Council Bluffs Police report three people – a man and two women – were arrested Sunday night, following a reported theft in progress at the Dicks Sporting Goods Store, in Council Bluffs. Officers responding at around 7:46 p.m., observed two suspects, a man – later identified as 19-year-old Terron A. Maples, of Blue Springs, Missouri – and one female, identified as 39-year-old Diamond D. Price, of Kansas City, Missouri, exiting the store and running toward an Orange Jeep parked near the emergency exit.  Officer’s apprehended Price but Maples got into the passenger seat of the jeep and the female driver that was waiting in the vehicle drove off.  A pursuit ensued and finally ended at the Pacific Junction exit off I-29.

Terron A. Maples

Diamond D. Price

Authorities say at that time, the female driver of the Jeep was identified as 26-year-old Ke’Shawn M. Foster, of Kansas City, Missouri.  Both Maples and Foster were taken into custody that time.  Officers received information from store employees that Price and Maples had attempted to leave the store with approximately $7,300 in both Nike and North Face merchandise.

Ke’Shawn M. Foster

During the investigation officers were able to determine that both Maples and Price were involved in a previous incident that occurred at the same location on November 14th at 8:15pm.  During that incident the suspects took approximately $4,000 in merchandise.  As the suspects exited the store, one suspect sprayed an employee with pepper spray and then left the area in an unknown vehicle.

All parties involved were taken into custody and interviewed by detectives.  They were then transported to Pottawattamie County Corrections and booked for the charge of Theft 2nd plus several other misdemeanor charges.  Additional charges for Maples and Price are possible for their involvement in case on November 14th.

(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Education’s annual report for the fall shows enrollment in the 327 school districts dropped by nearly six-thousand (5,935) students from last year. The Department of Education report says the one-point-two percent decline is the first drop in certified enrollment in ten years. Enrollment decreased at 215 school districts representing 66 percent of all public school districts in the state. Des Moines Public Schools had the largest decrease followed by Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Iowa City, Council Bluffs, Waterloo, Sioux City, Dubuque, Burlington and West Des Moines.

The report shows enrollment in home school assistance programs was up more than 16-hundred for a total of eight-thousand-735 students. Home school students receive some services through their local school district. The total number of students in schools was 484-thousand-159..

(Radio Iowa) – Congresswoman-elect Ashley Hinson of Marion says to stabilize the Social Security system, she’s open to the idea of raising the age when younger Americans may begin receiving benefits. “I think it’s my job now to go in and try to make some of those tough decisions to fix and make sure it is solvent for my kids,” she says, “and hopefully their kids, too.” Hinson opposes raising payroll taxes. She says any change to the retirement age would have to be phased in and would not apply to current retirees or those nearing retirement age.

“I’m 37 years old. If I know, coming in, I’m going to have to work longer, it’s much easier for me to absorb that than to pull the rug out from under someone who’s 62 years old right now,” Hinson says. “…Somebody’s got to be willing to make a tough call and that’s exactly why the problem hasn’t been fixed and I may be roasted on both sides for saying that I’m willing to be open to it, right? But I am and I think that’s why I won this election ’cause people are like: ‘O.K., she’s willing to go and just at least entertain the topics.”

Hinson will be sworn in as Iowa’s first district congresswoman in January. According to the Social Security Administration, the system will be able to pay full benefits until 2037. At that point, monthly benefit checks would have to be cut by about 25 percent. Hinson says a Social Security fix should be part of a larger debate in the next congress about the national debt. “If we aren’t cognizant of that, in this bigger discussion, there won’t be any Social Security or any of these entitlement programs if we don’t get a handle on that, too,” Hinson says, “so I think that’s a part of the discussion, trying to look at the debt, so these things are preserved long-term.”

Hinson says both Republicans and Democrats are responsible for the ballooning national debt, which tops 27 trillion dollars, and both sides should seek to reduce it. Hinson made her comments this weekend on the “Iowa Press” program on Iowa P-B-S.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Office Monday (Today), reports the arrest on drug charges, of 32-year old Chad Sheard, of Omaha, Nebraska and 30-year old Danya Schafer, of Springfield, Missouri. Their arrests are the result of an investigation that began at around 8-p.m. Sunday, with a traffic stop in Hamburg, when the deputy noticed a Cadillac SUV with heavy front end damage and a headlight out. The plates on the vehicle came back to a 2005 Buick.

Photos courtesy Fremont County Sheriff’s Office.

Authorities say paraphernalia, including a white crystal substance, was located along with other items. Sheard and Schafer were both arrested for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and taken to the Fremont County Jail. They were being held on a three-hundred-dollar bond, each.