COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – The last of three defendants has been sentenced in the death of a Council Bluffs man. On Tuesday 23-year-old Christopher King, of Lincoln, Nebraska, was given five years in prison. He’d pleaded guilty to theft after prosecutors lowered the charge.

Iowa authorities say King, Caine Petersen and Sarael Duncan robbed 20-year-old Jacob Combs of marijuana on Aug. 15 last year in Council Bluffs. Authorities say Combs jumped onto Petersen’s vehicle as the three men fled but then fell or was thrown, suffering head injuries. Combs died in a hospital later that day.

Petersen, of Council Bluffs, and Duncan, of Omaha, Nebraska, were given 10 years in prison after making their plea deals.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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Sheriff’s officials in Adams County say a Union County man was arrested early Tuesday morning on drug & other charges, following a traffic stop near the intersection of Highway 34 and Sycamore Avenue.

Chevy Van Sauer

26-year old Chevy Van Sauer, of Creston, was placed under arrest at around 2:25-a.m., for Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver (Methamphetamine), Driving While License Revoked, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. Sauer was being held in the Adams County Jail on $25,000 bond.

One-quarter of Iowa’s school teachers will be instructional coaches or mentors to other teachers in their district during the next school year. All 333 Iowa school districts will be splitting 150-million dollars in additional state funding for this teacher leadership initiative. Mike Sherwood, superintendent of the Webster City and Northeast Hamilton School Districts, says putting the focus on instruction is important.

“It is at the classroom level and directly supports the work teachers do at the classroom,” Sherwood says. “It provides another layer of support as teachers move from isolated teaching environments to collaborative environments.” Governor Branstad invited Sherwood to speak about the program Tuesday morning, during Branstad’s weekly news conference. Sherwood is using the extra state funding to pay teachers on staff extra to be mentor teachers, plus he’s hiring an expert in the latest digital technology.

“It will be somebody that will work directly with classroom teachers on integrating that directly into their lessons,” Sherwood says. Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds says Iowa will have “the most extensive teacher leadership system” in the country next fall when all 333 districts are participating in the program. “With higher expectations for all students today, Iowa is better at supporting the work that teachers must do,” Reynolds says. Governor Terry Branstad says rewarding teachers who take on more responsibility will hopefully keep some teachers from leaving the profession. And Branstad says measuring student achievement is part of the process.

“We want to make sure that we’re preparing Iowa students and the future Iowa workforce for quality careers and jobs in the future,” Branstad says. Branstad convened the “Future Ready Summit” yesterday (Tuesday), in Des Moines. More than 750 teachers and administrators as well as business and labor leaders attended, to discuss ways to equip students with the right skills.

(Radio Iowa)

The Iowa Natural Resources Commission has given preliminary approval for the 2016-2017 deer hunting seasons. D-N-R spokesman, Kevin Baskins, says the proposed season will look much like this year’s. “We really are not seeing any changes, we’re looking at a status quo type season compared to last year. And I think that reflects that we have a herd population that is stabilizing over a great part of the state,” Baskins says.

While he says the population is stabilizing, it’s not uniform across the state. “We still have parts of the state that have an abundance of deer, and the antlerless quotas we have that we have reflect that,” Baskins says. “We still see an area of northwest Iowa where we’ve probably gone a little too far in terms of reducing deer. Up there we still have some buck only restrictions for some of those counties during the early muzzle loader season and the first shotgun season.” Baskins says the D-N-R has a variety of different ways to keep track of the deer population.

“We do it through surveying our hunters, through looking at road kills, and also right now we are still kind of wrapping up some of our spotlight surveys where we go out at night and run some routes to determine what we are seeing out on the countryside,” Baskins says. He says they also talk with landowners about any damage that may be done to crops by deer. Baskins says they have a deer task force that helps set up the hunting

“That includes people who are deer hunters, obviously the agricultural production groups, and also insurance companies,” Baskins says. “And one of the goals that was established by that task force was to get kind of to where we were in the 1990s when everything seemed to be in balance in terms of not having too many complaints from any of those three groups.”

There is a hearing on the proposed seasons on June 1st. You can send written comments to the Department of Natural Resources, Dale Garner, Wildlife Bureau Chief, Wallace State Office Building, 502 E. 9th Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50319-0034; by e-mail at Dale.Garner@dnr.iowa.gov or by Fax at 515-725-8201. You can see the full proposal on the Iowa D-N-R’s website at: www.iowadnr.gov/hunting.

Here are the proposed dates for the deer hunting seasons.
DEER SEASONS
Regular Gun 1 Dec. 3-7
Regular Gun 2 Dec. 10-18
Bow Oct. 1-Dec. 2 and Dec. 19-Jan. 10, 2017
Early Muzzleloader Oct. 15-23
Muzzleloader Dec. 19-Jan. 10, 2017
Youth Sept. 17-Oct. 2
Disabled Hunter Sept. 17-Oct. 2
Holiday Antlerless-Only Dec. 24-Jan. 2

(Radio Iowa)

A man in his 20’s died during a motorcycle pursuit Tuesday night in Pottawattamie County. Council Bluffs Police say at around 10:19-p.m.,  an officer with the Iowa Department of Transportation Motor Vehicle Enforcement (MVE) Division attempted to stop two motorcycles on Big Lake Road, near the Pottawattamie County Jail. Both motorcycles eluded the officer and drove westbound on Nash Blvd at a high rate of speed. The driver of a 2006 Yamaha lost control of the motorcycle approximately 3 blocks west of the intersection of 16th Street and Nash Blvd.

The motorcycle went over the curb and stuck a fence separating the city street from the interstate. The driver was ejected from the motorcycle. The second motorcycle fled the area. The MVE Officer witnessed the crash and immediately stopped and rendered aid. The male driver was transported to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs were he died from his injuries. The driver was wearing a helmet. The man had no identification and was driving a stolen motorcycle. His identity was still being investigated.

Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact the Council Bluffs Police Department at 712‐328‐4948 (Traffic Unit) or 712‐328‐STOP (Crime Stoppers).

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

COUNCIL BLUFFS – A pursuit of two motorcycles in Council Bluffs led to one of the cycles crashing and the other getting away, Tuesday night. The driver of the motorcycle that crashed died at a hospital. The man, who was in his 20’s, had no ID on him. The incident remains under investigation.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — A former U.S. Cellular employee has been accused of stealing nearly $30,000 in merchandise from the company in Council Bluffs. The 21-year-old man, who lives in Omaha, Nebraska, is charged with felony theft and ongoing criminal conduct.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — City Council members have approved a measure to penalize Sioux City property owners an extra 25 percent on unpaid city fees for removing snow from sidewalks. The penalties were approved Monday and will be levied on the unpaid fees added to the parcels’ property taxes. City code requires owners to clear sidewalks within 12 hours after snow or ice has stopped falling.

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) — Officials are asking residents in Oskaloosa and Beacon to boil their water after a pump failed in a city water treatment plant. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says two water towers in the Oskaloosa treatment plant emptied overnight and the low pressure may have caused bacteria to enter the water system. Officials say residents should boil drinking water for a minute before letting it cool.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Dozens of people who didn’t know Charles Lanam went to his funeral anyway, honoring his service to his country. The Mitchell Family Funeral Home in Marshalltown had posted an appeal on Facebook, asking people to attend Monday’s service at the Iowa Veterans Home and cemetery. The funeral home had said the 81-year-old Fairfield native died April 10, leaving behind no family to mourn him.

The Griswold School Board, Tuesday evening, passed a motion in a continuation of efforts to find a shared Superintendent to replace Dana Kunze, who will be departing at the end of June. The motion was made by Board member Steve Baier, after about an hour of discussion. The motion as read by Board Secretary Nancy Taylor. “Baier moved to go forward with consideration of Superintendent sharing opportunities at this time, and if not making successful progress by June 1st pursue an interim Superintendent.” The motion was seconded by Scott Peterson.

Griswold School Board, from left to right: Steve Baier, Erika Kirchhoff, Scott Hansen, Scott Peterson, Heather Pelzer, Board Secretary Nancy Taylor, Superintendent Dana Kunze.

The Board was forced to consider their Superintendent options, because a proposed three-way sharing agreement between the South Page and Sidney School Districts was shot down by the Sidney School Board during their meeting, Monday night.

The priority for the Board right now, as made evident during their meeting, Tuesday, is to have the administrative team at Griswold go through a list candidates for a Middle School/High School Principal, whittle those candidates down to five or six for video interviews, and then have those persons interviewed by the Board for consideration.

Steve Baier said there’s still time to get the Superintendent in place by June 1st, but the urgency lies in the Middle School/High School Principal’s position, because that’s the “face of district,” the person with the most public contact. He said there shouldn’t be a problem in finding an interim Superintendent, and in fact, several individuals have expressed an interest in such a position.

The Board had discussed trying to find two more districts to share with, sharing with one district, having a combination Superintendent/Middle School-High School Principal, and, using an interim Superintendent. They ruled out the Combo position, because it risks burning out the person selected, and their other obligations would stretch them too thin.

Board President Scott Hansen, agreed, saying also, a combination position would be detrimental to maintaining discipline. In any case, the Board agreed with Petersen, who said “The clock is ticking” on finding a solution to the leadership problem, and the direction they’re heading now, is the best way to proceed.

A southwest Iowa woman testified before a Congressional panel today (Tuesday) about how her daughter was killed in Omaha by a drunk driver who was in the U-S illegally. Michelle Root, of Modale, told how a matter of hours before the crash, her 21-year-old daughter had graduated from Bellevue University with a four-point-oh G-P-A. Sarah Root, who lived in Council Bluffs, wanted to go on and earn a master’s degree in criminology.

“The night of January 31st, 2016, as she was coming home, she was rear-ended by Eswin Mejia who was 19 years old, here illegally, drunk driving, street racing,” Root says. “My daughter died instantly.” Bond was set by the judge on the suspect at $50,000 and Mejia was released after posting the standard 10-percent, or $5,000. Mejia, a native of Honduras, hasn’t been seen since and is feared to have fled the country.

Michelle Root testifies before a Congressional Panel, Tuesday (Radio IA photo)

“The local law enforcement did their job,” Root says. “They detained him, went to ICE, tried to get a hold on him, ICE refused. I don’t know why that was, with everything that happened, but he is on the loose now and our family does not have closure.” Police say Mejia’s blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit and he was driving on a suspended license when he was speeding and caused the accident.

“We probably never will have closure, even if he is found,” Root says. “I just hope that he will be, someday, found to pay for the crime he did against my daughter.” Root appeared before the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security while wearing a t-shirt that read: Strong Adorable Remarkable Amazing Heavenly. The first letters from each word spell out Sarah. In her statement, Root blamed Obama administration guidelines for deeming the suspect in the case to be no threat to public safety.

“We are not against immigration,” Root says. “Sarah’s grandmother was an immigrant from Vienna, Austria. She did it legally. She did it the right way. That’s all we’re asking. It’s the illegal immigrants that are already breaking the law once they come over here and they continue to break our laws.” Representative Trey Gowdy, a Republican from South Carolina, chairs the subcommittee and addressed the Root case directly.

Gowdy says, “How in the hell somebody here illegally who operates a vehicle at a high rate of speed and three times the legal rate of impairment and kills a 21-year-old girl doesn’t meet priorities of ICE is precisely why so little people have confidence in this administration’s policies and priorities and precisely why so many people are angry and fed up with the current state of immigration enforcement.” Gowdy blames the Obama administration and ICE for the tragic circumstances.

Gowdy says, “If killing a young woman while racing in an impaired state and being here illegally in the first place does not meet priorities, then perhaps your priorities are wrong.” In her statement, Root noted that her daughter was the “hero” of the story as she was an organ donor and “unselfishly saved the lives of six individuals through her donation and helped another four dozen through her donation of tissue and bone.”

A similar case has surfaced in Omaha. A Honduran man who officials say is in the U-S illegally is charged in a deadly hit-and-run. Police report 27-year-old Edwin Elvir-Palma is charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident, suspicion of reckless driving, not having a driver’s license, and his fourth DUI. Elvir-Palma is accused of running over 34-year-old Margarito Nava-Luna early Saturday morning in Omaha.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Tabor responding to a reported assault in progress arrested one person, Tuesday. 19-year old Marcus Pierce, of Tabor, was taken into custody for Going Armed with Intent, Domestic Abuse 2nd Offense, and Domestic Abuse (Strangulation,). He was being held at the Fremont County Jail pending an initial appearance with the Magistrate.

Pierce’ arrested followed an investigation into an incident in the 200 block of Orange Street, in Tabor. Officers discovered a female with minor injuries at the scene, who advised Pierce was armed with a knife prior to law enforcement arrival.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Tabor Police Department with the investigation.

Marcus Pierce