Former Governor Tom Vilsack will not run again for Iowa's top job in 2014.
Matt Paul, spokesman for the U.S. agriculture secretary and two-term Democratic governor says Vilsack considered the race, but has decided against a run.
Sue Dvorsky, former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party, says she's not surprised by Vilsack's decision:
Vilsack took the job in January 2009. He was governor from 1999 through 2007. He announced in January that he accepted President Barack Obama's offer to stay on for the second term, which ends in January 2017.
Sally Pederson, his Lt. Governor during his time as governor, understands Vilsack's decision:
Republican Governor Terry Branstad has not announced plans to run for re-election, though he is expected to do so.
On the Democratic side, State Senator Jack Hatch, of Des Moines and State Representative Tyler Olson, of Cedar Rapids, are considering a run.
Iowa Democrat Michael Fitzgerald has won eight terms as state treasurer, but he may try to move his name up the statewide ballot in 2014.
Fitzgerald won his first, four-year term as state treasurer in 1982 and has served in state government for 30 years.
If Fitzgerald secures the Democratic Party's 2014 nomination for governor, he would likely face Republican Terry Branstad who would be seeking an unprecedented sixth term as governor.
In April Fitzgerald went on a speaking tour of the state organized by the Iowa Democratic Party to criticize what at that time was Governor Branstad's health care reform plan.
A northwest Iowa man accused of killing his mother and kidnapping another woman says in a written statement to police that he doesn't remember killing his mother, though he recalls choking her.
The statement by 21-year-old Kirk Levin, of Early, was presented to jurors Wednesday in Webster County during his trial.
Levin is charged with first-degree murder in the January death of Marilyn Schmitt. He faces third-degree kidnapping for allegedly abducting 21-year-old Jessica Vega.
Levin gave the statement after a videotaped police interview where he repeatedly denied killing Schmitt.
Levin says in the statement that he is the only person who could have killed his mother. He says he can't explain his thinking, and he doesn't remember picking up Vega.
Two young Monona County boys are home and safe after they were the subject of an Amber Alert Tuesday night which led to the arrest of their non-custodial mother in eastern Nebraska.
Sheriff Steven Hespen of Dodge County, Nebraska says a motorist heard the alert on the radio, spotted the blue pickup truck and called 9-1-1.
Deputies responded and pulled the truck over near Fremont, Nebraska.
Sheriff Hespen says inititial reports were that the woman, 30 year old Carli Eich was high on methamphetamine when she abducted the boys in Monona County:
Eich is charged with felony violation of a custodial order. She remains jailed in Dodge County pending extradition to Iowa to face the charge.
The boys, ages one month and four years, were picked up by their grandparents in Fremont Tuesday night.
Hespen says the Amber Alert performed flawlessly in the apprehension of this interstate fugitive.
Eich was supposed to have reported to a drug rehabilitation clinic in Sioux City on Tuesday.
