SERGEANT BLUFF, Iowa (AP) — A Cincinnati-based company is closing a call center in Sergeant Bluff, eliminating about 180 jobs. The Sioux City Journal reports employees of Convergys were notified Tuesday the call center would close in April. The company’s decision means Sergeant Bluff will lose its largest employer. Spokeswoman Brooke Beiting called it a business decision that is “something that is helping us serve our customers.” The company encouraged employees who have lost their jobs to seek positions where they could work from their homes or at other Convergys sites.

The announcement came seven months after Convergys announced it would add about 250 jobs at its Sergeant Bluff location. Sergeant Bluff Mayor Jon Winkel responded to the closure by saying, “Well, I guess we’ll have to get busy and find somebody else for that building.”

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports the arrest at around 4:30-a.m. today (Wednesday), of 32-year old Sarah Beth Ewing, of Elliott. Ewing was taken into custody following a traffic stop at the intersection of Highway 48 and 100th Street. She was charged with Driving While Barred, and brought to the Montgomery County Jail, where her bond was set at $2,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds is keeping campaign donations tied to a Des Moines firm that profited from a controversial lobbying blitz funded by Saudi Arabia. Reynolds in November returned a $100 contribution from executive branch appointees Kim and Connie Schmett, saying she disagreed with their side work as foreign agents who collected $100,000 opposing a law allowing victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. But her campaign kept several larger donations linked to the LS2Group, which received $76,500 from the same Saudi-funded work as the Schmetts.

LS2Group executive Chuck Larson Jr., who worked as a foreign agent, hosted a Reynolds fundraiser last summer. He and other LS2 employees gave thousands to Reynolds and LS2Group’s political arm gave $250. Campaign spokesman Pat Garrett says LS2Group is a private business while the Schmetts are state officials. An ethics board fined Connie Schmett $250 last week for disclosure violations.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is confirming the recent and abrupt departure of his chief of staff. The secretary of state’s office tells The Associated Press that Mark Snell’s employment ended Jan. 3. The AP had asked about Snell’s departure three weeks earlier but spokesman Kevin Hall didn’t provide information until Tuesday. Hall says Snell was an at-will employee, which means he could be fired for any reason. He said no documents exist that would explain the reason for Snell’s departure, and Snell didn’t submit a resignation letter.

Snell had a $132,000-annual salary and had served as the top administrator since Pate took office in 2015. Pate, a Republican, is gearing up to run for re-election this year.

President Trump outlined what he called “vital reform” of the nation’s immigration laws during his “State of the Union” speech last (Tuesday) night, but Republican Congressman Steve King is skeptical. “The president said he wants to solve this immigration once and for all,” King says, “but I think even his proposal falls far short.”

King says he doubts there’s enough G-O-P support in the House for a key component of Trump’s plan. King is opposed to citizenship for the one-point-eight million people who’d qualify for the DACA program because they were brought into the country illegally when they were children. “Amnesty is something that just sacrifices the rule of law and he said also a path to citizenship over 12 years for them,” King says. “I was watching the crowd, as I do, and it’s most instructive. The Republicans didn’t seem very enthusiastic about a path to citizenship.”

And King says it didn’t appear to him Democrats were that enthusiastic about Trump’s offer either. King predicts the “trade” Trump is offering for DACA recipients won’t secure enough Democratic votes for the entire package to make up for lost G-O-P votes.  “I think that he’s not thought this through,” King says, “or he’s got a different equation and it works different than mine does.”

King says he wants a wall along the southern border and tougher enforcement of current immigration laws, plus King would vote to end so-called “chain migration,” something that IS part of the president’s plan. Other members of Iowa’s congressional delegation are signalling they’re open to an immigration bill that would offer some sort of legal status to the so-called “Dreamers” who arrived illegally in the U.S. when they were children. Senator Joni Ernst says Trump’s proposals are a “starting point.” “He has given congress direction, but that is not the final word,” Ernst says.

Congressman David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, says finding something that can pass muster in both the Senate and House won’t be easy. “But I think it is a priority by both sides of the aisle to make sure that there’s not just a deal in the end for the deal’s sake, but there’s actually a real solution to this issue,” Young says. And Young predicts any successful deal will have to include all the components or “pillars” to immigration reform that Trump outlined in his speech last (Tuesday) night.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Council Bluffs deployed protective shields and less lethal, beanbag shotguns in response to a situation at Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, Tuesday night. Officials say at around 8:40-p.m., officers responded to a report of an armed subject inside Mercy Hospital. The reports indicated that a man — later identified as 26-year old Cirilo Baco, Jr., of Omaha – had a knife inside a room, and had threatened a nurse. Officers arrived and as entry was made into one area of the Hospital, Baca left out of another exit.

Officers at that exit held him at gunpoint until backup arrived. During the investigation it was learned that Baca, Jr. didn’t display a knife, but told the nurse to leave the room he was visiting. Baca, Jr. was charged with Public Intoxication and Disorderly conduct in a place of business.

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating an incident of willful injury/assault that resulted in a man suffering severe injuries. Authorities say at around 4:20-p.m., Tuesday, Council Bluffs Medics and Police were sent to the 100 block of South 7th Street on a report of an unresponsive male inside an apartment. Officers located the male, identified as 26-year old Keith Wise, of Council Bluffs, who appeared to have severe injury to his eye and head. Medics transported the unresponsive man to Mercy Hospital in Council Bluffs, where hospital staff confirmed Wise suffered severe trauma to his eye and head, which required immediate surgery. He was transported to Bergan Mercy Hospital in Omaha for the surgery. Wise was said to have been in critical condition prior to undergoing surgery.

Council Bluffs Police Detectives conducted an investigation, which lead detectives to believe the man was assaulted inside the apartment in the 100 block of South 7th Street. At this time detectives are actively investigating all leads in this case. There has been no arrests had been made in this case as of last report. The investigation is ongoing by the Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with any information that was in the area at the time of this incident is encouraged to contact this Division at 712-328-4728 or they may call Crime Stoppers at 712328-7867.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate is confirming the recent and abrupt departure of his chief of staff. The secretary of state’s office tells The Associated Press that Mark Snell’s employment ended Jan. 3. The AP had asked about Snell’s departure three weeks earlier but spokesman Kevin Hall didn’t provide information until Tuesday. Hall says Snell was an at-will employee, which means he could be fired for any reason. He said no documents exist that would explain the reason for Snell’s departure, and Snell didn’t submit a resignation letter.

Snell had a $132,000-annual salary and had served as the top administrator since Pate took office in 2015.  Pate, a Republican, is gearing up to run for re-election this year.

Red Oak Police report three people were arrested, Tuesday. At around 8:42-p.m., 26-year old Devon Keith Hale, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on an active Pottawattamie County warrant for Violation of Probation. Hale was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond. And, 19-year old Ciara Lianne Hebb, along with 23-year old Shae Daiel Lewis, both of Red Oak, were arrested for Violation of a Protective Order. Hebb was taken into custody at around 4:07-p.m., and Lewis was arrested at around 3:50-p.m.  Both were being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

State officials would be required to draw up standards for high school courses on the Bible if a bill that has cleared a House subcommittee becomes law. The bill’s backers say an elective course on “the Hebrew Scriptures or the New Testament of the Bible” will help students better understand politics, society and culture. Chuck Hurley is vice president of The Family Leader, a Christian evangelical organization that supports the bill.

“Biblical principles helped lead to the unalienable rights that we ensconced in our Constitution,” Hurley says. “For students not to be aware of that background would be, in my opinion, educational negligence.” Opponents of the bill say some educators might use the course to preach rather than teach and they fault the bill for picking one religious tradition to the exclusion of all others. Daniel Zeno of the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa says a third of Iowa schools are already offering courses about religion.

“As long as they are academic courses, we don’t think there’s any problem,” Zeno says. “…There are ways that school districts can do this right now without singling out the Bible.” The bill HAS cleared a three-member House panel and is now eligible for debate in a full House committee. If the bill becomes law, Iowa school districts would not be forced, but could choose to offer a Bible literacy course. At least seven other states let local school boards choose to offer a Bible literacy course as part of the social studies curriculum.

(Radio Iowa)