Officials with the Council Bluffs Police Department report their “Operation Medicine Cabinet” drug drop-off program was a huge success over the weekend. Lt. Dan Flores says on Saturday, April 30th, between 10:00 am. and 2:00 pm. Council Bluffs Police Department Officers, volunteers/partners, and City of Council Bluffs Recycling Center personnel, participated in the Drug Enforcement Agency’s sponsored National Prescription Drug Take Back Day.

The event was located at the Walgreens at 535 East Broadway. Flores says despite a steady, light rain with colder temperatures, people in 239 vehicles drove through the designated drop off lane to surrender 561 pounds of prescription drugs. That weight is the highest total of prescription drugs in any of the previous 11 events since 2010. From 2010 through 2016, the prescription drug take-back events  in Council Bluffs have taken in over 3,900 pounds of prescription drugs with over 2,200 persons dropping off drugs anonymously, with no questions asked.

Lt. Flores says the Council Bluffs Police Department thanks its volunteers and partners who helped to make the event so successful. The Department would also like to extend its appreciation to the community for its willingness to take the time and effort to drop off their expired or unused prescription drugs. Flores says together, “We have helped to make Council Bluffs a safer community!”

(Updated 7:39-a.m.)

Police in Red Oak say a local teen was arrested early this (Wednesday) morning, on an assault charge. 17-year old Lyndon Daniel Bright, of Red Oak,  was taken into custody at around 12:22-a.m. in the 200 block of N. 8th Street and brought to the Montgomery County Jail. He was later released to his parents.

And, late Tuesday evening, Red Oak Police arrested 43-year old Lester Michael Ballard, of Red Oak, on a valid Pottawattamie County warrant for Driving While Barred. Ballard was brought to the Montgomery County Jail where he was being held on a $5,000 cash bond, pending extradition to Pott. County.

A rural church in northwest Iowa’s Plymouth County has been buzzing with activity after a large bee hive was discovered inside the sanctuary. James Strickland, a beekeeper and pastor of the Nazarene Church in Le Mars, offered to help the nearby Addaville Methodist Church to remove the hive. “We did a little poking around and we discovered the bee hive was in the choir loft between two floor joists,” Pastor Strickland says. “We didn’t know at that point exactly how large it was but when we opened it up to remove the hive, it measured about eight-and-a-half feet in length, 17 inches wide and 11 inches deep.”

Strickland and two other beekeepers removed the active hive, which took the better part of a day to extract the bees, the hive, the comb and honey. “That hive had been there for several years,” he says. “We pulled six five-gallon buckets full of honeycomb off of that hive which is unheard of for this time of year. The bees should have eaten through most of their honey having gone through the winter and not being able to bring in any food of their own.”

Strickland and the other beekeepers were wearing full protective gear as they removed the floorboards in the choir loft. “We discovered this massive hive, teaming with bees, absolutely full,” he says. “It’s hard to estimate bees because they won’t stand still. We estimate somewhere around 50,000 bees.” There are discussions about marketing the honey from the church hive as “Holy Honey.”

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The author of a book about his father and other men who raised a U.S. flag at Iwo Jima during World War II says he no longer believes his father was in an iconic photograph of the event. “Flags of Our Fathers” author James Bradley says questions raised by two historians prompted him to recall comments his father made about the event. Bradley now believes his father participated in an earlier flag-raising.

CORALVILLE, Iowa (AP) — A 40-year-old man convicted of first-degree burglary has escaped from a Coralville work release facility. Officials with the Iowa Department of Corrections say Curtis Jones didn’t return from his job as expected on Monday and was listed as an escaped inmate. His 40-year sentence began in June 2005.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A former spokesman for Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad has been named senior adviser to the Republican Party of Iowa to help GOP candidates including U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley win in November. Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann says he’s hired Tim Albrecht to help Republican campaigns succeed.

DENVER, Iowa (AP) — Police say one person has died in a northeast Iowa construction site accident. The Denver Police Department says construction workers were digging along the foundation wall of a building in Denver when a portion of the wall tipped over on Monday and trapped 56-year-old Henry Gray, of Clarksville. Firefighters and the owner of Snelling Construction freed Henry from under the wall, but he died at the scene.