From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is expected to announce her reelection campaign at a rally in Des Moines. It has long been assumed the Republican governor would seek a second full term but she will make her plans official at the Wednesday night event at the state fairgrounds. Reynolds’ announcement comes about a week after she gave the GOP response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Reynolds will likely face Democrat Deidre DeJear in the November general election. A Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa Poll published March 5 shows Reynolds leading DeJear among likely voters, 51% to 43%.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man who saw his 2013 murder conviction overturned faces a new murder charge for a stabbing death at a Johnston fast food restaurant earlier this week. The Des Moines Register reports that 55-year-old Spencer Antowyn Pierce, of Des Moines, was arrested Tuesday and charged with first-degree murder and burglary in the Monday fatal stabbing of 20-year-old Jermaine Whitaker Moses at a Johnston Sonic Drive-In. Police say Pierce attacked Moses and another man when they arrived for work at the restaurant. Pierce was convicted of first-degree murder and drug counts in 2013, along with his girlfriend, in the shooting death of 35-year-old Steve Harmon. But the Iowa Court of Appeals overturned his murder conviction in 2015, ruling there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him of murder.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines police say they have arrested six teenagers in a shooting outside a school that killed a 15-year-old boy and seriously injured two teenage girls. Police say gunshots fired Monday afternoon outside East High School came from several shooters from multiple vehicles. Police said Tuesday that those arrested range in age from 14 to 17. Police identified the 15-year-old killed as Jose David Lopez of Des Moines. Police say he was the intended target of the shooting. He was not a student at East. Police say the other two shot were females aged 16 and 18, who both attend East, and were in a group that included Lopez.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa House Democratic leader and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee are accusing the committee’s chairman and House Speaker Pat Grassley of violating ethics rules that prohibit lobbyists from working for the state. House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst and Rep. Mary Wolfe said Tuesday that Judiciary Committee Chairman Steven Holt hired Republican attorney Alan Ostergren to assist with an investigation. Ostergren says Wolfe and Konfrst are playing politics and that he’s not an employee of the state but an independent contractor. Ostergren is registered as a lobbyist. He signed an agreement dated March 1 to work for the committee for $400 an hour, up to $2,000 a month or more.
