A Council Bluffs man was sentenced Tuesday, to two and a-half years in prison for being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm.  32-year old Jason Lee Garza received his sentence in United States District Court by Judge Stephanie M. Rose, to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.  Garza pled guilty to the charge of a felon in possession of a firearm on February 8th, 2013.

The charge was the result of an investigation conducted by the Council Bluffs Police Department, after the officers heard gun shots being fired in the area of 1200 block of Sixth Avenue and responded to that area on October 24th, 2012. Officers located several people who reported being shot at by Garza before he had fled the scene. A short time later, officers located Garza in a nearby residence, and the firearm used by Garza was found hidden in a wall of the residence.

The investigation was conducted by the Council Bluffs Poice Department, the Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

The Cass County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest on of a Griswold woman Tuesday, on drug charges. 45-year old Lisa Marie Bruning, was taken into custody on charges of Possession of a Controlled Substance and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Bruning was brought to the Cass County Jail and released later that day on $1000 bond.

Deputies in Cass County also arrested 69-year old William Henry Scanlan, of Massena, Tuesday, on a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault Simple. Scanlan was taken to the Cass County Jail where he pled not guilty before the magistrate the next day and was released on his own recognizance.

And on Friday (today) 28-year old Daniel Marc Chevalier,  of Hancock, was arrested in Cass County on a State of Iowa warrant for Parole Violation. Chevalier was taken to the Cass County Jail where he is being held without bond.

GRAND JUNCTION, Iowa (AP) — Crews repairing a train derailment in central Iowa have reopened one of two affected tracks. Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says the track was reopened at 11 a.m. today (Friday) and trains are operating on it. The other track was expected to open this (Friday) afternoon.

Davis says an eastbound coal train on its way from Wyoming to Crescent, Ill., derailed Thursday morning into a westbound cargo train going from Chicago to Oakland, Calif. The impact derailed 13 of the 135 cars on the coal train and 22 of the 106 cars of the intermodal cargo train. Davis says a team is investigating what caused the derailment. The crash shut down a section of the company’s mainline tracks near Grand Junction about 60 miles northwest of Des Moines. No injuries were reported.

The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says a Villisca man was sentenced this week to prison on child pornography-related charges. 23-year old Scott Allen Gibbons, of Villisca, was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison for receipt of child pornography. Gibbons previously pled guilty on January 10th, 2013, to the charge of receipt of child pornography.

The charge against Gibbons was the result of an investigation conducted by law enforcement agencies in Iowa and Florida after a complaint by a Florida mother of an eleven year-old boy regarding inappropriate “chats” between the eleven year-old and an adult in Iowa. Investigation showed that Gibbons had established an online relationship with the eleven year-old using a “chat room” component of an on-line game.

During the communication, Gibbons convinced the eleven year-old to send to Gibbons a picture of himself constituting child pornography via a text message. The child pornography was located on Gibbons’ cellular telephone by law enforcement, along with similar pictures from unknown prepubescent males.

The investigation was conducted by the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office, Tampa, Florida, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Republican Matt Whitaker says he has filed the paperwork to run for U.S. Senate in 2014.   The former U.S. attorney’s move come a week after Rep. Steve King announced he would not seek the seat being vacated by retiring five-term Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin.

The 43-year-old former University of Iowa football player from Clive was U.S. attorney for Iowa’s Southern District from 2004 to 2009. He ran unsuccessfully for state treasurer in 2002.   Other Republicans weighing entry into the race include state Sen. Joni Ernst, former Reliant Energy CEO Mark Jacobs, Secretary of State Matt Schultz and Sen. Charles Grassley’s chief of staff David Young.

Rep. Tom Latham and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds also passed on running. Democratic Rep. Bruce Braley of Waterloo is his party’s only candidate.