OMAHA, Ne. (AP) – A survey report suggests the economy is growing slowly in nine Midwest and Plains states as the U.S.-China trade war continues. The Mid-America Business Conditions index rebounded to 50.6 in December from 48.6 in November. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the trade war and the global economic slowdown will be drags on the overall Mid-America economy for the first half of 2020. But he expects overall regional growth to remain soft but positive. Survey organizers say any index score above 50 suggests growth. A score below that suggests decline.

(Radio Iowa) — Recreational marijuana became legal in Illinois Wednesday, and one distributor has set up up a heated tent and a shuttle service in preparation for new border-crossing customers. Nature’s Treatment of Illinois is located just outside of the Quad Cities, in Milan. The store’s Tammy Lafontaine says they’ve already gotten a lot of interest from across the border. “We are expecting a lot, a lot of Iowa residents. I have been fielding phone calls from people saying they’re traveling from the middle of Iowa, they’re renting rooms in Jumers (casino hotel), etcetera. It’s…it’s going to be quite, quite busy here,” Lafontaine says.

Out of state residents will be able to buy half the amount of marijuana that in state-residents can buy. Lafontaine says they’re also trying to warn out-of-state residents about the legal limitations.  “It’s still federally illegal. So whatever they’re going to purchase here in Illinois, they need to find a place that they can consume it in and those need to be private residences,” she says. “So if you have friends in Illinois, go to their house, enjoy your cannabis, go back home.”

It is still illegal to use marijuana in public in Illinois, to transport it across state lines, or drive under the influence of the drug.

(Radio Iowa) — January is typically the worst of the peak months for the flu in Iowa and health officials warn things are shaping up for a particularly severe season for the flu and other respiratory viruses. Dr. Melanie Wellington, an epidemiologist at the University of Iowa Hospitals, says they’re concerned because the southern hemisphere had a bad flu season. “We use that as an indicator to predict what’s going to happen during our flu season and it suggests that the flu season could be a bad one,” Wellington says, “but that is not a science.”

Iowans are being advised to watch out for what’s called respiratory syncytial (sin-SIS-shul) virus, or R-S-V. Symptoms are similar to the common cold, but it can cause severe illness — or even death — in young infants, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Wellington says, “You should seek medical attention if you have a cold this year, where it’s simply not getting better, where your breathing rate goes very high, where someone’s struggling to breathe, grunting or having troubles with their oxygen levels.”

R-S-V affects between ten and 20-percent of the state’s population each year. Wellington says the best way to prevent R-S-V is by regularly washing your hands. She notes, it’s still not too late to get a flu shot. While flu cases often show up during October and November, the peak months are December through February, though cases are sometimes reported as late as May.

(Reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) — The state medical director says while very few Iowa kids are smoking cigarettes these days, there’s been a sharp increase in the use of other kinds of nicotine products. Dr. Caitlin Pedati says 22 percent of 11th graders admitted on a 2018 survey that they used e-cigarettes to “vape.”

“That’s in contrast to just two years prior when only nine percent of 11th graders reported using those products,” Pedati says. Dr. Pedati, who works in the Iowa Department of Public Health, is state medical director AND state epidemiologist. She says the U.S. Surgeon General has declared e-cigarette use among youth to be an epidemic for good reason.

“We know that nicotine is highly addictive. We know that it can affect things like learning, memory and attention — especially in people whose brains are still developing which happens until about age 25,” Pedati says. “There’s also a concern that some of these products may contain things we don’t even know about and so they might have short or long term health effects.”

Research also shows routine nicotine use among teenagers increases anxiety. A 2018 survey found two percent of sixth graders and eight percent of eighth graders admitted they had “vaped” and state officials warn they’re using things that look like wrist watches, computer thumb drives or pens that adults may not recognize as a vaping device.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:22 a.m. CST
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A 14-year-old boy is dead after a shooting just hours into the new year in Des Moines. Police say the shooting happened about 3:50 a.m. Wednesday. Police say the shooting happened about 3:50 a.m. Wednesday. Arriving officers found the body of Josiah Woods along 17th Street. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police Sgt. Paul Parizek told KCCI-TV that the shooting happened after a dispute at a gathering. Parizek said police sought information from people at the scene but the lack of cooperation was “frustrating.” No arrests have been made.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg’s campaign says he raised more than $24.7 million in the last three months and now has a campaign staff of 500 people nationwide. It’s a show of financial and organizational strength heading into the presidential primaries. Buttigieg’s campaign says he has raised $76 million since he launched his bid for president, including more than 2 million contributions from over 733,000 people. It’s a notable feat for the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who gave up the position Wednesday when his successor was sworn in. Buttigieg’s average contribution was around $38.
ELDON, Iowa (AP) — Tiny Eldon in southeast Iowa has been losing population, jobs and business for nearly five decades, but one woman is trying to turn things around with a focus on tourism centered around the community’s famous landmark _ the house that served as the backdrop for Grant Wood’s famous “American Gothic” painting. Donna Jeffrey has lived in Eldon her entire life. The Des Moines Register reports that she is leading a downtown Eldon redevelopment nonprofit that seeks to reinvigorate the town by giving visitors a reason to spend more time and money there.
GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) — The superintendent of an Iowa care center for people with intellectual disabilities has been fired amid a federal investigation. Jerry Rea was notified in a letter Monday that he was being dismissed from his position at the Glenwood Resource Center. The letter says the dismissal is a result of disregard for policies and procedures. Associated Press efforts to reach Rea on Tuesday were unsuccessful. Rea had been placed on paid leave earlier this month. Few details have been released about the federal investigation. It covers concerns that residents with a range of developmental and physical disabilities were the subjects of sexual arousal experiments.