Top 9 of Iowa: 2 Months Since Abduction, Erskine Bowles on Debt, Trial Set for Fatal Drug Bust Gone Awry

Why nine? Because the Patch community includes nine sites in Iowa: Ankeny, Ames, Cedar Falls, Iowa City, Johnston, Marion, Urbandale, Waukee and West Des Moines.

9. Erskine Bowles, chief of staff in the President Bill Clinton Administration, urged Congress to fix the national debt now, rather than later, in a visit to Iowa State University campus in Ames this week.

8. In Johnston, voters turned down a $51 million bond for a new high school. 

7. A case of an undercover drug bust gone awry in Iowa City moves forward. Trials have been set for three suspects. A fourth man was shot to death by an undercover agent, in what authorities say was a justified shooting. 

6. Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, route: {:controller=>"listings", :action=>"show", :id=>"gloria-dei-lutheran-church-lcms"} --> in Urbandale was honored as a