From the Associated Press (11:20 a.m.):
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled that Democratic Senate candidate Abby Finkenauer qualifies for the primary ballot, rejecting a lower court decision and allowing her to continue her campaign for the nomination. The court’s decision Friday leaves Finkenauer as the likely front-runner in a race with two lesser-known candidates ahead of Iowa’s June 7 primary. The winner will face Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, who is seeking an eighth term in the Senate. The court rejected a lower court ruling that found Finkenauer failed to meet a state law that requires candidates to submit at least 100 signatures from at least 19 counties to qualify for the ballot.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Month by month, more of the roughly 40 million Americans who get help buying groceries through the federal food stamp program are seeing their benefits plunge. The reductions come even as the nation struggles with the biggest increase in food costs in decades. The payments to low-income individuals and families are dropping as governors end COVID-19 disaster declarations and opt out of a still-ongoing federal program that made their states eligible for dramatic increases in SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps. The increased benefit were in response to surging unemployment after the COVID-19 pandemic swept over the country. The result is that depending on the politics of a state, people find themselves eligible for significantly different levels of help buying food.
NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the decade-old home invasion shotgun death of a rural Nashua man. Television station KIMT reports that 49-year-old Randy Lee Patrie pleaded not guilty earlier this week in the October 2012 death of 70-year-old Carl Gallmeyer. About a year after Gallmeyer’s death, a television, guns and tools stolen from his home were found in Patrie’s home. Patrie pleaded guilty to gun charges in the case and was sentenced in 2014 to life in prison as a habitual offender, but that sentence was reduced to 20 years on appeal. In January, state prosecutors charged Patrie in Gallmeyer’s killing. No trial date has been set.
BEDFORD, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a young woman and a 1-year-old boy were found dead inside a burning house in southwestern Iowa this week. Television station KCCI reports that firefighters were called to the home east of Bedford in Taylor County around 7 a.m. Wednesday. Fire crews found the bodies of a 21-year-old woman and the baby inside the home. Authorities have not yet released their names. Fire officials are investigating the cause of the fire.
DYERSVILLE, Iowa (AP) – The new owners of the “Field of Dreams” site in Iowa plan to use $80 million in private investment to make the popular tourist attraction a destination for youth baseball and softball tournaments. The Des Moines Register reports that Go the Distance said in a news release Thursday that the money will be used to build baseball and softball fields, team dormitories and a hotel, among other improvements. Go the Distance’s CEO is longtime Chicago White Sox star and hall-of-famer Frank Thomas. The site in rural Dyersville, Iowa, has long been a popular destination, since the 1989 Kevin Costner movie.
