COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – An attempted murder charge against an Iowa man has been dropped after witnesses could not identify a shooter. The Daily Nonpareil reports the Pottawattamie County Attorney’s Office dismissed the attempted murder and intimidation with a dangerous weapon charges against 21-year-old Vaughn White. He is still charged with a felony count of escaping custody.

He was arrested in July in connection to a June shooting of a 16-year-old girl. Police say White briefly escaped from officers while handcuffed during his arrest. The county attorney’s office says neither the girl nor a witness could identify a suspect during a deposition.

White is being held at the Pottawattamie County Jail on $5,000 bond.

There’s no snow in the forecast, but motorists may be seeing some Iowa Department of Transportation snow plows on roadways this week. The Iowa D-O-T’s Craig Bargfrede says crews are simply testing and calibrating equipment in preparation for winter.  “And because of the large amount of new seasonal operators that we’re bringing on board, the district offices have various new operator training courses scheduled for the coming weeks,” Bargfrede says.

The DOT announced plans in September to hire nearly double the number of amount of temporary snow plow operators this year compared to the last winter season. The agency is in the process of hiring around 600 snow plow drivers. “We started an online application process this year for those seasonal employees and so far, the response has been very, very positive,” Bargfrede says. Pay for the work ranges from $11.39 to $16.13 per hour. Bargfrede says the boost in employment should not suggest that Iowa’s in for an especially harsh winter.

“It’s more to help us augment our full-time staff to make sure we have enough people on the roads and give us the level of service that the public is looking for,” Bargfrede says. The first snowfall in Iowa normally arrives in November, but it’s not unusual for snow to fly in October.

(Radio Iowa)

DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) — A federal official says the pilot of a single-engine plane has died in a crash near Dubuque Regional Airport. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford says the Piper PA-46 crashed around 11 p.m. Monday on approach to the airport, about a mile north of the runway.

Lunsford says law enforcement told him the sole occupant of the aircraft was killed in the crash but he has no other information. The Dubuque Police Department declined to comment to The Associated Press early Tuesday.

Lunsford says the plane took off from Ankeny Regional Airport about an hour before the crash. He says the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Authorities are investigating the discovery of an unloaded handgun and a box of ammunition inside the backpack of a high school student in Iowa City. Iowa City police say officers arrived Friday at West High School following a report that a student had carried a gun on school property. A teacher reported to school officials that a student was showing signs of emotional distress. The gun was found in a backpack inside his locker.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Officials from African nations are among international dignitaries gathering for the annual World Food Prize award ceremony to discuss the challenges of feeding a growing world population. Ebola was not initially scheduled to be part of a three-day symposium that accompanies the award ceremony, but the attendance of prominent West African government officials prompted the inclusion of Ebola’s impact on food security in the program.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman has been accused of stealing about $30,000 from a pharmacy company where she worked. Clear Lake police say 29-year-old Abigail Roberts was arrested Sunday. She is charged with ongoing criminal conduct and first-degree theft. Authorities say a lengthy investigation revealed Roberts stole about $30,000 from Clear Lake Pharmacy while she worked as a pharmacy technician between 2012 and July.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — An infectious disease consultant for a regional health system says the infection of a Dallas nurse caring for an Ebola patient was a wake-up call for hospitals to be more prepared. Dr. Wendall Hoffman says Sanford Health has improved its ability to respond to the virus over the past couple of weeks by asking questions about patient travel and educating staff on personal protective equipment. Training drills are also in the works.

The latest rains across Iowa continue to add to what is now a positive groundwater picture. Tim Hall, who tracks groundwater levels for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says we can officially put the word drought away for awhile when referring to the state’s water situation. Hall says it wasn’t that long ago when many were wondering if that would be possible. “I look back at the drought monitor from one year ago — from the middle of October last year — and it was really bleak about one year ago,” Hall says. “Most of the state was in some sort of drought, and it had sort of been lingering for a long time.”

Hall says things were dry going back even farther to the fall of 2011. “It’s nice now to get to the point where it appears that the long-term gradual moisture from this year has really pushed the drought out of the state. It’s nice to see. It’s been really wet going into the fall, this is what we like to see, so yeah, it’s in pretty good shape,” Hall says. The last remnants of the drought had hung on until September’s above normal rainfall.

“For awhile that northeastern corner of the state into southwest Wisconsin had been a little on the dry side — but we are out of it in Iowa right now. We’ve been out if for a month and it’s dramatically better than it was a year ago,” according to Hall. He says things seemed to balance out this spring, and the drier conditions actually helped prevent problems during a wet periods.

“The National Weather Service folks have pointed out that one of the things that really worked to the benefit of the state of Iowa this year given the spring rain, was that we did have very dry soil conditions back in the spring,” Hall says, “so, we were able to absorb a lot of the rainfall that came early in the spring season because the soil was so dry.”

The U-S-D-A National Agricultural Statistics Service says the subsoil moisture levels measured on October 5th had been greater only twice — in 2007 and 2010 — among the past 20 years.

(Radio Iowa)

A county supervisor who voted to hire Culver Construction to work on county projects says everyone involved knew the business was owned by Joni Ernst’s father. Ernst is now the Iowa Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate, but Democrats have been suggesting that while Ernst was the Montgomery County Auditor she failed to disclose her father’s firm was bidding for and getting county business. Bryant Amos, the chair of the Montgomery County Board of Supervisors, says “everyone in the county” knew Culver Construction was owned by Ernst’s father.

“In a small community, that was common knowledge. I really feel that they’re really grasping at straws to find something negative here,” Amos says. “At that time, if there would have been anything at all that was not above the board and politically correct, we would have been put on the carpet right then.” Culver Construction was awarded 215-thousand dollars worth of county contracts when Ernst served as Montgomery County’s auditor. Democrats have charged that’s a conflict of interest. Amos says Ernst had no vote on the matter because he and the other county supervisors handled the bids and voted to award the contracts. Former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell — a former chair of the Iowa Democratic Party — last week said state law stipulates that a county official’s “immediate family members” — including their parents — are not to get county contracts. Amos says in a small county like Montgomery County, that could “cut out” a lot of potential low bidders on county contracts and cost taxpayers more money.

“Why would you refuse a low bid because there’s a relationship? I mean, how far does that relationship go? Could it be a fourth, fifth cousin, so that eliminates them?” Amos asks. “I realize this is a lot closer than that, but where do you draw the line?” Amos says there were a lot of construction firms competing for the work and none complained when Culver Construction was the low-bidder and got the county contracts.

“If there would have been anything inappropriate, it would have been brought up at that time,” Amos says. According to the Ernst campaign, Ernst does not have a financial stake in her father’s company and a spokeswoman for Ernst calls the allegations of a conflict of interest “frivolous.”

(Radio Iowa)

While bicycling season is starting to wind down with cooler weather arriving in the region, a popular bike sharing program in Omaha is expanding its reach across the river into Iowa. Ben Turner is program director for Heartland B-Cycle, which offers pedal-powered two-wheelers for rent at kiosks all around the metro area.

Turner says, “We’re adding 20 stations in the next few months, changing our name to Heartland B-Cycle and we’re going to be the second multi-state bike sharing program in the country.” Turner says the organization is adding six kiosks in Council Bluffs and will have a total of 31 stations in the two-state area. Tourists and locals are using the bikes frequently and Turner says it’s a natural move to broaden the base across the Missouri.

Turner says, “People ride into Council Bluffs with B-Cycles every day so it just makes perfect sense to have stations there and we should be everywhere that bicyclists want to go and that’s Council Bluffs and Omaha.” Bike sharing stations will stretch from downtown Council Bluffs all the way to Village Pointe in west Omaha. You can purchase memberships with the group for 24-hours, 30-days or by the year. He says the addition of 20 kiosks and dozens of bikes will cost just under one-million dollars, with the money coming from private partnerships and grants, no tax dollars.

(Radio Iowa)

Two people were arrested on separate charges last Saturday, in Guthrie County. The Sheriff’s Office says at approximately 9:43 PM. 53-year old John Roger Reese, of Jamaica, was stopped for a traffic violation in Jamaica. During the course of the traffic stop, Reese was found to have a revoked driver’s license due to an operating while intoxicated revocation. He was cited and released pending an appearance in Guthrie County Magistrate Court.

And at around 11:40-p.m. Saturday, 34-year old Kenneth Lee Harlow Jr., of Scranton, was stopped and subsequently arrested following an encounter with law enforcement in Bayard. Harlow was arrested for Operating While Intoxicated 2nd Offense and was transported to the Guthrie County Jail. He appeared before the Guthrie County Magistrate the following day and was released on his own recognizance.