(Radio Iowa) – After a nearly year-long vacancy, the state medical director has been on the job for 49 days. Dr. Robert Kruse is not a native Iowan, but Kruse says he established strong roots here as a young adult. “I did start kind of my career path in undergrad at the University of Iowa in biomedical engineers and went on to pursue my masters in public health with a focus on environmental and occupational health and my medical degree at St. Georges University,” Kruse says.

“From there I actually trained as a family physician at Rutgers’ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and joined as a full time kind of core teaching faculty…teaching new doctors to be family physicians.” Kruse, who is 37, was medical director of occupational health at MercyOne in Des Moines when he interviewed for the job of state medical director. Kruse says his background gives him a vision of how primary patient care and public health interact.

“Having kind of those diverse experiences whether it’s engineering or whether it’s a family physician delivering care in various capacities, whether it’s in-patient, out-patient, taking care of newborns, end of life care,” he says. Kruse started with the state on October 7th, shortly after the Department of Public Health and Human Services merged. He says under the new alignment, there may be more ways to address the health of Iowans at risk for chronic disease.

“Working together to look at some of these opportunities to address some of those needs and address them as we see them,” he says. Kruse replaces Dr. Caitlin Pedati as state medical director. Pedati was hired in 2018 and became a central figure in the state’s early response to COVID-19. She resigned in late October of last year and is now director of the Virginia Beach Department of Public Health.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Red Oak Police report the arrest at around 3:48-p.m. Thursday, of 32-year-old Kiley Brian Caron, of Red Oak. He was arrested on a valid Montgomery County warrant for Failure to Appear on an original charge of Driving Under Suspension. Caron was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash-only bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Carroll County Attorney John Werden is urging congress to approve spending on youth programs designed to support at-risk kids and, hopefully, keep them out of the criminal justice system when they’re adults. Werden is on the executive board of a non-partisan group representing sheriffs, chiefs of police and prosecutors from all 50 states.  “We work for legislation in Washington that we believe, long term, reduces or prevents crime,” Werden says.

The group “Fight Crime: Invest in Kids” was formed in 1996. Werden and other leaders of the group were recently in Washington, D.C. to lobby for increased funding of a federal program that provides home visits for new parents in high-risk areas. “It’s a voluntary visiting program where we get nurse level professionals going into homes — mainly single parent homes — to emphasize good things that you and I were raised with, which is go to school, study hard,” Werden says, “all things that we know will lead to success later in life.”

Under current funding levels, Werden says only three percent of the households that qualify for the program are getting at home visits. The group is also asking congress to reauthorize another program that provides federal funding for state facilities that house juveniles who’ve been arrested and charged with a crime. At the local level, members of the group focus on combating truancy. Werden says research clearly shows keeping kids in school is critical to fighting crime.

“If I want to know who’s going to be in prison, show me the kids in the 4th grade who can’t read,” Werden says. “These are going to be our future prisoners, so keeping people in school, keeping them involved and engaged is very, very important.”

According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 70 percent of the adults in U.S. prisons cannot read at a 4th grade level.

(Sidney, Iowa) – Officials with the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office say because of the higher-than-normal car fatalities in the last couple years, and a lower percentage of seatbelt usage, the County has been asked to participate in the High Five Project to lower the number of major accidents and increase the percentage of seatbelt usage. That will be done through special projects involving the state patrol and deputies with a focus on seatbelt enforcement. The cost of not wearing or wearing improper is $175.50.

Statewide, in 2021,72% of fatal crashes in Iowa occurred on secondary rural roads. Approximately 79% of Iowa’s total roadways are considered secondary in nature. Due to these alarming statistics rural safety has become a major concern.

Beginning December 1, 2022, a new initiative identified as “High Five Rural Traffic Safety Project” will be launched to focus on traffic safety on Iowa’s rural roadways. After reviewing 5 years of crash data and looking at counties with low seat belt compliance rates, the Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau along with a multi-disciplinary team of traffic safety professionals selected five rural counties to participate in this project.

The counties participating in the project include Appanoose, Fremont, Humboldt, Keokuk and Mitchell. The High Five project will involve a three-tier approach to include enforcement, engineering, and education with the ultimate goal to build a safer community. Through enforcement, media, and community outreach, participating agencies will work to educate drivers on the benefits of complying with traffic laws with an emphasis on Iowa’s seat belt law. From an engineering aspect, the focus will be to identify low cost safety improvements throughout the county.

Law enforcement and county engineers within the High Five counties are conscientious safety advocates who understand rural roads are unique because they are shared by a variety of vehicle types from passenger vehicles to large machinery and other farm implements traveling at slower speeds. The road surface types and speeds also vary. Enforcement efforts on roadways with higher volumes are common but with Iowa’s percentage of rural fatalities above the national average the need to have a special program focusing coordinated efforts on rural safety has become apparent.

The High Five project will begin December 1, 2022 and will conclude on September 30, 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – A motivational speaker is urging Iowa teachers, administrators AND students to separate from their smart phones and connect with the humans around them. Joe Beckman, a consultant based in Minneapolis, was at the School Administrators of Iowa conference in August and he spent a couple of days in Spencer schools last week. “How do we say yes to the benefits of tech, but not lose the one thing that got us here in the first place, which is human connection?…We know tech’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” Beckman says. “It’s not the bad guy in the room. If we use it in a way that makes our world and our lives better, if we use it as a tool rather than a companion.” Beckman says smart phones have become a crutch.

“We are trying to fill different voids in our lives that real human connections were able to fill in the past,” Beckman says. “Real lonelineeds, feeling that you are part of something that is bigger than just you, contribution towards something or someone that makes them better — all of that takes real interaction, connection, being with people. And that’s hard to do and it’s impossible to replace if we do it from a virtual side of things.” Beckman is the author of a book titled “Just Look Up” that he describes as a tool to engage with those around you.

“Our brains are really good at finding things that are easy. It’s how our biology is. We want to do the least amount of work and get the biggest benefit and human connection is hard. It’s a lot easier to look down than it is to look up because looking up is fraught with rejection and fear and, ‘What do they think of me?’ and yet at the same time what we know as adults is that sometimes the hardest things and the right things are the same thing and I believe human connection is the right thing.”

Beckman was a featured speaker at training sessions hosted earlier this year by the Grant Wood and Prairie Lakes Area Education Agencies. A recent Pew Research Center poll found 45 percent of teenagers are almost constantly on the internet and more than half felt anxious or lonely if they didn’t have access to their smart phone. Researchers from Iowa State University and other institutions who reviewed national data from 2009 through 2015 found an abrupt change in the sleeping habits of teenagers who used their smart phones at least two hours a day. Those with higher usage rates were far more likely to be depressed.

(Radio Iowa) – Making a big family meal for Thanksgiving doesn’t have to be a significant drag on your energy use. One tip from energy savings advisor Allison Trouy is don’t dawdle when you’re preparing to use the oven. “You want to make sure that the green bean casserole is ready for baking by the time the oven finishes pre-heating,” Trouy says. “Heating the oven for longer than needed is just going to waste energy and that’s going to waste your money.” Trouy says once something is in the oven, resist the urge to open the door to peek on its progress

“Don’t do it,” she says. “Opening the door can actually drop the temperature as much as 25 degrees, which will add cooking time and energy use.” Just flip on the oven light to check on baking food instead of letting out that heat. Another thing to keep in mind is that cooking in the kitchen may keep your house warmer than normal. “It is a great opportunity to just lower your thermostat a few degrees and you probably won’t notice a difference,” Trouy says. “And really, any time you can take the opportunity to lower that thermostat, it can really add up to some significant savings.”

Another way to save energy and time is to avoid the temptation of washing the dishes as you go. Instead, she suggests waiting until all your dishes need to be cleaned and you can fill the dishwasher before turning it on. “It is going to use the same amount of energy to heat up, whether it’s full or not,” Trouy says. “You might as well maximize that energy use and get everything in there you can before you run it.”

If you have a programmable thermostat, the U-S Department of Energy says to turn it down by 10 to 15-degrees before leaving the house for an eight-hour span, and you’ll save up to 15-percent a year on your heating bill.

(Pocahontas County, Iowa) – A man from Hartley died early Thursday morning when his pickup crossed the centerline of the road and struck a Mack truck. The accident happened northwest of Havelock, at around 2:28-a.m.  According to the Iowa State Patrol, 75-year-old Richard Leath was driving a 2007 GMC Sierra north on Highway 4 and it collided with the southbound Mack truck driven by 65-year-old Daniel Meyers, of Spencer.

Leath died at the scene. He was wearing a seat belt. Meyers was uninjured. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Pocahontas County Sheriff’s Office, Pocahontas Fire and Ambulance, Pocahontas Police, and Havelock Fire.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University supply chain expert says retailers face more costs now in handling returns, and many have looked at different ways to change their policies. Robert Overstreet says you can help by knowing the policy before you buy. “Certainly you need to look up the policy and one thing I would convey to consumers is to be more intentional in your purchases, take the time to make sure it’s what you want before buying it,” Overstreet says. He says holiday gift buying does fall into a different category for retailers when it comes to returns.

“Retailers generally treat the holidays a little differently — you know where they are more lenient with the policy. … If there’s a 30-day window they won’t start that 30-day window until say Christmas or the day after Christmas — they understand that you know people getting something as a gift will need more time to return it,” Overstreet says. He is an assistant professor of supply chain management and says the costs for dealing with the returns have increased for retailers with staffing and other issues. Overstreet says there are always some people who want to push the system too far and his research group asked people about that.

“We ask people ‘Do you consider yourself someone who violates a returns policy that goes beyond the intent of a retailer’s returns policy?’,” he says. “And only about one percent maybe two percent of those who responded identified as someone who’s abused a policy.” Overstreet says they figured people might be a little self-serving, so they asked the question in a different way. So we asked, thinking about your friends and family, what percentage of your friends and family do you consider someone who would on occasion violate a retailer’s returns policy. We got an answer closer to 11 or 12 percent,” he says.

Overstreet says retailers have tried all types of return policies and can have issues if they are too lenient, and also if they are too strict.

(Radio Iowa) – Studies show there are more cooking fires on Thanksgiving than any other day of the year. Fire prevention expert Amanda Swenson says all Iowans should know how to use a fire extinguisher before there’s a sudden flare-up on the stove. “That’s a scary situation and that’s not the time to learn how to use an extinguisher,” Swenson says, “so be familiar with how to pull out the pin, how to unhook a nozzle if there’s a hose with the nozzle attached.” Thirty-four lives have been lost in house fires in Iowa so far this year, which tracks closely with last year during which 29 people died in fires statewide. Five children died in Iowa housefires just this month, one in Walcott and four in Mason City.

Whenever you’re cooking on the stove, whether it’s in a pot, saucepan or skillet, Swenson suggests you have a big metal lid nearby that could fit over any of them.  “Plan ahead of having a lid close by to the stovetop,” she says, “because the easiest thing to do is if there is a fire on the stovetop, just slide a lid on, turn off the burner and let it sit.” While Thanksgiving is the worst day of the year for cooking fires, officials with the National Fire Protection Association say Christmas Day and Christmas Eve are a close second and third.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa State University ag economist Chad Hart says the recent sale of 73 acres of northwest Iowa farmland — for 30-thousand dollars an acre — indicates Iowa farmers are seeing fairly good profit margins. “At the same time, too, though — I would say that we’re also hearing of less land being put on the market because folks are worried that those prices may be weakening,” Hart says.

Higher interest rates are a factor, plus Hart says agland that’s not rated as excellent ground for raising corn isn’t selling for especially high prices. “So there’s a separation that I think’s occurring right now where high quality land is still attracting those dollars,” Hart says, “where maybe the middle and low quality land may be starting to see some erosion in those values as we look forward.”

On November 11th, a tract of farmland near Sheldon appears to have set an Iowa sales record of 30-thousand dollars an acre. It was purchased by a local farmer according to the auctioneer who handled the sale. The value of farmland that’s enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program appears to be holding steady, according to Hart. “There’s a market for it and I think when we look the payments that are being offered for those conservation programs, that’s helping hold that value where it’s at,” Hart says, “but we’re not seeing a run on that market like we are seeing on high-quality cropland.”

There’s a calculation called the “corn suitability rating” for agland and Hart says there’s a limited number of tracts of that highly rated ground for raising corn coming up for sale. “The reason we see sort of northwest Iowa really, if you will, light up when it comes to land values is that you’ve got not only crop producers who are competing for that land, but also the livestock industry,” Hart says. “With strong dairy up there, the cattle industry and even a few hog producers up there, it creates a very strong competition for that land up in northwest Iowa that helps push those land values higher than what we see in the rest of the state.”

Hart is currently the crop market specialist in Iowa State University’s Department of Economics. Hart began his career at Iowa State in 1996 in I-S-U’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.