Reports of layoffs following the recent purchase of a long-time Council Bluffs manufacturing plant, has City officials scrambling to keep the company open and its employees retained. The Omaha World-Herald says three employees of Griffin Pipe Products who declined to give their names, said they were placed on layoff status, Friday.

It was announced earlier in the week that U.S. Pipe and Foundry of Birmingham, Alabama had acquired a majority financial interest in Griffin Pipe. Griffin is a leading manufacturer of water transmission products for North American distributors, contractors, and municipalities. Mike Tuttle, human resources manager at the Council Bluffs plant, declined to comment.

Council Bluffs Mayor Matt Walsh said city officials will do everything possible to keep the Griffin Pipe Products Co. open and fully employed. Walsh estimated that about 250 people work at the local plant.

A bridge in northwestern Pottawattamie County that links motorists to Beebeetown and Harrison County will re-open next week, after being closed last August, with little warning. The Potato Creek bridge, located a few miles south of Interstate 680 on County Road L-34 in Pott. County, will be open with reduced speed limits, but it will be closed again in April, so crews can finish work on the structure.The Iowa DOT says the project will cost an estimated $700,000.

Having the bridge open should save commuters in the area around 10-to 15-minutes, and a detour of more than a dozen miles.

A Nebraska woman angry at the management of a Council Bluffs motel allegedly ripped out the pages of a bible and set them on fire in a trash can, Thursday night. The Omaha World-Herald reports 43-year old Carolettia R. Looney, of Omaha, was taken into custody after the incident at the American Inn motel on S. 24th Street, in Council Bluffs.

Police say Meyers admitted to having set the fire at around 8:30-p.m., Thursday. Sgt. Chad Meyers told the paper Looney was angry at the motel management because she’d told them she prepaid enough to cover four days of rent, which was disputed. A security guard extinguished the fire.

Authorities arrested Looney on suspicion of first-degree arson. Police said Looney was under the influence of alcohol at the time of her arrest. Looney remains at the Pottawattamie County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

A bill that would further deregulate telephone service in Iowa stalled at the statehouse this past week. More than two dozen lobbyists crowded into a committee room to argue about the bill, which would affect phone companies that use the Internet as the link between a call from one landline to the landline the caller’s trying to reach. Some giant phone companies say this new internet-based phone service will be slowed if they can’t get out from under the oversight of the Iowa Utilities Board. Michael Sadler is an executive with CenturyLink.

“My company is going to be investing billions of dollars in IP technology moving forward,” Sadler told legislators. CenturyLink, Verizon, and AT&T all want the service to be regulated by the Federal Communications Commission — like cellphones are. Critics say that would mean unhappy customers could no longer go to the Iowa Utilities Board for relief. Kerri Johannsen, a spokesman for the board, says recent complaints include dropped calls.

“We’re dealing with issues in consumer protection, especially in rural call completion,” she says. Rural phone providers oppose the bill. So do telecommunications giants Sprint and U.S. Cellular who worry how it will affect their connections with the other providers. Lawmakers say the issue needs more study and they’ve tabled the proposal.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad has asked the Iowa Supreme Court to overturn a district court order to reopen the Iowa Juvenile Home. Branstad announced his plans on Friday. Branstad says the children residing at the home in Toledo were not receiving the education and care they needed.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A Wisconsin infant who was abducted and left out in the cold in Iowa has been reunited with his parents and is on his way home. Kayden Powell’s mother discovered him missing early Thursday morning from his bassinet in a Town of Beloit home. Police found him tucked in a storage crate outside an Iowa gas station in frigid temperatures more than 24 hours later.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids police say they do not suspect a crime is involved in the death of a man whose body was found in a gazebo at a cemetery. Police spokesman Greg Buelow said yesterday that 64-year-old Stuart Smith-Dromey had been reported missing on Wednesday.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court has upheld a jury verdict that found a Cedar Falls woman was not negligent when she rear-ended a pickup truck stopped at a red light in 2008 because she had suffered a stroke just before the crash. Betty Schmidt, who was 75 in November 2008, was returning from grocery shopping when she rear-ended Dennis Hagenow’s truck. It was her first accident ever.