The area’s top news at 7:05-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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Suicide is a leading cause of death for Iowa teenagers and a new study finds Internet use is among the top contributing risk factors. Dr. Benjamin Shain authored the report for the American Academy of Pediatrics and says more than five hours of daily internet use is linked with high levels of depression. He warns parents that blocking access to a teen’s online social network likely won’t help the situation.

“It interferes with having the good relationship which you need for providing support and guidance. It can have a net negative affect,” Shain says. “Whatever you gain in terms of decreasing screen time and monitoring, I think you’re losing much more in terms of being able to provide support and guidance.”

Last year in Iowa, a state report says 414 Iowans died by suicide, an increase of 22 deaths from 2014. Suicide is the leading cause of death in Iowans between the ages of 15 and 34. In addition to prolonged internet use, bullying is also consider a major risk factor in teen suicide. Shain, a child psychiatrist, says online bullying can be as serious as face-to-face bullying.

“Both bully victims and bully perpetrators are affected and the group that’s affected the most is the group who are both victims and perpetrators,” Shain says. “They had the highest increase in mental-health concerns, suicidal thoughts and behaviors and suicides.”

Shain says one of the best ways for parents to help prevent youth suicide is to talk openly and calmly with their kids. If you are considering suicide, you can get help by calling National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255).

(Radio Iowa)

Law enforcement officials in Creston and Red Oak report two, non-injury accidents took place Friday afternoon. Police in Creston say a 2016 Toyota Scion driven by 75-year old James Morris, of Creston, was traveling north on S. Elm Street in Creston at around 12:25-p.m. Friday, when he saw someone driving on the wrong side of the median that went through the railroad tracks near W. Union Street. When Morris swerved to get out of the way, his car crossed the median and struck two City of Creston-owned Street signs & poles. Damages amounted to $3,500.

And, Red Oak Police say 16-year old Andrew Shalters, of Red Oak, was cited for Failure to Yield, following an accident that happened at around 2:45-p.m., Friday, at 8th and Oakwood Avenue, in Red Oak. Damage to the 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee he was driving, was estimated at $750. No additional information is currently available.

Republican Congressman Steve King has long been an advocate of building a wall along the southern U.S. border. “You can probably expect to see construction begin in the 2017 construction season,” King says. That’s because President-elect Donald Trump made building the wall a cornerstone issue in his campaign. King, as you may recall, ran an earth-moving company before he was elected to congress.

On Wednesday, King tweeted a picture of what he described as a “simple, efficient and cost-effect” design for the wall. “He wants to make it beautiful and I say: ‘Let me build it. I’ll make it work. I’ll make it big. You worry about beautiful,'” King says. “We can have a good wall.”

King says it won’t take the Republican-led congress long to put the wheels in motion, since there’s already money set aside for a wall in some segments of the border. But King says congress will have to plow more money into the project in January. In 2006, King went on the floor of the U.S. House with a replica of the 12-foot-high border wall he envisioned.

This past week, President-elect Trump has suggested he’d agree to a fence rather than a wall in SOME sections of the nearly two-thousand-mile-long border. The federal government has already spent seven BILLION dollars erecting fencing along more than 600 miles or about one-third of the border.

(Radio Iowa)

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

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — C.J. Beathard threw three touchdown passes and Iowa pummeled No. 17 Nebraska 40-10 on Friday, knocking the Cornhuskers out of Big Ten title contention and sending Wisconsin to the championship game.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump holds stock in the company building the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline, raising concerns about any decisions he makes on the project. Trump’s 2016 federal disclosure forms show he owns up to $50,000 in stock in Texas-based Energy Transfer Partners. Since the Obama administration says it wants more study before making a decision, this raises the likelihood that the final say will go to Trump.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The faculty union plans to prepare a post-visit evaluation of the four presidential finalists scheduled to be on the University of Northern Iowa campus in Cedar Falls next week. Union president Joe Gorton says the analysis being done by the presidential search committee “won’t be enough to provide a definitive statement about who the faculty thinks should be the next president.”

NEWTON, Iowa (AP) — Work to get a historic downtown Newton building ready for redevelopment is underway. The Newton Daily News reports the city purchased the former Hotel Maytag in September, with the goal of preserving the commercial tenant spaces by making maintenance and repair investments. The city has so far spent more than $19,000 on repair-related building expenses. Newton Development Specialist Craig Armstrong says the project is challenging, but that it’s “also very gratifying.”

Dog owners in Iowa are being urged to have their pets vaccinated for canine influenza virus, or C-I-V, which was reported in more than 40 states in the past year, including Iowa. Veterinarian Dr. Natalie Marks says the so-called dog flu quickly caused an epidemic in 2015 and it’s hoped prevention can prevent it from spreading again this year. The symptoms are much like human flu.

“CIV is respiratory in dogs, so we see coughing, sneezing, runny nose, runny eyes, lethargy and fever,” Dr. Marks says. “In more severe cases, we can see a pretty bad pneumonia.” In the worst cases, it can be fatal, but Marks says there is a way to inoculate against the two strains.”There’s vaccination for both the original strain of flu, which was H3N8, and now there is an H3N2-specific strain,” Marks says. “Both are very safe and effective and we encourage all pet owners to talk to their veterinarian about their dog’s lifestyle risks and if the vaccine is appropriate for your dog’s vaccination protocol.”

C-I-V is highly contagious and can spread quickly in urban areas, doggie daycare’s, boarding facilities, dog parks and sporting events. The dog flu is a problem year-round, especially during warmer months as pets are outdoors more often and more likely to encounter other dogs if they are social.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials in the Iowa Department of Human Services are touting their new database that seeks to identify available hospital beds for psychiatric patients. Chuck Palmer, the director of the department, says the tracking system is a significant tool for law enforcement, doctors and others trying to find space in an emergency situation. “We now have 100 percent involvement of all the hospitals,” Palmer says. “Do they update it daily? Probably not. Do they update it on a regular basis? We believe so and we’re calling those that don’t.”

The database was started after Governor Terry Branstad closed two of the state-run Mental Health Institutes. Critics contend it’s difficult to find in-patient treatment for Iowans suffering from a severe mental illness. Palmer says by this summer, there were as many as 750 beds in Iowa hospitals for the treatment of patients with acute mental illnesses — but he says it’s still difficult to find available space for the toughest cases.

“There are certain people that certain hospitals do not feel at a point in time that they can take. ‘If I accept this person and they are a difficult, disruptive person,’ no one will take them and then they’ll be left,” Palmer says. “And that’s the case.”

Palmer says on average there are about 70 vacant hospital beds each day in Iowa for psych patients. However, it may require significant travel to get a patient to a hospital that has an opening.

(Radio Iowa)

“Community Housing Initiatives” has become the state’s largest NON-PROFIT housing organization. Communications director Matt Hauge says people involved in a community action agency in northwest Iowa were the instigators.  “They said, you know, we provide all kinds of assistance to people. We do great programs, but there’s not enough housing up here. It’s after the Farm Crisis. Nobody’s building housing in rural Iowa,” Hauge says.

Low income housing tax credits as well as tax credits for historic preservation are used to finance the developments. A couple of decades later, the organization has built or renovated affordable housing in 31 Iowa communities. That includes projects in downtown Sioux City, Clinton and Waterloo. “We always say we have kind of a strange name. To be called ‘Community Housing Initiatives’ people like we’re maybe an office of your city or something like that,” Hauge says.

The organization’s work has yielded a total of 14-hundred apartments throughout the state, with modestly-priced rent that someone in a low-wage job can afford. Community Housing Initiatives was founded in the small town of Graettinger in 1994. The corporate offices are now in Spencer and Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa)

One expert says Iowa history will “come to life” for the state’s students because of new guidelines for social studies classes in Iowa schools. Tom Morain of Graceland University served on the advisory panel that recommended the changes. Morain recently told a group of third and fourth graders they’ll soon be exposed to a “whole new way” of learning about history. “You’re not going to just read what other people tell you happened,” Morain said. “You’re going to get to ‘do’ history. You’re going to get to go to places where history happened. You’re going to get to read what people who were living those events really thought.”

Classroom time on history has been cut as teachers focus more on reading, math and science. Morain says students can develop critical thinking skills by comparing different versions of historical events. And Iowa has a rich history to review, according to Morain. “The computer, what you hold in your hand, was invented here in Iowa,” Morain says, “and the story of how it was invented was an incredible story.”

Morain says students ARE fascinated to learn about the place they call home. “What is exciting about history as we’re going to do it now is we’re going to make it come to life,” Morain says. Morain is the former administrator of the State Historical Society and he once served as director of history at Living History Farms in Urbandale.

A recent report found Iowa has been lagging other states in providing localized history resources for teachers. The states of Minnesota and Kansas, for example, have state-paid staff who work to develop course work on state history for all grade levels. There’s even a published Minnesota history textbook. Governor Branstad says the state budget is tight and there’s unlikely to be extra money to hire more staff or spend more on an Iowa history initiative.

(Radio Iowa)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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