The Audubon Community School District’s Board of Education will hold a special session this evening in their Board Room, at the High School. The meeting begins at 6:30-p.m., and the only action item on their agenda, is approval of a Sanitary Sewer Right-of-Way easement.

Police in Council Bluffs are looking for two suspects who allegedly robbed a pizza delivery driver late Wednesday night. Authorities say the suspects are two black males. One is about five-feet six-inches tall, weighed about 190-pounds and was wearing a “Gap” sweatshirt. The other suspect was tall, with a slender build.

Officials say the incident happened at around 11:55-p.m., Wednesday. A Papa John’s delivery driver told police she was robbed when she went to deliver an order at the Cottonwood Apartments (800 blk No 34th St, Council Bluffs, IA).

The victim reported that as she arrived at the apartment complex she was met by a male party outside who advised he had made the order and provided the name that the pizza was ordered under. When she requested payment for the pizzas the male party refused to pay and called out to another male party who walked up behind her.

One of the men restrained the victim while the other took several pizzas and an undisclosed amount of money from her vehicle. The two males then fled the area Northbound towards the Featherstone Apartment Complex (901 No 35th St). The female victim reported minor injuries but refused medical treatment.

If anyone has information on the suspects, or who may have witnessed the crime are urged to contact the Council Bluffs Police Department Criminal Investigation Division (712) 328-4728 or Crime Stoppers (712) 328-7867.

AMES, Iowa (AP) – A former teacher in the North Polk Community School District has been accused having a sexual relationship with a teenage student. Twenty-nine-year-old Kevin Muehlenthaler, of Ames, was arrested Wednesday. Court records say he’s been charged with four counts of sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist.

Authorities say a woman told police she had a relationship with Muehlenthaler between November 2013 and July 2014 when she was a student of 16 and then 17 years old.  The district says Muehlenthaler was employed August 2013 to June 2016 and that the district became aware of the allegations only after he left the district.

Tempers flared as the House Labor Committee spent more than three hours debating the G-O-P’s plan to change the state’s collective bargaining law for public sector unions. Representative Steven Holt, a Republican from Denison, opened the debate at about 3 p.m. “The common-sense reforms in this bill will result in a state government in Iowa that is more responsive and more affordable for the people paying the bill, the taxpayers,” Holt says.

He added “Under the current system that has not been reformed in over 40 years, the taxpayer is at a disadvantage.” Representative Kirsten Running-Marquardt, a Democrat from Cedar Rapids, says “corporate handouts” rather than union wages are what’s breaking the state’s bank. “There is no common sense in this bill,” Running-Marquardt said. “This bill isn’t about reform. This bill is about political agendas and attacking Iowa workers. It’s extreme.”

Representative Bruce Hunter, a Democrat from Des Moines, says Republicans have hatched an “evil” plan. “This is how we ‘Make America Great Again’ by literally taking away the rights of 180,000 public employees in the state of Iowa,” Hunter said.

Republicans who hold a majority of seats on the committee advanced the bill last (Wednesday) night, making it eligible for debate in the Iowa House next week. Holt, whose wife is a teacher, says the bill is a “win for the children of Iowa” because it gets rid of the seniority system for teachers. “These changes will allow school districts, the boards elected by the people, to reward high-performing teachers, while more quickly removing those not meeting acceptable standards,” Holt said.

There were two committee hearings at the statehouse earlier in the day. Critics of the bill say their comments are unlikely to sway Republicans who are intent on passing the bill quickly. A public hearing will be held Monday night on the issue. It’s likely the House AND Senate will vote on the bill and send it to the governor early next week.

(Radio Iowa)

A bill to legalize the limited sale and use of fireworks in Iowa has easily cleared a senate committee. Fireworks would be legal in June and just after the 4th of July as well as in early December through the beginning of January. Republican Senator Jake Chapman of Adel says many Iowans want to celebrate New Years and Independence Day with fireworks. “It’s about freedom,” Chapman says. “Look, we’re one of just a handful of states that prohibit the use of consumer-grade fireworks.”

The bill easily cleared the Senate State Government Committee on an 11-to-four vote. Senator David Johnson of Ocheyedan, an independent, attended the committee meeting and argued the bill would give Iowans undesirable new freedoms. “Freedom to blow their fingers off, freedom to take an eye out, to harm a kid, to overload our ERs,” Johnson said.

The bill would let Iowa cities and counties “opt out” and establish ordinances banning fireworks during the two holiday periods. The measure includes new fees for retailers that want to sell fireworks, so the bill has to clear another senate committee that reviews tax policy before the proposal is eligible for debate in the full senate. Nearly all fireworks are illegal to sell and set off today in Iowa. There have been several attempts to legalize fireworks in Iowa over the past few years, but they’ve all fallen short.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 2:40 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A plan by Republican lawmakers to quickly pass a bill that would drastically cut collective bargaining rights for Iowa public workers has several similarities to Wisconsin’s signature 2011 law that led to massive protests in that state. Labor experts say the 68-page bill introduced recently by Iowa GOP lawmakers has provisions that mirror Wisconsin’s law, which prohibited public sector unions from negotiating workers’ benefits such as health insurance and working conditions.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana’s large utility companies want state lawmakers to pass a law that critics say would muscle out smaller competitors from the emerging solar energy market. Solar power provides only about 1 percent of the country’s energy, but employment is growing rapidly. Indiana legislators will debate Thursday a proposed law that would eventually eliminate much of the financial benefit Indiana homeowners, businesses and some churches reap from harvesting the sun’s rays.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The head of Iowa’s prison system has ordered a temporary shutdown of several satellite prison units to deal with a $5.5 million budget cut to the agency. The Des Moines Register reports that Iowa Corrections Director Jerry Bartruff said Wednesday that units at Harpers Ferry, Clarinda and Fort Madison, which currently hold nearly 400 prisoners, will be shut down. Bartruff says services also will be suspended at the Sheldon Residential Treatment Facility, which houses 26 offenders.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Terry Branstad has signed into law a K-12 education funding bill that school officials argue is inadequate. Branstad signed the legislation Wednesday. It would add about $40 million to Iowa’s roughly $3 billion K-12 education budget for the spending year that goes into effect in July. Democrats say the amount would lead to bigger classroom sizes, delayed curriculum offerings and teacher layoffs. Republicans say the amount is responsible spending as the state faces some budget constraints.