Pottawattamie County Sheriff Jeff Danker says the Communications Center and the Sheriff’s Office received multiple calls from citizens, who reported they had been contacted by a member of the Sheriff’s Department. The caller indicated the resident had missed a court appearance, and unless they paid a fine, a Deputy would come to their residence and arrest them. Danker says as usual, any call of that nature is a scam, because the Sheriff’s Office will NEVER call you and demand any type of payment for a fine, in lieu of arrest.

The Sheriff says if you receive a call of that type, report it to your local law enforcement agency. The same can be said for persons calling you who may be an attempting to defraud you. Be sure to contact your local law enforcement agency BEFORE you transfer any funds.

The jackpots in Powerball and Mega Millions have both topped the 300 million dollar mark for the second time this year. Iowa Lottery C-E-O Terry Rich says the Powerball jackpot has gone unclaimed since October 25th and the jackpot is an estimated 384 million for Saturday’s drawing. “That’s a lot of money — 239 million in a lump sum — so it would be quite a treat, king of an after-Christmas present if we could get some of the Iowans to win this big pot,”Rich says.

The Mega Millions jackpot is an estimated 306 million dollars for today’s (Friday) drawing, which would pay out a little more than 191 million dollars if you take the lump-sum option. The only other time the two jackpots hit this level together was in August of this year. He says this is the level where people who aren’t weekly players try to grab a share. “That 300 million dollar mark seems to be the point where everybody kind of jumps on board,” Rich says. “The jackpots move a little slow and then once it hits 300 million, everybody dives in and tries to get a piece of it. So, I think it’s kind of the expectations of the customers and players who want to try to hit the big one when it does get big.”  These jackpots come at a time when they may not increase as rapidly if they aren’t won. He says people are on vacation and holiday and that means there’s probably less work pools, which he says seem to increase the jackpots dramatically.

Rich says hitting one of the jackpots has high odds — and hitting the double would really be tough. He says the odds of hitting both are astronomical, but he says it’s a fun way to dream a little.  Rich says you should remember the odds and not let the dreams of multi-millions dictate your decision to purchase tickets. “Play with your head, not above your head,” Rich says. “Have a little fun and we’d love to present you with a big check.”

You can buy Mega Millions tickets today (Friday) up until 8:59 p-m.

(Radio Iowa)

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A SkyWest flight from Iowa to Detroit made an emergency landing in Milwaukee after a sudden loss of cabin pressure. SkyWest spokeswoman Marissa Snow tells the Journal Sentinel the plane with 38 passengers and three crew members landed safely at about 8 a.m. Thursday. She says a female passenger received treatment at a hospital because of pain in her ear, but later resumed her travels. The flight left from Cedar Rapids at about 7 a.m.

Snow says the passengers continued their trip on a different plane while mechanical crews investigated what caused the loss in cabin pressure. The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating.

The homesharing platform “Air B-n-B” is reporting outstanding growth in Iowa during 2017. Ben Breit (BRITE), spokesman for the hospitality company’s Midwest division, says the popularity of the program is bounding week after week, month after month. “Iowa hosts and homeowners earned a combined $5.8-million, with Des Moines leading the way, but with a lot of other strong results in other cities, particularly Iowa City,” Breit says, “and they welcomed 60,000 guests.”  Both figures are a big jump from just a year ago, as more people become aware of the service and sign on. “This more than doubled the results from 2016,” Breit says, “so we really are seeing tremendous growth in the state of Iowa.”

There are now just under 11-hundred Iowa hosts who share their homes via Air B-n-B. Breit says they typically earn about 36-hundred dollars a year in supplemental income from home sharing. Users of Air B-n-B usually like to get off the beaten path and don’t want to be confined just to big cities and hotel districts. “They want to be able to experience new neighborhoods that maybe don’t have hotels, or they want to get out to more rural areas of the state where entire counties sometimes don’t have hotels,” Breit says. “They’re looking for new experiences, authentic experiences and that’s what this platform provides.”

Des Moines was the top Air B-n-B city in Iowa with more than 11-thousand guests during the year, while hosts earned one-point-one million dollars. Iowa City was the number-two city, followed by Decorah, Dubuque and Ames. The fastest-growing demographic for hosts in the Midwest is older people. “Commonly empty nesters, their kids have grown up and left the home, now they have an extra empty room or two or three just sitting there,” Breit says. “Five years ago, they would’ve been collecting dust. Now, a lot of these seniors are realizing they have an economic opportunity on their hands.”

Hosts keep 97-percent of the room rates with three-percent going to Airbnb for facilitating the transaction. In addition to the new income going into the pockets of hosts, the state of Iowa is generating new revenue through a tax agreement announced in October. It allows Airbnb to collect and submit taxes on behalf of its hosts for all Iowa bookings. This deal covers state sales taxes as well as local, county and municipal hotel taxes.

(Radio Iowa)

More people have died in fire-related incidents in Iowa this year than any year since 1993. Ron Humphrey, a special agent with the Iowa State Fire Marshal’s office, says the tentative fire fatality count for 2017 has climbed to 53. “We’ve confirmed 38, but I’ve got 15 that are still in the ‘unconfirmed’ category because we’re waiting on autopsies, confirmations from fire departments, or other reasons,” Humphrey told Radio Iowa.

Two fires within the last week in eastern Iowa’s Scott County killed nine people, including four children. Two more people were killed in a school bus fire near Oakland on December 12. “Tentatively, we’ve had about 20 fatalities since Thanksgiving, including the multiple fatalities in Davenport and Blue Grass in the last week,” Humphrey said.

The fire in Davenport on December 21 killed a 23-year-old woman and her four children; ages 5, 4, 2, and 9 months. Investigators said their mobile home did not have a working smoke detector. According to Humphrey, more than half of Iowa’s fatal fires involve homes where a working smoke detector could’ve potentially saved lives.

“Usually, there’s a nonworking smoke detector, or they’re not present, or there’s so much damage that we’re just not able to tell if there was a smoke detector in there working or not,” Humphrey said.

The 53 (tentative) fire-related fatalities in Iowa this year compares to 47 last year and 31 in 2015. This year’s unconfirmed total is more than double the 26 fire deaths in 2013.

(Radio Iowa)