DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – An 88-year-old convicted sex offender accused of grabbing an Iowa state mental hospital worker has been found unfit to stand trial. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports William Cubbage grabbed the worker between the legs last year while she was showering him at the hospital in Independence. Cubbage was convicted of numerous sex crimes beginning in 1987, and gained notoriety after he was accused in 2011 of molesting a 95-year-old woman at a Pomeroy nursing home.

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA (IRN) – A Dubuque woman accused of stealing more than $70,000 from her employer has pled guilty. KWWL-TV reports 35-year-old Jennifer Shively wrote unauthorized checks on the accounts of her employer while she worked as the man’s bookkeeper.

BELMOND, IA (IRN) – A man from the north-central Iowa town of Belmond passed away Monday afternoon in an accident at a cooperative. Dan Feller died after falling from a platform while loading a truck. The accident is under investigation.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – One day after introducing an amendment that would ban abortions in Iowa as soon as six weeks after conception, lawmakers have dropped the plan. WHO-TV reports the amendment approved by a House committee yesterday would have made it illegal for an abortion to be performed after a fetal heartbeat was detected. The amendment was added to a bill that already bans abortions 20 weeks after conception. The revised bill passed.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Gov. Terry Branstad has lowered his projections for Iowa’s upcoming budget year by about $173 million amid declining state revenues. KCCI-TV reports Branstad’s revised budget reduces funding to some departments, community colleges and the state’s three public universities. It also cuts money from a job skills training fund.

DUBUQUE, IA (IRN) – A Dubuque man’s proposal to his girlfriend drew lots of attention Tuesday. KCRG-TV reports Jeremy Valentine placed red plastic drinking cups into a fence to spell out his marriage proposal to his girlfriend, Lucy Reisen. It said simply, “Lucy, marry me. I ‘loe’ you.” The fence was on a overpass over busy Highway 20. Jeremy says he misspelled the word “love” because he got in a hurry when he noticed a policeman was watching him. There’s no word yet on whether or not Lucy has accepted.