(Radio Iowa) – Even with the holidays well behind us, the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is continuing to impact air travel, causing delays and cancellations at airports in Iowa and around the country. Kyle Potter, executive editor of Thrifty Traveler-dot-com, says recent bouts with wintery weather are only making a bad situation worse for air travelers.

“The undercurrent of all of this, from Christmas and New Year’s and all the way back through the fall and summer and even spring of 2021,” he says, “these kinds of mass cancellations have become really routine.” Reports say around five-thousand flights were cancelled nationwide just last weekend, with Southwest Airlines alone suspending more than a thousand flights. Des Moines International Airport reports it cancelled around 30 flights during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, with more in the days that followed.

Airport flight status board

“The reason why is that airlines have just stretched themselves way too thin because they’re much smaller than they were heading into the pandemic,” Potter says, “and they just don’t have the kind of wiggle room to operate a reliable schedule when things go wrong.” For Iowans who plan to fly sometime soon, he recommends being proactive and closely monitoring the status of your flight.

“Airlines don’t always do the best job about automatically notifying customers when they’ve canceled or delayed a flight,” Potter says. “Especially as you get to the two weeks leading up to your trip or so, I would just constantly check on things, maybe once a day.” Reports say Southwest was offering double pay for staff who agreed to take extra shifts last week. Just like other industries, airlines are dealing with escalating numbers of illnesses among pilots and staff, many due to COVID.

(Radio Iowa) – Republicans in the Iowa House are considering changes to the application process for government food assistance and health care coverage through Medicaid. One bill would require the state to adopt a new online system to verify a person’s income, to ensure recipients qualify for government benefits.

“What we’d like to see ultimately is that the state government is doing this electronic verification check for everyone who participates in these programs to the extent that it’s allowed under federal law,” said Andrew Conlin, who represents a Florida-based group called the Opportunity Solutions Project.

Iowa Department of Human Services director Kelly Garcia isn’t opposing the bill, but she said the agency already has made changes to make eligibility checks more accurate.

Another bill would require applicants to submit personal information online to confirm their identity. Luke Elzinga is with the Des Moines Area Religious Council, which oversees several food pantries. He said filing online could be easier for “people with transportation barriers, medical reasons that they can’t leave their house, but we do think that this should be an option because by making it a requirement you’re eliminating barriers for some but you’re also creating some additional barriers.” Elzinga said the online registration could be an obstacle for low-income Iowans who don’t have internet access.

Both bills have cleared a House subcommittee. This month’s report from the Iowa Department of Human Services shows more than 800,000 Iowans are enrolled in Medicaid. That’s about 25% of the state’s population.

(By Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio/O. Kay Henderson Radio Iowa)

(Radio Iowa) – An expert who studied the Iowa gambling market says the state-licensed casinos in Council Bluffs and Sioux City are going to feel a big impact as Nebraska’s casinos ramp up — but says they will weather the storm. Matt Rowe of Spectrum Gaming Group says there will be some adjustments.

“It will be a significant blow to them. They may reduce employment, they may reduce the size of their gaming floors because there’s only so much capacity in the market. But they’ll be okay. They’re still solid properties, there’s still a good amount of revenue that they will be generating,” Rowe says. He says the Iowa casinos have some advantages in resources.

“You have to remember that the casinos that are here in Iowa — particularly in the Council Bluffs market — are national chain casinos. They’ve got properties everywhere from Maine to Albuquerque and Las Vegas and Atlantic City, so there are many opportunities for them to cross-market,” according to Rowe. He says they can offer promotions for their properties outside of Iowa while the Nebraska casinos don’t have as many options.

“If you earn points at casino Council Bluffs, you can redeem them at a casino in Las Vegas. If you earn points at a Warhorse casino in Lincoln — you can redeem them at a Warhorse casino in Columbus (Nebraska)? It’s just a different level of competition,” he says. He says the same thing applies in Sioux City, which is a Hard Rock casino.

The Council Bluffs market is currently Iowa’s largest in terms of revenue. Projections are that the Council Bluffs casinos could lose 45 percent of their market to new Nebraska competition. The report estimates Sioux City’s Hard Rock casino could see a loss of 50 million dollars in adjusted gross revenue.

DES MOINES– Gov. Kim Reynolds today (Friday) announced her appointment of Jennifer Benson Bahr as a district court judge in Judicial District 4.  Bahr, of Crescent, Iowa, currently serves as a district associate judge in Judicial District 4.

Bahrpreviously served as an Assistant Pottawattamie County Attorney and has also served as the Webster and Humboldt County Attorney. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and her law degree from Drake University Law School.

Judge Jennifer Benson-Bahr (Iowa Judicial Branch photo)

Bahr fills the vacancy created by the upcoming retirement of District Court Judge James S. Heckerman. Judicial District 4 includes Audubon, Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby counties.

(Creston, Iowa) – The driver of a 1995 Chevy pickup fell asleep at the wheel early Friday morning, and rolled the vehicle into a ditch. The Union County Sheriff’s Office reports 27-year-old Dominique Aleksander Buchanan, of Clearfield, was traveling west on Highway 34 at around 2:30-a.m., when he fell asleep.

His pickup went off the road on the north side, causing Buchanan to wake-up. When he over-corrected, the vehicle crossed the center line of the road and entered the south ditch where it rolled onto its side and came to rest. Buchanan told authorities he laid on the ground for an extended period of time before moving towards the roadway.

He attempted to flag down several vehicles before one of them finally stopped and gave him a ride to the hospital, in Creston. The pickup he was driving sustained about $5,000 damage.