STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Buena Vista University in northwest Iowa has received a $500,000 gift to be used for a trading room in the schools business school. The gift comes from the Bob and Ginny Peterson Foundation. The school announced the trading room will be named the Robert L. Peterson Commodity Trading Room, intended to foster collaborative learning through real-world business problems and allow students to apply theoretical concepts using real-time data.

The space will include a stock ticker device, dual monitors, software and terminals that are similar to those found in large investment firms. The trading room is part of the first phase of the Harold Walter Siebens School of Business/Siebens Forum renovation, which is expected to be completed in December.

FORT MADISON, Iowa (AP) — Amtrak trains will still stop in Fort Madison but passengers will no longer be able to buy tickets at the depot counter as the carrier moves toward digital-only sales. The railway is transitioning 18 stations to be digital-only this year, The Hawk Eye reported .

Passengers are encouraged to purchase tickets online, through a mobile app or by calling Amtrak. Passengers can also pay in cash on the train, but will be charged higher prices and be subject to availability.

The company decided to make the switch because figures show that ticket counters account for fewer than 5 percent of ticket sales nationally, said Marc Magliari, a spokesman for Amtrak. “The volume of people who are using the ticket counter in Fort Madison and other places has fallen off pretty steeply,” Magliari said. “And that is not a reflection of the quality of work of the ticket agents.”

Checked baggage will also no longer be available at the Fort Madison station. Customers who need full customer service can use the Galesburg station, which is about an hour and a half northeast of Fort Madison, Magliari said. Fort Madison Mayor Brad Randolph said some residents expressed concerns about needing assistance and not having a person at the ticket window. He said the company may consider adding the position back if it sees a significant drop in customer satisfaction.

Company spokesman Ray Lang said getting rid of the station’s ticket agent isn’t a sign that the company will halt services altogether at the Fort Madison station.

BERTRAM, Iowa (AP) — Officials in eastern Iowa say a man has died after crashing his bicycle. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened around 9 p.m. Friday in Bertram. The department says in a news release that the man was riding down a steep hill when he fell off the bike. He was taken to an area hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Investigators say the man was not wearing a helmet at the time of the crash. The man’s name is not being released pending notification of his family members.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa teen has been given a suspended prison sentence and probation for torching a famed covered bridge in Madison County, Iowa, that featured on the cover of the novel “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Television station KCCI reports that 18-year-old Alexander Hoff was sentenced Friday, getting five years’ probation and a suspended 10-year prison sentence. He had pleaded guilty in March to second-degree arson and first-degree criminal mischief.

Hoff was among three people who set fire to the bridge in April 2017. The two others — Joel Davis and Alivia Bergmann — were sentenced to five years’ probation. The bridge near Winterset also was featured in the 1995 movie adaptation of “The Bridges of Madison County.”

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating a shooting that took place Friday night. Officers responded a little after 10-p.m., to a reported shooting at 1425 Avenue C. They located 45-year old Tony Hemiller, who had been shot once, in the lower back. Hemiller was transported to the UNMC in Omaha, for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. The incident remains under investigation by Council Bluffs Police Detectives. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Council Bluffs Crime Stoppers, at 712-328-7867.

(7-a.m. News)

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Iowa Department of Public Safety reports that a bank in southeast Iowa’s Jefferson County was robbed Friday afternoon. The Pilot Grove Saving Bank in Packwood placed a call to the Jefferson County Law Enforcement Center at around 1:13-p.m., reporting a robbery. The suspect was described as tall and slender white male wearing a black hooded sweatshirt. The individual fled the bank and went east from the bank on foot.

The incident remains under investigation by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigations. Assisting the investigation were the Fairfield Police Department, Iowa State Patrol, Wapello and Keokuk County Sheriff’s Offices.