Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department said late Sunday night, that two juveniles were charged with the Threat of Terrorism – a Class D Felony – following an investigation into a reported threat to commit a mass shooting, at the Lewis Central High School.

The investigation determined that several juveniles who attend Lewis Central High School
had discussed how a mass shooting incident could occur at the school. All students were located and interviewed by law enforcement. The parties involved are not being identified due to their ages.

County Attorney Matt Wilbur was consulted with the results of the investigation. As a result of the arrests, both juveniles were transported to and held at, the Southwest Iowa Juvenile Detention Center, in Council Bluffs.

Authorities say the Council Bluffs Police Department has been working closely with the Lewis Central Administration to resolve the threats as quickly as possible. The Council Bluffs Police Department believes that the threats are not credible, as the juveniles do not have the means to carry out their threats. Lewis Central High School will be safe for students to attend.

Officers will be present to insure the safety of students. Police say that want to thank the public for their timely reporting of this incident. The investigation is closed at this time, and no further information will be released.

The Associated Press has reviewed updated results of the Iowa caucuses provided Sunday evening by the Iowa Democratic Party and has decided that it remains unable to declare a winner based on the available information. The results, AP continues to believe, may not be fully accurate and are still subject to potential revision.

Following the Iowa Democratic Party’s release of new results, with 100% of precincts reporting, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg leads Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by two state delegate equivalents out of 2,152 counted. That is a margin of 0.09 percentage points.

However, there is still some evidence the party may not have accurately tabulated some of its results, including those released late Sunday following a series of revisions.

Further, Sanders’ campaign will ask for a recanvass of the results. A recanvass is not a recount, but a check of the vote count to ensure the results were added correctly. The candidate have until 1 p.m. ET on Monday to request a recanvass, a deadline that was extended by the party from Friday.

AP will continue to monitor the race, including the results of any potential recanvass or recount. Unlike a government-run primary election, the Iowa caucuses are an event run by the Iowa Democratic Party. For the first time, the party in 2020 released three sets of results from its caucuses: the “first alignment” and “final alignment” of caucusgoers, as well as the number of “state delegate equivalents” that each candidate receives. Previously, it released only the tally of state delegate equivalents.

During the caucuses, voters arriving at their caucus site filled out a card that lists their first choice; those results determine the “first alignment.” Caucusgoers whose first-choice candidate failed to get at least 15% of the vote at their caucus site could switch their support to a different candidate. After they had done so, the results were tabulated again to determine the caucus site’s “final alignment.”

The final alignment votes were then used to calculate the number of state convention delegates — or “state delegate equivalents” — awarded to each candidate. There is evidence the party did not accurately tabulate some final alignment votes or correctly award state delegate equivalents in some precincts.

AP has always declared the winner of the Iowa caucuses based on the number of state delegate equivalents each candidate receives. That’s because Democrats choose their overall nominee based on delegates. While the first alignment and final alignment provide insight into the process, state delegate equivalents have the most direct bearing on the metric Democrats use to pick their nominee.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign plans to ask for a “partial recanvass” of the results of last week’s Iowa caucuses. A campaign aide confirmed the plans Sunday night, ahead of a Monday deadline for candidates to ask the Iowa Democratic Party to recanvass the results. A recanvass is not a recount, but a check of the vote count to ensure the results were added correctly.

The state party released updated results on Sunday showing Pete Buttigieg leading Sanders by two state delegate equivalents.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa man is facing an attempted murder charge after he fired shots into an occupied apartment and hit a dog in the crossfire. Des Moines Police said the 21-year-old gunman missed his intended target — a 19-year-old man — in the shooting. The dog was taken to an emergency veterinary hospital but wasn’t expected to survive the shooting. The gunfire was reported shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday at the Des Moines apartment complex. The suspect was arrested after a short foot pursuit. Witnesses told police that the suspect and the 19-year-old had an argument before the shooting.

The 2020 Grow Rural Education program, which provides Iowa farmers with the opportunity to nominate local rural public schools for $15,000 grants designed to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education, is officially underway!

Grow Rural Education, sponsored by Bayer Fund, has awarded more than $18 million to more than 1,000 schools nationwide since the program began in 2011. Now until April 1st, farmers can nominate their school district by visiting www.Americasfarmers.com.

Previous winners include an Iowa school district that converted an unused locker room into a Monarch butterfly incubator. And a Missouri high school used a Grow Rural Education grant to enhance its STEM classes by purchasing an aquaponics system that breeds fish and grows plants in an integrated environment.

Since 2010, America’s Farmers have awarded more than $53 million to worthy causes, students and public schools across the country. For the Grow Rural Education program specifically, farmers nominate a local public school to apply for one of the grants by visiting AmericasFarmers.com. The process takes less than five minutes and has strengthened schools by bringing together students, teachers, farmers and community members to make STEM programs more engaging.

After the school district receives a nomination, they will be notified and teachers are encouraged to submit a grant application describing their desired STEM project by April 15, 2020. A panel of qualified math and science teachers reviews the applications and selects the finalists. The program’s Farmer Advisory Council, consisting of approximately 30 farming leaders from across the country, will then select the winning school districts.

In the fall, farmers can enroll in the Grow Communities program for the chance to direct a $2,500 donation to a local eligible nonprofit organization, and the Grow Ag Leaders program will begin accepting applications for $1,500 scholarships for students pursuing an education in agriculture-related fields.

The Cass County Board of Supervisors will conduct a Public Hearing beginning at 9:05-a.m., Tuesday (Feb. 11), with regard to a proposed Cold Springs Park Paving Project. The hearing is part of their regularly scheduled, weekly meeting.

Afterward, the Board will act on approving the: Plans; Specifications; Cost Estimations, and Form of Contract, for the project. The Supervisors will also discuss and act on: approval of a 2020 Wellness Plan; expense and transfer appropriation changes; the acceptance of bids and contract for stock pipe and project pipe.

The Board will then act to set the dates for public hearings on a re-compilation of the Cass County Code of Ordinances, as requires at least every five-years under the Code of Iowa. The re-compilation includes the re-adoption of ordinances already in effect, and the repeal of any ordinance(s) that are deemed no longer necessary.

During a Work Session that follows the regular meeting, Tuesday, will take into consideration Budget requests, as well as review the FY2020 Budget and 2021 Budget items, including library and ambulance service contracts, funding requests, along with individual departmental budget(s).

The CAM School District’s Board of Education will hold its regular monthly meeting 6:30-p.m. Monday (Feb. 10th), in Anita, at the CAM High School Superintendent’s Office. Among the discussion and/or action items on their agenda, is:

• A CAM Education Association (CAMEA) presentation of their opening proposal for negotiations.
• An ICA (Iowa Connections Academy) Contract.
• Discussion with regard to the FY 2020-21 School Calendar and Budget.
• The Early Retirement Policy.
• Consideration of the bid process for 2020 Summer Mowing.
• Discussion with regard to the Facility Upgrade Process.
• And Disposal of old football uniforms.

After the Board adjourns, they will move into a closed (exempt) session, for Strategy Negotiations.

PLYMOUTH, N.H. (AP) – In 2018, female candidates helped power the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House. But women in the Democratic Party seem only moderately enthusiastic about voting for a woman for president. AP VoteCast finds that women in Iowa were only slightly more likely than men to back a woman. And the survey shows that many women thought a female candidate would have a harder time beating President Donald Trump in November. The concern has been an added burden for the women seeking the Democratic nomination for president. The leading female candidate in the race, Elizabeth Warren, is trying to confront it in New Hampshire.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Democratic Party is reviewing roughly 5 percent of the precincts in last Monday’s Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses, after issuing a deadline for campaigns to offer data demonstrating inconsistencies with the party’s results. In a statement Saturday, state party officials in their effort to clean up after Monday’s reporting breakdown said they were reviewing campaign data from 95 of the 1,765 precinct caucuses and would issue any corrections to the final results by this Monday (Feb. 10th). The party asked the campaigns to submit evidence of inconsistencies in the final results of the caucuses.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – Officials with Families United Action Network (FUAN) announced Saturday, that Iowa Representative Ako Abdul-Samad and Senator Mark Segebart introduced the FUAN False Allegations Protections Bill to Change the Child Protective Services (CPS) Tip Line from Anonymous to Confidential.

Officials say the purpose of the proposed change is to show connections to false allegations to the Iowa DHS Child Protective Services division in high conflict custodial divisions in order to hold those accountable of false reporting under Iowa Code, that cannot be accomplished under the current, anonymous call-in reporting system.

FUAN says “Currently, high conflict divorces frequently result in false reports made to DHS by or on behalf of one of the parties. Whether founded or unfounded, these reports often affect the accused party negatively in custody battles while the accuser benefits. DHS takes approximately 37-thousand calls a year about child abuse. Of that 37-thousand, about one-third of the reports are rejected right away because they don’t meet the agency’s criteria. On the other 25-thousand, when they send out an investigator, two-thirds turn out unfounded. This usually is the result of someone with a personal grudge trying to cause a problem.”

Jerry Foxhoven, former Director of the Iowa Dept. of Human Services (DHS) says “It is important to protect individuals reporting child abuse when they have a good faith belief that abuse has occurred. However, intentional false reports put children at risk by diverting resources that should be dedicated to protecting children who are truly at risk.”

The introduction of Senate File 2148 and reintroduction of House File 373 would seek to recommend a legislative study into Child Protective Services call-in reporting line. It would also recommend change to the Iowa Child Protective Services in-call reporting line from anonymous to confidential by adopting similar verbiage to Connecticut’s call-in reporting script.