(Radio Iowa) — The University of Northern Iowa is reporting a drop in fall enrollment. The school’s associate vice president for enrollment management, Matt Kroeger, says they anticipated the drop. “Total enrollment from last year is down 695 students and I want to say it’s 444 undergraduates and 251 graduate students,” Kroeger says. Kroeger says the number of new students was down. “And also our incoming transfer students were down around 85 or 90 or so. So, the number of new students definitely had an impact on the total,” according to Kroeger. The drop has been figured into their budget.

He says they anticipated the decline in new students and they had a record graduation rate for students who graduated in three years or less. The Cedar Falls school has struggled to keep its enrollment up and he says that will again be a focus. “We’re planning on doing that with both expanding our reach and increasing our market share of Iowa high school graduates. And those students coming from Iowa community colleges as well,” Kroeger says. “But also looking out of state. We feel that we have the opportunity to grow our non-resident freshmen and transfers as well — so it will take a combination of both of those.”

The University of Iowa also saw its enrollment drop. But had the U-I’s Brent Gage, says that was by design. “We had several years where we were bringing in some of the largest classes we had ever brought in in the history of the university,” Gage explains. “And as we developed our strategic plan we really looked to more right-size the university to where we felt we could provide the optimal student experience. The incoming freshman class has 48-hundred-six students and Gage says it falls in the range they’ve been working on. “Which is kind of between 47-hundred and five-thousand new incoming students. So, that is something that we’ve been kind of strategically working on doing the last couple of years,” Gage says.

The U-I saw a drop in international students, and he says the competition for those students has gotten tougher. “We’re also seeing that the dollar is just incredibly strong right now. So the buying power that the families had anticipated having — when it’s time for those students to leave — that’s not always the case that they thought it was going to be,” Gage says. Total enrollment this fall is 31-thousand-656 students — which takes some 13-hundred postdoctoral students out of the count from last year under a new counting system now used by the Board of Regents.

Gage, who is the school’s associate vice president for enrollment management, says downsizing a bit has advantages. He says it gives the students better course selection and more open beds in the residence halls, which allows for returning and transfer students to live on campus. “For our physical plant and for our resources and our faculty we want to make sure that with the resources that we have that we’re providing the best possible education experience for the people who choose Iowa.”

The third state school — Iowa State University saw a drop of one-thousand-and one students. A spokesperson says they saw a decline primarily in international and transfer students. I-S-U had seen eight years of record enrollments before a decline last fall of 339 students.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Officials say a body found in a rain-swollen Cedar Rapids stream may be that of a missing kayaker. The man’s body was pulled from Indian Creek on Thursday afternoon. Officials on the scene couldn’t verify that it was that of 34-year-old John Conley. His wife, 30-year-old Samantha Conley was rescued Monday from the stream after their kayak overturned. The body was found less than a mile downstream. Tests will be conducted to confirm the victim’s identity.

Police in Council Bluffs arrested a man without incident Thursday afternoon, following a bank robbery. Officers were sent at around 3:41-p.m. to 518 E Broadway for a robbery that had occurred 10-minutes earlier. Officers located a man matching the description of the suspect, in the area of Main Street and Broadway. Their investigation revealed that 29-year old Larry E. Burns, of Council Bluffs, entered the Centris Credit Union with a bandana over his face and demanded cash.

Burns did not display a weapon. He obtained an undisclosed amount of cash and fled in a southerly direction. Burns was located seven minutes later, with the stolen cash. No weapons were recovered. None of the personnel at the Centris Credit Union were injured.

Burns was charged with Robbery 3rd Degree and Theft in the 1st Degree, along with a Probation Violation. He is being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail at this time. The investigation was assisted by officers from 4th Judicial District Probation Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Urbandale man faces up to 50 years in prison after being convicted of receiving and transporting child pornography. Federal prosecutors for Iowa say 46-year-old Nedzad Juhic was found guilty Tuesday of the counts following a two-day trial. Evidence at trial showed that police in 2015 traced child porn files made available online to Juhic’s home. A search of his laptop found more than 1,500 videos of child pornography.

BAGLEY, Iowa (AP) — A 24-year-old Guthrie County mother has been charged in the bathtub drowning of her 11-month-old son. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that Seaira Briceno has been charged with child endangerment resulting in death. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says Briceno’s baby drowned Aug. 10 when she left him and his 2-year-old brother in the tub at their Bagley home.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A judge has ruled that Davenport’s Civil Service Commission lacked the authority to reinstate the city’s fired fire chief. The Quad-City Times reported Thursday that a Scott County judge also said only a change in Iowa law could give weight to former Chief Lynn Washburn’s argument that her 30 years of previous experience with a Rockford, Illinois, department should grant her civil service status in Davenport.

BROOKLYN, Iowa (AP) — Immigration enforcement agents have visited the Iowa dairy farm that employed and housed the man charged with killing college student Mollie Tibbetts. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the county sheriff’s office spent two hours at Yarrabee Farms in Brooklyn, Iowa on Thursday morning. Yarrabee Farms said in a statement that federal authorities had requested to visit the farm Thursday, and that they met with employees and owners.

Two people were injured during a single-vehicle accident Thursday morning, south of Kimballton. The Iowa State Patrol reports 53-year old Terry Martin, of Earling, and 81-year old Darrell Leib, of Kimballton, neither of whom were wearing seat belts, suffered serious injuries and were transported by LifeNet helicopter to the UNMC in Omaha.

The accident happened at around 10-a.m. on Bluebird Avenue, when a 2013 Chevy Impala driven by Terry Martin drifted off the east side of the road as it was traveling northbound. The car entered a ditch and vaulted over a field drive before landing on its top.

The State Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Audubon and Shelby County Sheriff’s Department.

BAGLEY, Iowa (AP) — A 24-year-old Guthrie County mother has been charged in the bathtub drowning of her 11-month-old son. The Des Moines Register reported Thursday that Seaira Briceno has been charged with child endangerment resulting in death. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office says Briceno’s baby drowned Aug. 10 when she left him and his 2-year-old brother in the tub at their Bagley home.

Briceno told investigators she left the boys for about five minutes, but deputies believe the children were left alone longer. Briceno was already facing a child endangerment charge from April when the drowning occurred. In that case, officials say she was driving under the influence of methamphetamine and marijuana while her older son was in the vehicle.

Briceno remained jailed Thursday on $25,000 bond. Her preliminary hearing is set for Sept. 13.

The Corning Opera House Cultural Center, in Corning, has been chosen as this year’s recipient for the prestigious Outstanding Community Impact  Small Business award, sponsored by MassMutual and given by The SCORE Foundation. SCORE, the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors, holds 750,000+ free small business mentoring sessions, workshops and educational services annually, and honors its most successful clients at The SCORE Foundation’s annual awards ceremony.

At this year’s SCORE Awards, to be held on September 13 in the Washington, D.C. metro area, Corning Opera House will be honored for demonstrating unique vision, innovation and achievement as an Outstanding Community Impact Small Business. Tune in live on September 13 at 6 p.m. and watch us receive our Outstanding Community Impact Business award http://ow.ly/FSSO30lxNVX (SCORE Mentors Facebook page)

“This year’s SCORE Awards are particularly special, as we have reached a milestone of 10 years of celebrating the American entrepreneurial spirit through this awards ceremony,” said Resa Kierstein, Vice President of Development for SCORE. “Our winners come from all across the country, with diverse backgrounds and businesses in varied industries, but they share the courage and determination to make their dreams a reality. In addition to recognizing them, and our dedicated SCORE mentors, we also thank our partners, all of whom strengthen our efforts to educate and support American entrepreneurs.”

Executive Director De Heaton attended many SCORE webinars and worked with SCORE Mentor Sherry Bonelli of Early Bird Digital Marketing. As a result, The opera house was able to improve their social media and website presence and increase website traffic. The opera house also saw an increase in the number of organizations and people renting the opera house for meetings, conferences, training sessions and special events.

Read more about Corning Opera House’s journey to business success and the SCORE Awards at: www.score.org/score-awards. The 1902 National Historic Register Corning Opera House is located at 800 Davis Avenue, Corning, IA. For more information about events, rentals and tours, visit our website at www.CorningOperaHouse.com, follow us on Facebook or Instagram (COHCC) or by calling 641.418.8037.

Emma Turner, the daughter of Darrick and Laura Turner, of Loveland, CO., and the granddaughter of Dennis and Jane Turner & Norman and Sherry Templeman, all of Atlantic, has been named a recipient of the 2018 NASA Nebraska Space Fellowship.

Emma Turner

The grant allows Nebraska colleges and universities to engage in research, education, and public service programs related to aeronautics, space sciences, and technology. Emma is a student at the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska studying biology and chemistry.

She embraces the academic opportunities to conduct research projects with strong deliverables and positive outcomes. In addition to a strong interest in scientific research, Emma swims for the College of Saint Mary Swim Team as a NAIA national qualifier.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge says an organization that fights against rape, incest or fetal abnormality exceptions in abortion-related legislation cannot intervene in a lawsuit challenging Iowa’s fetal heartbeat law. The Iowa affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit in May challenging the constitutionality of a law that would prohibit most abortions once a fetal heartbeat is detected.

Michigan-based Save The 1 sought to intervene in the lawsuit, alleging the law is unlawful under the state and federal constitutions because it discriminates against fetuses created by rape or incest and those with medical anomalies by allowing them to be aborted. Judge Michael Huppert in an order filed Wednesday says the group’s claims go beyond the issues of the initial lawsuit and would delay the case.

An attorney for Save The 1 says she will file a federal lawsuit seeking to remove the exceptions portion of the law. If successful, that could leave Iowa with among the nation’s most restrictive abortion laws, banning abortions when a fetal heartbeat is detected with no exceptions.

A District Court Judge in Pottawattamie County, Wednesday, sentenced 29-year old Paige Elizabeth Thurman, of Council Bluffs, to 140 months (11.6-years) in prison, for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Thurman was ordered to serve five years of supervised release to follow her prison term. She plead guilty to the charges on April 5th, 2018.

Thurman admitted she possessed $6,100, a Colt .380 Mustang semi-automatic handgun, digital scale, ammunition, plastic baggies, knife, stun gun, and had 140.5- grams of methamphetamine on her person, as well as in the vehicle she was driving on September 8, 2017. Those items were discovered after she lead law enforcement on a high speed chase in Council Bluffs. Thurman admitted she possessed the methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it and she possessed the handgun to assist in the distribution of methamphetamine.

Her case was investigated by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Department and Council Bluffs Police Department. It case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.