voting states of New Hampshire and South Carolina on Saturday.