Just in time for the Christmas shopping season, an Iowa consumer safety group is out with an annual report on dangerous toys. Kramer McLuckie, with the Iowa Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), unveiled the “Trouble in Toyland” report at Blank Children’s Hospital in Des Moines Tuesday, as several children nearby played with dolls and building blocks. One of the group’s biggest concerns involves toys on store shelves that present a choking hazard.

“We all know that toddlers like to put anything and everything in their mouths and between 2005 and 2010 that’s proven very dangerous as over 50 children have choked to death on balloons, balls, toys or small parts of toys,” McLuckie said. He encourages parents and caregivers to test toys with a toilet paper tube – if the toy fits through the tube, it’s too small for a child under three. Other toys Iowa PIRG put on display are considered too loud or contain toxic metals and chemicals. Doctor Vidya Chande, Medical Director of the Blank Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, said many kids are injured because they’re playing with toys that aren’t appropriate for their age.

“That, I think, is the core of the problem that I see in the emergency department. A toy that’s safe in the hand of a 12-year-old can be very dangerous in the hands of a two-year-old,” Chande said. “One of the challenges during the holidays is to keep the 12-year-old’s toys away from the two-year-old.” The national Public Interest Research Group has released the Trouble in Toyland report every year since 1985. According to the group, the reports have led to the recall of at least 150 toys and other regulatory actions to protect children from unsafe products.

(Radio Iowa) R5RyiDQP5N8

Dentists who are just out of school and ready to open a practice are being lured to rural Iowa by a program that offers a big hand toward paying off their college loans. Dr. Ed Schooley, dental director for Delta Dental of Iowa, says the foundation’s loan repayment program offers new dentists a generous check, but it comes with a catch. “It offers dentists $50,000 to set up practice in a shortage area of Iowa,” Schooley says. “That goes against the dentist’s student debt and they then agree to allocate 35% of their patient load to serving underserved Iowans.” That includes Medicaid-eligible, elderly, disabled, and other underserved patients.

Fifty-five of Iowa’s 99 counties are designated as dentist shortage areas, and Schooley says most new dentists are in a deep cavity from years of student loans. “The average dental graduate is over $170,000 in debt and if they set up practice on their own, they’re looking at another $250-to-300,000,” Schooley says. “A lot of dentists aren’t able to do that. This is a way for them to bypass the urban area and consider a rural area.” One or two grants are awarded each year. The program is in its tenth year and in that decade, Schooley says it’s made a significant impact.

“Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation has now generated over $1-million into this program and there have been 21 dentist recipients,” Schooley says. “They have seen over 40-thousand patients.” This year’s recipient is Dr. Matthew Pyfferoen, a pediatric dentist in Ames, who graduated from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry in 2010. The program is called FIND, for Fulfilling Iowa’s Need for Dentists. For more information, visit: www.iowafindproject.com

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An assistant federal prosecutor in Iowa has been named a district court judge to fill a vacancy left by a retirement.  Gov. Terry Branstad says he has appointed Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger to the bench in the Fifth Judicial District, a position which presides over cases primarily in Polk County.  The 37-year-old Ebinger will fill the vacancy left by Judge Artis Reis, who has retired.  Reis, of West Des Moines, became a district associate judge in 1995 and a district judge in 1998.

Ebinger, who has worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Iowa in Des Moines, received her law degree from Yale Law School.  Fourteen attorneys and magistrates had applied for the district court judge’s position, which pays $137,700 a year.

Among the counties included in the Fifth District are Adair, Adams, Dallas, Guthrie,  Madison, Ringgold, Taylor andUnion.

Emergency crews from the Red Oak Fire Department this (Tuesday) morning responded to a reported airplane crash at the Red Oak Airport. Emergency Manager Brian Hamman reports the fire department was dispatched at around 8:30-a.m.

Photo’s courtesy Montgomery County Emergency Management Director Brian Hamman.

Crews arriving on scene found a single engine aircraft that appeared to have gone off the runway during landing and entered a bean field in the middle of the airport complex. The pilot and single occupant of the aircraft was outside the aircraft walking around. The unidentified pilot was uninjured in the crash that involved a 1965 Fixed Wing Single-Engine Cessna Model 150F registered to Call One Incorporated, out of Clarinda.

Hamman says the airport was closed for a short period of time while emergency crews were on the runway. At this time the scene has been turned over to the FAA for investigation. The Red Oak Fire Dept was assisted on scene by the Red Oak Police Dept, Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Montgomery County Emergency Management Agency, City of Red Oak officials and airport authorities.