COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa [KETV] — A family in Council Bluffs is working hard to remain positive after they were involved in two life-changing events in March. KETV reports Sara and John Faris were in Dallas with their daughter for a cheer competition in early March. On the drive back they got a call from a neighbor saying their house was on fire. When they returned, they saw what was left of their house. The outside was ruined and the inside was a total loss. They’ve started a GoFundMe to help rebuild the home, which has been in their family since 1962.

No one was injured, and the firefighters were able to save their dog, who was in the kennel in the living room. Just as the family was getting back on their feet they returned to their house Sunday morning to find their garage was broken into. That’s where they stored the belongings that weren’t lost in the fire. Faris said whoever committed the theft stole tools and their daughter’s bicycle and looked through every bag, box and bin in the garage, one of which contained a birth certificate and a watch received as a gift. A necklace was also stolen.

The Faris’ have security cameras, but they were damaged in the fire. They are waiting for police reports to go through for the lost items. They’re also waiting on insurance claims to go through on the home. You can access the GoFundMe page by following this link.

(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa man was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for bringing a handgun to his child’s school. Prosecutors say 32-year-old Brandon Jones of Iowa City walked into Grant Wood Elementary last November and demanded to speak with the principal, saying his child was wrongfully sent home. As he walked into the school, Jones unholstered a nine-millimeter handgun and handed it to someone, saying: “Hold my gun so I don’t do something stupid.” Rachel Zimmermann Smith is the Johnson County Attorney.

“The thing that has probably not gotten enough attention is just the focus on the staff and the kids that were at Grant Wood that day,” she says, “and how it affected them, and what that staff did to protect the kids and each other in what was a really scary situation.”

A judge sentenced Jones to five years for one count of carrying weapons on school grounds and two counts of harassment in the first degree. Initially, Prairielands Freedom Fund posted bail for Jones. The bail fund said in a statement the firearm was legal and when Jones realized he’d brought it into the school, he immediately asked his partner to remove it from the premises.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Monday night, arrested a man on a warrant for Probation Violation. Authorities say 24-year-old Brandon Lane Good, of Red Oak, was arrested a little after 9-p.m. on the Mills County warrant. Good was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – U-S Senator Joni Ernst says time is running out for the U-S Department of Education to fix the application college students and their parents fill out to find out how much federal aid they may qualify for. “All of the money that was supposed to go to updating and simplifying the form — instead they redirected that to student debt bailout,” Ernst says. “It’s just been really, really confusing time, a very frustrating time.”

On Friday, the agency announced another error on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA will delay decisions for up to 200-thousand students. A federal law passed in late 2020 called for simplifying the FAFSA form.  “What we have now is a very, very confusing form,” Ernst says. “It’s worse than it was before and the rollout of the FAFSA has been completely botched.”

Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, cites bipartisan calls to address a new calculation of the finances of farm families and small business owners. Ernst says it doesn’t take into account those who are property rich, but don’t have the cash flow to pay for a child’s college education. “The provision would reduce aid eligibility by thousands of dollars for our farm families and our small business families,” Ernst says.

Ernst was in Lamoni yesterday (Monday) to meet with students and administrators from Graceland University as well as the three state universities and Des Moines Area Community College about that issue as well as the delays in federal aid as well as scholarship decisions due to the FAFSA form delays.