Iowa courts

In her sixth address to the Iowa Legislature, Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Susan Christensen asked lawmakers for pay increases for judges and to reduce the number of magistrates in the state.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the couple lied 12 years ago when they claimed to have no children.

Plus, a long-ranging investigative report was recently on the Davenport building collapse that occurred two years ago.

The right to an attorney doesn't mean that an attorney will be free in states like Iowa.

The Des Moines Police Department appealed after a district court ordered them to disclose individual reports to the public.

Iowa is not among the 34 state, plus the District of Columbia, that have laws restricting SLAPPs, or strategic lawsuits against public participation.

In her Condition of the Judiciary address Wednesday morning, Chief Justice Susan Christensen asked legislators to reduce the number of magistrates across the state, raise state district judge salaries and address the shortage of court-appointed attorneys in Iowa.

State Auditor Rob Sand released an audit report Tuesday that says the Iowa Judicial Branch distributed $27.6 million of court debt collections to the wrong state fund over four years, shorting other state and local funds in the process.

The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case that boils down to local vs. state and federal authority over carbon dioxide pipeline siting and safety. Separately, Summit Carbon Solutions picked up another permit and applied for another — both of which it needs to build a multi-state carbon capture and sequestration project.

The Iowa Judicial Branch said it is fixing computer programming errors that led to more than $26 million in court debt collections being sent to the wrong funds.