(Radio Iowa) – The number of new reported COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in Iowa is falling, but experts say it’s vital more parents get their children vaccinated against COVID-19, and stay up to date on other routine vaccinations. Joel Waddell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines, says he’s seen a decrease in routine childhood vaccinations against measles, whooping cough and H-P-V.

“What is very frightening to me is that we won’t get those numbers back up to the pre-pandemic vaccination level,” Waddell says. “And then we’re going to start seeing outbreaks of measles, whooping cough that can be even more deadly for kids than COVID.” Coronavirus is linked to an increase in multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare but serious condition that can affect a child’s organs. Waddell says some parents are hesitant to vaccinate their children due to worries about long-term impacts, but he says those concerns are groundless.

He says, “In the history of vaccines — so, a couple hundred years now — of every vaccine that’s ever been licensed out there, there’s never been a case where a side effect from a vaccine only showed up years to decades later. Never.” According to state data, less than a quarter of Iowa’s five- to 11-year-olds have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

[12-p.m. News] (Anita, Iowa) – A collision early this (Monday) morning between a semi and an SUV in Adair County, claimed the life of a man from California. The Iowa State Patrol reports a Freightliner semi driven by 27-year-old Jasvir Sood, of Fresno, CA, was traveling west on I-80 near mile marker 70, when the tractor-trailer struck the rear of a westbound 2008 Honda Pilot driven by 36-year-old Milinganyo Bwami, of Omaha. The accident happened at around 12:20-a.m.

The Patrol says following the collision, the SUV came to rest upright in the north ditch. When the semi entered the north ditch and rolled onto the driver’s side, Sood, who was not wearing a seat belt, was partially ejected from the cab and died at the scene. Bwami, and his passengers: 45-year-old Wabiwa Yungu, and two juveniles, aged 12- and 15, all from Omaha, were injured. The four occupants of the SUV were wearing their seat belts.

They were transported by Adair EMS to Mercy Hospital in Des Moines.

Republicans in the legislature have released their state spending plans for the budgeting year that begins July1st. House Republicans propose a one-point-eight percent overall increase in general state spending. House Appropriations Committee chairman Gary Mohr of Bettendorf says it includes a 31 million dollar increase in spending at the state supported universities and community colleges. “We want to cut taxes, but yet we want to provide services to the people of Iowa, but we want to do it in an ongoing, sustainable way,” Mohr says, “and this is doable.”

House Speaker Pat Grassley, a Republican from New Hartford, says the House G-O-P budget plan also includes 19 million extra for public schools to hire bus drivers, cooks and other staff. “We’re doing some other things within the budget with other investments on worker training, other things like that to make sure that we’re trying to address this workforce shortage that we’re seeing across the state,” Grassley says.

Republicans in the Senate are proposing a state spending increase of a little less than one percent. Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver of Ankeny says overall budget negotiations are starting far earlier than usual — alongside debates on tax policy and last week’s decision that set the level of state spending on public K-through-12 schools. “It’s a budget that does what I’ve said for a long time which is allow us enough room to continue to invest in priorities, while continuing to work on the tax reforms that we’ve been doing.” Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls says these spending levels are inadequate.  “They’ve been really clear that they want to do this huge tax cut that’s primarily going to benefit the wealthy,” Wahls says, “and they’re willing to cut or underfund state services to pay for it.”

Wahls says increased state spending on higher education is critical and he points to the waiting lists at Kirkwood Community College for health-care related training.

(Radio Iowa) – Investigators in Cedar Rapids are trying to determine what sparked a fire at a high-rise apartment building there early Sunday morning. Fire Chief Greg Smith told K-C-R-G T-V a fire like this is unusual. “It’s probably the most impactful high rise fire — actually true high rise residential fire — since I’ve been on the department for 28 years or so,” Smith says.

Crews went door to door from the 7th floor and above to clear out the facility. Cedar Rapids Fire didn’t have an exact number of those evacuated from the Geneva Tower during a news conference on Sunday. Geneva Tower is an income-based housing property. It mainly houses seniors and adults with disabilities. The department said two people suffered serious injuries. At least another seven people were transported to the hospital for observation. Chief Smith says they do train for these circumstances and that helped them respond. He says the crews work their muscles to it is just like football players practicing and he says the crews constantly train for the many elements they have to face.

Geneva-Towers-KCRG

Resident Ethel Brown talked with K-C-R-G T-V about the evacuation. “It was scary after I got back down here. I am on the sixth floor, I am on a walker, thank God the fire department helped me down,” she says. Resident Melissa Long says they had to get out quickly. “All of a sudden here’s the cops banging on doors — you didn’t have time to do nothing — you’ve got to get it and go,” Long says.

Firefighters say the management of the high-rise building is working with contractors to look at the damages and clean the building. Cleaning and repairs will need to meet specific standards before people can move back into their apartments. The fire department says Geneva Tower is a concrete structure, which means it holds the fire in the original apartment. The Fire Department is working with the Salvation Army and Red Cross to help those displaced.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Cass County Board of Supervisors have a light agenda for their meeting Tuesday, at 9-a.m.  The Board will receive a report from Engineer Trent Wolken with regard to the Secondary Roads Dept. maintenance tasks and activities. They will then formally accept the resignation (effective April 15th), of Cass County Auditor Dale Sunderman, and decide the best method of moving forward to fill the vacancy.

Board Chair Steve Baier said last week he thinks they will have interviews wrapped-up in a couple of weeks, with Sunderman’s replacement in-place by mid-March, to work with him until his last day in office. Sunderman announced on Feb. 16th that he is resigning after more than 37-years as an elected county official.

In other business, the Cass County Supervisors will act on approving a Class-C liquor license application for the Griswold Golf and Country Club. And, of applications have been submitted, they’ll act on the appointments of a Brighton and Massena Township Trustee.

(West Des Moines, Iowa) – January’s real estate activity was steady and similar in many ways to last year at this time according to the Housing Trends by the Iowa Association of REALTORS® (IAR). Home sales bumped up less than a one percent in January 2022 when compared to sales in January 2021. Median sales price rose 3.4 percent over January 2021. The IAR says 2,649 homes sold in January 2022 with new properties coming on the market dropping 9.9 percent compared to new listings in January 2021.  The median sales price for January 2022 came in at $185,000 compared to $179,000 in January of last year.

Officials say homes sold very quickly in January at an average of 41 days on the market. That is over 21 percent faster than January 2021. The number of homes available for sale continues to be low in many price ranges. Our inventory of homes was 16.5 percent lower than in January 2021 with only 6,896 homes on the market. According to IAR President Byron Menke, “Due to January’s typical winter weather, we saw the seasonal trend of slightly lower overall sales and less homes on the market. Potential sellers can take advantage of less competition on the market and a strong demand from buyers. Mortgage rates are still well below the historical average. We encourage buyers to get pre-approved and speak to a local Realtor® about starting the buying process.”

Statewide Market Report for January

View the Detailed PDF Report on Statewide Statistics

Housing Market Reports by Iowa County

View Reports on Single-Family homes.

View Reports on Townhouse-Condo homes.

The information used to create the IAR January Housing Trends Report was current as of February 15. The information is subject to change due to the dynamic nature of the IAR’s housing statistics system, which is based on data from the local participating MLS (multiple listing service) systems.  The Iowa Association of Realtors® is the state’s largest real estate professional organization representing over 8,000 members and affiliates. The IAR releases a Housing Trends Report each month.