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KJAN News can be heard at five minutes after every hour right after Fox News 24 hours a day!
Keep up-to-date with Fox News Radio, Radio Iowa, Brownfield & the Iowa Agribusiness Networks!
(Omaha, NE) – ‘Tis the season for shopping, and scammers are taking advantage by impersonating television shopping networks. BBB Scam Tracker is seeing an influx of scam reports about con artists impersonating networks like QVC and HSN to sell shoppers products that don’t exist.
How the scam works
You come across an ad on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or another social media network that appears to have been published by QVC, HSN, or another well-known shopping network. The ad may even contain a video of a televised shopping event with hosts you recognize. However, when you click on the link, it takes you to a website that is not the official site. Scammers offer amazing deals on this imitation site, hoping it will distract you from noticing where you’ve landed.
One consumer shared this experience: “I saw a post on Facebook and thought I was ordering a toaster from the QVC Outlet. When the toaster never arrived, I checked my email and found a message stating that the toaster was already delivered, but it never was. I then went to the post office and gave them a tracking number I was provided. They told me it wasn’t legitimate. So, I called QVC directly. They told me the outlet does not sell items on Facebook.” Another consumer realized they weren’t on the official site after making a purchase and requested a refund. The company said they would provide one but never did. Unfortunately for these consumers, their money was lost, and their personal details are now in the hands of a disreputable business.
How to avoid online shopping scams
For more information
Stay safe by reviewing BBB’s tips for smart shopping online. See the latest online shopping scams and avoid common cons. Check out BBB’s online shopping HQ for more resources and this article about phony social media ads.
If you’ve been the victim of a scam on social media, report it to the BBB Scam Tracker. Your report helps us build consumer awareness and reduce the effectiveness of scammers’ favorite tactics.
(Guthrie Center, Iowa) – The Guthrie Center Community School District’s Board of Education will meet in a regular monthly session in the AC/GC High School Media Center, beginning at 7-p.m., Wednesday. Among the items on their agenda is action on the resignations of: Tom Bates – HS Custodian, and Renee Baier – HS Night Custodian. The Board will also act on approving contract recommendations for: Christina Wilson – HS Cheer Sponsor, and Becky Wahl – HS Cheer Volunteer.
Other action items for the Guthrie Center School Board include: Passing the 1st Reading of the 2023 IASB Fall Primer; Licensed Employee Early Retirement Policy, and authorizing the District’s Administration to submit a request to the SBRC for a modified supplemental amount of $31,083.20, for Open Enrolled-Out students who were not included in the District’s previous year Certified Enrollment count.
View the full agenda below:
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I. Call to Order | |||
II. Roll Call | |||
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IV. Welcome Visitors/Public Comment | |||
V. Principal Reports | |||
VI. Superintendent Report | |||
VII. Board Report | |||
VIII. Financial Reports | |||
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IX. Consent Items | |||
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X. Discussion Items | |||
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XI. Upcoming Dates | |||
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XII. Action Items | |||
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XIII. Adjourn Meeting |
(Atlantic, Iowa) The City of Atlantic’s Board of Adjustment, Monday evening, denied a conditional use permit request from the owner of the Cass County Animal Clinic.
The permit would have allowed Dr. Erin Conrad-Schwarte to build a vet clinic at 2309 Whitney Street (an East 22nd St. Parcel). Dr. Schwarte purchased the Cass County Animal Clinic from Dr. Larry Victora in May, 2020. Since then, she has provided veterinary services for all sorts of animals. She wanted the parcel to board dogs and cats and for an outdoor dog run that would have been used during business hours. Schwarte told the Board any livestock visiting the clinic would have been contained within the fenced area on the south side of the clinic and within the clinic, and they would not normally be housed on the property overnight.
The proposed project, however, would have been in a low-density, single-family residential district. The fact that the area is zoned residential, prompted many residents in the area to attend the meeting and voice their opposition to the permit, citing safety and comfort concerns.
Taking those concerns into consideration, the Board moved to decline the conditional use permit.
(Radio Iowa) – The final holiday of the year is projected to follow the pattern of others when it comes to the number of people expected to hit the roadways and airports. Triple-A Iowa spokesman, Brian Ortner, says holiday travel from the region including Iowa is projected to be the fourth highest on record. “A fun way to describe it, I guess is wash, rinse, repeat when we look at how 2023 has been, you know, even despite inflationary pressures, and Americans and Iowans are still willing to get out, then travel for those holidays,” he says. “We’ve seen it over Thanksgiving, we saw it over Independence Day. And now we’re seeing it for Christmas and New Year’s coming up.” Ortner says the travel surge continues to be driven by the pandemic, which kept everyone from traveling.
“And I say that based on a survey done back in August by Triple-A, that we’re asking people, you know, what are your reasons for traveling?,” Ortner says. “And the mindset has changed from bucket list items to man, I want to see family and friends.” Nearly nine million people in what’s called the north-central region are expected to head out for the holidays. “About eight-point-one million of those are going to be hitting the roads. And the biggest thing was that is sometimes it’s just easier to drive and sometimes more cost effective than hitting the air, you know, we are seeing higher numbers in air travel in our region,” he says. “The number that’s surprising, that’s exceeding pre-pandemic levels is what’s classified as the other modes of transportation. And that’s like your cruises or your destinations, you know, your resorts and those sorts of things. But living in Iowa, we don’t have the sun in the beaches. So that makes a lot of sense”. There’s now about two weeks to go before Christmas, and Ortner says you need to make reservations as soon as possible.
“Whether it’s winter or summer, the advice remains the same for your air travel. Plan ahead, get to the airport early, and monitor your flights using your airline’s app or the airport’s apps to make sure your flights not delayed or canceled,” Ortner says. “And consider travel insurance, you know if there’s a cancellation or a delay. Travel insurance is a nice comfort feature.” The other states in the north-central along with Iowa are Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
(Radio Iowa) – Officials in a northern Iowa county are evaluating last week’s federal court ruling that permanently blocks Shelby and Story County ordinances that would have restricted where hazardous liquid pipelines may be located. Kossuth County Supervisor Carter Nath, of Lu Verne, represents the area where Summit’s proposed carbon capture pipeline would pass and he says the ruling wasn’t a surprise.
“There was already a preliminary ruling on that. It was just making it a permanent ruling,” Nath says. “In my mind, it really didn’t change things. Maybe in the court of law, it’s just more finalized. “A federal judge ruled the ordinances in Story and Shelby County could have made it impossible for Summit Carbon Solutions to build a carbon pipeline even if the Iowa Utilities Board grants the company a permit.
Kossuth County Supervisors have drafted an ordinance that’s similar to Shelby County’s. It has not gone into effect, but has made it most of the way through the approval process. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to discuss the ordinance this (Tuesday) morning at its meeting in Algona.
(Radio Iowa) – A veteran central Iowa beekeeper will offer a free, online course in beekeeping starting next month for Iowa youth between the ages of 13 and 16. Julia McGuire heads the Des Moines Backyard Beekeepers and she has ten hives in Madison County. McGuire says the live course in Beekeeping 1-0-1 will start January 30th, teaching all about these important pollinators and how to care for them.
“We’ll cover basic bee biology, and it goes through site location for your beehive, the confluence of the beehive,” McGuire says, “and then we spend a lot of time learning how to work the bees once they arrive in April.” McGuire has kept bees since 2011 and has taught beekeeping for 11 years. The course will run every Tuesday for six weeks.
“There’s also a couple opportunities where we will go and meet in person, so we can work with bees all together,” McGuire says, “so I think a lot of the success in beekeeping is that hands-on work that you might get with a mentor.” For many, beekeeping is a hobby, but McGuire says it can also become a profitable business. She sells honey from her hives, but says there’s another important component to beekeeping — saving swarms.
“I get a lot of swarm calls every April and May from people who have a swarm of bees, or bees actually living and have been in the side of their house or whatever for years,” McGuire says. “I get a lot of phone calls like that. There’s just more demand than there is supply of people who can go get those.” She estimates it may cost around 500-dollars to start a basic hive. In addition to the free Beekeeping 101 course, there’s a youth bee camp planned for May of 2024.
The deadline to sign up for the course is December 31st at: https://forms.gle/h3Lh2zvkwRgwNZnY7
(Radio Iowa) Governor Kim Reynolds has said her goal is to get rid of the state income tax by the end of her current term — which would be December of 2026. A bill that cleared an Iowa Senate committee last spring suggested elimination of the state income tax could be accomplished in the next decade. Republican Senator Dan Dawson of Council Bluffs is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
“The Senate Republican goal has always been to eliminate the income tax in a responsible and thoughtful manner,” Dawson says. “and that is the pathway that we are going down this next session.” Dawson says he’s looking forward to seeing the tax plan Governor Reynolds is set to unveil in January. Under current law, the state’s personal income tax will become a flat three-point-nine percent by 2026 — but Republican leaders say the state is still taking in far more tax dollars than needed to run the government.
Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum says the focus of tax cutting should be on helping working families and elderly Iowans. “Not on the wealthy and the big corporations who have quite frankly benefited from this series of tax cuts we’ve seen in recent years,” Jochum says.
Jochum and Dawson made their comments at a forum sponsored by the Iowa Taxpayers Association. The 2024 Iowa legislative session begins Monday, January 8th.
(Radio Iowa) – Senate Democratic Leader Pam Jochum says Democrats are developing a plan of targeted income tax cuts, like raising the Earned Income Tax Credit for low and moderate income workers, as an alternative to the G-O-P goal of getting rid of the state’s income tax.
“If there’s going to be any changes in the tax system, number one you don’t eliminate the income tax system because it is a more fair system,” Jochum says, “based on the ability to pay.” Governor Kim Reynolds and Republican lawmakers say their ultimate goal is complete elimination of the state income tax. Reynolds approved income tax rate reductions in 2018 and, in 2022, the governor signed a bill that is making deeper cuts in tax rates for individuals and corporations. It will eventually shrink the individual income tax rate to just under four percent by 2026.
“We have been waiting almost six years as working class or middle class Iowans to see any result of even the tax cuts that happened six years ago,” Jochum says. Jochum points to a Department of Revenue analysis which found that if the state income tax is eliminated, the state sales tax would have to be raised to 14 percent to maintain critical state services.
“The sales tax is a regressive tax,” Jochum says. “Regardless of how much money you earn, you’re going to pay 14% on the dollar for everything you purchase and so it’s going to be the working poor, the middle class who are really going to take it in the shorts on this one if that’s the path they follow.”
Republicans in the Senate say eliminating the state income tax will make Iowa more competitive with states like South Dakota, Florida, Texas and Tennessee that do not have a state income tax. A Des Moines Register Iowa Poll conducted last March found 56 percent of Iowans favor gradually reducing the state income tax rate until it is eliminated.
(Boone, Iowa) – Two pickups collided northwest of Boone, Monday evening, resulting in the death of a man from Boone. The Iowa State Patrol says the crash happened at around 7:05-p.m. at the intersection of Kale Road and 170th Street. The report said a 1996 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 74-year-old Larry Young, of Boone, was southbound on Kale Road, and failed to stop at the intersection with 170th. A 2021 Chevy pickup driven by 62-year-old Kenneth Lendt, of Ogden, was westbound on 170th when Young’s vehicle entered the westbound lanes and the vehicles collided.
Lendt’s vehicle then crashed into a power pole and some trees before entering the southbound ditch and coming to rest between two trees. The Patrol says Larry Young died at the scene. Lendt was transported by Boone County EMS to the Boone County Hospital. Both men were wearing their seat belts.
The crash remains under investigation.
(Manilla, Iowa) – A collision between two semi tractor-trailers Monday afternoon west of Manilla, claimed the life of a Carroll County man. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2018 Peterbilt semi driven by 65-year-old Douglas L. Hook, of Carroll, was traveling west on Highway 141 and crossing the intersection with Highway 59. A 2015 Freightliner driven by 23-year-old Hayden H. Leonard, of Millville, MN, was traveling north on Highway 59.
Leonard’s semi struck Hook’s semi in the northbound lane of Highway 59. The crash happened at around 4:43-p.m. Following the collision, the Peterbilt came to rest in the northwest ditch. The Freightliner came to rest west of the intersection on V Avenue. The accident caused the intersection to be blocked for several hours.
The Patrol says Douglas Hook died from his injuries after being transported by Manilla Ambulance to the Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison.