The annual Council Bluffs Veterans Day Parade will step off at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, in downtown Council Bluffs, and organizers are inviting residents to line the streets in honor of the area’s more than 7,000 veterans. “We want to see those streets packed,” said Brad Powell, who has organized the parade since 2010. Organizers expect cool but dry weather, though Powell said conditions have ranged from sunshine to rain and cold over the years, and he encouraged spectators

Georgi Ivanov’s The Best Wrestler adds its 21st location in Montréal and aims for 200 locations in two years The Best Wrestler, the youth wrestling club that Olympian Georgi Ivanov and his father, Ivan, started in McClelland in 2020, has grown to 21 locations in 12 states and five countries. Its headquarters remains in Council Bluffs at the Iowa West Field House. The club’s newest location, Kartal Wrestling Club in Montréal, is its first in Canada. Ivanov said the club serves

Anthony Ashby, named Mercy’s president in August, points to partnerships with Jennie Edmundson and others in the community Anthony Ashby took over as president of CHI Health Mercy Council Bluffs in August, and he wants the community to know that the hospital’s commitment to Council Bluffs has not changed, even as health care does. “The mission hasn’t changed. The commitment to Mercy hasn’t changed,” Ashby said. “Leadership may have changed, different services may have changed

Fifty children from Pottawattamie County schools will go shopping with sheriff’s office employees early on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 14, and organizers are still working to raise the money to pay for it. The sheriff’s office’s annual Shop with the Sheriff program has not yet reached its goal of raising $20,000 a year to sustain the event, said Rikayla Champlin, a senior administrative assistant who helps organize it. “We do have a lot of funds we still need to raise,” she

Voters in Council Bluffs precinct CB-1 will cast their ballots at a new location in Tuesday’s general election. The Pottawattamie County Auditor’s Office announced that a water main break at Northwest Christian Church, 714 Benson St., forced the move. CB-1 voters should instead report to Queen of Apostles Church, 3304 Fourth Ave., on Election Day, Nov. 3. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. The change affects only voters assigned to CB-1. Voters who are unsure of their p

Haunted Bluffs course took students to four historic Council Bluffs sites this fall, and a second session is planned for spring Josh Baker found that history class was not always much fun when he was a student, so this fall he tried a different approach. Baker, a continuing education coordinator at Iowa Western Community College, created Haunted Bluffs, a noncredit class that taught Council Bluffs history at four of the city’s oldest sites while students used paranormal inves

Corinne Peterson and Holly Marsh led this year’s Squirrel Cage Jail flashlight tours and are planning outreach to schools and younger residents The lights went out at the Squirrel Cage Jail on Friday and Saturday nights in October as visitors made their way through the historic building by black light for the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County’s annual flashlight tours. The tours, which ran from 8 to 10:30 p.m., mixed a traditional history tour with a haunted house. G

Council Bluffs author Michelle Cowan’s account of grief, faith and forgiveness is being developed as a feature film, with Lou Ferrigno among four actors attached to the project. The film, “Whispers from Heaven,” is based on Cowan’s memoir, “Better, Not Bitter: A Journey from Heartache to Healing.” It is expected to be filmed in Iowa, with a release tentatively planned for the first quarter of 2028. Cowan’s first husband, Joe, was killed by a drunken driver in Nebraska in 2009

A friendship that began about 20 years ago has grown into a local podcast for two Council Bluffs area women who decided the conversations that kept them laughing for hours might be worth sharing with everyone else. Lynette Petersen and Annette Bracker host “Wine, Wisdom and Wit,” using the names Net and Nettie on the show. The podcast combines a different wine with conversations about relationships, family, changing social habits and other parts of everyday life. Neither clai

What started with the purchase of two bicycles after they were married has turned into a decade-long tradition for Council Bluffs residents Cole and Robyn Epley, who completed their 10th RAGBRAI together this summer. The couple moved to Council Bluffs in 2013 and began looking for something they could enjoy together. Robyn, an optometrist in Council Bluffs, said neither of them knew much about cycling at the time, but they had noticed the local trail system and heard people t

A Masonic lodge that once stood along Highway 6 east of Council Bluffs can trace its history to the vanished community of Quick, Iowa, and a group of rural Masons who wanted a meeting place closer to home more than 120 years ago. Fred Gach, a member of Cobia Lodge No. 631 in Council Bluffs since 1980 and a former dual member of Cobia and Amber lodges, began researching Amber Lodge after being asked about its history. Much of what he found came from materials preserved in a ti

After 30 years in business, Bambi Wilson is looking for the right person to take over Bambi’s Green Acres Natural Market in Council Bluffs as she prepares for retirement. Wilson said she intends to continue operating the store while searching for a buyer who can maintain the relationships and services she has built over three decades. If she is unable to find that person, however, she plans to close the business by the end of March 2027. “I know my customers don’t want to hea

Carol Horner of Council Bluffs has added a second title to her list of published works with the release of “Bridging Our Divides: The Spiral Way.” The new book grew out of Horner’s own struggle with anger, disagreement and division. Horner’s first book is entitled “The Spiral of Accountability,” and was released in April of 2024. That was where she first introduced a framework designed to help people recognize destructive patterns in their own thinking and behavior. The local