Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

MUSCATINE, Iowa (AP) — Fire officials and witnesses say a man jumped from a Muscatine bridge that spans the Mississippi River and couldn’t be found despite a quick response by rescuers. The Muscatine Journal reports authorities received reports yesterday morning of suspicious activity at the Norbert F. Beckey Bridge, a more than 3,000 foot bridge between Muscatine and Rock Island County, Illinois. A search continued through Friday afternoon without success.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Governor Terry Branstad has appointed Stuart Palmer Werling as a judge in eastern Iowa’s Seventh Judicial District. Branstad announced yesterday he’d appointed Werling to fill a vacancy by Judge Gary McKenrick.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Waterloo Community Schools has hired its first woman as superintendent of 10,000-student district. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the district’s Board of Education unanimously approved Jane Lindaman on Friday as superintendent. Lindaman, a 46-year-old associate superintendent in the district, will replace Gary Norris, who will retire on June 30th.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Educators from Des Moines and Shell Rock were among 102 teachers given a Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. The White House made the announcement yesterday, giving the award to teachers from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In Iowa, the winners were Josie Burg, a math teacher in Des Moines, and Mason Kuhn, a science teacher in Shell Rock.

Students in the Atlantic Middle School recently participated in a monetary fund raiser to help support the Atlantic Police Department and Reserve Department’s “Family Dreams Christmas” and “Shop with a Cop” programs.Officer Devin Hogue said a group of sixth grade students in Mrs. Reilly’s English classes were reading the book “Homecoming” by Cynthia Voight.  In the story there are children that are in great need and students were tasked by their teacher to come up with a project for the school to participate in a benefit for those who are less fortunate.

6th graders who participated in the benefit reading program. (Atl. P-D photo)

The students in these classes requested that officials with the Atlantic Police Department come and explain how their two programs work. After they were presented with the information they then put together skits, and presentations to give to all the “home bases” in the school. The presentations explained the two programs facilitated by the Police and Reserve Departments. They then challenged the students to see which “home bases” at each grade level could collect the most funds to be donated towards the two programs.

Once the challenge was accepted by the students they were given until December 17^th to collect as much as they could for their “Home Base.” On December 18^th Officer Devin Hogue went to the school to present certificates to the winning classes. In 6^th Grade the winning class was Mrs. Reilly’s class with $92.60. In 7^th grade, Mrs. Oglebee’s class with $51.64. In 8^th grade, Mrs. Leiferman’s class with $78.98. Another awesome aspect to their fund raiser was that Hy-Vee store manager Amy Jordahl agreed to pay sixth grade students a penny for every minute they logged reading over this time. Between around 60 students they logged a little over 19,000 minutes of reading either in school or at home. This would total out to more than 11 days of reading by the students. This lead to Hy-Vee contributing $191.64 towards the total amount collected by the school. The overall amount collected and donated by the “Home Bases” in 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grades was $824.38!!

The three winning classes will be treated to a pizza party on Friday January 10^th. The pizza will be donated and brought to the school by Pizza Ranch. Officers from the Atlantic Police Department will also attend the party as a way to say thank you and give an overview of how the two programs turned out.

The Atlantic Police and Reserve Departments want to send a very big THANK YOU to all the students in the Atlantic Middle School who helped this project be so successful. Their efforts are greatly appreciated and really goes to show how great and giving the community they are growing up in is.

Police in Council Bluffs are looking for a man who allegedly robbed a bank Friday morning. Sgt. Chad Meyers said officers were called to the Bank of the West, located at 531 30th Avenue, at around 11:30-a.m.  Meyers said a white man – who appeared to be in his 30s – entered the bank, approached a the teller counter and demanded money. The suspect left with an undetermined amount of money and fled the bank eastbound on foot toward a nearby Office Max.

Bank robbery suspect. (Photo from surveillance camera, courtesy Council Bluffs P-D)

The suspect was described as being as 5-feet 9-inches tall, and about 160 pounds. He had facial hair on his chin, wore a black leather jacket, light blue shirt, light blue pants, a black stocking cap, yellow or tan gloves and dark rimmed glasses. The man did not display a weapon.

Anyone with information about the robbery is urged to call the Council Bluffs Police Department at (712) 328-5737.