(Durant, Iowa) – The driver of a straight truck is dead after the vehicle they were driving was struck by a train Friday morning, in eastern Iowa’s Cedar County. The Iowa State Patrol says a 1994 International truck was southbound on Vail Avenue, south of 200th Avenue, when it was struck by a locomotive at around 7:25-a.m. The driver of the truck was ejected during the impact.

Names of the driver was being withheld, pending notification of family. The name of the train engineer was not immediately known. The crash remains under investigation. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by Durant Fire/EMS/Police, Iowa DOT Motor Vehicle Enforcement, and the Scott County Medical Examiner.

Council Bluffs, Iowa – A western Iowa man was sentenced Thursday to spend 3 1/2 years (42 months) in prison, for Possession of Child Pornography. According to court records, 34-year-old Andrew Russell White, of Council Bluffs, must also serve five-years of supervised release once his term is served, and he will be required to register as a sex offender. White pleaded guilty to the charge on January 5, 2022.

In March of 2019, a cybertip was sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding child pornography being uploaded to a Google account. The email address was traced to White and law enforcement obtained and executed a search warrant for White’s Gmail account and his residence in Council Bluffs. White admitted to law enforcement he downloaded images of child pornography onto his phone from the Internet. He was arrested and indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2021.

The case was investigated by the Council Bluffs Police Department and prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – Court records show two Council Bluffs men were sentenced to prison in U-S District court, for being a prohibited person in Possession of a firearm. 30-year-old Dalton Theodore Holland was sentenced Tuesday, May 10th, to 4 1/2 years (51 months). His co-defendant, 26-year-old Joshua Michael Holmes was sentenced to 5 1/4 years (63 months). Each man will also serve three-years of supervised release.

Holland plead guilty to the charge Nov. 18, 2021. Holmes plead guilty on April 15, 2021 and was sentenced in Aug. 2021.

In November of 2020, officers observed Holland and Holmes arrive at a home in Council Bluffs driving stolen vehicles. As officers attempted to approach Holland and Holmes, they attempted to flee in one of the stolen trucks but the truck got stuck. Officers boxed the truck in and apprehended Holmes. Holland ran from the bed of the truck and was stopped a short distance away by a police dog. Holland and Holms were found in possession of stolen items and firearms.

Officers located a firearm on Holmes in a hip holster and another in his coveralls pocket. Two firearms were also located in the stolen Silverado that Holland drove to the home.

The Council Bluffs Police Department, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, IA – The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa report 20-year-old Cole Jacob Bergantzel, of Council Bluffs, was sentenced Thursday, May 12, 2022, to 48 months in federal prison for Prohibited Person in Possession of a Firearm. His term of imprisonment will be followed by three years of supervised release. According to court documents, Bergantzel pleaded guilty to the charge on January 5, 2022.

In March of 2021, Bergantzel attempted to sell firearms on Snapchat and in September of 2021, Bergantzel was arrested after he discharged a firearm in a residential area. Bergantzel was prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition as he is a drug user and addicted to a controlled substance.

The Council Bluffs Police Department, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – A sixth-grade math and science teacher at South Hardin Middle School in Eldora has resigned after allegedly spouting his personal political views in the classroom. Paul Miller had been on administrative leave since April from the school. During a special meeting, the Hubbard Radcliffe Community School Board and Miller mutually agreed to the resignation agreement.

The Iowa Standard website is reporting that Miller was caught on camera telling his students he cannot understand how anyone supported President Donald Trump. The revelation comes less than a week after undercover interviews were released with a handful of educators in central Iowa about efforts to violate the law when it comes to teaching Critical Race Theory in the state. 

The board will begin advertising for a new sixth grade teacher at South Hardin. The substitute teacher who has been serving the students for the last three weeks will continue serving the students for the final few weeks of the current school year.

(Radio Iowa) – It won’t likely make Iowans feel any better about paying more than four bucks a gallon for gasoline, but those record high prices aren’t really so high, nor are they records, according to one expert. Herman Quirmbach, a retired economics professor at Iowa State University, says this week’s gasoline prices are indeed more expensive than the previous highest-ever prices dating back to July of 2008, but he says it’s not apples to apples.

“When you’re comparing prices of products over gaps of many years, you have to adjust for the purchasing power of the dollar,” Quirmbach says. “The dollar back in 2008, which was the previous quote-unquote record, that dollar bought a lot more.” Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average for gas today (Friday) is four-13 a gallon. Earlier this week, the high prices wiped out the previous high price from 2008 of four-02 a gallon. In today’s dollars, Quirmbach says that four-02 would actually be more like five-28 a gallon. 

“If you’re going to make comparisons to what was available in the past, you have to do it on a purchasing power adjusted basis,” Quirmbach says. “On that basis, even with the new figure today, we’re more than a dollar short of what the real price, what economists call the ‘real’ price, of gasoline was back in 2008.” Quirmbach, a state senator from Ames and a Democrat, says multiple factors go into the price of gas, even though it’s often reduced to being a political football.

Quirmbach says, “As long as this war is going on in Ukraine, as long as we are limiting the supply of Russian oil to the West, that’s going to create an artificial shortage and when supply exceeds demand, the markets adjust by raising the price.” He agrees with a statement issued by a Triple-A spokesman this week which said, “There are very few things that a president can do to help lower the cost of oil, and this administration tried to do pretty much everything that it can.”

In a Radio Iowa interview on Tuesday, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, placed the blame of high gas prices on the Democrat in the White House, saying: “I think Congress has set a pretty good policy for energy. This president has screwed it up.”