Discarded smoking materials are being blamed for a small deck fire Thursday evening, in Atlantic. Firefighter Gene Schmeling told KJAN News the damage to the deck at 806 Locust was minimal. The incident, which was originally dispatched as an overturned grill that landed on a deck and caught it on fire, was reported at around 6:28-p.m.

No other details are currently available.

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) – Storm Lake police have arrested a woman who they say played a game with her children that deprived them of oxygen. The Storm Lake Pilot Tribune reports 31-year-old Jennifer Cordova was charged with two counts of child endangerment on Thursday. Police say she played a “pass out game” with her 13- and 7-year-old sons. They say she pushed on the 13-year-old’s chest until he passed out. The 7-year-old wasn’t injured.

It’s unclear if the older child was hospitalized.  Cordova was released from the Buena Vista County Jail on $2,000 bond.

The latest report of a major retailer being hacked has prompted warnings for customers to keep an eye on their credit and debit card accounts. The spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General, Geoff Greenwood, says the Home Depot announcement shows why you should make it a habit to track you accounts. “We urge consumers, regardless if there has been a report of data breach, to monitor their bills,” Greenwood says. “That is sometimes not just your best, but your only defense in detecting when someone has compromised your card.”

Greenwood says you can take all the right steps and still have your data stolen. “These are likely eastern European, perhaps Russian hackers who have infiltrated a system according to media reports, and have sold credit cards on the black market, in what they call the Dark Web. And so, you may’ve done everything right and you may’ve been compromised, and the best way to figure that out is to look at your bills, look at your account statements. Keep on top of your accounts,” Greenwood says.

Another way to keep up with your accounts is through a credit report. “Credit reports are available for free. There are three credit reporting agencies, and you are entitled to one free credit report every year and you can get many more if you want to pay for them,” Greenwood says. “What some consumers do, is they will spread it out over several months. They will get a report from one agency and then three or four months later get one from another agency.”

He says there are some specific instructions for Home Depot customers. “Any customer who used a credit card or debit card at Home Depot in the last six months should act accordingly and look at their account activity,” according to Greenwood. You can go to the Attorney General’s website to find out more. He says there is information on the website about what you can do. Right now you can call Home Depot directly if you have more questions, as Greenwood says Home Depot has not released specific information yet on the time frame involved in the hacking.

The latest retailer hack comes after Target reported having its data stolen near the end of last year.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa officials say the number of fatal heroin overdoses more than doubled in the state last year. The Des Moines Register reports the Iowa Department of Public Health says 20 people died in 2013. That’s up from eight in 2012. There were about one to four heroin deaths a year prior to 2008.

An Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement director says Iowa’s heroin problem seems to be worse in the eastern part of the state. He says those areas are closer to Chicago suppliers. The department didn’t say who the victims were or where they died.

An addiction-treatment specialist says the national increase in heroin use correlates to a rise in the abuse of prescription painkillers.