A survey of 22 of the state’s largest employers indicates most of them should be growing between now and the end of the year. Georgia Van Gundy is executive director of the Iowa Business Council (IBC), which released its second quarter Economic Outlook Survey, Thursday. “Sixty-eight of our members are anticipating adding employees over the next six months,” Van Gundy says.

The positive economic outlook is tempered by a familiar concern among the state’s top employers. Eight-four-percent of I-B-C members cite “attracting, developing and retaining a quality workforce” as their primary business challenge. Van Gundy says the organization is launching an initiative, called Vision to Vitality, in hopes of addressing those workforce needs.  “And that (involves) going out to our communities and actually getting a community viewpoint on what are your barriers to growth? What are the best practices you have?”

The first Vision to Vitality forum is scheduled for July 17 in Boone. “We’ll be highlighting a partnership between business and education, Boone EDGE and Fareway, in which the businesses are partnering with the Boone School District to have work-based learning opportunities for students, so they can learn about some of the job opportunities early on in high school and hopefully will move into them after they graduate,” Van Gundy said.

Two more Vision to Vitality forums are scheduled for September 11 in Muscatine and October 9 in Le Mars. In addition to the expectation of adding employees, the new IBC survey shows 90-percent of the members anticipate higher sales and 63-percent project an increase in capital spending in the next six months.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unofficial tally shows that more than 1,500 properties in the Des Moines area were affected by weekend flooding, and authorities expect that number to increase. The Des Moines Register reports that officials still need to inspect many of the properties. Hundreds of residents were caught in Saturday night’s storm that dumped up to 9 inches on the area and caused flash flooding. One man was killed when he left his stranded van and was swept away by flood waters.

A map released by Polk County emergency management officials shows 1,501 unconfirmed reports of damaged properties in Des Moines and its suburbs. Des Moines appears to have taken the brunt of the flood, with at least 655 homes reported to be affected.

The executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition has some issues with a survey out this week by A-D-T that showed five Iowa communities are in the top ten for the most dangerous to ride a bicycle. Webster City was ranked number three on the list behind New York City and Los Angeles. Mark Wyatt is with the Iowa Bicycle Coalition. “I think the results of this study are incomplete and inaccurate — but I don’t want to underemphasize that we have some work to do as far as making bicycling safer in this state,”Wyatt says.

Wyatt said the coalition is addressing the issue of bike safety. He says they have been working in the Iowa Legislature to get a safe passing distance bill approved and they have been working with the D-O-T to complete a state bike plan by this fall.  Wyatt says there are a lot of other efforts underway to improve the safety of bicyclists. “One city in Iowa — Hudson, Iowa — has adopted a local ordinance on safe passing and we’re working on more cities to join that city to upgrade their local ordinance,” according to Wyatt. “And then finally, as of July first we are launching a 20-thousand dollar media campaign addressing the safe passing of bicycles.”

Wyatt says the A-D-T study overlooks the work the coalition has been doing with other bike groups in making bike safety a key issues. “Unfortunately I don’t think the study from a home security company really reflected that amount of work that’s going on in the state,” Wyatt says. “Or the amount of fatal crashes in comparison to per capita rankings to say Florida and California, where it seems much more dangerous.” While he thinks the rankings aren’t accurate, Wyatt again says Iowa is by no means done when it comes to work to improve safety for bikers. “One death is too many in this state and we need to get to zero fatalities,” Wyatt says.

The other four Iowa communities listed among the most dangerous for bicyclists are Waterloo (7th) , Sioux City (8th), Johnston (9th) and Des Moines (10th).

(Radio Iowa)

Red Oak Police, early this (Friday) morning, arrested 26-year old Cody Dean Johnson, of Red Oak. Johnson was taken into custody at around 12:30-a.m. for Simple Assault. His bond was set at $300. And, at around 12:15-a.m., 31-year old Katie Marie Pierce, of Red Oak, was arrested on two Pottawattamie County warrants for Violation of Probation. Pierce was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond, pending transfer to the Pott. County Jail.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to establish new rights for surrogate mothers that would allow them to change their minds about giving up babies born under surrogacy contracts. In an appeal of a February Iowa Supreme Court ruling, the woman asks the nation’s highest court to take her appeal and find that surrogacy contracts don’t negate the constitutional rights of surrogate mothers and their babies.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Cedar Rapids police say they’ve made an arrest in a 2017 homicide case. Police said in a news release that 29-year-old Rayshaun Dion Friend, of Cedar Rapids, was arrested Thursday morning on charges of first-degree murder, robbery and going armed with intent. On Nov. 12, officers sent to a house for a report of a disturbance found 40-year-old Tarrence Newman dead on the front porch of the house. An autopsy showed he had been shot.

PRINCETON, Iowa (AP) — Law enforcement officials in eastern Iowa have identified a 14-year-old boy killed when a utility vehicle carrying him and three others crashed on private property. The Scott County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened Tuesday afternoon in rural Princeton. Jacob Milo Fenn, of Eldridge, was pronounced dead at the scene. Investigators say three others on the vehicle were treated for minor injuries.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — A decade after devastating floods along the Cedar River ravaged Cedar Rapids, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has announced it will approve $117 million in flood protection funding for the eastern Iowa city. The funding will go toward a $550 million flood control system already in the works. The city says the state of Iowa has committed to contributing $284 million, or 35 percent of the total cost. The city will match $110 million, with $10 million already invested.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa woman is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider striking down surrogacy contracts as a violation of the constitutional rights of surrogate mothers and their babies. In an appeal of a February Iowa Supreme Court ruling, the woman asks the nation’s highest court to hear her case and consider whether surrogacy contracts affirmed in several states including Iowa, California, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington can be upheld.

The woman is identified in court documents as T.B. She entered into a surrogacy contract with Paul and Chantele Montover in 2016, but she decided she wanted to keep the baby after the relationship soured. The Montovers have raised now-23-month-old girl since birth. The Supreme Court is expected to decide by this fall whether to consider the case.

Des Moines, Iowa – The Iowa Insurance Division recently issued a cease and desist order against Proactive Indemnity Corp., Ahmed Badrus Salam, and Umer M. Masood.  They are not licensed in any state and have a history of fraudulently offering insurance coverage to consumers nationally through their website. Proactive Indemnity Corp. also uses the names of Proactive Financial Corp. and Contingent Cargo Co.  Both Salam and Masood use the alias of Josh Capello. Iowa Insurance Division spokesman Chance McElhaney said “It’s easy for consumers to purchase insurance coverage online.  While that’s good for consumers, it’s also easier for scammers with no licenses whatsoever to defraud people by selling non-existent coverage. It’s important for Iowa consumers to double-check with our office to ensure both the agent and insurer are licensed before purchasing any type of coverage, but especially those purchased online.”

Proactive Indemnity Corp., Salam and Masood’s history of harming consumers in other states includes:

• Issuing insurance policies and certificates of coverage when no such insurance coverage actually exists.
• Misrepresenting to consumers that policies have been underwritten by Lloyd’s of London without authorization to bind coverage on behalf of Lloyd’s and when Lloyd’s has no record of a policy being issued.
• Collecting premium payments which are deposited into banks in Pakistan, not forwarded to an insurance company.
• Holding themselves out as being licensed in states where they are not licensed to engage in the business of insurance.
• Providing false agent names to consumers.

Proactive Indemnity Corp. gave consumers in other states fraudulent insurance coverage documents leading consumers to believe they have insurance when in fact they do not. Iowa consumers that have purchased coverage from Salam, Masood or “Capello” through Proactive Indemnity Corp., Proactive Financial Corp., or Contingent Cargo Co. may be a victim of fraud and should contact the Iowa Insurance Division immediately at 515-281-6348. Iowans double-checking to ensure they are utilizing a licensed agent in Iowa may do so at https://iid.iowa.gov/find-a-licensed-agent.

A new workplace drug testing law went into effect this week that lowers the allowed workplace blood alcohol standard from zero-point-zero-four percent to zero-point-zero two percent. The move brings Iowa in line with federal law, which Sukup Manufacturing’s Rachel Geilenfeld says clears up the issues for employers. “There was some lack of clarity on whether the employer could take appropriate disciplinary action against those employees,” Geilenfeld says. The lack of clarity left the Sheffield-based company with just one option if they met the state standard but not the federal limit. “So essentially if they fell in that gap our only recourse was to send them home with pay,” according to Geilenfeld.

Geilenfeld presented data on how a worker is impacted under the two standards as she lobbied the Iowa Legislature to make the change. “And there is data that supports that at the zero-point-zero-two (0.02) blood alcohol content level somebody’s impairment is at a much lower level than zero-point-zero-four percent (0.04) including certain tasks they can perform,” Geilenfeld says.

The new law passed by wide margins in the Iowa House and Senate. Geilenfeld says an earlier attempt to approve the change failed under a divided legislature back in 2015.

(Radio Iowa)

The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports three people suffered suspected minor/non-incapacitating injuries Tuesday afternoon, following a collision about four-miles east/southeast of Arispe. Authorities say a 2013 Ram pickup driven by 33-year old Dusten Kyle Carrington, of Afton, and a 1998 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 30-year old Dylan Douglas Steinhoff, of Arispe, were rounding a curve in opposite directions near Squirrel Avenue and 255th Street at around 4:20-p.m., when the F-150 went out of control and crossed the centerline of the road, into the path of the Ram pickup. The vehicles collided in the southeast corner of the curve.

Both drivers, and a passenger in the Dodge, 41-year old Brenda Lou Carrington, of Afton, were injured. Only Brenda Carrington was wearing a seat belt. The drivers and passenger were transported by Medic1 to the Greater Regional Medical Center, in Creston. Sheriff’s deputies cited Steinhoff for Failure to Maintain Control. Both trucks were totaled in the crash.

In other news, the Union County Sheriff’s Office says a woman from Afton reported Tuesday, that someone took prescription medication from her home sometime that morning. Estimated value of the medication was $250.

An accident in Pottawattamie County at around 6-a.m. today (Thursday), resulted in two people being sent to the hospital. The Iowa State Patrol reports 25-year old Tyson H. Heckathorn, and his passenger, 38-year old Melissa Kruse, both of Spencer, was transported by Crescent Rescue to hospitals in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area, after Heckathorn fell asleep at the wheel of the 2003 Chevy Tahoe he was driving. The vehicle drifted onto the left shoulder and nearly hit the median barrier. Heckathorn woke up and over-corrected, sending the vehicle into the east ditch, where it rolled once before coming to rest. The accident happened on Intertstate 29 northbound, near mile marker 66. Both accident victims were wearing their seat belts.