The Iowa Department of Public Safety (DPS) has received reports from MidAmerican Energy Company regarding a recent surge in scam phone calls to customers throughout Iowa. Since late May 2015, MidAmerican has documented a significant increase in calls from customers reporting fraudulent phone scam attempts in the Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Fort Dodge, Iowa City, and Davenport areas. MidAmerican anticipates customers in additional Iowa cities are being targeted but not reported.

• MidAmerican has made efforts through media channels to warn business owners and the public of the scam targeting their customers. Despite these efforts, scammers have been successful in retrieving Personal Identifying Information (PII) or collecting money via credit cards or pre-paid (Green Dot) cards from the scam victims.
• From the reports, an estimated 4-5% of the customers have provided money and/or PII to the scammers.

The scammers generally apply the same tactics by calling residential or business customers, claiming association with MidAmerican, and demanding payment with threats to disconnect their utility service immediately. Scammers are said to be persistent and use sophisticated devices that make it appear to the victim’s Caller ID system that the phone call is coming from the utility company. The scammers insist on direct payment on the phone via a credit card or they direct the customer to callback a specific number and pay with a pre-paid (Green Dot) card.

MidAmerican wants customers to know that they do not threaten immediate disconnection or demand payment over the phone. The company advises customers receiving such a call to hang up immediately and call 1-888-427-5632 to verify the authenticity of the call.

Residents, business owners and community and economic development leaders in Cass and surrounding counties can share their thoughts about opportunities and challenges facing rural Iowa when Bill Menner, USDA Rural Development State Director in Iowa, visits Atlantic on Wednesday, June 17th. A rural summit will take place starting at 10-a.m. at Southwest Iowa Planning Council’s office, 1501 SW 7th Street in Atlantic.

USDA Rural Development’s funding continues to have a dramatic impact on rural communities across Iowa. Since 2009, USDA Rural Development has invested more than $3 billion on essential public facilities, small and emerging businesses, water and sewer systems, and housing opportunities for Iowa families. Today, more than 1.7 million Iowans live in rural communities and areas, and nearly half of the state’s communities have fewer than 500 residents.

This past year USDA Rural Development’s investment in rural Iowa helped create or retain more than 1,000 jobs, aided 2,400 families in buying their own homes and assisted more than 50 communities as they made improvements to their facilities, services and infrastructure.

For more information about the event, contact the Southwest Iowa Planning Council at (712) 243-4196 or email swipco@swipco.org.

Iowans who suffer from allergies aren’t getting any breaks this year. Doctor Jill Poole, an allergist in Omaha-Council Bluffs, says those who are sensitive to pollen have been suffering for months already and it won’t be coming to an end anytime soon. “One of the big problems is, the tree pollen season started back in January and there is still some tree pollen in the air,” Dr. Poole says. “The tree pollen season was super-long and now we’re hit with the grass pollen season and this started a little earlier this year than it did last year.”

Grass pollen started giving Iowans red eyes, runny noses and sneezing fits in the past two weeks or so and the season will likely stick around through the end of June. Poole says several over-the-counter antihistamines offer significant relief of the symptoms.
“What’s really great this year is that the intranasal steroid sprays are over-the-counter now,” Poole says. “They go by names like Nasacort and Flonase and those can be really helpful.” There is a steroid injection that offers some allergy sufferers relief, but Poole says she doesn’t typically recommend it as there are long-term side effects.

“I recommend more prescription approaches like allergy desensitization shots which are a lot of shots over a period of time,” she says. Poole is an allergist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

(Radio Iowa)

Several law enforcement agencies around the state, in recent months, have been responding to fake emergencies. It’s a growing problem across the country — a prank referred to as “swatting.” Colonel John Stuelke, with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office, told KCRG-TV his agency has responded to three swatting calls in the last 12 months. It involves a fake emergency call that sends all available law enforcement to one location — something that creates serious safety concerns.

“It’s not only the call itself that makes it serious, but we have people running red lights and sirens to these calls and that’s always a dangerous situation too,” Stuelke said. Linn County Sheriff’s Major Gerald Hansel told KCRG there are several possible motives behind the calls. “He’s checking our response, maybe he doesn’t like someone so he’s trying to get them in trouble,” Hansel said.

Swatting calls can pull officers away from real emergencies, so even if the calls are meant to be joke, the consequences can be serious. Anyone caught swatting can face criminal charges. Earlier this week, officers surrounded a home in the Linn County town of Toddville after a caller dialed police claiming to have shot an individual and threatening to hurt more people in the home. The call was prank, similar to other swatting calls in Fairfax in December 2014 and Robins in March 2015.

(KCRG/Radio Iowa)

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) – A Charles City woman has claimed her second $30,000 prize from one of the Iowa Lottery’s scratch games. The Mason City Globe Gazette reports that Donna Holtz claimed her prize Monday after buying her winning “Bonus Crossword” game ticket on Sunday at Hy-Vee Gas in Charles City. She says she won her first $30,000 top prize in a similar version of the Crossword game in 2001.

Holtz says she and her husband, Doug, plan to spend the winnings on new windows for their house and a newer vehicle.

The first of many “Produce in the Park” events in Atlantic saw more than 100 shoppers congregate in the downtown City Park, Thursday evening. Event organizers say those who stopped by found locally grown strawberries, lots of greens and more. They also grabbed up fresh made pies, rolls and breads, while enjoying music provided by Atlantic High School band chorus members.

The YMCA kept kids busy making flubber and jumping in bounce houses. Teamwork by vendors, organizations, businesses and volunteers make it possible to provide the farmers market in Atlantic City Park every Thursday, from 4:30-until 6:30-p.m.

More area and State News from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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A Union County man was arrested Thursday on a warrant out of Polk County for Dissemination and Exhibition of Obscene material to a minor. Creston Police say 36-year old Jason Ford, of Creston, was arrested at the Union County Courthouse and later turned over to Polk County authorities.

The 7:07-a.m. report w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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