(Radio Iowa) — Business leaders across the state are forecasting a solid start to the New Year for Iowa’s economy. Mike Ralston, president of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry, says the latest survey of the group’s past and current board members finds almost all of them plan to invest in equipment or facility expansions during the first quarter of 2019. “Sales are up, revenues are up, and hiring is up,” Ralston said. “All those things combine to make our folks feel pretty optimistic about the coming year.”

Mike Ralston

Nearly three-quarters of the business leaders surveyed say they expect increased sales during the year and almost all of them plan to make capital expenditures. According to Ralston, the state’s shortage of skilled workers tops their list of concerns, as it has for many years. But a new worry has emerged recently. “Just in the last six months or so, another issue that has been identified is the increase in material costs and that relates to trade,” Ralston said. “So, there is some concern about trade and tariffs.”

More than half of those surveyed anticipate hiring more workers in early 2019. The Iowa ABI was founded in 1903 and has 15-hundred (1,500) members.

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A judge has granted a trial delay for an Illinois resident accused of killing a man in southeast Iowa last year. Des Moines County court records say 29-year-old Antoine Spann, of Dalton, Illinois, was scheduled to go on trial Jan. 8 . He’s pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony for the death of 26-year-old Demarcus “Peanut” Chew. Chew was shot to death Sept. 10, 2017, in a car outside the home of his mother in Burlington.

The Hawk Eye reports the delay was granted last week. Spann’s attorneys had said more time was needed to obtain depositions from the more than 70 witnesses who might testify. The new trial starting date will be set after the judge and lawyers confer with the case coordinator.

A woman wanted on a felony warrant for Assault Causing Serious Injury, was brought to the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office Monday afternoon. A bail bondsman transported 22-year old Shae Gabriel Gomez, of Council Bluffs to the Sheriff’s parking lot. Once the warrant was confirmed, Gomez was placed under arrest and transported to Pott. County Corrections. 35-year old Carrie Dawn Williams, of Des Moines, was arrested at around 1:50-a.m. Christmas Day, after the vehicle she was in broke down at mile marker 48 on Interstate 80. A routine records check showed Williams had a warrant out of Madison County for being a Fugitive from Justice. Williams was brought to the Pott. County Jail and held pending extradition to Madison County.

And, Tuesday afternoon, 51-year old Julie Ann Frieze, of Council Bluffs, was arrested on felony charges for Theft in the 1st Degree and Dependent Adult Abuse by Exploitation. Frieze was taken into custody after a deputy was dispatched to 757 North Highway Street, to check on a wanted party. A caller to Pott. County Communications said Julie Frieze was on location and had a valid warrant. The caller had previously been told to call 911 if Frieze showed up at the address. When the Deputy made contact with Frieze, she stated she had done anything wrong. After a brief discussion though, the woman was placed under arrest and transported to the Pott. County Jail.

MAQUOKETA, Iowa (AP) — Commissions that oversee some of Iowa’s oldest pioneer cemeteries are struggling to accommodate requests for new burials. To qualify as a pioneer cemetery, there must be fewer than 12 burials in the past 50 years. That limit and other factors can make it hard to approve requests for new burials. The Telegraph Herald reports the Jackson County Pioneer Cemetery Commission has been working to establish rules allowing residents to be buried in the old cemeteries.

Allen and Marjorie Fowler have been waiting for three years for Jackson County to establish rules that would let them be buried in the Union Center Cemetery, near their family farm east of Maquoketa. JoAnn Caven, a member of the commission, said the panel hopes to establish rules in 2019.

(Radio Iowa) — Iowans are warned to think before they click if they see a familiar celebrity like Oprah or Ellen on a pop-up ad, pitching products for skin care, losing weight or boosting memory. Jim Hegarty, C-E-O of the Better Business Bureau in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says many of those ads are scams and they’re rigged to rope you in. “People don’t read the fine print even if the fine print is there,” Hegarty says. “They think they’re just getting a week’s trial or a month’s trial and all they have to do is pay for shipping, but when they pay for that shipping, they’re agreeing to have that product shipped to them month after month and have those charges reoccur on their cards.”

The con artists who produce the pop-ups don’t really have the endorsement of the celebrity you see, he says, and more scams seem to appear as fast as they’re being shut down. “They’re like Whack-a-mole,” Hegarty says. “Most of them are operating out of Florida, there’s been some FTC action and a couple of these operations were shut down, but here’s the deal: because individual loss might be $180 or $200, there’s not any individuals that are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars.” Whatever amount you may have lost on the worthless products, Hegarty says it’s important to let the authorities know, as well as the nearest office of the Better Business Bureau. “We want them to report it to the BBB because we can compile that data and when state or local losses get to a certain threshold, then the government can take action,” he says.

Hagerty says this type of scam is estimated to have bilked Americans out of $1.3 billion in the past ten years.