(Ames, Iowa/Iowa Dept. of Transportation) – The holiday season can bring on a whole new level of stress. The joy of the season can sometimes be overcome by the pressure. If you’re rushing around to complete your holiday “to-do” list, don’t try to save time by driving aggressively.

Don’t think you’re an aggressive driver?

Do you:

1. Regularly drive over the speed limit or try to beat red lights?
2. Honk your horn often?
3. Yell or use obscene gestures at other drivers?
4. Not yield the right of way to another driver?
5. Weave in and out of traffic?
6. Fail to signal a turn or lane change?
7. Tailgate other vehicles?
8. Deliberately block lanes so another driver can’t change lanes?

If you can answer “yes” to any of these questions, take some time to calm down. Recognizing the behavior is the first step to changing it. Here are some other tips:

1. Try to avoid driving when you’re upset.
2. Listen to soothing music
3. Plan ahead to avoid the need to hurry.
4. Don’t take the actions of other drivers personally.

It’s not always going to be easy but staying calm behind the wheel will keep our friends and family members safer.

Here are 22 ways to calm yourself down, both in and out of your vehicle – https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-calm-down

In Iowa in 2022, there have been 303 deaths in traffic crashes. That’s an increase of one since last Friday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to the daily fatality report at https://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf

(Radio Iowa) – While retailers nationwide are bracing for a shopping extravaganza on this Black Friday, locally-owned merchants across Iowa are hoping for a bigger boost tomorrow. Jayne Armstrong, director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Iowa District Office, says Small Business Saturday is a crucial day for the state’s consumers to “Be Loyal, Buy Local.”  “It’s just a special day where we get to put the spotlight on small business and say we recognize how important you are,” Armstrong says. “We really want to encourage people to get out and support you this holiday season but really every day is Small Business Saturday.”

Armstrong says 97-percent of Iowa’s businesses are small businesses and embracing them improves the backbone of our state. Armstrong says, “If we really want to get out there and support our economy, we need to be supporting small businesses 24/7, 365 days of the year.” If you’d like to support Iowa’s wealth of merchants who are outside of your immediate area, dozens of businesses are now offering their wares at www.shopiowa.com, which Armstrong says makes it easy to patronize even more hometown heroes in -other- Iowa towns. “ShopIowa has become very popular,” Armstrong says. “A lot of retailers have really put themselves out there online through ShopIowa.com. With the excellent customer service and everything that they provide, we see a lot of people going through that to buy Iowa-made products.”

The website covers a wide array of goods, including artwork, furniture, food, toys, t-shirts, beauty care products, jewelry and more, all crafted in the Hawkeye State.

(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.