DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Federal safety regulators have proposed fining a Davenport bowling alley more than $8,300 for violations found after the death of an employee this past summer. Authorities say 27-year-old Brittany Russell died July 7 at the Blackhawk Bowl and Martini Lounge, which is inside the Hotel Blackhawk. An Occupational Safety and Health Administration filing says she was killed after coming into contact with an electrical system while trying to unjam a pinsetter. A representative of the bowling alley didn’t immediately return a call Friday from The Associated Press.

(Radio Iowa) — An Iowa State University study finds people are more likely to be unhappy with their house if it’s smaller than their neighbors’ houses. Daniel Kuhlmann, an I-S-U professor of community and regional planning, studied data as far back as the U-S Census’ 1993 National American Housing Survey, which included a special neighborhood section assessing people’s home satisfaction.  “There’s this idea that when position matters, if there’s some value people get from living in the largest house in their neighborhood, that itself is by definition a scarce resource,” Kuhlmann says. “Only one of us can have the largest house.”

Our housing decisions may affect our neighbors’ actions, Kuhlmann says, and we could be unwittingly pushing our neighbors to spend more money to buy larger homes to “catch up.” It’s one possible explanation for the steady boost in the size of single-family houses nationwide over the last five decades. “We care about how we compare to our neighbors, right?” Kuhlmann says. “I don’t think it’s necessarily materialism exclusively that explains this. I think it raises larger questions that need to be answered about how we’re building neighborhoods and how we’re building cities and the impact that these things have on not only our own well-being but our social well-being.”

As suburbs become more developed, Kuhlmann says big houses tend to beget even bigger houses. His research found that people living in the smallest house in their neighborhood are on average five-percent more likely to say they’re dissatisfied with their house compared to those living in the largest houses. “What really makes us better off?” Kuhlmann asks. “Is it living in larger homes in the suburbs or would we all be better off if our homes were slightly smaller? We’d be spending less on housing. We’d be living closer to our neighbors, stuff like that. It’s just one small part of this larger impact of the way in which we live that I like to think a lot about in my field.”

The study was published earlier this month in the academic journal Housing Studies.

Creston Police say a resident of the 200 block of N. Sumner Street reported Tuesday morning, that his garage had been broken into. Items missing included an air compressor, various tools, and a BB gun. The loss was estimated at $1,200.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Few states have changed politically with the head-snapping speed of Iowa. In 2008, its voters propelled Barack Obama to the White House. In 2012, Iowa backed Obama again. But by 2016, Donald Trump easily defeated Hillary Clinton in Iowa. Republicans were in control of the governor’s mansion and state legislature and held all but one U.S. House seat and both U.S. Senate seats.

Democrats are hoping the state could be swinging back. Tom Vilsack, Iowa’s only two-term Democratic governor in the past 50 years, says Republicans have “gone too far to the right and there is the slow movement back.”

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) –  A Cedar Rapids organization is transforming more than two dozen shelter beds into transitional housing in hopes of helping people make permanent changes in their lives. Mission of Hope decided recently to remove 28 shelter beds at two buildings and to reopen the shelters as transitional housing in the spring. Executive Director Kim Reem told The Gazette the group made the decision after coming to the conclusion it was “enabling people to continue to live in crisis.” She noted the group was feeding lunch to some of the same people it served when it opened 17 years ago.

LE MARS, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a Sioux City man has died in a collision at a rural intersection in Plymouth County. The crash occurred around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, about 10 miles south of Le Mars. The Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office says 26-year-old Evan Nettleton was driving west when his vehicle collided with a northbound pickup truck driven by 42-year-old Timothy Wolfswinkel, of Dallas Center. Nettleton was fatally injured. The sheriff’s office says Wolfswinkel didn’t halt at a stop sign. He and his two daughters, ages 4 and 5, were taken to a Sioux City hospital. The collision is being investigated.