A Council Bluffs man was arrested after a pursuit ended with him flipping a stolen vehicle on it’s top on Friday evening.

Council Bluffs Police report they were called to the Speedee Mart gas station at 2301 S. 24th Street at 4:11 p.m. on Friday for an attempted theft of a pick-up truck. Officers searched the area but were unable to locate the vehicle. Then at 5:15 p.m. Officers were called to the area of Grace Street and East Pierce Street for a vehicle matching the description and a man trying to steal a motorcyle. Detectives found the Chrysler truck and tried to initiate a traffic stop but the vehicle fled southbound on Bluffs Street.

When the vehicle attempted to turn westbound on 9th Avenue it hit a patch of ice and flipped on its top. The driver, 27-year-old Joseph Cias Smith Jr. of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody and suffered no injuries in the accident.

Smith Jr. was interviewed by Omaha detectives, as he is the suspect in possible additional charges in Omaha. He was eventually booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail on charges of Fugitive from Justice for a warrant for Sarpy County, Theft 1st (Possession of stolen vehicle), Burglary 3rd, Disobedience to sign and sign (4 counts), Eluding (Speed in excess of 25mph over the speed limit), Reckless Driving, and Unsafe Passing.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa G-O-P’s chairman says a national panel he’s been leading is unanimously backing a report that would secure First-In-The-Nation status for the Iowa Republican Party’s Caucuses in 2024. ) “So our very, very critical first step couldn’t have turned out better.” That’s Iowa G-O-P chairman Jeff Kaufmann, who’s been chairman of the national party’s Presidential Nominating Process Committee.

Kaufmann says the group reviewed options for rearranging the timing of presidential primaries and caucuses, but the final report recommends that no changes be made. “That, de facto, would leave Iowa as First-in-the-Nation,” Kaufmann says. The report will be presented to the Republican National Committee this summer. Kaufmann says he’s hopeful G-O-P leaders from other states will ratify the plan to have Iowa Caucuses first, followed by New Hampshire’s Primary and contests in Nevada and South Carolina — but he’s not taking it for granted.

“Our lobbying efforts and our explanation and education efforts to the RNC and to the Rules Committee, I’m going to handle this like we’re behind by about 30 votes right now,” Kaufmann says. Last weekend, a group of Democratic National Committee members discussed changes to their presidential nominating process and aired complaints about the caucus process. Kaufmann says he has full faith in Iowa Democratic Party leaders who are making the case that THEIR party’s Caucuses should remain first in 2024.

“It is important that we start out in a small state. It is important that the Midwest has a voice,” Kaufmann says. “…If you bring Nevada and South Carolina and New Hampshire and Iowa together, we check all the boxes whether it’s geographic diversity, philosophical diversity, ethnic diversity.” Kaufmann is at his eastern Iowa farm and has participated remotely in this week’s Republican National Committee gathering in Utah. Kaufmann says he supports the party’s decision to censure Wyoming Congresswoman Lynn Cheney and Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger.

“Look, we are a team and Kinzinger and Cheney were using the fact that they were Republicans to gain attention for criticizing other Republicans,” Kaufmann says. The two have joined House Democrats’ investigation of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Kaufmann describes that as weaponizing their status as Republicans. “Now, if you want to go after Trump, if you want to go after decisions that were made, you have every right to do that. I don’t have a problem with that,” Kaufmann says, “but if you are using the very party label to go after members of that party, I don’t think that’s the appropriate use — then don’t belong to that party.”

Cheney says Republicans have made themselves willing hostages to a man who admits he tried to overturn a presidential election and suggests he would pardon January 6th defendants who’ve been charged with serious crimes. Kinzinger says Republican leaders have allowed conspiracies and toxic tribalism to guide their decision making.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson has sponsored a bill in response to a video showing a nighttime government charter flight of immigrants into the country. “This legislation is pretty simple, it would prohibit taxpayer dollars from funding the transport of illegal immigrants into our country, into our communities. Whether that is by plane or by bus,” Hinson says. Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says the Biden administration isn’t answering any questions on the flights.

“We know the video footage that was made public last week was from August. The truth is, we don’t know how many of those flights there have been since then — because the administration won’t come forward with that information,” Hinson says. She says her “Stop the Betrayal Act” is an attempt to get the administration to live up to its promise to be open about what it is doing.

“Flying illegal immigrants into the country in the dead of the night doesn’t exactly scream transparency to me,” according to Hinson. The Iowans I’ve talked with about this are frankly outraged. They don’t want their tax dollars to fund these flights. They want to know how much was spent, where else has the administration flow illegal immigrants. Are they tracking them once they are here?

Hinson says instead of securing our border by enforcing the Remain in Mexico policy, giving border patrol agents the resources they need, and completing the wall–the Administration is pursuing a “catch and release” policy and secretly flying illegal immigrants into the country with no way to track to them.