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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand is sharply criticizing Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds for not calling the Legislature into an emergency session to approve spending to help people suffering from the coronavirus pandemic. Sand, a Democrat, in his annual budget review says Iowa will lose bars, restaurants and possibly hospitals due to economic hardship. He says Reynolds, a Republican, could have called the GOP-run legislature to spend some of the $1 billion the state has accumulated to help. A Reynolds spokesman says Iowa is ranked as the most fiscally responsible and resilient state in the country.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — It’s unclear why Iowa will receive fewer doses of coronavirus vaccine than initially promised by the federal government. But the state is moving ahead with plans to relax restrictions beginning Thursday even while reporting nearly 100 additional deaths. The Iowa Department of Public Health says the state is now expecting 138,300 doses of vaccine by Dec. 27 while earlier estimates were for 172,000 doses. Distributions were also being lowered to other states. The agency says it has known the expected doses were “planning numbers that will continue to change. Iowa reported an additional 97 deaths on Thursday as the state’s death toll increased to 3,451.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the federal government must pay landowners on the lower Missouri River for flooding damage caused by the Army Corps of Engineers’ efforts to protect endangered species. Judge Nancy Firestone, with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, ruled this week that the Corps caused increased flooding by changing habitat on the river to comply with the Endangered Species Act. She says that violated constitutional protections against taking property without compensation. The ruling affects property owners from Sioux City, Iowa, to St. Louis, although not all landowners will qualify for payments. The ruling doesn’t cover all flood-related damages.

DENISON, Iowa (AP) — The former manager of a northwest Iowa credit union has pleaded not guilty in a nearly $1.5 million embezzlement scheme. Janine Keim is charged with embezzlement and making false statements. She entered her plea Wednesday in federal court in Sioux City. Prosecutors say Keim and at least one other employee at Consumers Credit Union in Denison embezzled $1.48 million between May 2012 and March 2018. She also allegedly filed false reports to conceal the missing money. The business is now called Cobalt Credit Union. The credit union’s former head teller, Brenda Jensen, of Denison, is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty in October to embezzlement.

(IDPH Press Release; Des Moines, IA) On December 16, the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) received updated planning numbers for COVID-19 vaccine allocations from the CDC. As we have said all along, these are planning numbers that will continue to change.

IDPH is working through the distribution details with the revised vaccine allocation from CDC. Vaccine distribution will continue to follow the Advisory Council on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations that health care personnel and long-term care (including assisted living) residents and staff remain the first priority for vaccination.

Despite these revisions, IDPH is committed to initiating the national pharmacy program for long-term care facilities the week of December 28 as planned, though the original timeline for completion will be impacted. The Infectious Disease Advisory Council (IDAC), will convene within the next 48 hours to discuss how changes in allocation numbers will affect the prioritization of and timeline for healthcare personnel receiving the vaccine.

Expected Approximate Vaccine Allocation, for Planning Purposes Only. These numbers are subject to change:

Additional Pfizer Doses

The FDA and CDC have shared information acknowledging extra doses of vaccine are available in the Pfizer vaccine vial. IDPH is awaiting formal guidance and direction from FDA and CDC.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is joining a coalition of 38 attorneys general in suing Google. The antitrust case alleges Google illegally maintains its monopoly power over general search engines and related advertising markets through a series of anticompetitive exclusionary contracts and conduct. Miller spoke on a conference call today (Thursday) and says the Google case is very much like the suit against Microsoft some 20 years ago.

“The Microsoft case centered on maintenance and monopoly. And this case centers on maintenance and monopoly — and that’s really important,” Miller says. The lawsuit by the states is consistent with the lawsuit filed by the U-S Department of Justice in October which alleged that Google improperly maintains its monopoly power in general search and search advertising through the use of exclusionary agreements.

“We’re filing the motion to consolidate the case so that will have the cases consolidated in the District of Columbia and litigated together — the Justice Department and the 47 states and the District of Columbia, plus two territories — that this will be a unified effort,” according to Miller.

Miller says there’s one key thing he sees in the suit. “This case is among other things about power. Google has immense power in the technology world, in the world of the United States in the year 2020. And it’s about it’s about the use of that power,” he says. The lawsuit says Google has deprived consumers of competition that could lead to greater choice, innovation, and better privacy protections. Furthermore, Google has exploited its market position to accumulate and leverage data to the detriment of consumers.

“They do maximize their profits that that power grants to them. Including from power of network effects — which makes it in my view a little easier to get to the monopoly and a little easier to maintain that monopoly,” Miller says. “And so, these are questions that are on people’s minds, and rightly so. And I think it’s really important that this case be ligated.” The attorneys general argue that more competition in the general search engine market would benefit consumers, for example, through improved privacy protections and more targeted results and opportunities for consumers.

Iowa is also part of a lawsuit announced December 9th against Facebook, alleging the company broke the law by acquiring potential rivals and cutting smaller competitors off from its platform and services.

OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who was 16 in 1994 when he fatally shot a 15-year-old classmate after the two argued over a girl has been granted parole. The Ottumwa Courier reports that the Iowa Board of Parole has decided to release Michael Patrick Leon Coffman after a hearing Wednesday. Coffman, who is now 42, was convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jeremy Allen at Ottumwa High School and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

But in 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that juveniles who kill can’t automatically be sentenced to life with no chance of parole. That led Coffman’s sentence to be changed in 2017 to allow for the possibility of parole.