(Radio Iowa) – The Dickinson County Board of Supervisors has decided to choose a new county attorney rather than hold a special election. Amy Zenor resigned earlier this month after being arrested in the county courthouse and charged with public intoxication. County Supervisor Steve Clark says it would be three months before a special election could be held. “The fairest way is to let the voters decide, but at this point in time, I think I would rather appoint a new attorney, so we can have somebody on board instead of waiting,” what would it take three months,” Clark says. “…I think it’s more necessary to get someone appointed and on the job.”

The supervisors appointed an interim Dickinson County Attorney earlier this month and January 3rd is the earliest date the board could appoint someone to the job permanently. This Friday, December 30th, is the deadline for people to submit applications for the position.

(Rural Adair County, Iowa) – (Update 9:33-a.m.) A firefighter on the scene of a crash this (Thursday) morning in Adair County reported to Sheriff’s dispatchers that one person died during a collision this morning involving a semi and a car, southwest of Adair. The accident happened at around 9:23-a.m. in the 1100 block of Whitepole Road, near the Jesse James Historical Site/Monument. The roadway was blocked.

Anita Rescue and Cass EMS were requested at the scene, and a helicopter was requested to be on stand-by.  No other details are currently available.

(Radio Iowa) – The annual Iowa State University survey finds more farmland sales in the last two to three years compared to five or six years ago. But survey manager, Wendong Zhang, says the farmland turnover rate is still very low and the buyer profile has only changed slightly.”Iowa farmland purchases by the buyer type are still dominated by existing farmers. But the share of the investors that includes both local and non-local investors are going up,” he says. He says the increase hasn’t been that pronounced.

“South-central has the highest investor share, so almost 40 percent of the land is actually bought by local or non-local investors,” Zhang says. “But on average, you’re seeing that they’re half and a half in terms of local, non-local across the board.” Zhang says the area with the highest land values has the most local buys. “In northwest Iowa where you see the strongest gross it’s the predominantly it’s the existing local farmers are buying the land in their own county or nearby counties pushing the land market,” he says.

Zhang says this is due in part to the large number of cattle owners in the area that need farmland to spread the manure on from their operations. He says that the desire to expand operations pushed up land in O’Brien County — which edged out Sioux County by 15 dollars for the most expensive farmland acres. Both topped long-running value champ Scott County. “It is the first time that Scott County is not the top county in the last 20 years, I think,” Zhang says. O’Brien County averaged 15-thousand-931 dollars an acre to Scott County’s 15-thousand-968. He says a majority of the farmland on the auction block is coming from estate sales or retired farmers.

“So, in northwest Iowa, for example two-thirds are actually coming from estate sales and 15 are coming from retired farmers,” he says. “So yes, we see a growing investor interest. But it is it’s predominantly a still a local farmer buying a local land story.” Zhang says other states like Illinois probably attract more of the investor interest because they have fewer restrictions on corporate land ownership than Iowa.

(Radio Iowa) – Many Iowans have answered their phones to hear a distant caller claiming to be with Microsoft and offering to “fix” our computers. A survey finds the extent to which those tech support scams are reaching us — and ripping some of us off. Mary Jo Schrade, with the Microsoft Digital Crimes Unit, says three in five of us have received those calls, and one in six lost money on them. Schrade says, “Tech scammers are targeting everyone, even the most active technology users like Millennials and Gen Z.” The con artists are using sophisticated schemes that have evolved from cold calls to more of them using fake pop-up ads and fraudulent websites.

“Scammers are fast-moving and innovative,” Schrade says, “so when someone encounters a pop-up that asks them to call a phone number or click on a link to resolve an issue, it’s important to be wary and use caution.” Microsoft gets 65-hundred complaints every month from people reporting they were victims of a tech support scam in which scammers use the company’s name to lure victims into paying for unnecessary or harmful “services.” Many thousands more are going unreported.

“Report the scam on the Microsoft website,” she says. “The more reports we receive, the better we get at fighting these scammers. Remember, we will never proactively contact you asking for your financial or personal information.” While you might think young people would be more tech savvy, the survey found one out of ten Millennials and one out of ten Gen Zers who encountered a scam fell for it — and lost money.

www.microsoft.com/reportascam

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Attorney General has announced a settlement with an electronic cigarette maker over the company’s advertising. The A-G’s office says JUUL (jewel) Labs has agreed to pay the state five million dollars over four years after allegations the company promoted the electronic devices to those under 21 in violation of Iowa’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The agreement has JUUL sending more than one million dollars to the Department of Health and Human Services each of the next fours years to help Iowans quit using e-cigarettes, fund prevention programs, and help adopt age-verification technologies. The company has also agreed to change the way it promotes and sells its products in Iowa.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a man following a traffic stop, Wednesday night. Authorities report 52-year-old Richard Bryan Jenkins, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 9-p.m., for Driving While Suspended. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on bond amounting to slightly more than $491 ($491.25).

(Fayette, Iowa) – A collision between a car and an SUV in northeastern Iowa, Wednesday afternoon, resulted in injuries to  both drivers and a passenger in one the vehicles. The Iowa State Patrol reports the accident happened just south of Fayette, at around 3:10-p.m.

Authorities say a 2000 Buick LeSabre driven by 92-year-old Eldon Anthony Knipper, of Arlington (Iowa) was traveling south on Highway 150/K Avenue, when the car crossed the center line of the road and struck a northbound 2007 Chevy Equinox, being driven by 64-year-old Debra Sue Husted, of Oelwein.

Following the impact, the  Buick came to rest on the north shoulder, while the SUV stopped on the southbound shoulder of the road. Both drivers and a passenger in the SUV, 35-year-old Trenton James Husted, of Oelwein, were transported by Fayette EMS to the Mercy/Oelwein Hospital.

The accident remains under investigation by the Iowa State Patrol.

(Radio Iowa) – Top Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate say the 2023 legislature will consider new guidelines for pipelines that would capture and carry carbon away from Iowa’s ethanol plants. The proposed Summit and Navigator pipelines run through areas House Speaker Pat Grassley represents.

“I’ve been around here long enough to know when something really is an issue in our districts and I’ve talked to enough members as well as (people) in my own district to know that this is a real thing,” Grassley says. “This is something that Iowans are frustrated about.” Grassley suggests an outright ban on carbon pipelines is unlikely.

“Sometimes it’s just: ‘Well, stop it! Make it stop,’ where we have to be thoughtful in this process,” Grassley says, “and that’s what we’re trying to do right now.” Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says it won’t be an easy debate. “I expect that we’ll have a thorough conversation about this. It’s something that our members have heard about back on the campaign trail,” Whitver says. “And they hear from both sides — people that want the pipeline, that are excited about it, that think it’s good for our economy and our rural areas and people that are against it and so we have a lot of members that have a lot of different opinions on it.”

Whitver says there are similar debates about the siting of wind turbines and large-scale solar arrays. “Landowner rights is a key part of Republican philosophy in our platform and so we certainly want to restrict that and that’s what makes these issues difficult, you know. There are people concerned about solar farms going up. There’s also people saying: ‘Well, that’s their land. They can do what they want,'” and that’s what makes these conversations difficult and we’re coming into session to try to work through these issues.”

This fall, Grassley sent a letter to the Iowa Utilities Board, expressing concern about a waiver developers of the Navigator pipeline were seeking from current regulations about sampling and restoring topsoil in farm fields.  “When I’m talking back in my district — I know I’m not allowed to take off my speaker’s hat, but I’m going to try to — and I said: ‘I’m going to watch this very closely…I want the process to play out, but if there’s things that happen that I don’t think are up to par or not being fully transparent, I’ll weigh in,” Grassley says.

Navigator withdrew its request to reduce the amount of testing and restoration of topsoil currently required by state regulations. This fall during a televised debate, Governor Reynolds said she supports existing state law outlining when carbon pipeline developers would be able to seize property from unwilling landowners, but she has not commented on county ordinances which establish local rules for where the pipelines may be built.

(Radio Iowa) – A $1,000 reward is now being offered for information leading to an arrest in the shooting of a man found dead early Christmas morning in Fort Dodge.

That man was identified as 46-year-old Montreal Dungy of Fort Dodge, and at this time investigators are continuing to follow up on this homicide.

Anyone with information is urged to contact Webster County Crimestoppers or the Fort Dodge Police Department.

(Radio Iowa) – A top GOP leader says enacting limits on what judges and juries can award in medical malpractice lawsuits will be a priority for the 2023 legislature. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says in the past six years, the Senate has passed two different limits or caps on non-economic or so-called “pain and suffering” awards in medical malpractice cases.

“We’ve passed both a $250,000 cap and I think we passed a $1 million cap a couple of years later, trying to figure out what the House might be willing to do or engage on that issue,” Whitver says, “and so it’s been a priority for us.”

Four of the six states that border Iowa have limits on medical malpractice claims.

Jack Whitver. (RI file photo)

“As we look around the state, our rural hospitals are struggling. One of the ways to try to recruit and keep doctors is to make sure they’re in a liability situation that’s comparable to other states,” Whitver says. “We’re not trying to do anything that is outside that norm. We’re trying to compete with the states around us.”

Nebraska and South Dakota have a $500,000 cap on non-economic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. Wisconsin’s is $750,000. Missouri’s limit is adjusted annually to account for inflation and it’s nearly $800,000 this year.