DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – An Iowa man threatened by city officials with legal action for saying on a website that his hometown smelled like “rancid dog food” won a free-speech lawsuit Thursday when a federal judge prohibited the city from further threats and awarded him damages. Josh Harms filed suit asking a judge to block Sibley officials from suing him. City officials said they’d sue if he didn’t stop criticizing the town’s odor problem from Iowa Drying and Processing, which makes a high-protein animal food supplement from pig blood.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – Des Moines police are investigating an older woman’s suspicious death. KCCI-TV reports the 71-year-old woman’s car was missing, and she had suffered an unexplained injury. Police are treating the death as a murder.

WAVERLY, IA (IRN) – Wartburg College in Waverly has begun bolstering security following reports that a man entered unlocked dorms and bathrooms and harassed female students.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the man entered dorm rooms and bathrooms, touched students without their permission and stole money.

PHOENIX, IA (IRN) – A Phoenix, Arizona woman says her husband believed he was in the clear after escaping from an Iowa prison 37 years ago, and they were both shocked when authorities arrested him earlier this week. KWQC-TV reports Charles Cagley was serving a sentence for second-degree robbery in 1981 when he walked away from a minimum security work detail. The 68-year-old Cagley will be extradited back to Iowa.

DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A Des Moines restaurant owner is about to hit the big time on television. WHO-TV reports Sam Auen, owner of Tacopocalypse and Krunkwich Ramen House will appear on the Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games on Sunday with Guy Fieri. The competition pits Auen against other chefs. Contestants have 30 minutes to run through a market, find their ingredients, and then whip up a dish to impress a panel of judges. Auen says that skill set is right up his alley.