Students in the Atlantic Middle School recently participated in a monetary fund raiser to help support the Atlantic Police Department and Reserve Department’s “Family Dreams Christmas” and “Shop with a Cop” programs.Officer Devin Hogue said a group of sixth grade students in Mrs. Reilly’s English classes were reading the book “Homecoming” by Cynthia Voight.  In the story there are children that are in great need and students were tasked by their teacher to come up with a project for the school to participate in a benefit for those who are less fortunate.

6th graders who participated in the benefit reading program. (Atl. P-D photo)

The students in these classes requested that officials with the Atlantic Police Department come and explain how their two programs work. After they were presented with the information they then put together skits, and presentations to give to all the “home bases” in the school. The presentations explained the two programs facilitated by the Police and Reserve Departments. They then challenged the students to see which “home bases” at each grade level could collect the most funds to be donated towards the two programs.

Once the challenge was accepted by the students they were given until December 17^th to collect as much as they could for their “Home Base.” On December 18^th Officer Devin Hogue went to the school to present certificates to the winning classes. In 6^th Grade the winning class was Mrs. Reilly’s class with $92.60. In 7^th grade, Mrs. Oglebee’s class with $51.64. In 8^th grade, Mrs. Leiferman’s class with $78.98. Another awesome aspect to their fund raiser was that Hy-Vee store manager Amy Jordahl agreed to pay sixth grade students a penny for every minute they logged reading over this time. Between around 60 students they logged a little over 19,000 minutes of reading either in school or at home. This would total out to more than 11 days of reading by the students. This lead to Hy-Vee contributing $191.64 towards the total amount collected by the school. The overall amount collected and donated by the “Home Bases” in 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades was $824.38!!

The three winning classes will be treated to a pizza party on Friday January 10^th. The pizza will be donated and brought to the school by Pizza Ranch. Officers from the Atlantic Police Department will also attend the party as a way to say thank you and give an overview of how the two programs turned out.

The Atlantic Police and Reserve Departments want to send a very big THANK YOU to all the students in the Atlantic Middle School who helped this project be so successful. Their efforts are greatly appreciated and really goes to show how great and giving the community they are growing up in is.

Police in Council Bluffs are looking for a man who allegedly robbed a bank Friday morning. Sgt. Chad Meyers said officers were called to the Bank of the West, located at 531 30th Avenue, at around 11:30-a.m.  Meyers said a white man – who appeared to be in his 30s – entered the bank, approached a the teller counter and demanded money. The suspect left with an undetermined amount of money and fled the bank eastbound on foot toward a nearby Office Max.

Bank robbery suspect. (Photo from surveillance camera, courtesy Council Bluffs P-D)

The suspect was described as being as 5-feet 9-inches tall, and about 160 pounds. He had facial hair on his chin, wore a black leather jacket, light blue shirt, light blue pants, a black stocking cap, yellow or tan gloves and dark rimmed glasses. The man did not display a weapon.

Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to call the Council Bluffs Police Department at (712) 328-5737.

An election misconduct charge was filed today (Friday) by Pottawattamie County Attorney Matthew Wilber in a potential case of voter fraud. A charge of election misconduct in the 1st degree was filed against Margarita Abrego, of Denison, on December 20, 2013. Abrego is accused of registering to vote and voting in the December 4, 2012 special election regarding a bond issue for Iowa Western Community College while being a non-citizen.

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz said “I want to thank County Attorney Wilber for taking election integrity seriously. Every vote cast by ineligible voters cancels out the legitimate vote of eligible Iowans. Each vote can make a big difference and Iowans expect nothing less than fair and honest elections.”

The Iowa Secretary of State’s office referred the potential voter fraud cases to Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to investigate. After the investigation, DCI then referred the potential voter fraud cases to Wilber for prosecution.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Las Vegas company that owns casinos in four states including Iowa, says a data breach has compromised customer credit and debit card information. Affinity Gaming said Friday that its system was infected with malware that compromised card data from customers at its 11 casinos, including five in Nevada, three in Colorado, two in Missouri and the Lakeside Casino in Osceola, Iowa.

The company recommends that customers who visited the casinos between March 14 and Oct. 16 check their card statements for suspicious activity and put a fraud alert on their accounts. Affinity also announced a separate breach at Primm Center Gas Station, located in Primm, Nev., near the California state line. Company officials say skimmers that read card data were placed on three gas pumps on an unknown date. The situation was cleared Nov. 29.

EARLY, Iowa (AP) — Two men died and another was injured when the minivan they were riding in crashed near the western Iowa city of Early. The Sac County Sheriff’s Office says the crashed happened just before 5 a.m. Friday on U.S. Highway 20 west of Early when the driver of a minivan lost control. The vehicle entered the median and then started to roll.

The driver and a backseat passenger were killed. A front seat passenger was taken to a Storm Lake Hospital and was in critical condition Friday. The sheriff’s office didn’t release the names of those involved until relatives could be notified.

Slick roads don’t appear to have been a factor in the crash.

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County report the arrest Thursday evening of a Malvern man. 34-year old Justin Andrew Hooker was arrested on Main Street in Malvern at around 5:30-p.m. He was charged with Public Intoxication and Interference with Official Acts. Hooker was being held in the Mills County Jail on $600 bond.