DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System has sued a New York-based auditing firm, alleging that the company failed to detect a theft scheme that cost the pension fund millions of dollars.  The Des Moines Register reports the federal lawsuit was filed in New York last week against Deloitte & Touche. The lawsuit says the auditing firm issued unqualified or “clean” audit reports that the fund relied on in purchasing fraudulent securities.

A Deloitte spokesman says the lawsuit has no merit and that its employees didn’t audit the financial statements of the entities at which the fraud allegedly occurred. The lawsuit follows the criminal case against two executives of Westridge Capital Management and a registered broker-dealer, WG Trading Co. 

One of the two awaits sentencing. The other awaits trial.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Cable television provider Mediacom says customers whose televisions are not yet digital ready have been given a two-week extension before analog reception is fully eliminated. The company still has 48 cable channels located between 23 and 78 operating on older television sets.  A phase-out of analog reception began two weeks. The upgrade to all-digital channels will be complete on April 10th.

For the past six years, customers have received both analog and digital signals through a Mediacom cable connection, but now most analog stations are being eliminated to make room for more high-definition channels and faster broadband Internet speeds.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a Nebraska man who supplied crack cocaine that was sold in northwest Iowa has been given 15 years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors say 32-year-old Tuwane English had pleaded guilty in Sioux City to conspiring to distribute crack cocaine. English would sell crack in Omaha, Neb., to people who would sell it in the Sioux City area. English, of Omaha, must serve eight years of supervised release when he leaves prison. He was sentenced on Monday. He’d already been convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics in Nebraska.