DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials think a mountain lion seen in Des Moines likely has left town. The animal was spotted on security video last week west of downtown and on the city’s south side, not far from the airport. Des Moines police received two calls Wednesday morning from people who think they saw it, too, but the reports haven’t been confirmed.

Alex Murphy with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday night that agency officials think the mountain lion has made its way out of the city, because there’s been no video or picture evidence or a confirmed sighting in the last few days.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is announcing he’s been endorsed in the 2020 Democratic presidential race by Iowa’s attorney general. It makes him the first 2020 candidate to receive the endorsement of a statewide elected official in Iowa. Attorney General Tom Miller says, “For 10 years since we first met, I have watched Governor Bullock proudly carry a progressive vision across every community in Montana, successfully take on the Koch Brothers and win, and prove that America is stronger when we unite together.”

Miller was one of the first Iowa elected officials to endorse Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential caucuses, and he is a longtime friend of the Montana governor’s.
The endorsement, announced Thursday, comes ahead of Bullock’s first visit to the state as an official candidate.

Two women were injured during a single-vehicle accident in Fremont County, Wednesday evening. The Sheriff’s Office reports the accident happened at around 7:15-p.m. on Highway 59, between 250th Street and 260th Street. Deputies determined a 2009 Saturn Aura driven by 39-year old Michelle Rene Graham, of Fairfax, MO., was traveling south on the highway, when for reasons unknown, Graham lost control, causing the vehicle to cross the centerline to the left. The car entered the northbound ditch, and continued south before sideswiping one tree and then striking a second tree head on.

Graham became trapped and was extricated from the vehicle after over an hour and forty-five minutes, by Shenandoah Fire and Rescue using the Jaws of Life. She was air lifted from the scene by LifeNet Helicopter to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha with life threatening injuries. Her passenger, 56-year old Teresa Amthor, of Rock Port, Missouri, was also air lifted from the scene by LifeNet Helicopter with unknown injures. Both women were wearing seat belts. In addition, the car’s airbags deployed as designed.

Shenandoah Fire and Rescue, Page County Sheriff’s Office, LifeNet, and the Iowa DOT assisted the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office with the call. Neither alcohol nor speed are believed to be factors. The vehicle was a total loss. The accident is still under investigation.

Two Red Oak men were arrested on separate charges late Wednesday night, in Red Oak. Authorities say at around 11:40-p.m., officers arrested 36-year old Jorge Uvaldo Jaraz Armenta, for Domestic Abuse Assault. He was taken into custody in the 500 block of High Street in Red Oak, and held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

And, at around 8:15-p.m., 30-year old Chase Michael Samples was arrested in the 1100 block of N. 3rd Street in Red Oak. Samples faces a charge of Driving While Suspended. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $566.25 bond.

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating a robbery that took place outside of a residence at around 7:10-p.m., Wednesday. The incident happened in the 2900 block of Ave F. The victim, 61-year old Debra Ekstrom, was just arriving home, when an unknown male came up behind her and grabbed her purse with such force that Ekstrom fell to the ground and hit her head on the pavement.

The suspect then ran off with her purse. Ekstrom was transported to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries. The suspect is described as a black male of medium build, between 16 and 21 years of age, about 6 foot tall, wearing short flat top hair, no shirt, and blue jeans.

The Council Bluffs Police Department’s Criminal Investigations Division is investigating the crime. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call us at (712) 328- 4728. Or, to remain anonymous, you can call Crimestoppers at (712)328-STOP.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:30 a.m. CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — The Democratic race for president could be getting another candidate. The mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, has been considering a run for months and is expected to announce a decision this week. He’s booked an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” ahead of travel to Iowa on Thursday and events there and in South Carolina on Friday. Both states are among the handful that cast the first votes in the Democratic primary.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has been dropped from a lawsuit alleging that her predecessor and others in his administration singled out a former state official for a pay cut because of his political party or sexual orientation. The long-running lawsuit filed by former Workers’ Compensation Commissioner Chris Godfrey against former Gov. Terry Branstad is set for trial in state court on June 3 in Des Moines. Reynolds was Branstad’s lieutenant governor.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Current and former attorneys general from both major parties and several states are imploring Iowa’s Republican governor to veto a measure meant to prevent the state’s attorney general, currently a Democrat, from being able to file or join lawsuits challenging Trump administration policies. They think the Republican move would violate basic checks and balances. Iowa would be the only state to impose such limits on an attorney general if Gov. Kim Reynolds signs off on the bill.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A South Dakota man accused of robbing a northwest Iowa bank has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison. Federal prosecutors for Iowa said Wednesday in a news release that 43-year-old Brendon Reed, of North Sioux City, South Dakota, was sentenced Tuesday to 105 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $14,000 in restitution to the United Bank of Moville.