(Radio Iowa) – An eastern Iowa company is manufacturing and marketing what it calls “micro rooms” that can placed in your back yard or beside the house to be used as a spare bedroom, office or sunroom, and in a host of business applications. Fred Smith, co-owner of FastPacs — based in Davenport, says they have four styles of rooms, all of which are eight-by-12-feet with a 10-and-a-half foot high cathedral ceiling. “They fold flat to about 24 inches, so you can ship them economically, you can store them economically, you can stack them,” Smith says, “and then they just pop up like an Erector set. Two people can finish the assembly in about two hours. They’re about 70% assembled when they show up, or we can ship it fully assembled.”

The price of a micro room starts around 16-thousand dollars, which Smith says is a much more cost-effective solution to solving space needs versus hiring a contractor to build a permanent addition to your home or business. “There’s no building permit required. These are temporary structures. They don’t need a foundation. They’re not taxable and they’re modular,” Smith says. “You can hook them together if you need extra space, plus, if down the road you move, you just fold it down, put it on the flatbed and take it with you.”

While Smith emphasizes the micro rooms are temporary, they’re exceptionally sturdy and are built to last. “They’re made of steel with vinyl or insulated hard side panels,” Smith says. “We ran a structural analysis on it with a local engineering firm and they have it rated for 110 mile an hour winds and eight-to-10 feet of snow, so these things aren’t going anywhere.” FastPaks’ micro rooms are being featured this week at the Home & Garden Show in Austin, Texas, with a series of similar home shows coming up, including the one in Des Moines in February.

https://www.fastpaks.com/

(Audubon, Iowa) – Officials with the Audubon Chamber of Commerce, Sunday, announced Saturday’s the T-Bone parade winners.

Antique Tractor, 1959 and older: Keith Grabill

Milestone Tractor, 1960 and newer: Matt Randeris

Saddle: The Audubon County Saddle Club

Jr. Division: The Girl Scouts

Sr. Division: 1st place – Audubon Fire and Rescue / 2nd place – Southwest Iowa Real Estate

Good Neighbor: Exira Fire Department

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa State University Extension specialist says canning or freezing home grown fruits and vegetables has become more popular in the last 10 years — and that picked up during the pandemic and is continuing now with higher food prices. Food specialist Renee Sweers says it’s important to preserve your produce using updated techniques.  “People tend to think that they should just fall back and do things, the way that their grandparents did or the way you know, somebody in their family in the past did it. And that might not always be the safest method,” Sweers says. “I think it’s kind of hard for people to understand, food preservation has been around for such a long time, kind of hard for people to understand that it really is based on science.” She says some cooking methods aren’t the best and safest anymore.

“We don’t use the what they used to call open kettle canning, where you just put the hot food in a hot jar and just put the lid on it. There’s no processing, I mean, that is an old process that is no longer considered safe,” she says. Some of the new technology is also not safe for canning foods — including the pressure cookers that you plug in. “Yes, we would do pressure canning in a pressure canner — but the instant pots and some of those types of electrical devices for pressure cooking are not to be used for canning,” Sweers says. And while you can get some helpful information online — she says there is also a lot of information out there that isn’t correct.

“We usually say, you know, if you come to our website, if you come to Iowa State University Extension Outreach, that’s going to be a reliable source, and really any of the extension services in the country –so whether you’re using Nebraska, or Kansas or Illinois or whatever, they should have good, reliable information,” according to Sweers. She says one other source that they always recommend is the National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Council Bluffs, Iowa — A so-called “electrical event” at the Google Data Center in Council Bluffs, Monday, resulted in three people transported to Nebraska Medicine in Omaha, hospital with critical injuries. KETV in Omaha reports authorities responded to the center, which is located near Bunge and Wabash avenues, at around noon, Monday. No information was immediately available about what caused the incident.

The incident was under investigation. A Google spokesperson provided KETV with a statement which read, in-part: ” The health and safety of all workers is our absolute top priority, and we are working closely with partners and local authorities to thoroughly investigate the situation and provide assistance as needed.”

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Police Department says no injuries were reported after two vehicles collided at an uncontrolled intersection Monday afternoon. The accident happened at around 4:20-p.m. at the intersection of Maple & Page Streets. a 2014 Dodge van driven by 22-year-old Kelby Aaron Durnin, of Fairbank, was traveling west across Page Street and having the right-of-way, proceeded through the intersection.

The van was struck broadside by a 2013 Chevy Impala traveling north on Maple Street, and driven by 20-year-old Skye Marie Davis, of Harlan, who had the responsibility to yield. Davis told Police she didn’t see any signs at the intersection, and when she proceeded, didn’t see the van until it was too late to avoid a collision.

Damages amounted to $5,000. No citations had been issued as of the time of the report.

(Radio Iowa) – Mike Franken, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, says Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is engaging in double-speak when explaining his no vote on capping insulin prices. Grassley says his vote was not about insulin, but about Democrats ignoring Senate budget rules.

“The short of it is: Did you vote for it or did you not vote for it? You didn’t vote for it so just admit it,” Franken says. “…There’s 240,000 Iowans that this affects.” Grassley says the senate should pass a bipartisan package that would include a limit on insulin prices. This weekend’s Senate vote to cap insulin prices at 35 dollars a month failed, as it needed 10 Republican senators to pass.

Franken says Grassley played politics when he had the chance to cap the sky high prices Americans are paying for insulin. “Why did you vote no?” Franken asked. “You voted no because that’s what Mitch McConnell wanted you to do.” During this weekend’s Senate debate on the package of health and energy proposals, Grassley criticized the bill’s tax credit for electric vehicle purchases. Franken says he hears from voters who want to buy electric vehicles — and have access to charging stations.

“We talk about the mayoral race in New York City of 100 years ago when the biggest issue was the removal of horse manure and four years later it was pedestrians getting hit by cars,” Franken says. “We talk about when smart phones came into existence in 2007 and everybody has one today,” Franken says. Franken says the technology is shifting to electric vehicles — and Iowa is in a position to benefit as more electric vehicles take to the road because of the state’s power generating capacity.