(Radio Iowa) – Memorial Day isn’t for another week yet but law enforcement agencies across the state have launched a special traffic enforcement effort (that begins today, May 24th) that will run for two full weeks. Genie Sterbenz, spokeswoman for the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau, says the familiar program is focused on getting Iowans to wear their seatbelts.”The Click It or Ticket campaign is a campaign that runs nationally for officers to be out there enforcing the laws and to remind people that it’s easy to buckle their safety belts,” Sterbenz says. “It’s a great way to save everyone’s life.”

While fewer people were driving during the height of the pandemic last year, statistics show those who were on the roads tended to take more risks.  “During the month of May in 2020, Iowa had 2,988 crashes and of those crashes, 167 individuals were injured because they were unbelted,” Sterbenz says. “As we all know, by buckling up, those injuries may have been prevented.”

It’s expected to be a busy two weeks as law officers statewide concentrate on pulling over lawbreakers to make the roads safer for everyone else. “They’ll be watching for the seatbelts,” she says, “but they’ll also be watching for impaired driving and speeding and other violations that we know cause crashes.”

The latest Click It or Ticket campaign will run from May 24th through June 6th.

Iowa’s Auditor of State, Rob Sand has announced there will be an outdoor Townhall meeting in Audubon County as part of his 99 county tour for 2021. The event takes place 1-p.m. Friday, May 28th at Albert the Bull Park, and it is open to the public.

Auditor Sand will be talking about what the Iowa Auditor’s office has worked on over the past year and a half, and will be available to answer questions about those audits.

(Radio Iowa) – The C-E-O of the Iowa Restaurant Association says updated information suggests fewer restaurants and bars in Iowa have closed during the pandemic than was expected. Jessica Dunker says initial estimates indicated about a thousand restaurants and bars in Iowa that were operating in March of 2020 would close. “We’re projecting now that it’s probably going to be closer to 700, which is more in the 12% range,” Dunker says, “and we’ll take that.”

Dunker says restaurants and bars fared better here than in other states for a combination of reasons, including state grants along with federal Paycheck Protection Program grants. Iowa restaurants and bars were also allowed to reopen for in-person service sooner than in other states.  “There’s pent up demand. Our biggest problem is we can’t find people to work,” Dunker says. “But the customers are coming out and summer is summer, so we’re optimistic.”

Dunker says part of the workforce problem is that 20 years ago, just over a third of high-school students had a part-time job, whereas today it’s about 20 percent. “We have to get creative as an industry to attract people into those first jobs,” Dunker says. “One-in-three people had their first job with us. We’d like one-in-three Iowans who are 16 today to have a job with us.”

Dunker says another factor is that many of the employees who were laid off a year ago when Iowa restaurants and bars were shutdown because of the pandemic are not returning “We lost people — great customer service people — to phone jobs, to Amazon, to everyone because everyone was hiring and you love people with great people skills and that’s us,” Dunker says, “so we were easy pickings.”

Dunker made her comments during a recent appearance on “Iowa Press” on Iowa P-B-S.

ANAMOSA, Iowa — Officials with the Iowa Department of Corrections say a substance that could be used to make a bomb was found inside an inmate’s cell at the Anamosa State Penitentiary. Media reports say intelligence gathering efforts resulted in agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Friday, interviewing inmates prison, who were suspected of planning to use an explosive device.

“In their interviews and subsequent search at the facility with the DOC, a household substance was discovered in an inmate’s cell that could potentially have been used in the creation of an explosive substance if additional materials were added,” the Iowa Department of Corrections said.

The substance will now be examined by the State Fire Marshal’s Office. Authorities say there remains no danger to the public or the prison. The discovery comes two months after two employees at Anamosa were killed, allegedly by two inmates at the prison, during an escape attempt.

Danny Homan, president of AFSCME Council 61 representing Iowa’s corrections officers and staff, released a statement to the media concerning security at the prison. “In the aftermath of the murders at Anamosa in March,” he said, “I called on the Department of Corrections to lock down the prison, shake it down, and put much more rigorous safety protocols in place. They did not take our advice. Now, we find out that prisoners at Anamosa were able to secure bombmaking materials.”

“Thank god these didn’t go off,” Homan said, “ut clearly the Department of Corrections is still not taking the security of our institutions seriously. This has got to end. The Department must do a top to bottom sweep of all institutions. With their new appropriation, they must hire the staff, replace the equipment necessary, and put the proper protocols in place to make our institutions safe. Every day they don’t put the lives of both the staff and inmates at risk.”

Homan has previously said the killings at the Anamosa State Penitentiary were the result of understaffing and underfunding at the prison. This legislative session, Iowa lawmakers approved a funding increase of nearly $21 million for the Iowa Department of Corrections, but some Democrats say it is not enough.

An 18-year old Perry High School Senior died this weekend, from drowning. Perry High School Dan Marburger said in a social media post, “It is with sadness that I inform you of the death of Melanie Gonzalez, a senior at our school.”  He said also, funeral arrangements were pending, and will be announced as soon as possible. And, special counseling services will be made available to students starting Monday and will continue throughout the week and as long as needed.

Police in Red Oak say a man from Nebraska was arrested at around 1:47-a.m. Sunday (May 23rd), following a reported fight in the 400 block of E. Reed Street. Authorities say 21-year-old Brandon Sabastian Henderson, of Omaha, was taken into custody on a charge of Simple Assault. Henderson was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond. Red Oak Fire and Rescue and Deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office assisted at the scene.