(Radio Iowa) — The official start of winter is still a couple of weeks off but Iowans are already slipping and sliding on ice and snow-covered sidewalks, steps and roadways. Julie Richter, with the Wright County Department of Public Health, suggests Iowans stock-up on ice melting products and — chicken grit. “Some of the local coops have what’s called chicken grit that you can put down, too, that gives you a little bit more prepared surface so it’s not so slick,” Richter says. “A lot of elderly folks can’t get out and spread it themselves, so if they’ve got a local neighbor or friend that can come over and spread it.”

Chicken grit is sharp, crushed stone, typically used by birds to help grind up seeds. To help keep your footing, ice and snow grips that go over boots and shoes are available at stores statewide, as well. Richter says we all need to remember to take our time when headed out into the slick elements on foot. “Slow down and don’t hurry and don’t try to carry a whole bunch of things with you,” she says. “Maybe make a couple of trips because the faster you go, the easier it is to slip and fall.”

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 42-thousand-480 workplace injuries involving ice, sleet or snow occurred in 2014.

(Radio Iowa) — Florida voters chose last month to close all of that state’s dog tracks in 2020 — but the head of Iowa’s only greyhound racing track says he expects to be in business for at least a few more years. Iowa saw the number of dog tracks cut in half after the Iowa Legislature passed a bill in 2014 that shut down the Council Bluffs Greyhound track and turned over management of the Iowa Greyhound Park in Dubuque to the Iowa Greyhound Association. Track general manager, Brian Carpenter, says the closing of Florida’s 11 tracks by the end of 2020 could mean fewer dogs being bred to run at other tracks, including Iowa’s. “You know, I’ve heard over the years for many years how we were coming to an end, and we’re still hanging in there 34 years later. Hopefully we’ll have many more, but we’ll see what happens,” Carpenter says.

Iowa’s greyhound season runs from May through October, and many of the dogs at the Dubuque track have run in Florida during the winter. Jason Hess owns Xtrem Hess Racing kennel in Dubuque, one of nine that breed dogs that race at the Iowa facility. He says he’ll breed fewer greyhounds right away. “Because with less tracks coming — it takes about 18 months when puppies start racing, so almost two years after breeding them — and that’s when Florida is going to be ending. But we do have some tracks left, so we’re still going to be operational,” Hess says.

He says says it could become difficult to get enough dogs to race a full season. The Dubuque track will be one of just six greyhound tracks left in the U-S once Florida shuts down its track.

(Radio Iowa) — Another retailer is downsizing in Iowa. Officials with Shopko Stores Operating Company LLC in Green Bay, Wisconsin have announced that three Shopko Hometown stores in Iowa will be closing their doors in February. The stores are located in Cherokee, Eldora and Webster City. Company officials said the closing is based on long-term profitability, sales trends and potential growth not coming in. Shopko operates approximately 360 stores in 25 states. The liquidation sale at the three stores will begin later this week.

In an update to their earlier report about a shooting incident at the Mason City Railroad Yard, officials with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) said Tuesday, the event began with a case of trespassing. An investigation has determined that on November 29th, Union Pacific Special Agent Louis Miner stopped 30-year old Nathan Lee Olson, of Mason City, for trespassing across Union Pacific property at the intersection of 9th Street NW and Monroe Street. An altercation ensued, during which Olson was shot by the U-P Special Agent. The press release didn’t say whether Olson was armed.

The Union Pacific Railroad employs certified police officers to patrol rail properties across the Midwest. The incident remains under investigation. Olson remains in the care of the Mercy Medical Center of North Iowa. Miner was treated at a hospital Thursday, and then released.

Upon completion, the DCI will forward the results of the investigation to the Cerro Gordo County Attorney’s Office for review. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to contact the Mason City Police Department at (641) 421-3636.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A prominent Republican attorney is seeking to remove three members from the judicial nominating commission that will recommend finalists for vacancies on the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals. If successful, the challenge by lawyer Bill Gustoff would sideline three experienced attorneys from the process to recommend replacements for Justice Daryl Hecht and Court of Appeals Chief Judge David Danilson. The impact could tip the balance of power to the eight Republicans appointed to the panel.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Two deep-pocketed Democrats are visiting early presidential primary states, stoking speculation about whether they will run for president in 2020. Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York City mayor, was in Iowa on Tuesday talking about climate change. Billionaire investor Tom Steyer held a roundtable discussion focused on voting rights in South Carolina, the nation’s first Southern primary state.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Gov. Kim Reynolds says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has again rejected a disaster assistance request for victims of tornadoes that hit Marshall and Polk counties last summer. Reynolds’ office announced Tuesday that FEMA had denied her appeal of the agency’s earlier rejection of individual disaster assistance stemming from the July 19 tornadoes. The assistance would have helped homeowners, renters and businesses in the two counties. The counties are eligible for other kinds of help.

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of his infant son who was found in a maggot-infested baby swing. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Zachary Paul Koehn was sentenced Tuesday to the life sentence without parole. Koehn was convicted earlier of first-degree murder in the 2017 death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn. An autopsy showed he’d died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest Tuesday afternoon of an Omaha man. At 3:28pm Officers arrested 30-year-old Nicholas Clay Williams of Omaha, NE for Public Intoxication. He was arrested at the intersection of Senate Avenue and Highway 34 in Red Oak. Williams was taken to the Montgomery County Jail and held on $300 bond.

NEW HAMPTON, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man has been sentenced to life in prison for the death of his infant son who was found in a maggot-infested baby swing. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Judge Richard Stochl on Tuesday sentenced 29-year-old Zachary Paul Koehn to the life sentence without parole, as was mandatory under state law. Koehn was earlier convicted of first-degree murder in the death of 4-month-old Sterling Koehn.

Medics called to an Alta Vista apartment in August 2017 found the infant dead in the swing in a dark, sweltering bedroom. An autopsy showed he’d died of malnutrition, dehydration and an E. coli infection caused by being left in a maggot-infested diaper for up to two weeks.

A trial for the baby’s mother, 21-year-old Cheyanne Harris, is set for January.

The City of Griswold, with the help of Southwest Iowa Planning Council, is preparing to apply to the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) for a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for housing rehabilitation and is asking for help from residents. Applications must meet certain criteria including need, impact, and feasibility of the project within the city.  To determine these things, SWIPCO will be doing a telephone income survey, a housing assessment survey, and soliciting pre-applications.

The income survey is conducted by phone by SWIPCO staff and consists of two questions regarding the number of residents in the household and whether the household income falls above or below a certain amount.  No names will be used and all the information collected is strictly confidential.

The housing assessment survey is a brief survey to determine the community’s current and future housing needs.  The survey is currently available online at https://tinyurl.com/GriswoldHousing. Paper copies of the survey can be found at City Hall and the Library. SWIPCO Lead Planner Alexsis Fleener says “Public participation is a critical component of the housing assessment and application process.  The survey allows residents to inform the city of what they feel the most pressing needs are, what they would like to see happen, and goals to work toward.”

Any homeowners interested in participating in the CDBG home rehabilitation program are strongly encouraged to submit a pre-application.  Pre-applications are available at city hall (712-778-2615) or through SWIPCO (866-279-4720 ext. 234).  Please submit the pre-application and income tax return to SWIPCO by April 1, 2019.   Applications may be submitted by mail, email, or drop off.  If the city is awarded the CDBG grant, all pre-applicants will be contacted to complete a full application.

The CDBG owner-occupied housing repair program seeks to bring homes up to Iowa Minimum Housing Rehabilitation Standards.  Items repaired may include furnaces, water heaters, windows, doors, roofing, siding, foundation, etc. up to $24,999.

Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett today (Tuesday) announced that USDA is investing $1.2 billion to help rebuild and improve rural water infrastructure for 936,000 rural Americans living in 46 states. Included among the projects are those in Adair, Anita, Creston, Lewis and Pisgah.

Ten of the projects are assisting more than 52,000 rural Iowa residents across the state. These 10 projects are receiving a total of $59,178,000 in loan and grant funding from USDA Rural Development. USDA is providing financing for 234 water and environmental infrastructure projects through the Water and Waste Disposal Loan and Grant program. The funding can be used for drinking water, stormwater drainage and waste disposal systems for rural communities with 10,000 or fewer residents.

Eligible communities and water districts can apply online on the interactive RD Apply tool, or they can apply through one of USDA Rural Development’s state or field offices.

In southwest Iowa:

• The City of Adair is receiving a $2,000,000 loan and a $1,320,000 grant to help replace its water treatment plant with a reverse osmosis system. The project will serve 781 residents and will meet all environmental regulations pertaining to the water system.
• The City of Anita is receiving a $2,920,000 loan and a $335,000 grant to rehabilitate the city’s wastewater treatment system.  The treatment plant is not in compliance with federal standards. A submerged attached growth reactor treatment system and an ultraviolet disinfection treatment system will be constructed. Three-phase power will be extended to the lagoon system, and the lift station will be upgraded.
• The Southern Iowa Rural Water Association (Creston) is receiving a $22,220,000 loan to help develop a water treatment plant. This project will allow the association to transition to owning its own water source and treatment facility. This will result in improved water service for approximately 33,500 rural customers in the association’s 12-county service area in southern Iowa.
• The City of Lewis is receiving a $720,000 loan and $628,000 grant to update its water treatment plant, install new water meters and replace approximately 3,500 feet of water mains. This project will help the city update its aging, deteriorating water infrastructure and allowing the city, population 433, to better provide safe and potable water to its business and residential users. Additional funding for the project includes a $20,000 USDA Special Evaluation Assistance for Rural Communities and Households (SEARCH) grant.
• The City of Pisgah (Harrison County) is receiving a $583,000 loan to help update its wastewater system. A cured-in-place pipe liner will be installed, and the community’s lift station and control panel will be rehabilitated. These improvements will help reduce out-of-season discharges from the controlled discharge lagoon by reducing inflow and infiltration. Additional funding for the project includes a $26,000 USDA pre-development grant and a $9,450 applicant contribution.

(Radio Iowa) — Legislative leaders say they’re hoping to come up with a way to finance expansion of mental health treatment for children in Iowa. There’s no consensus, however, on whether the state might assume responsibility for financing the entire mental health system — much of which is financed with county taxes today. Senate Democratic Leader Janet Petersen of Des Moines says the focus “most definitely” should be on implementing recommendations from a task force that examined treatment options for children. “I cannot even begin to tell you…the number of teachers and parents who come to me and talk about the anxiety our children are experiencing all across our state,” Petersen says. “I think a lot of it has to do with social media, gun violence. We have a lot of poverty in our state.”

House Republican Leader Chris Hagenow says mental health care is one of the “big issues” the state and nation are wrestling with. “As we learn more in how to do more and face more challenges, I think we all should all be eager to try and take whatever that next step is to deliver these services to kids,” Hagenow says, “wherever we can.”  Senate President Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines, says address inadequacies in the mental health system is an “on-going process.” “My wife used to be a behavioral interventionist at Stillwell Junior High and she would tell me stories all the time about things that she would see going on in the classroom and some of them were really, really sad and heartbreaking,” Schneider says. “We need to make sure we’re getting out across the state to address and intervene whenever mental health issues first start to appear so we can address them early on.”

Representative John Forbes, a Democrat from Urbandale, says Iowa’s counties will spend about 114-million dollars this year to provide mental health services to Iowans who cannot afford to pay for the care they need. “So I want to make sure we, as a legislature, can find a dedicated stream of money to be able to provide adequate services to people here in the state,” Forbes says. Forbes says too often mental health problems go untreated and individuals wind up in prison, which he says is more costly than prescribing meds and providing proper counseling. The legislators made their comments Monday during a forum sponsored by the Des Moines Partnership, a coalition of 24 central Iowa chambers of commerce.