Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Agricultural equipment maker Deere is announcing it will indefinitely lay off more than 600 employees at four of its factories in the Midwest as demand slumps. The affected sites are in the cities of East Moline and Moline in Illinois, as well as Ankeny, Iowa and Coffeyville, Kansas. Deere is the world’s biggest farm equipment supplier.

EPWORTH, Iowa (AP) — The mayor of Epworth in northeast Iowa has cited personal health concerns for his resignation. City clerk Janet Berger says Tom Gassman submitted his resignation on Tuesday. The Dubuque Telegraph Herald says Gassman has been mayor since 2012 and a council member before that. Jacob Reuter will serve as acting mayor until the City Council fills the post of mayor. That’s expected to occur at the council’s September 9th meeting.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — An eastern Iowa man has pleaded guilty to charges in connection to threatening letters involving a major high school football program. The Iowa City Press-Citizen reports 44-year-old Daniel Stone of Solon pleaded guilty Thursday to third-degree harassment and interference with official acts as part of plea deal.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Sioux City man has been sentenced to five years in prison for leading authorities on a high-speed car chase in May. The Sioux City Journal reports 25-year-old David Whitlock was sentenced Thursday in Woodbury County District Court after he pleaded guilty to eluding, possession of a controlled substance and second-offense operating while intoxicated.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A former Council Bluffs doctor has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison on a child pornography charge. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports 69-year old Dennis Seaborn Jones received the sentence Friday (Aug. 15th) in federal court in Council Bluffs on one count of possession of child pornography. Jones pleaded guilty to the charge in May as part of a deal. He also agreed to permanently surrender his medical license.

Authorities say they found about 1.2 million images and 9,300 videos of child pornography during a search of Jones’ home. Court documents say other images and videos showed patients at Jones’ medical clinic that were taken secretly with a pen camera.

Jones faces a separate sexual abuse charge involving a minor. He also faces lawsuits in connection to the patient images and videos.

The two major party candidates running for Iowa’s third district congressional seat have given short speeches at The Des Moines Register’s “Soapbox” this week. David Young is the Republican seeking the seat now held by the retiring Congressman Tom Latham. Young emphasizes his work the past six years as Senator Chuck Grassley’s chief of staff. “So I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work and you know a lot of it doesn’t work,” Young said. “But I’ve seen what can be done and how to get it done.” Staci Appel (APP-ull, like the word apple) is the Democrat running in the third district, which covers southwest Iowa and includes the cities of Des Moines and Council Bluffs. Appel emphasizes that she might break the glass ceiling in Iowa politics.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to have a woman’s voice in congress that represents the state of Iowa?” Appel said, to cheers from the crowd on the fairgrounds. Appel is one of two women from Iowa seeking seats in the U.S. House this election. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Ottumwa is running against Democratic Congressman Dave Loebsack of Iowa City, the third time the two have faced one another on the ballot.

Iowa voters have never sent a woman to serve in the U.S. House. Iowa is one of six states which have never had a female elected to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Those other states are Alaksa, Delaware, Mississippi, North Dakota and Vermont.

(Radio Iowa)

Six Iowans were honored at the Iowa State Fair today (Friday) for actions they took that likely saved the lives of other citizens. Seth Thompson of Treynor was presented with a Governor’s Lifesaving Award for his bravery on the morning of December 14, 2009. The wind chill was five-below-zero and roads were icy at the time Thompson and a co-worker were driving near Storm Lake on their way to Okoboji for a construction job. The truck in front of them spun around, rolled twice off the road, and landed upside down in a frozen creek. Thompson and his co-worker, Nolan Strobehn, stopped, ran through the snow, and jumped a fence to reach the truck.

Seth Thompson and family (father Marv, wife Michelle, son Taytum, mother Melinda) with Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds

“We both jumped down on our stomachs and started feeling around in the water. We just barely felt a hand or an arm or something, grabbed a hold of that and pulled the guy out,” Thompson said. “As we were all standing there, in disbelief of what just happened, the guy slowly muttered out as he was freezing, ‘there’s another guy.'” Thompson reached back in the submerged pickup and pulled the driver out as well. Thompson said both men in the pickup, Jesus Alvarado and Joshua Allsup, would have likely drowned had they not been followed on the highway.

“If we were not behind them, there was nobody else on the highway…the truck was not visible from the highway, so there would have been cars passing all day,” Thompson said. The two men in the pickup suffered only minor injuries and were treated at a hospital for symptoms of hypothermia. Thompson credits his six years of service in the Coast Guard for his quick response to the accident.

“I was used to crazy, gruesome stuff happening, so it was just respond, do what you need to do to help out, and that was it,” Thompson said. While Thompson has not kept in close contact with the men he helped rescue over five years ago, he did hear that one of the men, inspired by the incident, became a volunteer firefighter.

(Radio Iowa)