Authorities in Montgomery County are investigating a property damage accident that occurred Thursday afternoon. The Sheriff’s Department says a 2004 Nissan Sentra owned and operated by 21-year old Chelsee L. Morris, of rural Red Oak, was traveling west on 130th Street, a gravel road, when Morris overcorrected and lost control of the vehicle, about 1.5-miles east of Highway 48.

The car entered the south ditch and came to rest on its side. The accident happened at around 2:50-p.m. Damage to the vehicle was estimated at $4,000. No injuries were reported, and no citations were issued while the accident remains under investigation.

The Iowa Storm Chasing Network (http://iowachase.com) reports the Severe Storm Prediction Center (SPC) is currently watching parts of southwestern Iowa for the probability of issuing a severe thunderstorm watch. It appears more robust storm initiation will occur over the next hour or two across south central Iowa. A large hail and perhaps an isolated tornado threat may develop over the next several hours as attempts are made for storms to increase in coverage and intensity across central Iowa

The Iowa State Fire Marshal Division is working to remind everyone that home fires are more prevalent in winter than in any other season. This is due in part to an increase in cooking and heating fires. Holiday decorations and winter storms that can interrupt electrical service and cause people to turn to alternative heating sources also contribute to the increased risk of fire in winter.
Winter fires can be prevented! The following fire safety tips can help you maintain a fire-safe home this winter season.

Wood Stoves
Wood stoves and fireplaces are becoming a very common heat source in homes. Careful attention to safety can minimize their fire hazard.
To use them safely:

• Be sure the fireplace or stove is installed properly.  Wood stoves should have adequate clearance (36”) from combustible surfaces and proper floor support and protection.
• Wood stoves should be of good quality, solid construction and design, and should be laboratory tested.
• Have the chimney inspected annually and cleaned if necessary, especially if it has not been used for some time.
• Do not use flammable liquids to start or accelerate any fire.
• Keep a glass or metal screen in front of the fireplace opening, to prevent embers or sparks from jumping out, unwanted material from going in, and help prevent the possibility of burns to occupants.
• The stove should be burned hot twice a day for 15-30 minutes to reduce the amount of creosote buildup.
• Don’t use excessive amounts of paper to build roaring fires in fireplaces. It is possible to ignite creosote in the chimney by overbuilding the fire.
• Never burn charcoal indoors. Burning charcoal can give off lethal amounts of carbon monoxide.
• Keep flammable materials away from your fireplace mantel. A spark from the fireplace could easily ignite these materials.
• Before you go to sleep, be sure your fireplace fire is out. NEVER close your damper with hot ashes in the fireplace. A closed damper will help the fire to heat up again and will force toxic carbon monoxide into the house.
• If synthetic logs are used, follow the directions on the package. NEVER break a synthetic log apart to quicken the fire or use more than one log at a time.  They often burn unevenly, releasing higher levels of carbon monoxide.

 Campfire Safety

• Build campfires where they will not spread, away from dry grass and leaves.
• Do not let children start the fire or add logs or other fuel to the fire.
• Never accelerate or start fires with gasoline.
• Keep campfires small, and don’t let them get out of hand.
• Keep plenty of water and a shovel around to douse the fire when you’re done. Stir it and douse it again with water.
• Never leave campfires unattended and keep children away from the fire.

Furnace Heating

• It is important that you have your furnace inspected to ensure that it is in good working condition.
• Be sure all furnace controls and emergency shutoffs are in proper working condition.
• Leave furnace repairs to qualified specialists.  Do not attempt repairs yourself unless you are qualified. Inspect the walls and ceiling near the furnace and along the chimney line. If the wall is hot or discolored, additional pipe insulation or clearance may be required.
• Check the flue pipe and pipe seams. Are they well supported and free of holes and cracks? Soot along or around seams may be an indicator of a leak.
• Is the chimney solid, with cracks or loose bricks?  All unused flue openings should be sealed with solid masonry.
• Keep trash and other combustibles away from the heating system.

Other Fire Safety Tips

• Never discard hot ashes inside or near the home. Place them in a metal container outside and well away from the house.
• Never use a range or an oven as a supplemental heating device. Not only is it a safety hazard, it can be a source of potentially toxic fumes.
• If you use an electric heater, be sure not to overload the circuit. Only use extension cords which have the necessary rating to carry an amp load.

TIP: Choose an extension cord the same size or larger than the appliance electrical cord.

• Avoid using electrical space heaters in bathrooms or other areas where they may come in contact with water.
• Frozen water pipes? Never try to thaw them with a blow torch or other open flame, otherwise the pipe could conduct the heat and ignite the wall structure inside the wall space. Use hot water or a laboratory tested device such as a hand held dryer for thawing.
• If windows are used as emergency exits in your home, practice using them in the event fire should strike. Be sure that all the windows open easily. Home escape ladders are recommended.
• If there is a fire hydrant near your home you can assist the fire department by keeping the hydrant clear of snow so in the event it is needed, it can be located.

Finally…

• Be sure every level of your home has a working smoke alarm, and be sure to check and clean it on a monthly basis.
• Plan and practice a home escape plan with your family.
• Contact your local fire department for advice if you have a question on home fire safety.

Forecasters say much colder weather will wash over Iowa late tomorrow (Friday) and air conditioners will be switched off as furnaces are turned on. Temperatures are expected to plummet from highs today (Thursday) in the 70s and 80s to lows Saturday night in the 30s. Bruce McDowell, spokesman for the American Gas Association, says Iowans who heat their homes with natural gas can expect to see a moderate price hike in the season ahead.

“Really not much of a change from last year,” McDowell says. “Slight increase in prices and colder temperatures. We’re guessing around a 5% or so increase in total bills.” That estimate is taking into account shutdowns due to hurricanes, snowstorms and other severe weather. McDowell says Iowans shouldn’t have to worry about any natural gas shortages.

“Supplies are abundant,” McDowell says. “Our storage is nearly full. We’ve got a lot of gas ready to come on the market. If prices go up a little bit more, that gas will be flowing in.” He says the predicted five-percent price hike for natural gas over the season ahead can essentially be attributed to two issues — the forecast for a harsher winter ahead and higher transportation costs.

“Half of the jump is because it’s going to be a little colder,” McDowell says. “The other half is because those are the costs that are incurred when you take gas from the production area to the utility and then from the utility to the customer, those all have costs.” The U-S Census Bureau estimates 67-percent of Iowans use natural gas to heat their homes, 15-percent use electricity, 14-percent use propane, and the rest use wood or fuel oil.

(Radio Iowa)

Three days into the government shutdown, the U-S-D-A has transferred unspent funding from last year to the Women Infants and Children or WIC supplemental food assistance program for the month of October. Jill Lange [LANG], the director of the WIC program for the state, says 66-thousand mothers and children in Iowa receive WIC benefits. “What that means is we are now able to print checks for WIC participants just for the month of October. At this point we are only issuing October because we don’t have any money to go any further out than that,” Lange says.

Checks average about 55-dollars a month, and are usually distributed three months at a time. Recipients will only get their October checks now, and will receive November and December in the mail if the federal shutdown ends before then. Doug Beardsley oversees the WIC program for four southeast Iowa counties and says it isn’t a permanent fix — but he’s staying optimistic the shutdown will end in time.

“Not going to get into the politics of it all, but hopefully members of Congress can sit down and get something worked out so we can get back to doing what we’ve been contracted to do,” Beardsley says. Beardsley says when news got out that the government shutdown had halted WIC, calls poured in from Iowans offering to donate food and infant formula.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — An unusual strong storm front is threatening the Midwest from the central Plains to the Mississippi Valley over the next several days. The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., says the system could bring heavy thunder, wind, rain and possibly tornadoes on Friday.

Meteorologist Gregory Carbin says about one-third of Iowa and parts of southern Minnesota have a 45 percent chance of severe storms, More than 1 million people live in that risk area.

Parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Wisconsin are also on the storm front’s path. Areas as far south as Oklahoma and Texas could be affected. Meteorologists say this is the first time since at least 2000 that a storm this size in the region has been forecast in October a day in advance.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Google’s newest data center in western Iowa is ready to help the company deliver Internet search results, find directions and save information. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company held an open house Thursday afternoon to show off its second data center in Council Bluffs — just across the Missouri River from Omaha, Neb.

Google says it has invested more than $1.1 billion in its two Council Bluffs data centers and created more than 130 jobs so far. The first one opened in 2009. Google has said it chose Council Bluffs for the centers because it offered relatively cheap electricity and had land and skilled workers available. The company also applied for up to $300 million in tax incentives from Iowa.

Republican Congressman Steve King dismisses the idea the U.S. government will go into default if congress fails to raise the debt limit later this month. Obama Administration officials suggest a debt limit must be raised by October 17th and economists say failure to raise the limit could trigger a massive drop in stock markets around the globe and increase borrowing costs for consumers and businesses.

“I don’t think the credit of the United States is going to be collapsed. I think that all this talk about a default has been a lot of demogoguery, a lot of false demogoguery,” King said today on CNN. “We have plenty of money coming in to service the debt. When we stop servicing the debt, then we’d be in default. We’re a long, long ways from that.” During the previous partisan fight in the summer of 2011 over the nation’s debt limit there was a 17 percent drop in the value of blue-chip stocks calculated in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, plus Standard and Poor’s lowered its credit rating for the United States.

“I remember the last time we came up to the debt ceiling deadline and there was all of this talk that the Tea Party was going to collapse the economy,” King said on CNN. “Even though the people that were opposed to increasing the debt ceiling essentially gave in and the debt ceiling was increased, they were still blamed for the effect on the markets.” President Obama has said he will not negotiate on raising the debt limit and it should be a yes or no vote in congress, but Republicans have a growing list of items they want to tack onto a deal, including the go-ahead for the Keystone X-L Pipeline from Canada to Texas and as well as at least a year’s delay in implementing the Affordable Care Act.

“We need to get down to the clear part of this,” King said on CNN. “The American people have rejected ObamaCare. The president is willing to put all of that on the line to save his namesake piece of legislation which I think would go down in history as the largest political tantrum ever.” King made his comments this morning (Thursday) during an appearance on C-N-N’s “New Day” morning show. A group of C-E-Os from some of the nation’s largest financial institutions went to Washington D.C. yesterday (Wednesday) and told reporters failure to raise the debt ceiling would “extremely adverse” damage to the economy.

(Radio Iowa)

Three local racing legends from Shelby County are now the feature characters in a brand new NASCAR book. Former Council Bluffs resident and author John Havick has written The Ghost of NASCAR to tell the story of the first Daytona 500 in 1959. Havick says there are three men, who were an intricate part of the book. “It’s about 3 racers in Harlan, Johnny Beauchamp, Dale Swanson and Tiny Lund. Beauchamp and Lund both won the Daytona 500 and Swanson was a great mechanic and built engines for drivers in several states.”

Havick built an infatuation with the sport when his grandfather sold his car to an aspiring racecar driver in the 50’s named Johnny Beauchamp and as a boy, Havick decided to see how the car performed. The book depicts the controversial ending to the 1959 Daytona 500 in which two drivers, Beauchamp and Lee Petty claimed victory. Havick said Beauchamp was in the lead for most of the race.

“He stayed up near the front for most of the race. Then suddenly around lap 149, Lee Petty appears out of no where and racing right by Beauchamp and the last 50 laps this is how it went along. They flashed near the finish line close together. No one said except the flag man and the owner of NASCAR Bill Frentz said Beauchamp won the race and then there was all this trouble afterwards.”

The lack of technology back in those days did not help the controversy as it took three days before NASCAR announced Petty the winner of the race. To this date, the debate rages on between fans and drivers about who actually won the 1959 Daytona 500. Havick said one of the details about the race is how drivers kept their lap count. “Some of the people in the pits believed when Petty pitted, his lap counter had failed and counted it as a lap and that brought him up.”

The author said he had stacks of old newspaper articles and programs from his childhood that helped him start his research for the book. The Ghosts of NASCAR is on sale in bookstores or directly from the University of Iowa Press online at www.uiowapress.org. Author John Havick will be making an appearance to discuss the book in Harlan this (Thursday) evening at the Harlan Library from 6:30pm until closing.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

Officials with the Atlantic Medical Center report the AMC is offering influenza vaccines Monday through Friday, 8:30 – 11:00 am and 1:30 pm – 4:00 pm, and Saturdays 8:30 – 11:00 am.   No appointment is needed.  It takes about two weeks for influenza vaccine to provide full protection.  Officials say with the holidays coming up, it’s a good idea to get an influenza vaccine by early November to provide protection during the holiday gatherings with larger groups, where influenza is easily spread.

In order to prevent getting the flu,  experts suggest you get the vaccine, and  practice good hand washing.  Getting vaccinated not only protects you, but also those around you who may be too young (under 6 months) or have a medical condition that prevents them from being vaccinated.

There are four strains, or types, of the flu that typically hit the midwest during flu season —  two types of Influenza A and two types of Influenza B.  The flu vaccine that has been available in the years past will still be available this year. This year there is also a vaccine that has all four strains (types) of the flu virus in it (two A strains and two B strains), to provide even greater protection against influenza. Atlantic Medical Center will have both types of vaccine available.

Patients can also receive Pneumonia, Tetanus with whooping cough (Tdap), and Shingles vaccines when they come in for an influenza vaccine. For more information, contact the Atlantic Medical Center Immunization Nurses at 712-243-2850.