(Radio Iowa) – Music has changed through the years and so has the way we buy and listen to it, but one thing that’s remained constant is Weird Harold’s. The record shop in downtown Burlington is making plans for a 50th anniversary celebration next month. The original owner, Danny Bessine, started out selling eight-track tapes and some vinyl. Coincidentally, Bessine says he wasn’t a huge music fan when he opened Weird Harold’s. “Nope, not at all,” Bessine says. “I was just an entrepreneur looking for a business, and I felt that this was a business that we needed in this town.” Bessine has since retired but still helps out at the store. The current owner, Andrea Fritz, started working at Weird Harold’s in 1994 when she was just a teenager. Fritz says she had the most coveted position and considers herself very lucky.

“I was 16 and I needed a job, and I was hired,” Fritz says, laughing, “and I’ve never left.” The store has endured the decades and the shift from vinyl to cassettes, then to C-Ds and M-P-3s. She credits loyal clients and collectors from around the world, and in-person visitors who marvel at the stock of more than 50-thousand records. Weird Harold’s, named for a character in the old “Fat Albert” cartoon, was forced to close for about six weeks at the beginning of the pandemic, but Fritz says she was still coming to the store to fill orders for their eBay store. “I would see people come to the door and if they wanted something, I’d go get it for them and sell it to them and take it to the door to them,” she says, “and we sold a lot online and kept our correctional facility orders flowing.”

Bessine says they’ve been selling music to inmates for close to 30 years, including prisons all around Iowa, Nebraska and other states. Fritz says there’s a difference between someone who just listens to music and someone who loves music. She says a music listener might hear a song and download it if they like it enough. “But a music lover loves a band, loves an artist, they can tell you everything about it,” Fritz says. “They know all the words to all the songs. They collect everything. They go to the shows. They know the band members. They know the triangle player in the touring band. They know all that.”

The store has diversified, with about one-third of sales in store-based music sales, another third in mail orders, and the final third in music-related items like t-shirts, posters and stickers. Over the years, many musical celebrities have visited the store, including Johnny Cash, Roy Clark and several members of Guns N’ Roses. The anniversary celebration is scheduled for Saturday, November 19th at the store.

A store in Council Bluffs that’s been in business for 37-years, claims to have more than 1-million records in a 10,000 square foot facility. Kanesville Kollectibles sells some of those records for just a Dollar.

(Rich Egger, Tri States Public Radio)

(Radio Iowa) – A man who once ran a photography business in eastern Iowa has pleaded guilty to a federal child pornography charge. Gordon Grabau’s home in Marion was searched last summer. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, investigators found 160-thousand files containing child pornography on five different devices. Some of the images involved infants and toddlers. Grabau had previously worked as a T-S-A supervisor at the Cedar Rapids airport. After his arrest last summer, he was immediately suspended from his long-time volunteer role as a reserve deputy in the Linn County Sheriff’s Department.

Grabau, who is 51, has pleaded guilty to one count of receiving child pornography. The conviction carries at least five years or a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. Grabau had operated a business in Marion called G-G Photography. During a hearing last year, an F-B-I agent testified Grabau had been sharing pornographic images for the previous nine years.

(Radio Iowa) – The chief of the Centerville Fire Department has retired following a month of administrative leave. As first reported by the Ottumwa Courier, the city of Centerville accepted the resignation of Fire Chief Mike Bogel, who led the fire department since 2011. Bogel was placed on administrative leave on August 30th, a day after the city received a report from two consultants that revealed low morale and dysfunction within the department. Further details were not made available in the report which was heavily redacted. On Monday, Centerville’s city council named Assistant Chief Vern Milburn the interim fire chief.

Centerville officials plan to launch a search for the next head of its fire department. In mid-September, a Centerville POLICE officer was fired after allegedly sending an explicit video while on duty.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – MercyOne Hospital in Des Moines has updated its visitor guidelines. The new policy essentially says masking is encouraged, but no longer required. The guidelines say visitors must be 16 years old, with the exception being for patients meeting certain or compassionate care criteria. Visitors must also be free of signs of illness and will be screened for symptoms of COVID-19. The new guidelines went into effect on Oct. 17th.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak have arrested a man on a warrant. Authorities say 43-year-old Dewight Eugene Binau, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 6:30-p.m. Tuesday, on an active Fremont County warrant, for Violation of a No Contact Order/Contempt of Court. Binau was being held in the Montgomery County Jail, on a $3,000 bond.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department reports the arrest Tuesday evening, of 53-year-old David Wayne Kemp, of Creston. Kemp was arrested at his apartment and charged with Sex Offender Registration Violation 1^st Offense, and 2 counts of Sex Offender Verification 1^st Offense. He was being held in the Union County Jail on a $6,000 cash or approved surety bond. 

HENDERSON Co., Ill. (KWQC) – Two workers with a Burlington, Iowa construction company died Tuesday morning, after they were struck while on a bridge worksite, in Illinois. According to the Illinois State Patrol Troopers responded to the scene at around 8 a.m. on the Great River Bridge. The workers, identified as 20-year-old Pearson J. Franklin and 35-year-old Andrew Whitcomb, both from Burlington, were walking behind their stationary pickup truck and trailer, with the yellow construction lights activated, while setting construction barrels for a work zone on the Great River Bridge of U.S Route 34 westbound.

A 2016 Mazda CX5, driven by 21-year-old Emily Johnson, was westbound on the bridge hit a barrel, and then hit the two workers causing fatal injuries. The driver and both construction workers were transported to an area hospital, according to troopers. Both of the construction workers were pronounced dead. Johnson was cited for Scott’s Law – improper passing of a stationary emergency vehicle, improper use of an electronic communication device and failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash.

(Radio Iowa) – Early voting begins today (Wednesday) in Iowa for this year’s General Election. Iowans may vote in-person at their county auditor’s office or the election office in their county. This is also the first day county auditors can mail an absentee ballot to a voter who requested one. In order to be counted, your county auditor must RECEIVE that ballot by 8 p.m. on November 8th. Secretary of State Paul Pate says don’t depend on overnight delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.

“Allow for at least five days, conservatively, and you’ve got well over a million homeowners mailboxes and we’ve got another 4000 ‘blue’ (USPS) boxes to utilize,” Pate says. “County auditors usually have a dropbox as well.” Dropboxes must be inside or directly outside the county auditor’s office. Iowans can track the progress of their absentee ballot online. The address is voter-ready-dot-Iowa-dot-gov (www.voterready.Iowa.gov).

“I highly encourage that for anybody who’s voting through the mail, the absentee process. I think it gives you a better feeling of security that, ‘Yep, it got there,’ and so you can also check to find out where your ballot is at,” Pate says. “If you’re requesting one and wonder why you haven’t gotten it yet, you can see if they got your request. It’s, I think, a very good tool for folks to look at and use.” The most common mistake voters make on a mail-in ballot is they forget to sign and date the envelope.

Next Monday, October 24th, is the last day you may ask your county auditor to mail an absentee ballot to a voter. “If they have questions, we always encourage them to go to www.voterready.iowa.gov, or to call their county auditor,” Pate says, “just to make sure they’re successful.” Early voting has been underway in the neighboring states of Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota and more than a dozen other states. By Tuesday morning, 153-thousand Iowans had submitted a request for an absentee ballot and Pate is repeating that reminder about a new deadline for absentee ballots.

“We want to make sure you know it needs to be in the possession of the county auditor on November 8th,” Pate says. Voters do not have to mail absentee ballots. They may be hand-delivered to their county auditor’s office. A voter’s relatives or guardian may assist in returning an absentee ballot. Under a new state law, anyone else could be charged with a crime if they collect or deliver an absentee ballot from a voter with whom they have no legal or family relationship.

(Radio Iowa) – The Cherokee Community School Board has voted to let select staff members carry firearms on school grounds. The school board’s president says the policy is a response to active shooter situations around the country. Superintendent Kim Lingenfelter spoke with K-T-I-V television:

“We were approached by staff that wanted to carry, that carry a gun competently wherever they go except for school and that’s how our conversation began and they asked that we bring it to the board,” she said. “Then conversation began with law enforcement officials — the chief of police, our school resource officer.”

Those approved to carry a weapon in Cherokee schools will have to undergo training and the Cherokee Police Department will determine which staff members qualify. The Spirit Lake school district passed a similar measure in August. Its plan involves ten anonymous staff members who carry concealed guns on school grounds, but none of them are teachers.

(Radio Iowa) – FedEx is opening a new distribution center in Cedar Rapids. FedEx announced plans for the 109 million dollar facility earlier this year. The center will sort FedEx Ground packages and a company press release indicates it will be able to process up to 15-thousand packages per hour.

The company intends to hire nearly 300 full and part-time employees for the Cedar Rapids operation as the holiday shipping season gets underway. They’ll be given a chance to remain on the FedEx payroll beyond the holidays.

The facility in Cedar Rapids is of more than 160 fully-automated FedEx Ground stations. The company says more than 97 percent of its daily package volume is managed through these sites.