Dog owners in Iowa are being urged to have their pets vaccinated for canine influenza virus, or C-I-V, which was reported in more than 40 states in the past year, including Iowa. Veterinarian Dr. Natalie Marks says the so-called dog flu quickly caused an epidemic in 2015 and it’s hoped prevention can prevent it from spreading again this year. The symptoms are much like human flu.

“CIV is respiratory in dogs, so we see coughing, sneezing, runny nose, runny eyes, lethargy and fever,” Dr. Marks says. “In more severe cases, we can see a pretty bad pneumonia.” In the worst cases, it can be fatal, but Marks says there is a way to inoculate against the two strains.”There’s vaccination for both the original strain of flu, which was H3N8, and now there is an H3N2-specific strain,” Marks says. “Both are very safe and effective and we encourage all pet owners to talk to their veterinarian about their dog’s lifestyle risks and if the vaccine is appropriate for your dog’s vaccination protocol.”

C-I-V is highly contagious and can spread quickly in urban areas, doggie daycare’s, boarding facilities, dog parks and sporting events. The dog flu is a problem year-round, especially during warmer months as pets are outdoors more often and more likely to encounter other dogs if they are social.

(Radio Iowa)

Officials in the Iowa Department of Human Services are touting their new database that seeks to identify available hospital beds for psychiatric patients. Chuck Palmer, the director of the department, says the tracking system is a significant tool for law enforcement, doctors and others trying to find space in an emergency situation. “We now have 100 percent involvement of all the hospitals,” Palmer says. “Do they update it daily? Probably not. Do they update it on a regular basis? We believe so and we’re calling those that don’t.”

The database was started after Governor Terry Branstad closed two of the state-run Mental Health Institutes. Critics contend it’s difficult to find in-patient treatment for Iowans suffering from a severe mental illness. Palmer says by this summer, there were as many as 750 beds in Iowa hospitals for the treatment of patients with acute mental illnesses — but he says it’s still difficult to find available space for the toughest cases.

“There are certain people that certain hospitals do not feel at a point in time that they can take. ‘If I accept this person and they are a difficult, disruptive person,’ no one will take them and then they’ll be left,” Palmer says. “And that’s the case.”

Palmer says on average there are about 70 vacant hospital beds each day in Iowa for psych patients. However, it may require significant travel to get a patient to a hospital that has an opening.

(Radio Iowa)

“Community Housing Initiatives” has become the state’s largest NON-PROFIT housing organization. Communications director Matt Hauge says people involved in a community action agency in northwest Iowa were the instigators.  “They said, you know, we provide all kinds of assistance to people. We do great programs, but there’s not enough housing up here. It’s after the Farm Crisis. Nobody’s building housing in rural Iowa,” Hauge says.

Low income housing tax credits as well as tax credits for historic preservation are used to finance the developments. A couple of decades later, the organization has built or renovated affordable housing in 31 Iowa communities. That includes projects in downtown Sioux City, Clinton and Waterloo. “We always say we have kind of a strange name. To be called ‘Community Housing Initiatives’ people like we’re maybe an office of your city or something like that,” Hauge says.

The organization’s work has yielded a total of 14-hundred apartments throughout the state, with modestly-priced rent that someone in a low-wage job can afford. Community Housing Initiatives was founded in the small town of Graettinger in 1994. The corporate offices are now in Spencer and Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa)

One expert says Iowa history will “come to life” for the state’s students because of new guidelines for social studies classes in Iowa schools. Tom Morain of Graceland University served on the advisory panel that recommended the changes. Morain recently told a group of third and fourth graders they’ll soon be exposed to a “whole new way” of learning about history. “You’re not going to just read what other people tell you happened,” Morain said. “You’re going to get to ‘do’ history. You’re going to get to go to places where history happened. You’re going to get to read what people who were living those events really thought.”

Classroom time on history has been cut as teachers focus more on reading, math and science. Morain says students can develop critical thinking skills by comparing different versions of historical events. And Iowa has a rich history to review, according to Morain. “The computer, what you hold in your hand, was invented here in Iowa,” Morain says, “and the story of how it was invented was an incredible story.”

Morain says students ARE fascinated to learn about the place they call home. “What is exciting about history as we’re going to do it now is we’re going to make it come to life,” Morain says. Morain is the former administrator of the State Historical Society and he once served as director of history at Living History Farms in Urbandale.

A recent report found Iowa has been lagging other states in providing localized history resources for teachers. The states of Minnesota and Kansas, for example, have state-paid staff who work to develop course work on state history for all grade levels. There’s even a published Minnesota history textbook. Governor Branstad says the state budget is tight and there’s unlikely to be extra money to hire more staff or spend more on an Iowa history initiative.

(Radio Iowa)

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Iowa is again ranked in the top ten states for volunteerism in a report from the government agency that oversees AmeriCorps and Senior Corps. Wendy Spencer, C-E-O of the Corporation for National and Community Service, says more than 765-thousand Iowans donated their time last year, far more than the national average. “One in three Iowa residents volunteer and that’s formally through an organization, sign up, get trained,” Spencer says. “Even more volunteer, about three in four Iowans, just helping their neighbors, doing kind things on a regular basis, what we call informal volunteering.”

The Volunteering in America report ranks Iowa number-10 among the 50 states and Spencer says Iowa’s consistently been in the top-10, placing 10th last year. Volunteerism brings a huge benefit to Iowa’s communities. “We actually put a dollar figure, a value on each hour served and the 765,000 Iowa residents volunteered 75-million hours last year,” Spencer says. “That’s an economic value just shy of $2-billion, billion with a ‘b’, it’s really phenomenal.”

The programs for which Iowans volunteer are as diverse as Iowans themselves, but Spencer says there are some top beneficiaries. “The kinds of things they’re doing, they’re collecting and distributing food,” Spencer says. “These are popular activities that we find Iowans tell us they do. Fundraising for their favorite charity, raising money. Mentoring youth, which is so important today. Our youth need lots of care and nurturing and we want them to succeed, so mentoring’s important.”

The report also ranks cities and metro areas for their volunteerism. Among mid-sized cities nationwide, Iowa had two communities in the top ten: Iowa City at #4 and Cedar Rapids at #7.

(Radio Iowa)

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Good weather conditions have led to healthy populations of animals trapped in Iowa for their fur. D-N-R furbearer biologist, Vince Evelsizer, says one animal in particular has flourished. “Raccoon numbers are especially high this year. All populations of the furbearers are stable to slightly increased this year, doing well and fine — except for the gray fox is a little bit low,” Evelsizer says. He is hoping trappers will help manage the raccoon population. “Raccoon numbers are extremely high, so we encourage plenty of trapping and harvesting of them,” according to Evelsizer.

He says trappers should be aware that there has been some distemper in raccoons. There are some signs the animals may be infected. “They may encounter raccoons out in the daylight moving around, usually seem to be kind of stumbling or staggering around oblivious to their surroundings,” Evelsizer says. “If they encounter them, it’s good to go ahead and dispatch them.”Evelsizer says you should take a few precautions for animals which might be infected. “Handle them with gloves and just use common sense when handling them. It has not been found to transfer to humans,” Evelsizer says.

Information from the D-N-R shows the raccoon harvest has varied greatly depending on the price paid for their pelts. The harvest hit an all-time high of 390-thousand-877 in the 1986-87 season, but that declined rapidly in the next three years to 103-thousand-468 as fur prices dropped.

The harvest went back up in the 2010-2011 season to nearly 237-thousand as pelt prices increased, but dropped off to 89-thousand last year as the fur prices dropped again. The average raccoon pelt price last year was four dollars, 53 cents ($4.53), which was about half of the year before.

(Radio Iowa)

(DERBY, Iowa) – One person died following an accident Thursday night, in southern Iowa’s Lucas County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 39-year old Steven Lloyd Sinclair, of Humeston who was not wearing a seat belt, died in the crash that happened at around 8:10-p.m. on Highway 65. authorities say a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Sinclair was traveling north on Highway 65, when he attempted to pass a pickup, on the right shoulder of the road. The car side-swiped the 2015 Ford F-150 and entered the east ditch before rolling over. Sinclair was ejected from his car as it rolled.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Authorities are trying to determine whether remains found in a Des Moines lake are human. Des Moines television station KCCI reports that a kayaker spotted what he thought might be a human jawbone as he was leaving the water Thursday at Gray’s Lake. A police spokesman says the jawbone appears to be human but must be checked by forensic experts for confirmation.

CENTRAL CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a firefighter responding to a fire in eastern Iowa has been hospitalized with a serious medical condition. The Linn County Sheriff’s Office says the firefighter was one of several emergency responders trying to put out a large fire Thursday morning at a building in Central City that houses an oil recycling business. A press release says the firefighter was hospitalized for a “possible life-threatening medical issue” but additional information was not released.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – A man in eastern Iowa faces up to 25 years in prison for using a weapon to rob a bank in July. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the northern district of Iowa says 45-year-old Brandon Brown of Monticello pled guilty Wednesday at a federal court in Cedar Rapids to armed bank robbery. Brown admitted he took more than $4,000 from an F&M Bank in Monticello.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa has proposed no wage increases and removed health insurance provisions in a contract with the state’s largest public employees union. It’s a sign that changes could be on the horizon for Iowa’s collective bargaining laws next year. The contract released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Administrative Services to the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61 adds language that would give the state more control in determining health benefits.

One person died following an accident Thursday night, in southern Iowa’s Lucas County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 39-year old Steven Lloyd Sinclair, of Humeston, who was not wearing a seat belt, died in the crash that happened at around 8:10-p.m. on Highway 65.

Authorities say a 1997 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Sinclair was traveling north on Highway 65, when he attempted to pass a pickup, on the right shoulder of the road. The car side-swiped the 2015 Ford F-150 and entered the east ditch before rolling over. Sinclair was ejected from his car as it rolled. He died at the scene.

The driver of the pickup, 43-year old Paul William Cooley, of Grundy Center, was not hurt.