Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT
MEAD, Neb. (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency says that there were no releases of hazardous contaminants at any of eight toxic waste sites in flooded parts of Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa. The EPA on Wednesday identified the Nebraska Ordnance Plant in Mead, Nebraska, and the Conservation Chemical Corporation site in Kansas City, Missouri as heavily flooded Superfund sites that required the agency to take immediate action to prevent the spread of contaminated groundwater.
MONTEZUMA, Iowa (AP) — A former farmhand charged with first-degree murder in the abduction and killing of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts will have his trial moved about 250 miles away to Woodbury County. The Des Moines Register reports that a judge on Wednesday approved a motion filed earlier this month to have Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s first-degree murder trial moved out of Poweshiek County. Rivera’s trial is now set to be held in Sioux City on Sept. 3.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — As former Vice President Joe Biden prepares for a potential White House campaign, his associates increasingly see a strong showing in the Iowa caucuses as crucial to his ability to win the Democratic presidential nomination. He needs to do well in Iowa in hopes of charging into the South Carolina primary, where Biden’s national security profile and enduring popularity among African-Americans would pose a challenge for newer faces trying to break through.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — County treasurers in Iowa have canceled a college scholarship program that benefited their relatives and employees amid criticism the vendor-funded awards were illegal under state ethics law. The Iowa State County Treasurers Association’s executive board voted to end the program Wednesday ahead of a previously announced application deadline for high school seniors. A 2015 opinion by Iowa’s ethics board found the program violated a law barring public employees from accepting contractors’ money.