MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police say tips have picked up on the 1995 disappearance of Iowa news anchor Jodi Huisentruit after she was featured on CBS’ “48 Hours” this month. Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that police received at least two dozen calls and emails since the episode aired Dec. 15. Brinkley didn’t comment on the information in the tips, citing the ongoing investigation. But he told the newspaper that he hopes the exposure from the program will help spur more people to come forward with information.

Huisentruit was 27 when she went missing on her way to work June 27, 1995, at station KIMT in Mason City. Investigators have never found Huisentruit, who was declared legally dead in 2001. No one has been charged in her disappearance.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Instead of giving her a ticket, two Iowa sheriff’s deputies treated a woman to a Christmas shopping spree after pulling her over. Jasper County Sheriff’s Reserve Deputies Rod Eilander and Nathan Popenhagen pulled the woman over for not having license plates on her truck, Des Moines television station KCCI reported Monday.

When they asked if she was ready for Christmas, she said “no.” Eilander told the station that the woman had no money, was out of gas and was on her way to borrow $10 from a friend to buy dinner for her kids. Eilander said he and Popenhagen decided to buy her children gifts. They picked up a football, a bucket of slime, earrings and a new backpack at a Walmart. Then other people at the store started taking part in the act of kindness.

“Out of nowhere, an angel walked up to us and handed her a $50 Walmart gift card,” Eilander said.
A different customer gave the woman $20, someone in the parking lot pitched in another $20, and the deputies gave her $20 for dinner. The deputies then wrapped the presents at the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office while the woman went through donated clothing at the jail.

“My heart is full tonight being with the ones I love and to spread the holiday cheer to others less fortunate than me,” Eilander said.

(Radio Iowa) — Thousands of Iowans are getting new televisions, cell phones, laptops, and other high-tech gadgets as Christmas gifts. Iowa DNR Senior Environmental Specialist Susan Johnson is urging them to recycle their OLD electronics. “Many retailers will take back e-waste for recycling, regardless of whether you purchased a product from the retailer or not,” Johnson said.

It’s believed U.S. consumers who fail to recycle e-waste, annually, send over two-million tons of computers, TVs, cell phones, printers, scanners, and other such items to landfills.  “E-waste accounts for about 40-percent of the lead and 75-percent of the heavy metals found in landfills,” Johnson said.  Most electronic products contain toxic materials such as lead, cadium, arsenic and mercury. If they end up in landfills, those toxins will contaminate groundwater. While many retailers recycle e-waste, there are also regional collection centers for household hazardous waste in 93 Iowa counties.

“Not only do they take back most electronics, but other household hazardous waste too, such as stains, varnishes, and pesticides,” Johnson said. E-waste recycling habits are improving in the state. According to Johnson, Iowans recycle – on average – over six-million pounds of TVs and computers every year.

(Radio Iowa) — Republican Senator Joni Ernst, a combat veteran, says one of her top legislative accomplishments this past year was a collaboration with one of the Senate’s most liberal Democrats. “That measure in the National Defense Authorization Act to raise awareness and to treat traumatic brain injury, that was done with my colleague Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts,” Ernst says.

The legislation directs the military to take steps to track, treat and prevent brain injuries among soldiers. The Pentagon is now required to include information about recognizing brain injuries in its regular training sessions for soldiers. “That’s one that was very important to me and we were able to see that through to fruition,” Ernst says.

Ernst has collaborated with other Democratic senators on military matters. In 2015, for example, Ernst and California Democrat Barbara Boxer sponsored legislation signed by President Obama that allowed female pilots from World War II to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2019, Ernst will for the first time be serving in a politically-divided legislative branch.

“It can be painted as very difficult and in some circumstances it will be difficult having a divided congress with Democrats taking majority in the House of Representatives,” Ernst says, “but, at the same time, there is still opportunity and a lot of the work that I do here in the United States Senate is done in a bipartisan manner.”

In August, Ernst and a Democratic senator from Delaware cosponsored legislation designed to help military veterans get college credit for their military training.

More State and area news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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The occupants of a home in Red Oak escaped without injury early Monday morning, after a fire broke out at around 3:15-a.m. According to reports, several departments responded to the fire in the upstairs bedroom at 410 East Nuckols Avenue, in Red Oak. A functional smoke detector alerted the residents to the danger.

The second floor of the home sustained extensive fire and water damage. Red Oak fire was assisted at the scene by crews from Elliott and Stanton. Red Oak Police, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, MidAmerican Energy and Red Oak’s Water Department also provided assistance. Firefighters were on the scene for about two-and-a-half hours.

The American Red Cross was contacted to assist the homes’ residents. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

(Radio Iowa) — A new climate assessment for Iowa and the rest of the Northern Plains predicts the region will see overall warmer temperatures and more “rain extremes” in the months and years ahead. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub, based in Ames, says ag producers will need to make more and more adjustments, starting with soil health. “At worst, maintain. Don’t lose any more of your soil, but do things that help regenerate that soil with reducing tillage when you’re harvesting a crop,” Todey says. “Don’t remove some of that stover as much as possible to help renew the soil and help keep regenerating the soil.”

While concerns have been raised for years over nutrient application on fields and the subsequent run-off, Todey says fertilizer use will have to be even more carefully monitored. “Being more judicious with our nutrient application so we don’t get any kind of water quality issues,” Todey says. In some areas of the region, he says agricultural producers may have to consider changing the crops they plant to align better with the changing climate. “Corn and soybeans are things that people know how to grow,” Todey says. “They’re insured. There’s a number of issues supporting that, but, especially when we have the pricing issues right now, are there other things you can grow, that you know how to grow, that are more able to be managed under the conditions we’re dealing with?”

The national climate assessment report endeavors to forecast approaching changes over the next 10-to-30 years.

(Radio Iowa) — State transportation officials are asking lawmakers to give the green light to another state-run driver’s license station in central Iowa. Driver’s licenses and I-D cards are issued in 83 county treasurers’ offices — and the Iowa D-O-T operates facilities in the most heavily populated areas of the state. Iowa D-O-T director Mark Lowe says “We have 17 service centers in 16 counties right now.”

There already are two D-O-T license stations in Polk County — one in Ankeny and the other on the north side of Des Moines. Lowe has presented the governor with a plan to open a new D-O-T service center on the west side of the Des Moines metro, in Dallas County. Lowe says Dallas County officials are overwhelmed. “They’re doing about 26,000 licenses and IDs a year which is over seven times more than the average county treasurer’s office and it’s very comparable to what we do in our Ames, Council Bluffs and Dubuque Service Centers,” Lowe says. “Dallas County officials have come to us and asked us if we would take over the services in Dallas County and we’ve agreed to do that.”

Lowe says Dallas County’s population is two-and-a-half times larger than it was when the Dallas County Treasurer began issuing licenses out of the courthouse in Adel. The D-O-T director told the governor staffing costs for the new D-O-T facility in Dallas County would be half a million dollars.  “You’ll also see in our capital budget $350,000 which would be the build-out of a leased facility to house the new service center,” Lowe says. “And we’re targeting the start of January of 2020 to have that up and running in place and Dallas County has been working closely with us and will be a great partner in that transition.”

This is the D-O-T’s second try at getting a new service center in Dallas County. In 2016, Senate Democrats voted to specifically prohibit the D-O-T from buying, building, renting or leasing any kind of license station in Dallas County. Republicans are now in charge in the state senate — and the senate president is from Dallas County, but he has not commented publicly on the D-O-T’s proposal.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:45 a.m. CST

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Food pantries in eastern Iowa and western Illinois are being flooded with milk donations under a federal program to buy and distribute nearly $50 million in dairy products to compensate farmers hurt by trade tariffs. River Bend Foodbank CEO Mike Miller tells the Quad-City Times about 80,000 half-gallons of milk will be distributed to pantries across the Quad-City region until March. Donations are intended to help farmers hurt by President Donald Trump’s disputes with Mexico, China and Canada.

GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) — A federal board has approved a request by students at Grinnell College to withdraw their request to expand a union representing student workers. The National Labor Relations Board on Friday notified the college and students that a regional director at the agency had approved the withdrawal of the union petition.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — A man charged in the fatal shooting of a man during a Davenport home robbery last year has been given 35 years in prison. Scott County District Court records say Nakita Wiseman was sentenced Friday in Davenport. Wiseman was among those charged with the fatal shooting of 20-year-old Brady Tumlinson in September 2017.

CLIVE, Iowa (AP) — A judge has dismissed a harassment charge filed against a former Libertarian candidate for an Iowa House seat. Polk County court records say the charge against Chad Brewbaker, of Clive, was dismissed Wednesday. Prosecutors requested the dismissal after their request for a trial delay was rejected. Brewbaker received about 2 percent of the votes Nov. 6 in the race for the 43rd District seat.