(Radio Iowa) – A reality T-V show star and entrepreneur will make two appearances in Iowa next week. Craig Conover is a founding cast member on “Southern Charm,” which launched on Bravo in 2013, following the lives of several young professionals in Charleston, South Carolina. Conover says he’s thrilled to be making his first trip to Iowa for the Des Moines Home and Garden Show.  “We’ll have a nice fireside chat on the stage where I’ll tell you a little bit more about my life and whatever the moderator wants to ask me, and how I was able to start my business and some tips for small businesses and entrepreneurship, and some fun behind-the-scenes stuff for the show,” Conover says. “Then we always do a question-and-answer session with the audience and they can ask me whatever they want. I’m an open book.”

Sewing is an atypical avocation for most men, but Conover loves it. It’s why he launched Sewing Down South in 2019, which features Southern-inspired pillows, home décor, lifestyle, and apparel collections — all of which he designs. “I grew up with home ec class still in schools, which was awesome, so I learned to cook and garden and sew, and I just found it incredibly therapeutic,” Conover says. “So as I started to make throw pillows, our business grew into other areas of the home. Eight small family businesses go into each one of our pillows that are made, and we sew everything in the Carolinas.” Conover is one of only two original cast members who’s still on “Southern Charm,” which is now in its 11th season with more than 160 episodes. He attributes the program’s longevity to the South Carolina community where it’s based.

“I think the city of Charleston is its own character and one of our biggest cast members,” Conover says. “People who have visited Charleston love to watch it on their television screens, or who have lived there or who want to visit one day, so I think Charleston itself and all the history. It’s just a beautiful city.” Conover’s birthday is next week and he’s accomplished much in his 38 years. When asked about his goals for the -next- 38 years, he says philanthropy is what makes him the happiest. “I’ve traveled a lot all over the world and seen a lot of different levels of living,” Conover says. “I was talking to an actor friend last night, actually, and he said, ‘Maybe one day we’ll feed a million people together.’ So it’s really just trying to figure out a way to most efficiently turn my personal success into that where I can help as many people as possible.”

Conover is to appear next Friday and Saturday (Feb 13 and 14) at the Des Moines Home and Garden Show at the Iowa Events Center. The show runs February 12th through the 15th.

DesMoinesHomeAndGardenShow.com
https://www.sewingdownsouth.com/

(Creston, IA) – The Creston Police Department reports a woman was arrested on drug charges, Thursday afternoon. 56-year-old Donna Jean Kimball, of Creston, was arrested at N. Cherry and Irving Streets, at around 1:30-p.m. Kimball was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia and Possession of Controlled Substance Methamphetamine. She was taken to Union County Jail and later released after posting $1,300 cash or surety bond.

And, at around 7:20-p.m., Thursday, Creston Police arrested 18-year-old Adrian Michael Lillie, of Creston. He was charged with Driving While Barred. Officers cited Lillie and released him from the scene on a Promise to Appear in court.

(Radio Iowa) – Several Iowa communities are holding what are billed as training sessions designed to teach people how to respond to ICE activity. A recent meeting in Cedar Rapids drew nearly 600 people. Reverend Jonathan Heifner at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, where the event was held, says it was about building relationships, and making sure people know their rights. “We don’t want anybody to get hurt,” Heifner says. “We didn’t want anybody to be in a situation they didn’t want to be in, and so the education of this is about knowing what we can do and knowing what the limits are.”

The training comes after weeks of protests across the country and the fatal shootings of two Minnesota residents. Heifner says people told him they felt more informed about their rights after the training. “I think the biggest learning was in the debrief after the first simulation,” Heifner says. “We asked, ‘Pay attention to your behavior. What is it that you did in these moments, and then consider who you want to be in these moments, and let’s live into that the second time.’”

Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson says the training encourages interference with law enforcement operations and she questions whether the non-profit that led the training should retain its tax-exempt status. The training session in Cedar Rapids was hosted by the immigrants’ rights group Escucha Mi Voz, or “hear my voice.” Reverend Heifner says there was nothing in the training that would lead to the church losing its tax-exempt status.

(Atlantic, IA) – The Cass County Extension office will be offering two opportunities for private pesticide applicators to attend their annual Private Pesticide Applicator Continuing Instruction Course (P-CIC), led by Extension Field Agronomist, Aaron Saeugling. The first session is scheduled for Thursday, February 12 at 1:30 PM. The course will be offered again on Thursday, March 19 at 6:30 PM. Preregistration is not required. Walk-ins are welcome on the day of the program.

The course will run for approximately 2 ½ hours, including check-in and breaks. The registration fee is $30. With questions or for additional information, contact the Cass County extension office at 712-243-1132 or email xcass@iastate.edu. The course will fulfill 2025-2026 recertification requirements for private pesticide applicators. Topics to be covered include:

• Personal protective equipment and safe handling
• Professionalism, Storage of pesticides, including chemical security
• Pests, pest management, and pesticides

To renew their certification, applicators must pass an exam every three years or attend an approved Private Continuing Instruction Course (P-CIC) between December 1 and April 15 each training period their certification card covers, including the year they passed the exam (if the certification is issued prior to October 1).

Applicators unable to attend in Cass County may take the training online or find another training location in a neighboring county. For more information on the Private Pesticide Applicator program or other upcoming CIC classes, please visit www.extension.iastate.edu/psep/.

(Red Oak, IA) – A traffic stop late Thursday night in Red Oak resulted in the arrest on drug and other charges, of a man from Taylor County. According to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Deputies conducted a traffic stop near S. Broadway and W. Market Streets in Red Oak, at around 11:07-p.m., Thursday.

Following an investigation, they arrested 50-year-old Nathaniel Gene Teeters, of Bedford, for a controlled substance violation-methamphetamine (a Class-B Felony), Possession of a Controlled Substance/2nd offense – Marijuana (A Serious Misdemeanor), and Driving While Barred (Aggravated Misdemeanor).

Teeters was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held on a $25,000 bond. Montgomery County’s K-9 “Bane” assisted in the arrest, along with officers from the Red Oak Police Department.

DES MOINES, Iowa (IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH) – An Iowa Senate committee has rejected legislation that would prevent nursing homes from barring residents’ use of in-room cameras to guard against abuse or neglect. Senate Study Bill 3080 would allow a nursing home resident or their representative to conduct electronic monitoring of the resident’s room through the use of video cameras — sometimes called “granny cams” — placed inside the room with the consent of any roommates.

The bill was scheduled to be discussed Wednesday at a meeting of the Iowa Senate Committee on Technology, which is chaired by Sen. Charlie McClintock, a Republican from Alburnett. However, the bill was pulled from the agenda shortly before the meeting began. McClintock said Thursday the bill was removed from the agenda once the panel determined it did not have the support of a majority of the committee members.

Without the approval of the committee, the bill’s chances of making it to the floor of the Senate for a full debate are greatly diminished.  If the bill doesn’t advance, 2026 would mark at least the sixth year in a row such legislation has been rejected by state lawmakers. As in previous years, the granny-cam legislation is backed by Diane Hathaway, a Glenwood resident whose mother, Evelyn Havens, was twice hospitalized for severe dehydration, bed sores and an infection while living in an Iowa nursing home.

Although state inspectors would later determine Hathaway’s complaints about the nursing home were valid, the home had refused Hathaway’s request to place a camera in her mother’s room. After Havens’ death, Hathaway launched a campaign to win approval of legislation that would prevent Iowa care facilities from barring the use of cameras. “Nursing homes need to be held accountable to fulfill their legal obligation to deliver compassionate, quality care to each and every resident,” Hathaway said Thursday. “This bill would have provided a necessary first step for ongoing reforms.”

Publicly, industry lobbyists have said they fear resident-owned cameras will create invasion-of-privacy issues for residents — although many Iowa nursing homes have for years used their own surveillance cameras in hallways and common areas to monitor both residents and workers. In fact, state inspectors have repeatedly relied on such footage to document instances of abuse and neglect – even in state-run care facilities.

Nationally, at least 22 states have passed laws concerning residents’ use of cameras in nursing homes, and at least 16 of those states give residents the express right to use such cameras regardless of the homes’ corporate polices. Some states, such as New Jersey, have gone even further, setting up camera-rental programs run out of the state attorney general’s office. Other states allow nursing home operators to prohibit the use of resident-owned cameras, as Iowa now does.