COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA — A man from Council Bluffs was sentenced Friday to spend 6.5 years in prison for being a Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm. 26-year-old John Allen Lindeman, Jr., who was sentenced in Council Bluffs U-S District Court, will serve three-years of supervised release after completing his term of imprisonment.

On November 19, 2020, Lindeman eluded law enforcement by driving back and forth between Nebraska and Iowa. Deputies with the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office eventually spotted Lindeman’s vehicle in a parking lot in Council Bluffs. Lindeman refused to exit his vehicle and instead reversed his car at a high rate of speed. He continued to resist until law enforcement was able to arrest him. Lindeman was found in possession of a pistol at the time of his arrest.

According to court documents, Lindeman pleaded guilty to Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm in April of 2021.
Acting United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, Council Bluffs Police Department, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case.

(Indianola, Iowa/KCCI) – Officials with Simpson College released new details Monday on the death of a student. College officials said Blaine Schumacher died by apparent suicide on campus. The college said officials learned of the Schumacher’s death on Sunday, but the time of his death remains unclear. Indianola police said Schumacher was 22.

According to Simpson, Schumacher was a senior studying neuroscience and was also a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. The college said his death is not linked to campus events.

“We are devastated to learn of the death of one of our own,” Simpson College President Marsha Kelliher said in a statement. “During this difficult time, our priority is to care for each other. Our thoughts and prayers are with Blaine’s family, loved ones and the entire Simpson College community.”

Religious life community and counseling services are available for anyone on campus.

(Radio Iowa) – Housing experts are concerned Iowa could see a rise in people experiencing homelessness now that the federal eviction moratorium has ended. J’Nae Peterman is the director of housing services for Waypoint Services and part of her job is running the statewide hotline for housing resources. She says it averages about 550 calls per day from people in housing crises.

“I foresee that only increasing now that people begin to receive their notices,” Peterman says. “Also shelters are already at capacity and have been beyond capacity since the time of COVID.” Peterman says the state’s homeless programs are also at capacity and don’t have the resources to help the expected influx of people seeking assistance. A group of homeless intake specialists co-signed a letter to Governor Kim Reynolds this month, asking her to uphold an eviction moratorium in Iowa. Bernadette Beck is an intake specialist program manager with the Polk County Continuum of Care. She’s concerned without a moratorium, more people will lose their housing, especially since the pandemic complicated people’s finances.

“We’re going to see more people entering our system,” Beck says, “and the homeless crisis response system across the state of Iowa already has extensive waiting lists.” Beck says the state doesn’t have the capacity to absorb the number of people who may be affected by the end of the moratorium. There are more than 15-hundred families currently on a wait list for housing.

(By Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – The Office for Civil Rights in the U-S Department of Education has opened an investigation into Iowa’s ban on mask mandates in schools. The federal agency has sent notices to Iowa and four other states that forbid schools from requiring students and staff wear face coverings. According to a news release, the investigation will explore whether students with disabilities who are at heightened risk for severe illness from Covid-19 are prevented from safely attending school in-person.

The U-S Secretary of Education says the department is hearing from parents of students with disabities and he says it’s unacceptable that state leaders are putting politics over the health and education of those students. The agency says schools have a legal obligation not to discriminate against students with disabilities.

On Saturday, the crowd at a Republican rally in eastern Iowa cheered Reynolds for signing the law that prevents local school officials from requiring that students and staff wear face coverings.

Reynolds made her remarks at Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson’s fundraiser in Central City. In a statement released this (Monday) afternoon, Reynolds says she trusts Iowans to make their own health care decisions and she’s accusing President Biden and his team of picking a political fight with a handful of governors to distract from his own failures.