(Radio Iowa)- If you got an ugly Christmas sweater, something in the wrong size or a duplicate item as a gift, ’tis now the season for returns and lines at customer service counters are long. Margo Riekes, spokeswoman for the Better Business Bureau, offers Iowans a few tips to keep the line moving smoothly. “Be patient because all of the sales employees, especially the first few days after Christmas, are overwhelmed with all the returns,” Riekes says. “If you’re patient, you’re more likely to get some action.” Standing in line for 45 minutes may try your patience, but she says to consider what it must be like to be the person hearing peoples’ complaints all day long.

“The customer who’s trying to return the gift should always be calm and polite when trying to do so,” Riekes says. “People will be much more willing to help them.” When returning an item, make sure to keep it in the original packaging and in like-new condition. “Do not take the tags off the things because once the tags are off, it’s probably impossible to return them,” she says.

If the gift giver was thinking far enough ahead to enclose a gift receipt in your wrapped box, it will make the process infinitely easier.

(Shenandoah, Iowa) — Officers called to a residence in Shenandoah early Sunday morning, arrested a man on felony charges of Arson in the 1st Degree, and 2nd Degree Burglary,  after he allegedly put a lit rag into the gas tank of a vehicle. The incident occurred at around 2:30-a.m. at a residence on Northwest Road. 49-year-old William Ludlo Stephens, of Shenandoah also charged with Domestic Assault/1st offense.

William Stephens

He was taken into custody and held without bond in the Page County Jail, pending an initial court appearance.

(Villisca, Iowa) — The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports deputies called to an apartment in Villisca at around 3:40-a.m., Sunday, arrested a man on an assault charge. Upon arriving at the apartments located in the 600 block of East 6th Street, authorities found a woman with multiple injuries to her face, arms and back.

Christian Meek

After an investigation, deputies arrested 27-year-old Christian Meek, of Villisca, on a charge of domestic abuse assault — first offense. Meek was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond, pending an initial court appearance.

(Radio Iowa) – Today is statehood day. Iowa became a state on December 28th, 1846 — so this is Iowa’s 175 anniversary. Iowa hasn’t always been the word residents have used to refer to the state. You hear this word in the lyrics of the Iowa Corn Song. The song was written in 1912. Leo Landis, curator at the State Historical Museum, says Ioway was not only spoken and sung, but it was printed in newspapers. “Ioway was almost as common if not a more common pronunciation for our state into the early 1900s,” Landis says.

“I’ve seen a Cedar Rapids Gazette article talking about that transition in the 1920s, where you stop hearing, ‘Ioway.'” Landis says many states are named for native peoples. Albert Miller Lea, the soldier and engineer who conducted a survey of an area of the Midwest in the 1830s referred to the Iowa District of the Wisconsin Territory. “That’s how the Ioway Nation, indigenous peoples to our state, get associated with the land that we know as Iowa today,” Landis says. Iowa was first proposed as a state in 1844, with a northern border that would have extended up to an area that is today known as the Minnesota Twin Cities.

“The federal government didn’t feel like that was a manageble size of a state, didn’t want a state that large, so rejected one of the early bills on statehood,” Landis says. While Iowa was admitted to the union in 1846, there wsa a dispute about the southern border with Missouri.  “Missouri had tried to claim some of that land. There’s the small Honey War issue in the territorial period,” Landis says. “That was still being disputed into the 1850s, with a Supreme Court ruling finally establishing, firmly, what our southern border is.”

Landis says the first big celebration of Iowa’s statehood was held in Muscatine on July I4th, 1888. It marked the 50 years of Iowa as a U.S. territory, then as a state. Newspaper accounts from the time described the day’s promising beginning and Mother Nature’s intervention at the end. “They had a beautiful parade and pageant in the morning and they were shooting off cannons,” Landis says. “Then that night…it was in July, we get a lot more thunderstorms in Iowa…the barge that has the fireworks in Muscatine is sunk. They can’t save anything. The buildings with the bunting, the bunting is being blown away.”

The Iowa legislature appropriated 10-thousand dollars for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Iowa’s statehood. It was held in Burlington, in October of 1896, and Landis says newspaper accounts described what happened during the opening day’s parade. “The reviewing stand collapses while the parade is going by with Governor Drake, Vice President of the United States Stephenson…People up front are pretty well protected, so Governor Drake and Vice President Stephenson escape with bruises and scratches, it’s described, but regrettably former Governor Sherman breaks his leg,” Landis says.

“…The Davenport Times has a really great story, one side of the newspaper talking about the beautiful celebration that’s taking place and then talking about a calamitous accident.” Landis says celebrations on the actual date of statehouse are uncommon because Iowa’s weather on December 28th is often less hospitable for gatherings. Landis says there are some important items in the State Historical Museum from the state’s territorial and early statehood period. ”

Artifacts like a drawing by Wacochachi, a Meskwaki elder who was living in Scott County and was friends with George Davenport as so, as a gift in the 1830s to George Davenport, drew animals that were sacred to the Meskwaki — still are sacred to the Meskwaki — and also some events from his life,” Landis says. An exhibit at the State Historical Museum titled “You’ve got to know the territory” includes materials from Territorial Governor Robert Lucas and his wife, Friendly Lucas.

(Thurman, Iowa) – A traffic stop Saturday afternoon on Interstate 29 between the Percival and Thurman exits, resulted in the arrest of two Nebraska men on drug charges. According to the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, deputies with the Fremont County K9 Unit stopped a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix for fraudulent license plates at mile-marker 19, southbound on I-29 at around 12:35-p.m.

The driver, 64-year-old George Haynes Sr., of Omaha, was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, possession of a schedule II controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and was cited for no valid driver’s license. He was being held at the Fremont County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

A passenger in the vehicle, 61-year-old Clinton Morris, also from Omaha, was arrested on an active warrant out of Nebraska. He was being held without bond, pending extradition.