A Cherokee woman has agreed to plead guilty to two charges of reckless driving causing serious injury by motor vehicle after backing out of another plea deal in January.  Thirty-year-old Melissa Ebert was the driver in a September, 2015 Plymouth County two vehicle accident that injured Ebert’s passenger and the other driver. Monday’s hearing had been scheduled to be on a change of venue in the case where Ebert had threatened to kill herself and her passenger before veering her car into the path of an on-coming car. She had previously agreed to a plea deal to serve a maximum of 12 years in prison.

In the new plea deal, Ebert will serve five years in prison on each count, with the sentences served consecutively for a total of ten years. Five other counts including two counts of attempted murder and willful injury plus second offense O-W-I were dropped. Ebert will be sentenced May 8th at 1 p-m in Plymouth County District Court.

(Radio Iowa)

Authorities in Council Bluffs are investigating the armed robbery this (Tuesday) morning, of a convenience store. Bluffs Police say at around 2-a.m., two black males entered the Speedee Mart at 3624 9th Ave. The first man produced a black pistol and demanded money from the clerk. Both the suspects were described as wearing all black clothing with the hoods up on their jackets.

As the suspects were about to leave the store the first suspect fired a shot striking the wall. The clerk was not injured. The suspects fled on foot to the west and north. If you have any information regarding the incident, please call crime stoppers at 712-328-STOP (7867).

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating a fire in a garage near an apartment complex. At around 1:42-a.m. today (Tuesday), Council Bluffs Police and Fire Departments were dispatched to Parkwild Apartments (1800 Parkwild Dr, CB) for a garage fire. Upon arrival the fire department located the fire in a garage by the 1920 building. Forced entry had to be made into the garage to battle the fire. The fire was quickly suppressed by the fire department.

The cause of the fire is not known at this time. The garage and contents sustained moderate damage. The damage to the garage structure is estimated between $2000 and $3000. The total monetary damage done to the contents is not known.

The Council Bluffs Fire Department – Fire Marshals’ Office is investigating the fire. Anyone with information is urged to contact the Fire Marshals’ Office at (712) 328-4646 or Crime Stoppers at (712) 328-STOP (7867).

A nurse and her husband sat quietly crying in an Iowa House balcony last week as a bill inspired by their daughter cleared its final legislative hurdle. Amanda Devereaux of Des Moines contracted a virus known by the initials C-M-V when she was pregnant. As a result, her 18-month-old daughter, Pippa, cannot walk, talk or feed herself and is undergoing physical therapy.

“She’s moderately affected actually,” Devereaux says. “There’s kind of a spectrum with CMV. There’s kids that are born with the virus and never have a single symptom. There’s kids that maybe have just one symptom and then there’s kids that are very severely impacted, all the way up to dying from the virus.” A bill that has cleared the Iowa House AND Senate unanimously would require hearing tests for newborns, since hearing loss is an indicator a baby may have contracted C-M-V in the womb.

In addition, the state will provide doctors with information to pass along to pregnant women about the dangers of C-M-V. It’s a common virus. By the age of five, about one-in-three kids have had it.  “If I had known when I was pregnant that I could catch something from my toddler that would harm my unborn children, I think I would have done things differently,” she says, “but I just had no idea.” Devereaux caught C-M-V from her toddler, who was in day care.

“I would kiss him on the lips. I would share drinks with him,” Devereaux says. “I didn’t really realize that I could actually do my second child so much harm just by doing things that families do.” And Devereaux hopes by telling her story — AND having this bill become law — more pregnant women with toddlers will take precautions to avoid catching C-M-V. “I’m a nurse,” Devereaux says. “I know a lot of things about staying healthy and I didn’t know about this.”

According to the National C-M-V Foundation, only nine percent of pregnant women know about the virus. Each year, about 40-thousand babies in the U.S. are infected with C-M-V before birth. Experts say women who’ve had the virus BEFORE they’re pregnant aren’t at risk of passing it along to their babies.

However, if a woman contracts it for the first time during the first trimester of a pregnancy, that’s when the brain and other major organs are developing. That’s when the virus can cause devastating abnormalities.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republican lawmakers say they want the state to foot the bill for a new family planning program that excludes funding for Planned Parenthood, a move that resulted from the state’s decision to forgo Medicaid funding in the upcoming budget. GOP lawmakers say they plan to use state money to fund the estimated $3 million program. The funding change was required after the loss of federal Medicaid dollars following approval of a bill requiring that no state funding go toward Planned Parenthood..

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa bill that would have eliminated public access to many 911 calls is dead this session. Caleb Hunter, a spokesman for the Iowa Senate’s Republican majority, confirmed Monday the legislation has been taken off the debate calendar. The bill would’ve declared that 911 calls involving injured victims are medical records and exempt from Iowa’s open records law. All calls regarding minors also would have been confidential.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A small-town Iowa newspaper editorial writer won the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for taking on powerful agricultural organizations after a water utility sued the paper’s home county and two others over farm pollution. Art Cullen, who owns the Storm Lake Times with his brother John, says his editorials were about government transparency.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A state senator is back at the Iowa Capitol after a brief illness that resulted in him being taken by ambulance to a Des Moines hospital. Sen. Rich Taylor, a Democrat from Mount Pleasant, says in a statement he was feeling “ill” Monday at the Capitol. He was taken to a hospital as a precaution. He was later back in the Senate for floor debate.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The University of Iowa says an 18-year-old student died in a residence hall after a caller to police reported he was unresponsive and intoxicated on Saturday night. In a statement Monday, UI officials said that witnesses saw student Sean Wu of Cedar Rapids suddenly tense up “as if he was having a seizure and collapsed.”

UI police officers arrived at Daum Residence Hall at about 10:47 p.m. Saturday, three minutes after a caller reported that Wu had been drinking earlier in the evening. Wu was transported to the hospital, where he later died.

A university statement says that “losing a fellow student and member of our university family is difficult” and that students are encouraged to reach out if they need help.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa bill that would have eliminated public access to many 911 calls is dead this session. Caleb Hunter, a spokesman for the Iowa Senate’s Republican majority, confirmed Monday the legislation has been taken off the debate calendar.

The bill would’ve declared that 911 calls involving injured victims are medical records and exempt from Iowa’s open records law. All calls regarding minors also would have been confidential.

The legislation was introduced in response to the release of 911 calls to The Associated Press that exposed a string of gun accidents in Iowa. While the bill was approved unanimously in the Iowa House, opposition mounted after the AP reported on it.

Hunter says some Republicans had concerns about the bill’s impact on body cameras, since the measure included language regarding video.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A small-town Iowa newspaper editorial writer has won the Pulitzer Prize for taking on powerful agricultural organizations after a water utility sued the paper’s home county and two others over farm pollution. Art Cullen, who owns the Storm Lake Times with his brother John, says his editorials were about government transparency.

The counties sued by the Des Moines Water Works secretly received money from agricultural groups to fight the lawsuit and the 3,000-circulation twice-weekly newspaper pushed in its reporting to lift the veil of secrecy on who was paying to fight the lawsuit.

The 59-year-old Cullen says he feels vindicated the information was released and he’s proud of the Pulitzer, which recognized him for “tenacious reporting, impressive expertise and engaging writing that successfully challenged powerful corporate agricultural interests in Iowa.”

An Audubon man wanted since 2012 for Violation of Probation was arrested in Emmet County on Saturday, April 8th.  The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office arrested 29-year-old Randy Travis Kurth on the outstanding warrant.

Kurth plead guilty in 2011 to 2 counts of Carrying Weapons, Reckless Use of Fire, Harassment 1st Degree, and Theft 4th Degree. Charges were filed in 2012 after Kurth allegedly violated the terms of his probation.

Kurth was located in Emmet County on Saturday and transported to the Audubon County Jail and held on $6,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in district court on Monday, April 24th at 1:30pm.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Republicans may order the state to foot the bill for a new family planning program that excludes funding for Planned Parenthood. Key GOP lawmakers confirmed Monday they plan to use state money to fund the estimated $3 million program, which requires Iowa to forfeit millions in federal Medicaid dollars.

Such a move would tap the Iowa Department of Human Services to pay for the program amid separate budget cuts, raising criticism from Democrats that the GOP plan is short-sighted. The move — first reported by the Bleeding Heartland blog — would stray from Gov. Terry Branstad’s original suggestion to use separate federal grant money to pay for the program that purposely excludes health clinics that provide abortions.

Republicans say despite budget cuts, defunding abortion-providing clinics remains a top priority.