(National News) – The Powerball jackpot has rolled again, reaching an estimated $760 million after no ticket had the winning numbers in Wednesday’s drawing. Those numbers for Wednesday night’s drawing were white balls 4, 11, 38, 51, 68, and red ball 5. The Power Play was 3X. While nobody matched all six winning numbers, a ticket sold in Texas matched all five white numbers and the Power Play, making it worth $2 million. A ticket in California matched all five white numbers, making it worth $1 million.

The current jackpot — now worth an estimated $760 million with a cash value of $382.5 million — has been building since October, when a California ticket landed a prize worth $1.765 billion. Should the jackpot be won this month, it would be the largest-ever December prize in Powerball history, according to game records. That title is currently held by a $298.3 million jackpot won by a New York ticket on December 26, 2018.

The current jackpot also ranks among the largest in Powerball history, coming in behind a $768.4 million prize won by a 2019 ticket in Wisconsin.

(Radio Iowa) – U-S-D-A Rural Development is funding two rural Iowa projects to repair and rehabilitate housing. Iowa Rural Development director, Theresa Greenfield, says the funding is through the Housing Preservation Grant program. “Its goal really is to get some dollars into the local communities so that they can make upgrades to some of the housing stock throughout their communities,” she says. The Region 12 Council of Governments received a grant of nearly 102-thousand dollars ( $101,663) to help rehabilitate housing that is owned and occupied by very-low income people in rural Audubon, Carroll, Crawford, Greene, and Sac counties. New Hampton received a 61-thousand-dollar grant

“It’s just one of a few ways that we help support rural communities with housing,” Greenfield says. “We also provide direct home mortgage loans to low and very low income Iowans. We have no down payment, we have really low interest rates.” Greenfield says they have other help for those who need to fix up their homes. “We do offer 10-thousand dollar grants to our seniors and very low income Iowans so they can make repairs to their home and stay in their home. And I’ll tell you, as I travel the state, that doesn’t really matter what little town I’m in, but I was just in Moltan, and talk to some of their community leadership. And they were excited to hear about this grant opportunity because their parents and their grandparents, they want to stay in their hometown,” she says. Greenfield says the money can be used in a variety of ways.

“Fix windows there, or remodel a bathroom if it needs to become more accessible, or replace a furnace. Or anything really, that can help make that home repair that home so folks can stay in their home,” Greenfield says. Greenfield says they have ten area offices around the state and you can reach out to one of those U-S-D-A offices if you are interested in the grant program.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, early this (Thursday) morning, arrested a man on an assault charge. Authorities say 33-year-old Steven Jon Cook, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 12:21-a.m. for Domestic Abuse Assault-1st offense. Cook was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail.

(Radio Iowa) – Vaccination rates in Iowa for both the flu and COVID-19 are lagging behind recent years, and health professionals are referring to the trend as “vaccine fatigue,” as some people would like to forget the whole pandemic happened. Infection preventionist Megan Meller, with Gundersen Health System, says when the COVID vaccine was first released, people in so-called “essential” jobs got first dibs, there were waiting lists, and long lines of socially-distanced people clamoring to get the shot.

“But since then, we’ve really seen a decrease in overall vaccination rates,” Meller says. “This is not just like influenza and COVID vaccines, but in a lot of other vaccines as well. I think a lot of that is playing into what we’re seeing this year in terms of people not opting to get the flu shot, and the same with the COVID vaccine.” Many of us have heard of instances where someone who was vaccinated got sick anyway, which can be a deterrent to others. Meller says vaccines are -not- meant to prevent illness, but rather to prevent -serious- illness.

“One of the reasons why it’s important to get the COVID shot, and it’s just like the flu shot, is that the goal of those vaccines is really to reduce hospitalizations,” Meller says. “If someone’s hospitalized because of that respiratory infection, that means they’re really, really sick, and the vaccines, sure, you can still come down with COVID or the flu, but you’re going to recover a lot faster.” The flu and COVID shots have been available for months, yet some people are holding off. Meller says it’s never too late to get vaccinated, noting, even if you’ve been sick, you can get the shot after you recover to be inoculated against -other- strains.

“We’ve seen with the flu where previously healthy people get the flu and then end up needing hospitalization,” Meller says. “This is where, again, I just always say, ‘Would you rather be sick for a day or two and bounce back really fast or be down for the count for a week?'” A recent report found about 45-percent of Iowa nursing home residents and just eight-percent of staff members are up-to-date on their COVID vaccines. A year or two ago, those rates would have been much closer to 100-percent.

“There was such a big push to getting the vaccine and trying to get it every year that people are just kind of exhausted and they would like to forget,” Meller says. “We just have to gently remind them that COVID is here to stay and these vaccines, they really are important.”

While Iowa’s numbers for nursing home residents getting vaccinated for COVID are low at 45-percent, a C-D-C report shows the national average is only 27-percent. State health officials say the number of new COVID cases in the general population is on the rise. The Gundersen Health System includes a hospital in West Union, and clinics in Fayette, Decorah, Waukon, Lansing, Postville and Calmar.