COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (Jan. 6, 2020) — The American Red Cross currently has a critical need for blood donors of all blood types – especially type O – and platelet donors to make an appointment now to give and help replenish the blood supply after the holiday weeks. Right now, the Red Cross has less than a three-day supply of type O blood. To help tackle the critical need, the Red Cross and NFL are working together to offer one lucky winner a trip to Super Bowl 54, in Miami.

During the weeks of Christmas and New Year’s, about 500 fewer blood drives were hosted by volunteer sponsor groups than required to meet patient needs. Many groups postpone blood drives during the winter holidays when travel and holiday activities may make it challenging for many donors to give. In fact, AAA estimated that a record 115.6 million Americans traveled during the holiday period of Dec. 21 through Jan. 1.

Donors are urged to make an appointment to give now using the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visiting RedCrossBlood.org, calling 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or enabling the Blood Donor Skill on any Alexa Echo device. As a special thank-you, those who come to give blood or platelets from now through Jan. 19, 2020, will automatically be entered for a chance to experience the Super Bowl live. The Red Cross and NFL have teamed up to offer one winner two tickets to Super Bowl 54, entry to the official NFL Tailgate, tickets to Super Bowl Experience at the Miami Beach Convention Center, round-trip airfare to Miami, three-night hotel accommodations at The Alexander® – All Suite Oceanfront Resort (Jan. 31 to Feb. 3), and a $500 gift card for expenses.* Additional details are available at RedCrossBlood.org/SuperBowl.

Some upcoming blood donation opportunities:

Adair County: Orient. 1/15/2020: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Orient-Macksburg High School, 201 School Street

Audubon County: Exira. 1/27/2020: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Exira Recreational Center, 106 N Jefferson

Cass County: Atlantic. 1/16/2020: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Atlantic YMCA, 1100 Maple Street; Griswold. 1/10/2020: 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Griswold High School, 20 Madison; Lewis. 1/29/2020: 12 p.m. – 5:30 p.m., Lewis Community Center, 400 West MainStreet

Montgomery County: Red Oak. 1/27/2020: 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 1101 East Summit; Villisca. 1/15/2020: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., Community Center, 201 S. 3rd Ave

Page County: Clarinda – 1/7/2020: 10:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m., Regional Health Center, 220 Essie Davison Drive; 1/16/2020: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., Clarinda Academy, 1820 North 16th Street; 1/21/2020: 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Westminster Presbyterian Church, 322 N 16th; Essex – 1/24/2020: 8 a.m. – 1:30 p.m., Essex High School, 111 Forbes St.; Shenandoah – 1/8/2020: 7 a.m. – 1 p.m., Shenandoah Medical Center, 300 Pershing Ave.

Pottawattamie County: Council Bluffs – 1/14/2020: 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., Methodist Jennie Edmundson Hospital, 933 E Pierce St; 1/24/2020: 9 a.m. – 2 p.m., Council Bluffs Public Library, 400 Willow Avenue; 1/26/2020: 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m., Community of Christ, 140 Kanesville Blvd.; Underwood – 1/7/2020: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., Old City Hall, 218 2nd St.

Shelby County: Elk Horn – 1/28/2020: 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Elk Horn Lutheran Church, 4313 Main Street; Harlan – 1/21/2020: 11:30 a.m. – 5:30 p.m., Veteran’s Memorial Building, 1104 Morningview; Westphalia – 1/22/2020: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., St. Boniface Parish Center, 305 Duren St.

Union County: Creston – 1/15/2020: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m., Creston High School, 601 W. Townline

All blood types are needed to ensure a reliable supply for patients. A blood donor card or driver’s license or two other forms of identification are required at check-in. Individuals who are 17 years of age in most states (16 with parental consent where allowed by state law), weigh at least 110 pounds and are in generally good health may be eligible to donate blood. High school students and other donors 18 years of age and younger also have to meet certain height and weight requirements.

Blood and platelet donors can save time at their next donation by using RapidPass® to complete their pre-donation reading and health history questionnaire online, on the day of their donation, before arriving at the blood drive. To get started, follow the instructions at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass or use the Blood Donor App.

MARION, Iowa (AP) — The Marion school district has settled the final lawsuit involving student sex abuse by a teenage classroom volunteer. The lawsuit was filed by parents who said their 5-year-old daughter was molested at Starry Elementary in January 2016. The boy was 15 when he was accused, and he was convicted in January 2017. The Gazette reported that the settlement was for $2 million. Two of the girls who testified at the boy’s trial said they told their parents and a teacher, Diane Graham, about the abuse. Graham later was charged with not reporting the abuse. She was acquitted in January 2018.

Police in Red Oak, Sunday night, arrested a man for Fraudulent Use of a Credit Card, an aggravated misdemeanor. 27-year old Dustin James Danick, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 10:25-p.m. and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where he was being held on a $2,000 bond.

Sheriff’s deputies in Adams County responded to a call about a verbal disagreement at a residence on Chestnut Street in Nodaway, Sunday evening. Upon further investigation, it was determined an assault had occurred. 54-year old Karen Sue Anderson, of Nodaway, was arrested for Domestic Abuse Assault causing Bodily Injury.

(Radio Iowa) –The evolving situation in Iran and Iraq was a key consideration for many Iowans who saw the Democratic presidential candidates who campaigned in Iowa this weekend. Courteney Wolf of Urbandale says this may make former Vice President Joe Biden a more attractive candidate to some Caucus-goers. “I think he’s proven and tested,” Wolf said. “I think he’s someone who can go onto the world stage and not have to learn his way, that he knows what he’s doing and that he’ll bring us back to some semblance of sanity.”

Biden, campaigning in eastern and central Iowa this weekend, repeatedly questioned President Trump’s aims. “Any further action against Iran requires congressional authorization,” Biden said. “…Congressional leaders have to send a very clear message to the president: ‘He does not have the authority to take us to another war in the Middle East.'”

Bernie Sanders, campaigning in eastern Iowa, said it was reckless for Trump to order the killing of Iran’s top military general. “This is a dangerous escalation that brings us closer to another disastrous war in the Middle East,” Sanders said. Elizabeth Warren, who also campaigned in eastern Iowa this weekend, says Trump has moved the country closer to war.  “We are not safer today than we were before Donald Trump acted,” Warren said.

But the majority of questions Warren and Sanders fielded during town hall forums in Iowa this weekend were about other topics. In Manchester, Warren used a question from a girl to, perhaps, explain her campaign strategy. “What’s your favorite book and why?” the girl asked. Warren replied: “I really like ‘The Little Engine that Could.’ To me, it’s a good about people, or trains, that are kind of underrated, but they don’t give up and they just keep saying: ‘I think I can. I think I can. I think I can,’ and they get the job done.”

On Sunday morning in Boone, Sanders said his campaign is about pursuing new options that aren’t offered by typical politicians. “It is asking the American people and the people of Iowa and New Hampshire and Vermont to kind of think outside of the box,” Sanders said. Sanders says being 78 — with a record of supporting concepts like Medicaid for All decades ago — is an advantage.  “It’s not poll tested. It’s not something I came up last year, sitting around a room with consultants saying: ‘What do we do if we run for president?'” Sanders said in Boone. “I’ve been doing this my entire adult life.”

A new C-B-S Poll of likely Iowa Caucus-goers released Sunday found Sanders, Biden and Pete Buttigieg tied here with 23 percent support, followed by Warren with 16 percent and Amy Klobuchar with seven percent. Barbara Allison of Norwalk has narrowed her choices to Biden, Buttigieg and Klobuchar and hopes to see Klobuchar in person soon. “Amy has congressional experience and has worked on a lot of bills. She’s a hard worker. She has a lot of common sense and she’s not showy,” Allison says, laughing. “I like that.”

Andrew Yang campaigned in southeast Iowa this weekend. Tom Steyer is wrapping up his five-day bus tour of the state. Marianne Williamson, who laid off her campaign staff on December 31st, held a yoga-focused fundraiser in Iowa City on Saturday.

(Radio Iowa) — House Speaker Linda Upmeyer announced at the end of September she would not seek re-election and would step down as speaker. House Republicans met in early October and elected Pat Grassley to replace Upmeyer. His current title is House Speaker-Select. He will become House Speaker when the full House takes a vote next Monday.

If you ask State Representative Pat Grassley to describe himself, he starts out by saying he’s a “sand farmer from New Hartford” and a dad. “Three kids — 13, 10 and 5. My wife’s an administrator at a nursing home in Ackley and then, obviously, my grandfather’s Senator Grassley and my dad’s the farmer-son of Senator Grassley,” Pat Grassley says. “Nobody knows his name and that’s the way he likes it.”

Pat and his dad, Robin Grassley, farm 17-hundred acres of corn and soybeans and raise about 200 head of cattle for sale each year. Grassley has repeatedly rejected the notion he’s being groomed to run for the U.S. Senate when his grandfather Chuck Grassley retires. “Everyone thinks there’s been this grand scheme and I kind of joke about it because it is kind of silly, Grassley says. “that when my grandfather had my dad in 1960, that someday he would have a son that was in politics just in time for him to be ready to retire.”

Grassley, who is 36 years old, has been around politics his whole life. As a nine-year-old, he was pictured riding a bicycle in one of Chuck Grassley’s campaign ads, then his grandfather used the same ad when Pat Grassley was a high school freshman. “Nothing better than it running every 15 minutes on the TV,” Grassley jokes. “That’s not hard on your reputation.”

Grassley’s Republican colleagues in the House have selected him to take over as speaker next week. It means he’ll be in charge of recruiting candidates and raising money for Republicans running for House seats in November. Grassley says it’s no secret Democrats are focused on winning a majority of those races, but Grassley points to Democratic incumbents who may be vulnerable because they live in districts President Trump won in 2016 and Governor Reynolds, a Republican, won in 2018.

“The president being on the ballot in some of these seats I actually think has a positive effect,” Grassley says. “The governor displayed the ability to win some of these seats we don’t currently hold and so I think those two things really bode well for us in the coming election.” As he enters his 14th year in the legislature, Grassley will be leading negotiations over legislation. Grassley says it’ll be difficult to devise a package that would raise the state sales tax AND reduce other taxes during the 2020 legislature.

“I probably bring a little bit more caution to the table that others have on this because this is a big conversation piece that’s going to happen,” Grassley says, “if there’s even the appetite to do it in the legislature.” Grassley says a priority for House Republicans will be finding ways to expand access to affordable child care.