(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police this (Friday) morning, arrested a woman on a Theft charge. Authorities say deputies were dispatched at around 2:14-a.m. to the Cubby’s Convenience Store in Red Oak, for a reported theft. Upon further investigation, Deputies arrested 35-year-old Holly Irene Gross, of Red Oak, for Theft in the 5th Degree – a simple misdemeanor. Gross was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $300 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – A national study by A-A-R-P looked at where members want to live as they get older. A-A-R-P vice president Rodney Harrell says the numbers are pretty decisive. “The vast majority of people 50 and older, about three quarters, want to stay in their homes or stay in their communities as they age,” he says. Harrell says there’s a concern that the services offered in their communities may not be enough. “Most older adults feel that their communities meet their needs today, but only half of them were confident that that would be the case, that they could stay in their communities as they age, and 44 percent said that they would need to move in the future, or at least they anticipated doing so,” Harrell says. Things like getting a ride to the doctor are a concern, especially in rural areas.

“You don’t have the ability for transportation that’s around. If your mother doesn’t drive, can she get around to those appointments? Does she have the public transportation options, or the non emergency medical transportation, or any of the other options that could be there to help her get to what she needs?,” he says. And he says most homes are built to accommodate younger people and though it may be paid off, it may not be the best situation for mom. “Navigating the home safely and getting around to do what she needs to do. I mean, there’s layers of these challenges that hit each of us,” Harrell says. “So I think all of us need to think about, you know, each piece of our home as we’re thinking about the changes that we need to make to thrive there.” Harrell says the positive thing for those who are getting older is there are lots of resources to help you.

“Go to our A-A-R-P website. We have great assets like our home fit guide that tells you about the room by room approach to look at your home and the types of changes you can make,” he says. ” We’ve got our livability index that tells you about your neighborhood. But also, there are resources in every community that can help.” Harrell says check out those resources and see what you can use to help you stay in your home as you age. He says it’s also a good idea to start looking at those issues as early as you can so you can be ready to make changes to improve you situation.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Montgomery County report two people were arrested Thursday on separate warrants. 29-year-old Jeffery Whitt, of Villisca, was arrested Thursday night in Villisca, on an active Adams County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Public Intoxication. Whitt was transported to the Adams County Jail and held on a $300 cash bond.

And, at around 5-p.m. Thursday, Montgomery County Deputies arrested 37-year-old Jennifer Holz, of Red Oak, on an active Montgomery County warrant for a probation violation. Holz was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

(Anita, Iowa) – Rescue crews and firefighters from Anita were dispatched to an injury accident early this (Friday) morning, on Interstate 80 westbound in Cass County. The accident happened at around 2:15-a.m. near the 66.5-mile marker, where an SUV was in the ditch. According to reports from the scene, a 34-year old man from Nebraska suffered facial and unknown, other possible injuries when the vehicle he was driving went into the ditch.

He was extricated from the vehicle and transported by Cass EMS to Cass Health in Atlantic. There was no immediate word on his condition. The accident remained under investigation. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa State Patrol were investigating the crash.

(Radio Iowa) – Farm groups are urging state officials to continue funding development of livestock vaccines for bird flu and other foreign animal diseases like African Swine Fever and Food and Mouth Disease. Kelli Wicks is with the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association.

“Aside from total depopulation, which takes a toll not only on producers, but on our rural economies, vaccination remains the best way to stop the spread of those diseases,” Wicks says. Joel Harris is C-E-O and co-founder of Genvax Technologies, which is based in the Iowa State University Research Park. The start-up has received a state grant and a 250-thousand dollar state loan.

“These funds are helping us invest in critical equipment, personnel, facilities,” he says, “and it’s bringing us closer to creating safe and effective vaccines that address the top disease threats to Iowa’s $35 billion livestock industry.” A decade ago, Harris was involved in previous research that developed a vaccine for P-E-D-v — a deadly virus that has killed millions of piglets. Harris says developing a bird flu vaccine is essential.

“It’s not just poultry at risk anymore, but continues to threaten dairy and swine as well,” Harris says. “Now more than ever, strong investment in foreign animal disease preparedness, especially vaccines, needs to be a priority for the state. It’s one of the best ways to protect Iowa’s agriculture and stop these outbreaks from persisting.”

The Iowa Farm Bureau is calling for state support of research into how bird flu is transmitted to cattle. State and federal officials have confirmed cases of bird flu in 13 Iowa dairy herds.

(Radio Iowa) – Lower commodity prices and a drop in farm income are some of the issues farmers have faced this year. Iowa State Extension field agronomist, Aaron Saeugling says the farmers he’s talked to in southwest Iowa are adjusting. “You know, people are probably a little more cautious than they were a year ago. I think big equipment purchases are going to be, you know — probably a lot more cautious before they make those investments,” he says. Saeugling says a lot depends which areas had the best crop development.

“Everybody’s in a little different scenario. I mean, the bushels are there, the price is not. So, you’ll hear the grain merchandisers will use terms like, you know, ‘bushel their way out of it’,” he says. “Which at least you have bushels to sell. That’s the advantage of having a big crop, is that you have something to market.” Those who had dry conditions will not have the advantage of volume.

“When you get into extremely short crops or dry crops, you just simply don’t have the bushels to market,” he says. Saeugling says planting got started late in southern Iowa and that led to a late harvest, but he some reports of very good yields.

(Radio Iowa) – A northwest Iowa banker says interest rates and commodity prices are squeezing the farm economy. Jeff Plagge served as State Banking Superintendent for four years, retired from that post last December and is now a member of a state panel that forecasts state tax revenue. “Harvest was as fast as I’ve ever seen it, personally, this year due to the dry weather and I would say yields from what I’ve heard from most people were at least at or slightly better than usual, with some exceptions in some areas of the state, but the commodity prices have challenged the market,” Plagge says.

“It’s early in the credit cycle so we’ll find out a little bit more over the winter months what the true impact of that is going to be on ag.” In the agri-business sector, Cargill — which makes livestock feed — is laying off five percent of its workforce and John Deere has laid off over 17-hundred workers from its Iowa facilities this year.

“Farmers are pretty good at closing the checkbook when they feel like there are pressures on their balance sheet,” Plagge says. Plagge says despite the headwinds, however, the overall economy has been pretty resilient. Plagge has been in Iowa’s banking industry for 44 years and led four different banking organizations, including Northwest Iowa Banking Corporation in Arnolds Park.

Plagge retired from that family-owned bank holding company in 2020, shortly after he took over as state banking superintendent.

(Harlan, Iowa) – Officials with MidAmerican Energy report 225 customers in Shelby County were without power as of just before 2-p.m., today (Thursday). The company serves 2,028 residents and businesses in the county.

(Radio Iowa) – The head of Iowa Workforce Development says the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for November rose one-tenth of a point from October to three-point-one percent. Workforce director Beth Townsend says the increase was expected, even with the anticipated hiring of seasonal workers for the holidays.  “No, it wasn’t a surprise. We’ve been seeing a regular increase for quite some time due to anxiety and uncertainty, given the national election,” Townsend says, “so no, not surprised.” The national unemployment rate also rose for the month to four-point-two percent, more than a full point above Iowa’s rate. Townsend says Iowa typically has a better showing than the U-S figures.

“We have a much higher labor force participation rate,” she says. “The labor force participation rate nationally is 62.5 and our rate actually increased in November for the first time in 2024, so we’re at 66.3% which is good. We want to see it trending upwards.” Another bright spot in the report, according to Townsend, was that 16-hundred Iowans came back to the labor force in search of a job.  “I think the rate still reflects a little bit of uncertainty, and you didn’t have enough time between the election and the end of the month to see a whole lot of new hiring or things of that nature that would bring the unemployment rate down,” she says, “but we did see more people return to the workforce, and that is always a good sign. It was 1,600 people, so we’re very, very happy about that.” Townsend says it’s possible we’ll see better numbers for December, though she admits there may not be a significant shift upwards until spring.

“Well, I would hope so,” Townsend says, “but again, given that the new administration has not started yet and there hasn’t been significant changes in economic policy at this time, there’s going to be a lag between when a new administration comes in and starts implementing their own policies and when business and economy can catch up.” There are still about 50-thousand open jobs posted on Iowa-Works-dot-gov and Townsend says anyone who’s on the hunt for a new employment opportunity should log in.