(Radio Iowa) – With Thanksgiving next week, many Iowans will be facing more stress because they won’t be able to spend time with their families due to the pandemic. Emily Kroska, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Iowa, says many of us are struggling with difficult decisions and that uncertainty is bringing a range of emotions. “There isn’t a right answer. There isn’t a perfect solution here,” Kroska says. “In order to keep our families and our communities safe, we need to do less of the indoor private gatherings, if any at all. Shifting outside or shifting online is the safest option and that can be really painful.”

Image via aarp.org

Don’t brush aside or try to bury those feelings of sadness if you can’t be with family during the holiday. “We can’t ignore that because it’s signaling that this is something that’s really important to us and we’re craving that connection,” Kroska says. “Finding other ways to connect with the people that we care about is really the best way forward here.” Using a computer video chat program like Skype or Zoom is absolutely an inferior option, she says, but it’s one way we can see and hear our distant loved ones during a time when we’d all rather be together in the same room. “What we need to be prioritizing is safety, so when we think about having a Zoom opening of presents with our families over the holidays or eating turkey in two different homes but being connected by computer, it’s not going to be the same,” Kroska says, “and if we have all of our loved ones there next Christmas, it’ll be well worth it.”

Zoom is lifting its 40-minute limit for all meetings globally from midnight ET on Nov. 26 through 6 a.m. ET on Nov. 27, to help make those virtual gatherings last longer.

People who take stock of their emotions and address them with mindful action will fare better than those who don’t, she says. “Focusing on the ways that we can connect and being willing to feel some of this pain and sadness that comes up,” Kroska says, “understanding that this is a signal and that our connections are important to us and seeking out that connection in whatever way feels safe during this time.” She says it comes down to flexibility and our ability to adapt, adding, “Can you do what matters even when it’s challenging?”

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa-based non-profit organization dedicated to planting and protecting trees plans to launch a massive campaign in the spring to restore thousands of trees that were destroyed by the August 10th derecho. John Bright, spokesman for Marion-based Trees Forever, says the effort is being called Project Hope and it’ll focus on purchasing and planting trees in areas that were devastated by the powerful storm. “There are some very hard hit areas in Cedar Rapids and Marion and the surrounding area,” Bright says. “It was really a massive disaster that covered 750-plus miles from Iowa to Illinois and that covers pretty much the exact Trees Forever service area.”

Towns including Hiawatha, Marshalltown and rural areas of Iowa will also be the focus of the project. The tree canopy in Cedar Rapids was ravaged by the storm and some estimate more than six in every ten trees were destroyed by wind gusts there that reached 140-miles an hour. “If you haven’t seen it in person, it’s hard to comprehend,” Bright says. “Sixty-five percent is the number that people are using but that’s just the initial look. It’s hard to tell when you’re going through the city. The arborists can’t figure out for sure which trees will make it though and which trees won’t.”

A tree-planting effort this fall saw more than 12-hundred saplings given away just in Cedar Rapids, and Bright says they’re planning for many thousands more trees to be planted next spring. A training program called Treekeepers is available online now for those who want to get involved. “It’s a webinar series where we train people to become Treekeepers,” Bright says. “You learn everything from tree identification to tree care, planting, everything you need to become an effective and helpful volunteer for Trees Forever. Those Treekeepers really are the main force behind our volunteer efforts.”

The derecho recovery process will take decades and Bright says the organization is asking citizens to give the gift of trees to the next generation of Iowans.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s unemployment rate dropped to 3.6% in October, continuing a steady decline since it soared last spring because of lob losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The October rate was down from 4.8% in September and a high of 11% in April, when many businesses halted operations as COVID-19 first swept through the country. The unemployment rate has fallen even as coronavirus infection rates and deaths reach new highs in Iowa.

Iowa Workforce Development Director Beth Townsend on Friday called the declining rate “a ray of sunshine.” Iowa’s unemployment rate is tied with South Dakota for third-lowest in the nation, behind Nebraska and Vermont. The national unemployment rate for October was 6.9%