(Radio Iowa) – The wintry weather is forcing most Iowans to spend more time indoors — and with furnaces, fireplaces and space heaters running, there’s a serious risk from an odorless, colorless gas. Le Mars Fire and Rescue Chief Dave Schipper strongly recommends carbon monoxide detectors in all houses, apartments and mobile homes.  “We want everybody to have a carbon monoxide alarm or carbon monoxide detector just like a smoke detector,” Schipper says. “We want those to be placed where you can hear them. A lot of people tend to buy carbon monoxide alarms and put them in the basement, which is fine — if you can hear them. Otherwise, we want them in the sleeping area so they can awake you if there’s a problem.”

When people close up their houses because of the cold and there is little ventilation, Schipper says that’s when carbon monoxide calls to his department become common.  “This time of year, we see all kinds of problems with carbon monoxide as far as furnaces that aren’t running properly, fireplaces that may be plugged or have creosote built up in them,” he says. “We have a lot of people that tend to run their cars in their garage to warm them up in the wintertime. Even if the garage door is open, that carbon monoxide is staying in the garage or pushing into the house.”

Schipper says it’s critical to take precautions since carbon monoxide is invisible and has no scent, and without a detector, there’s no way to know if it’s seeping into your house.  “That causes headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting,” the chief says. “A lot of people think they’re just getting a cold or the flu or getting sick, but really they could be having a carbon monoxide problem.”

A good C-O detector can cost as little as $15 and it could save your life.

(Radio Iowa) – The Sioux City Police Department is warning the public about a group called the National Police and Trooper Association after it contacted the police chief. Officer Valerie Rose says the legitimacy of the group cannot be verified. “It claims to help law enforcement families but when you google it you can see out there that it looks like it’s fraudulent and we can’t verify its legitimacy on it,” Rose says. She says they do know that local law enforcement is not being helped by the group. Rose rose says this is the time of year when scammers try to take advantage of people being in a giving holiday spirit:

“They happen all throughout the year every day it’s just an ongoing thing but of course, they do tend to take advantage of the holiday spirit and the generosity that people are feeling during this time of the year they’ll try to pull on those heartstrings to get money, unfortunately,” she says. Rose says they always advise you to take the time to verify online what the organization is and if you know they are local or otherwise legitimate. “Get on there, Google it, check their ratings check and see if there are any news stories that have already been done that are warning people that they are a scam,” Rose says. “See if there are any complaints against them claiming that they are fraudulent. You can check with the Better Business Bureau. You can also get online and you can check the Federal Trade Commission.”

If you do decide to donate, be suspicious of how they want you to pay them. “If it’s a scam, they’ll try to pressure you. They’ll tell you that you need to act immediately and then they’ll tell you weird ways to pay them,” she says. “We always advise never pay by gift card or wire transfer or cryptocurrency those right there are red flags if they’re trying to get you to donate using kind of a strange or an odd, uncommon means a way to pay.”

She says these scams primarily use the telephone to contact you, but scammers may also use email, text messages, social media, or U-S Mail. Rose says Chief Rex Mueller immediately recognized it might be a scam and checked it out.

(Glenwood, Iowa) – Sheriff’s officials in Mills County, Tuesday, issued a report on five accidents, during which there which no injuries….

On Dec. 19th, a 2004 GMC driven by 18-year-old Jeremiah Day, of Malvern, was traveling east on Highway 34 at around 7:30-p.m., when his vehicle went out of control due to the extreme ice and snow conditions. The vehicle entered the east ditch and hit several trees before coming to rest.

On the 21st, 42-year-old Floyd Cozad, of Glenwood, was leaving his residence at Gillens Court at around 12:23-p.m., in order to pick his kids up from school. Authorities say while backing up, Cozad’s 2003 Chrysler struck the driver’s side box of a 2015 SIlverado pickup, driven by 42-year-odl Jeremy Blum, of Glenwood. There was no recognizable damage to the Chrysler, authorities said, but the truck had a dent. Floyd admitted to being at fault, as he did not see the pickup. He was cited into court.

On Dec. 23rd, a 2014 Ford driven by 59-year-old Raymond Weber, of Glenwood, was traveling north on 221st Street at around 3:18-a.m., when the vehicle went out of control while Weber was negotiating a curve on the slick, snow-packed road surface. The vehicle struck a cable barrier on the east side of the road, causing the vehicle to change direction and further downhill, sliding into a ditch on the westbound side of the road, where the vehicle rolled onto its top.

Mills County Sheriff’s office say on Christmas Day, 64-year-old Carol Brehmer, of Clarinda, was driving a 2002 Dodge south on Highway 59 at around 8:24-p.m., when a deer ran onto the roadway. The road was  wet and slick, conditions which officials said made it impossible to avoid striking the deer. The impact occurred on the front driver’s side, and resulted in disabling damage.

On Monday (12/26), 35-year-old Corrie Lusch, of Glenwood, was driving a 2011 Nissan northbound in the 50,000 block of 221st Street, when his vehicle struck a deer. The accident happened at around 6:19-p.m.

(Radio Iowa) – If you’ll be making a New Year’s resolution on Saturday night, you may need to genuinely focus on making the change in order to keep the pledge. Alison Phillips, a psychology professor at Iowa State University, says our approach to making resolutions usually sets us up for failure.  “I’ve seen two different statistics, one is that 80% of resolutions fail by the second week in February,” Phillips says. “The other is a bit less depressing and that’s 40% of us are still hanging on after four months. Either way, long-term efforts at changing our behavior generally fail.” Phillips, who studies behavior change and habit formation, says to focus on how to make changes that will lead to creating a better version of yourself.

“This is important because behaviors that do stick around are those that become part of our self-identity, it’s how we see ourselves,” Phillips says. “They’re usually things that we’re proud of, that we’re good at, and they make us feel like we’re competent at something.” Zero in on things you can become good at and that you see yourself doing and take pride in, she says, as those are the kinds of things people won’t give up on. “Habits form as you repeat them in a stable context,” Phillips says. “Pick a time that’s pretty regular that you could do it and that will help you form a habit more quickly. Also, pick something that you relatively enjoy. You might not like exercise at all but pick something that you hate the least and that you would be proud of yourself to do.” If better physical fitness is your target, Phillips says it’s important to aim for specific goals that focus on behavior and not on certain outcomes, like a number on the scale.

“If you prefer bicycling to running, by all means, go for the bike,” Phillips says, “even if it’s in the gym and the stationary bike isn’t awesome, maybe try a spin class until the weather is nicer.” Everyone fails, she says, so plan ahead and rehearse how you will cope when you run into barriers. Also, social support is important, so in addition to having a workout buddy, make sure your family is on board, too, and will encourage you as you create new, positive habits.

(Radio Iowa) – There’s still a lot of weeks of winter to get through — but Iowa State University Extension is already looking ahead with Master Gardner training starting soon. Extension specialists, Alicia Herzog, says the training will be offered in 27 counties beginning in February. “The Master Gardener training program is actually a volunteer training program, and not a lot of people realize that. So master gardeners, our extension volunteers, that work in the different counties across the state,” she explains. “And we do cover about 75% of the state with the Master Gardener program right now.” Herzog says most of the training is set up so you won’t have to venture out into the winter weather.

“You do all the materials online. So we have lecture videos on there from our experts at Iowa State, we have supplemental readings and different publications that they’ve created. And then we also have quizzes to help people with retaining the information that they’re learning, and a textbook that goes along with it. So it is pretty robust,” according to Herzog. There will be four in-person sessions at your county office. “And those can be field trips, they can be hands on classes about how to propagate plants, they kind of come up with all sorts of different creative ways that they implement those in-person offerings,” she says.

The application window for the 2023 Winter Master Gardener training opens January 9th. Once you go through the training,you can use that horticulture and gardening knowledge to help educate people in your communities, and coordinate projects that promote healthy communities. “So they might work in a donation garden, they might work with school, children, youth, and teach them about gardening, or they might teach adult education classes at a library once a month and help people learn about how to prune their bushes or keep their house plants happy. So they do a lot of different things in their communities,” Herzog says. Herzog says you don’t have to have any gardening background to get started.

“You just have to be interested in gardening or horticulture,” she says, “You know, you can be interested in turf, you can be interested in trees, it doesn’t have to be what we think of traditionally, as gardening, you don’t have to just be interested in flowers, or just be interested in vegetables.” And she says you need the desire to learn and grow because it is a continuing education program for adults. And you have to be interested in volunteering and helping your community. Iowa State has offered Master Gardener training for more than 40 years.

You can find out more at the I-S-U Extension website. The counties involved in the training are: Black Hawk, Calhoun, Cerro Gordo, Clay, Clinton, Davis, Dickinson, Emmet, Floyd, Franklin, Iowa, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson, Keokuk, Kossuth, Madison, Mahaska, Marion, Mitchell, Monona, Monroe, Palo Alto, Poweshiek, Shelby, Tama, Wapello, Warren, Woodbury, Worth and Wright.

(Greenfield, Iowa) — Thanks to the community and local businesses for their support, six Nodaway Valley High School cheerleaders raised enough money from the sale of donuts, allowing them to make a trip to Orlando, Florida on January 2nd, where they will cheer during the Citrus Bowl pre-game show.

In a Facebook post, the Nodaway Valley Community School District said the six cheerleaders sold over 150 dozen doughnuts to raise money for the trip.

In the event their Southwest flights get canceled, some of the cheerleaders’ moms have volunteered to drive them there. LSU will play Purdue in the Citrus Bowl, which will be televised on ABC. The game begins at noon CT. (Images shown are from the Nodaway Valley CSD Facebook page)

(Radio Iowa) – Brenna Bird will take over Monday as Iowa’s attorney general, the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years. Bird’s central campaign promise was to — in her words — see Joe Biden in court. “Yes, I will be standing up for Iowa and joining any lawsuits against the Biden Administration’s overreach,” Bird says. Bird is still developing a proposed budget for the office, but one of her first moves will be to ask the Republican-led legislature to approve funding for more prosecutors.

“I will be beefing up the prosecution portion of the office to make sure that we can take the cases that Iowans need us to take to court,” she says. Bird, who has been Guthrie County Attorney, says she’ll miss prosecuting cases at the local level. She plans to review the state’s Crime Victim Assistance program. “We’re going to do an audit of all of those services and grants that are offered to crime victims and those organizations and make sure we are serving victims and that victims are coming first in the justice system,” Bird says, “and we’re also working to have a ‘cold case unit’ to make sure that no one gets away with murder.”

Brenna Bird

In 2021, the Iowa Senate unanimously voted to create a unit in the Iowa Department of Public Safety that would focus on unsolved murders and missing persons cases, but the bill then stalled and didn’t become law. This past year as Bird campaigned, she talked about creating a cold case unit in the attorney general’s office, because most other states have one. “We would work with all law enforcement agencies, including DPS, local police, sheriffs, ” Bird says. “We would work across the whole state.” Bird also wants to establish what she calls a “special victim’s unit” in the office.

“That would focus on those cases, like child molesters and other cases where it’s so important that people be brought to justice,” Bird says. Bird criticized her predecessor, Democrat Tom Miller, for failing to travel the state and meet with local law enforcement. Bird says she intends to visit every one of Iowa’s 99 counties each year. Bird has announced her top deputy will be Sam Langholz, who had served as chief legal counsel for Governor Reynolds until Miller hired him in 2021.

Bird ran against Miller 12 years ago and lost by 11 points. She won this year’s campaign against Miller by one-point-eight percent.

(Radio Iowa) – University of Northern Iowa officials are raising money to renovate what U-N-I president Mark Nook calls “iconic spaces” on the Cedar Falls campus. “In 2026, when we turn 150 years old, the Campanile be 100 years old, the UNI-Dome will be 50 years old and the Gallagher-Bluedorn Performing Arts Center will be 26 years old,” Nook says.

The most recognizable of those three is the UNI-Dome, which Nook says isn’t just a regional center, but a facility that serves the entire state, with the state football playoffs, there are various ag and home shows that happen in there and concerts, so it really is a resource for the state, so it’s one we’ve got to pay attention to and make sure we keep up to date,” Nook says, “and after 50 years, it needs a little work.”

Part of the plan is to replace the bleachers with stadium seating. “Right now if you attend an event there, you’re sitting on 18 inches of aluminum with a pretty solid back behind you,” Nook says. “What we want to do is pull all of those out is replace them with stadium seats and cupholders, so you can be a little more comfortable when you’re in the venue.”

UNI photo showing top of the UNI-Dome.

UNI’s predominant school color is purple and Nook says the plan calls for the new seats to be purple. The surface of the indoor track is to be upgraded as well, “and make it also very UNI specific in purple and gray with our big logo on it,” Nook says. “One of the big improvements will be in the restrooms. Our current restrooms need some work.”

The plan is to add space to the UNI-Dome for new restrooms, which Nook says will free up space in the facility so crowds can move more easily. Nook made his comments during a recent “Iowa Press” episode on Iowa PBS.

(West Des Moines, Iowa) –  November 2022 unit sales of single-family homes were down 29.5 percent compared to November 2021, but not unexpected with the yearlong rise in home mortgage interest rates. Overall, year-to-date unit sales is only down 9 percent according to the Housing Trends by the Iowa Association of REALTORS® (IAR).

2,638 single-family homes and 332 Townhouse-Condo homes sold in November 2022. The national mid-term elections also typically play a part in home sale activity as well as overall economic factors such as inflation and unemployment. Despite all this, 2022 appears to be returning to a more normal state of activity compared to the last two years.

Another market indicator is the median sale price of homes. During the month of November, the median sale price of single-family homes was flat at $191,000 compared to $192,000 in November of last year. Townhome-Condo median sale prices proved to be the leader by seeing a 10 percent increase over November of 2021 and a 2022 year-to-date increase of just over 12 percent. The median sale price of a townhome-condo in the month of November was $219,950.

The number of homes for sale in 2022 appear to have finally started trending upward since the low count of 5,200 homes for sale in April/May. November for-sale inventory levels were close to 6,900 homes for sale bucking a trend of decreasing inventory ever since pre-covid years. We still have a way to go to bring our number of homes for sale back to more desirable level, but any increase in inventory is welcomed.

The average days on market continue to be around 32 days for single family and 44 days for townhome-condos but with holidays in the mix, this is a good sign that buyer activity is remaining strong. The winter months are the best opportunity to homebuyers to be able to negotiate compared to the spring/summer months when homes have been selling at or above list price. The average single-family home price during November sold at 97.5 percent of asking price.

The outlook for homebuyers and sellers across the state for 2023 is very promising. Expectations of mortgage interest rates settling to around 5 to 5 ½ percent for next year will give homebuyers confidence that they are not going to be priced out of affordability due to continued rising interest rates.

Homeowners that have been sitting on the sidelines also watching interest rates will be ready to finally jump into the for-sale market in 2023 adding much needed inventory for homebuyers.

2022 IAR President Byron Menke says for those asking “Is winter a good time to buy or sell a home?,” the months of November through January are good times before the spring market wakes up. Buyers can look for homes at a little slower pace and historically home prices are at their lowest during these months. Homeowners also recognize that they are also able to take advantage of lower purchase prices when they sell and become homebuyers.”