(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Lottery C-E-O Matt Strawn says sales have picked up as they head toward the midpoint of their fiscal year. “Iowa lottery sales and proceeds have seen double-digit percentage growth over last fiscal year as gross lottery sales and net proceeds are exceeding both budget forecasts and last year’s actuals,” Strawn says. Speaking to the Lottery Commission at their meeting today (Tuesday), he says sales are nearly 193 million dollars through November.

“Represents a year over year sales increase of 11-two-percent. Relative to the budget forecast, it’s a 13-point-four-percent sales increase,” he says. Proceeds turned over to the state are more than 41 million dollars through November. “Represent a year over year proceeds increase of 24-point-four percent, or relative to the budget, a 37-point-two-five percent increase,” he says. Large Powerball jackpots have lifted up sales.

“These revenue and proceeds totals are positively influenced by sales of Powerball during the first half of fiscal ’26.” Strawn says. “Powerball sales have more than doubled when compared with the first five months of last fiscal year.” Strawn the sales increase comes as a drought for mega jackpots ended. “There was not a single Powerball jackpot that exceeded 600 million dollars during fiscal ’25 ,” he says. And we have now had two to exceed that billion dollar amount actually during the first half of fiscal ’26.”

Strawn says the September Powerball jackpot that grew to one-point-eight billion dollars before it was won and the current Powerball jackpot is estimated at more than one Billion.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is suing an online gaming company called Roblox. “They market themselves as a safe place for kids and say they’re the number one place for kids’ gaming,” Bird said. “We found through out investigation that is not the case, that they don’t have adequate safeguards in place and, in fact, child predators could have access to these kids.” Bird says as many as two out of three children between the ages of 9 and 12 have a Roblox account.

“So very young children are on this gaming service,” Bird said, “and many parents don’t realize the problems with Roblox because they’ve been told it’s safe and educational.” The lawsuit accuses Roblox of violating Iowa’s Consumer Protection law by claiming it is equipped with every precaution possible, while allowing adults to hide behind avatars and chat with children playing games online. The lawsuit cites a criminal case in Iowa.

“A man from Tennessee was charged with abducting an Iowa teen that he met through Roblox and then took her back to Tennessee,” Bird said. “And he is charged with sexually assaulting her.” Bird says Roblox created a breeding ground for sexual predators and she’s asking a judge to force Roblox to either provide more stringent safety measures to protect children or stop doing business in Iowa.

“Roblox has some disturbing content that children should not be exposed to,” Bird said, “including aspects of the game known as ‘Epstein’s Island.’ ‘Survive Diddy’ is another experience that can kids can participate in…very sexually explicit, inappropriate material for children or anyone under the age of 18, much less the 9, 10, 11 and 12 year olds that often are on Roblox.”

Roblox faces a growing number of lawsuits filed by government officials and parents who say their children were groomed and exploited by adults on the platform. The Roblox website says the company dedicates substantial resources to detect and prevent inappropriate content and online behavior and has installed 40 new features over the past year to protect children and upgrade parental controls.

(Atlantic, IA) – Officials with the Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce surprised a woman who is involved in several community organizations, with the Chamber’s 2025 “Angel of Christmas” award, this (Tuesday) morning. Her nominators wrote, Coleen Babe “has made an impact on this community, specifically on our youth in agriculture, [that] is second to none.”

They went on to say “She has spent the last 20-years developing leadership skills in our young people through a number of service activities,” [such as] chairing the royalty/ambassador program for the Cass County Cattlemen, organizing the county-wide hamburger feed program at the schools,” and so much more.

The 2025 Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce’ “Angel of Christmas,” Coleen Babe (Photo Courtesy the Atlantic Chamber)

Her nominators said “When you meet Coleen, you become part of her family. She takes care of all those around her, and without a doubt would give you the shirt off her back.”

For those, and many other reasons, “There is no one more fitting to receive such an award,” then Coleen Babe, this year’s Angel of Christmas.

(Red Oak, IA) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office says a traffic stop this (Tuesday) morning resulted in the arrest of a man wanted on a Cass County (IA) warrant.

Authorities say 27-year-old William Cody Shepard, of Clive, was found to be driving with a suspended license, in addition to having a warrant out of Cass County for Theft in the 4^th Degree.

Shepard was cited and turned over to Cass County Deputies. His bond was set at $1,000.

(Omaha, NE) – The Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa, which includes the community foundations in Audubon, Cass, Crawford, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page and Shelby counties, is pleased to announce that grant applications are now being accepted from organizations providing charitable services in southwest Iowa. As part of this spring grant cycle, over $1.2 million will be available to support nonprofit organizations and community projects in the nine counties. The deadline to apply for funds through the online application process is February 1, 2026.

Beginning December 15, application details, a fact sheet, and a link to the application form can be found here or by logging in on omahafoundation.org. Applications will only be accepted through the online system.

The Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa, an affiliate of the Omaha Community Foundation, serves to benefit the nine-county region by supporting community needs in the areas of civic engagement, culture, health, education, and social services. The objective of the grant program is to fund projects that will have a lasting impact in our communities.

Only organizations providing services in the nine-county region are eligible to apply. They must be able to demonstrate broad community/county support and be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) public charity, a local municipality, or a fiscally sponsored project.

This cycle of grants is made possible through the State of Iowa County Endowment Fund Program. Created in 2004 by the Iowa Legislature, the program is funded by a percentage of the state’s commercial gaming tax revenue.

Please contact Southwest Iowa Foundations Advisor Sarah Beth Ray at sarahbeth@omahafoundation.org or 402-342-3458 with application-related questions. All completed grant applications will be considered at the March advisory committee meetings, with applicants being notified of funding decisions by the end of March.

For general questions about the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa and the County Endowment Fund Program, please contact Southwest Iowa Foundations Director Sunni Kamp at sunni@omahafoundation.org or 402-933-4188.

(Creston, IA) – A woman from Union County was injured during a collision this (Tuesday) morning, in Creston. The Creston Police Department reports 44-year-old Kristi Lynn Wieland, of Creston, suffered suspected minor injuries, after the SUV she was driving was struck by pickup truck, being driven by 33-year-old Corina Jean Buchanan, also of Creston. Buchanan was not hurt.

Police say the accident happened at around 10:07-a.m., when Buchanan failed to stop at the intersection of Irving and Elm Streets. Buchanan was traveling east on Irving when he pickup hit the SUV, which was traveling north on Elm Street.

Police cited Corina Buchanan for Failure to obey a stop sign and yield the right of way. Damage from the collision amounted to a police estimated $9,000 altogether.  (Photos by Chuck Spindler with the Creston Fire Dept., via Facebook)

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley is waiting to see the results of an 11th hour meeting Monday night between a bipartisan group of about two dozen of his Senate colleagues, who were working to create their own version of a health care bill. “I think it’s very important that they try to reach an agreement before the end of the year, before big increases in health insurance kick in,” Grassley says, “and I hope it has the reforms in it.” There are widespread reports of Iowans who will face a quadrupling of their monthly health insurance premiums unless reforms pass quickly.

Grassley, a Republican, says in order for him to back the plan, it will have to include an income eligibility cap and efforts to prevent fraud. “People making as much as $600,000 a year, and we have at least one example of that, aren’t getting subsidized for their health insurance,” Grassley says. “People that are on both Obamacare and Medicaid, and that goes into a few million that fall into that category.”

For months, Democrats have pushed for an extension of the tax credits to people who use the Affordable Care Act marketplace, while Republicans have resisted saying the current plan is far too expensive and filled with loopholes. “If we’re going to get an agreement, some of those frauds and some of that duplication must be taken out,” Grassley says, “and it will be taken out because it’s so obvious.”

While the A-C-A subsidies will expire at month’s end, lawmakers are only scheduled to work through the end of this week before they recess for the year.

OMAHA, Neb. — A man from Nebraska will be sentenced in February, after being found guilty by a jury, of 2nd Degree Murder in connection with the death of a man in Carter Lake, IA. KETV in Omaha reports 29-year-old Brandon Mikesh was also found guilty charges that include Use of a Firearm, Possession of a Firearm by a Prohibited Person, Tampering, and Theft by receiving stolen property, in connection with the death of 59-year-old Bernard Leonard, May 17, 2024.

Officers responded at around 7:50-p.m. to the scene near Ninth Street and Carter Lake Boulevard for initial reports of a motorcycle crash, but investigators later found a man down with a gunshot wound, authorities said. Leonard was unresponsive near his motorcycle. Prosecutors said that Omaha police officers traced Mikesh using surveillance video.

He allegedly lit a stolen car on fire in Hummel Park that was seen on that surveillance, and cellphone location data put him in both places, according to prosecutors.

Mikesh is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 10th.

(Radio Iowa) – The planned implosion of the Mississippi River Bridge at Lansing has been pushed back from this Thursday to Friday. D-O-T Engineer Clayton Burke says the schedule required a change.  “We had some coordination issues between some different stakeholders, so it just didn’t work out to get that Thursday, but Friday was a much better day for everybody,” he says. The plan is to use explosives to bring down the metal portions of the bridge now that the concrete deck has been removed. Burke says weather is a big issue, but there is a 90-95 percent chance the implosion will happen Friday.

“The only thing that would that would stop it is if that rain comes in Thursday night and it freezes hard on the electronics out on the bridge that are controlling the explosives. If if that becomes an issue, then they would delay it a day until they can get it figured out and get things unfrozen and ready for demolition,” Burke says. The wind can’t be too heavy for things to work as planned.”The last thing they do is they cut the wind bracing on the bottom of the bridge, which significantly reduces its capacity to resist wind. So they do that when they know it’s not going to be windy and then after they cut that they have to drop it as soon as they can,” he says. “So that’s a big concern is. As soon as they cut that wind bracing it’s got to happen within the next couple days.”

Burke says the car ferry service which transports vehicles across the river will be closed between Thursday night and Monday morning to allow for the implosion.