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January 20, 2009 WASHINGTON, Jan. 20 -- Sen. Edward Kennedy collapses at luncheon for President Obama at Capitol. Developing story

A Dowling High School teacher has been arrested for allegedly having a sexual relationship with one of her students. Twenty-seven-year-old Erin Marie Rohwer has been charged with sexual exploitation by a school employee. The student she's accused of have a relationship with, is an 18-year-old male. Rohwer was arrested at her home Monday night. She was taken to the West Des Moines police station, where she posted a $5,000 bond and was released.

Plains Justice is an environmental law center founded in Cedar Rapids a couple of years ago largely to fight the proposed coal plant in Waterloo. But Tuesday's news that those plans are off the table was not cause for celebration at the center. Instead, it has attorneys shifting their focus to the proposed plant in Marshalltown. Plains Justice president Carrie La Seur saw this day coming. "Looking at the Waterloo plan it just didn't seem possible that private investors would have an appetite for that kind of risk," said La Seur. A similar proposal by Alliant Energy to build a...

Moveon has emailed me that I have one vote as to whether Moveon pledges it's support to hillary or obasma. Since I am without a doubt one of the most sane members of moveon, I will vote on the basis of the candidate my FRiends at FreeRepublic would most like moveon to waste it's resources on. I will tally your selections and place my vote accordingly at 7AM eastern on Friday.

A federal jury has found state Senator Matt McCoy not guilty of extortion. He was accused of threatening to use his influence as a senator to force a business partner to pay him $2,000. Defense attorneys said the business partner, Thomas Vasquez, was paid by the FBI to act as an informant and secretly taped meetings and conversations with McCoy over several months. If he'd been convicted, McCoy would have faced up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. The jury deliberated for less than two hours on Thursday, December 13th before returning its verdict....

No lights. No cameras. Just our microphones -- and your questions. On Dec. 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. ET, NPR and Iowa Public Radio will host a Democratic presidential candidates' debate. We received more than 1,600 questions from the public, and we'll put some of them to the candidates. Browse through the questions below and tune in for answers from Des Moines on Dec. 4! Note: NPR is working with the leading Republican candidates to schedule a debate for early 2008.

Subject : Join the Virtual March: Call your Senator Now to Stop the Escalation Today's the day. Can you call your Senator and tell him you want him to stop the escalation and end the war? Dear MoveOn member, Today's the day. Today, hundreds of thousands of us are calling, emailing, and writing Congress to make sure they hear loud and clear: it's time to stop President Bush's escalation in Iraq. Why now? Any day now, the Senate will vote on an important resolution to stop the escalation. We need to make sure that resolution goes through—and it's going to...

(Following is excerpted from near the end of a lengthy human interest story, I apologize for all the editing to capture the key points) ...Dr. Lima's procedure, called olfactory mucosa transplantation, differs dramatically from what generates the most heat in the debate, embryonic stem cell research. Lima's process uses adult stem cells taken from the patients themselves.(snip) ...I had a senator up there screaming at me," she says(snip)...."I was foolish enough to stand in front of the senators and say using a person's own stem cells is safer," she says. Peduzzi-Nelson testified "the most profitable, not the best, treatment for...

Churches to show global warming film WATERLOO --- Global warming is a scientific issue. It also can be a matter of political debate. Some Cedar Valley pastors concerned about global warming think it's a moral issue, too. They are calling on their congregations to learn more about the environment and take action to protect it. To launch awareness about the current and possibly future state of the earth, some Northeast Iowa churches will show a film about global warming. The Paramount film "An Inconvenient Truth," shown earlier in selected theaters, is a project of former Vice President Al Gore. The...

60-year-old Davenport man (former Marine) beats away would-be teen robber (who was using a fake gun) DAVENPORT (AP) --- A 60-year-old Davenport pawn shop owner fought off a would be robber less than half his age by beating him up, police said. Preston Hughes is a former Marine and the owner of P J's Pawn Shop. Around 11 in the morning Saturday, police said, Michael Anthony Posten, 18, walked into Hughes shop wearing a hooded sweat shirt, gloves and a white fabric over his face with the eyes and mouth cut out. He was also allegedly carrying a hand gun....

Two local schools were highlighted in a front page Wall Street Journal story Wednesday for their involvement in a program that provides backpacks of food to needy students. Students and parents from Lowell and Jewett elementary schools were quoted in the story that focused on backpack clubs as part of a series examining solutions to poverty. Operation Family Pack was launched in November 2004 by the Northeast Iowa Food Bank to provide needy children with meals outside of school. Other food banks across the country associated with Second Harvest have spearheaded similar programs. The organization fills backpacks with food for...

A Biblical attempt to dodge jury duty WATERLOO -- A University of Northern Iowa student found salvation from his court obligations after he showed up for jury duty dressed as Jesus. Abram "A.J." Platt, 22, of Cedar Falls, passed through the metal detector at the Black Hawk County Courthouse Tuesday morning wearing a long wig, fake beard and ankle-length robe. Leather sandals accented his garb, and he carried a copy of the Communist Manifesto and a pack of Camel cigarettes along with his keys. The outfit sparked plenty of whispers as he checked in at the Clerk of Courts Office...

Ultralight plane crashes while covering RAGBRAI RICEVILLE (Iowa)(AP) --- An ultralight plane crashed Thursday afternoon while following the RAGBRAI route for a documentary, but the two people aboard appeared to have suffered only minor injuries. Pilot Jim Hill, of Manchester, and his passenger, Amy Throop, 26, of Ottawa, Canada, were flying over Riceville when the plane went down on the north edge of town. Jana Jarvis, of Riceville, said she was standing on her deck watching the plane when she saw it at the top of nearby trees and then heard it hit the ground. She and her son ran...

Dear MoveOn member,(That's me Josh Higgins Heh heh heh, barf ) It's been almost a week since we all started writing letters-to-the-editor about the Karl Rove CIA-leak scandal. So far a whopping 34,928 letters have been written by MoveOn members. That's a new record for us. The media is beginning to report on Rove again, but we need to create some buzz—the sort of public outrage you can see when you're walking down the street. That's why we want to create a downloadable poster that you can print out and hang up in your office, home, locker, car and wherever...

DES MOINES (AP) --- Iowa Department of Human Services officials confirmed the agency had contact with the family of 5-year-old Evelyn Miller before her death, which is being investigated as a homicide. The girl's body was found Wednesday in the Cedar River about 2 miles north of Charles City. She had been missing since July 1. No one has been charged. Evelyn's grandparents, Linda and Richard Christie, of Windsor Heights, weren't surprised when authorities confirmed on Monday that foul play was suspected in the child's death. They said for weeks before her body was found, they had suspected she might...

FLOYD (AP)(Iowa) --- After nearly a week of hundreds of volunteers searching each day in hopes that Evelyn Miller would be found alive, the grandfather of the 5-year-old said her body was discovered in the Cedar River. One person is reportedly being held in her death, but no further details were given. Richard Christie, of Des Moines, said he learned from the Floyd County attorney at about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night that his granddaughter's body had been found. "She was murdered and her body was put in the river," Christie told The Gazette. "She was not drowned." He said he...

Governor restores the vote to felons By CHARLOTTE EBY, Courier Des Moines Bureau DES MOINES --- While Gov. Tom Vilsack has come under fire from Republicans for an executive order restoring voting rights of Iowans with criminal convictions, many are hailing the action as a civil rights victory. Vilsack's order, which he plans to sign today, will allow those Iowans to register to vote as long as they have completed their terms of prison, parole or probation. Before, those offenders had to apply to get their voting rights restored by the governor. Walter Reed of Waterloo, director of the Iowa...

Dear Josh, Just hours after learning about an outrageous speech delivered by Karl Rove, President Bush's most senior advisor, I went to the Senate floor -- and I spoke from my heart. I want to share those words with you -- not as a Democrat or Republican, not as a liberal or conservative -- but as an American. I've attached part of my speech to the end of this email. But, before you read what I said, look again at what Karl Rove said: (P)erhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of...

Man shot outside Polk County courthouse dies DES MOINES (AP) -- A man who spray-painted words on a pickup truck outside the Polk County courthouse was shot and killed by a law enforcement officer when he pulled a toy gun on police. A deputy approached the man about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after he was seen spray-painting "inappropriate words on his pickup truck," said Sgt. Todd Dykstra. Other words including "Police Academy 7" could be seen painted in black on the white truck, witnesses said. As deputies approached the man he jumped on the cab of the pickup. The man reached...

A man who prosecutors called a dangerous sexual predator has been released from state custody after a Polk County jury decided he's no longer a threat. Loren Huss, 42, had been confined since the May 16, 1986 slaying of his girlfriend, Marilyn Sheets. The jury deliberated about a day before releasing him from jail on Wednesday. Police said he assaulted and strangled Sheets, gouged out her eyes, bit off her nose and wrote on the walls in her blood. Huss was convicted of first-degree murder in 1987. He later was awarded a new trial by a federal appellate court. He...