Police in Council Bluffs are searching for a man wanted in connection with an assault that occurred Saturday. Authorities have applied for warrants against 49-year old Timothy James Ehlers, of Council Bluffs. The warrants charge him with False Imprisonment, Burglary in the 1st Degree, Aggravated Domestic Abuse, and Violation of a restraining order. He also has three valid warrants for Violation of a Restraining Order. Ehlers is wanted in connection with an incident that occurred just before Noon, Saturday, at an apartment located 305 N. 6th Street, where Ehlers allegedly assaulted his 28-year old ex-girlfriend.

Timothy Ehlers

Authorities say Ehlers forced his way into the woman’s apartment, threatened her with a firearm and a knife during the assault and refused to let her leave or call for police. When the victim was finally able to call 911, Ehlers fled and officers were unable to locate him. The victim had minor injuries for which she was treated at a local hospital.

Ehlers was said to be about 6-feet 4-inches tall. He weighs about 240 pounds, and was last seen wearing a blue coat, grey stocking hat, brown and blue snow boots and jeans. He is believed to be a transient, and may be armed with a handgun and a knife. A picture of the suspect can be found under this same story on the News page at KJAN.com. If you know where Ehlers is, please call 911.

OSCEOLA, Iowa (AP) — The Clarke County prosecutor has been arrested again. Television station KCCI says outgoing Clark County Attorney Michelle Rivera was arrested Friday on suspicion of operating while intoxicated.

Rivera, who lost her re-election bid in November, was arrested in October on suspicion of being drunk on the job in a Clark County courtroom. A sheriff’s deputy said in a criminal complaint that he noticed Rivera “slurring her words and stumbling on her feet” in the Osceola courtroom. He arrested her after she refused to take a breath test. She was charged with public intoxication.

She later apologized and asked voters to give her another chance.

WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) — The chief operating officer for Waukee Community School District in central Iowa has turned himself in on charges related to improper spending at the district. Waukee police say 50-year-old Eric Rose turned himself at 7 a.m. Saturday. He’s charged with two counts of solicitation to commit a felony and one count of felonious misconduct in office. He was freed on $15,000 bond.

A special state audit report released earlier this month said administrators improperly used state credit cards and spent nearly $129,000 on items and services that “were not in the taxpayers’ best interest.”

Earlier in the year, the district agreed to pay more than $1 million to two former district employees who said they were forced out of their jobs after reporting what they said was misconduct by Rose.
Rose remains listed as the chief operating officer on the district’s website.

A Retirement Open House is planned for Friday, Dec. 21^st, in honor of Cass-Atlantic Development Corporation Executive Director Russell Joyce. The event takes place from 10-a.m. Until 2-p.m., at the CADCO offices (14 W 6th St, Atlantic). Joyce has served the economic development organization for the past eight-years. Prior to that, he served on the Cass County Board of Supervisors. Reflecting back on his career, Joyce said beginning with his terms on the Board of Supervisors, one of the biggest things he’s seen happen that benefit the County and it’s communities, is passage of the Local Option Sales Tax, or “LOST.”

He said also, because of commitments made to facilities such as the Nishna Valley YMCA, the Ann W. Wickman Child Development Center and others, a lot of young professionals have made their home in Cass County, replacing aging baby boomers. The biggest challenge to bringing in more families and continued economic development, he says, is the state’s low unemployment rate of 2.9-percent.

Another challenge, is a skilled and semi-skilled workforce, which the local schools are trying to establish, as far as a “Skill-to-work” program. He said also, despite the amount of housing development that’s occurred over the past 15-years, “We need to look at development of more housing…but to create a place to build housing but is not an overnight project.” Joyce says the City or someone needs to develop some ground to build on. He says some people think CADCO may not be serving the smaller communities as well as well as they do Atlantic, but the reality is Atlantic needs the smaller communities for commerce and labor,” and vice-versa. “We try to do our best to serve the entire county, but it’s a challenge.”

As for what’s in-store for his future, Joyce isn’t ruling out another bid for the Cass County Board of Supervisors. CADCO Chief Administrator Jennifer McEntaffer assume the reigns as Cass County Economic Development Director, on January 1st.

(Radio Iowa) — Thousands of Iowans will receive college degrees this weekend, with the biggest fall commencement ceremonies taking place in Iowa City and Ames. A few of those students, including Alejandro Martinez, will become the first in their family to graduate from college. Martinez, who’s from Tama, says his parents are thrilled. “I need to make my parents proud. They sacrificed everything they have in order for me to continue my education,” Martinez said. “It was just a way to give back to them. Every day they asked, ‘How’s school? How’s everything going?’ They don’t know anything about school, they only made it to the sixth grade. They never graduated high school and they barely finished middle school.”

Martinez is graduating from Iowa State with a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and health. He plans to attend graduate school next fall to study occupational therapy. In addition to making his parents proud, Martinez is hoping to impress his 11-year-old brother. “I’m trying to set an example for him. He looks up to me, he likes to play soccer and he says he wants to go to college, so that’s a start,” Martinez said. “I’m a first-generation student as well, so I hope to inspire others in my community.”

Officials at ISU say over 2,300 students are completing their degrees this week. One graduation ceremonies took place Friday night, while another is scheduled for this afternoon (Saturday) at Hilton Coliseum. In Iowa City, about 1,640 University of Iowa undergraduate, graduate, and professional students are receiving degrees in several ceremonies that began Thursday and continue through Sunday. The Fall Commencement program at the University of Northern Iowa was set to take place inside the McLeod Center on the Cedar Falls campus at 10-a.m. today (Saturday).

(Radio Iowa) — The Ankeny-based Casey’s Convenience store chain reported this week that strong sales in several categories led to an increase in earnings in the second quarter compared to last year. Chief executive officer Terry Handley talked about the results in a conference call. “Diluted earnings per share for the first quarter were up over 40 percent to a dollar-80 , compared to a dollar-28 a year ago. The results were primarily driven by increased control on operating expenses, margin gains both at the pump and inside the store, as well as operating 94 additonal stores from the second quarter last year,” Handley says.

Gas prices were higher in the past year, but Handley says they still made good margins. “We achieved an average margin of 20 cents per gallon for the quarter and drove a seven-point-two percent increase in gross profit dollars from the fuel category,” Handley says. “Same store gallons sold in the quarter were down one-point-one percent — due to our optimization efforts in the quarter — as well as softer demand.” The optimization efforts include added bio-diesel and premium fuels that have bigger margins. Handley says the yearly results for gas sales are similar to what they saw in the quarter. “Same store gallons sold year-to-date were down three-tenths of one percent, with an average margin of 20-point-three cents per gallon, resulting in an increase in fuel gross profit dollars over 10 percent to 242-point-one million dollars,” according toe Handley.

He says same-store sales of groceries and merchandise were up two-point-seven percent with an average margin of 32-point-four percent. Handley says the sale of prepare foods were up two-point-two percent with an average margin of 62-point-four percent. He says strategic price increases for food items helped expand the margin in the quarter.