(Ames, Iowa) – We’re in the midst of a busy holiday travel season. It is a wonderful time to share meals with loved ones. Often that means sharing the road to get to and from those festive gatherings. The Iowa Department of Transportation says to be as safe as possible, it’s important that we all share a common understanding of basic driving rules. Driver’s education for our kids is great, but for some of us, it’s been a few years since we’ve had that kind of instruction.

One basic rule, and a law in Iowa, says that you should drive on the right side of the road with a few exceptions, like when passing another vehicle. It sounds simple, but drivers moving slowly in the left lane is one of the pet peeves we hear the most about and it can also be dangerous. Keep the peace this holiday season and choose the right lane unless you are passing.

So far this year in Iowa, 330 people have been killed in traffic crashes. That’s an increase of five since last Nov. 17th. In Iowa in 2022, there were 338 traffic-related deaths.

And, with Thanksgiving having come and gone, the Iowa DOT offers-up the Top 10 table manners, to ensure you’ll be invited back next year – https://emilypost.com/advice/top-10-must-know-table-manners

(Des Moines, Iowa via the Iowa Capital Dispatch) – State, city and county food inspectors have cited Iowa restaurants and stores for hundreds of food-safety violations during the past four weeks, including insects, moldy salads, and beef that was hauled to a restaurant in buckets from a questionable out-of-state slaughtering operation. One restaurant agreed to close due to the “heavy presence” of cockroaches, and for the 11th time in the past 29 months, state inspectors cited a Des Moines food store for the same violation: failing to have a certified food protection manager on staff to ensure the safe handling of food.

Among the restaurants inspected in western Iowa, was:

• Lincoln’s Pub, 157 W. Broadway, Council Bluffs – During a Nov. 2nd visit, a state inspector cited the eatery for failing to have a certified food protection manager on staff. In addition, there were no date markings on cut lettuce and tomatoes in the pizza kitchen, and no date markings on the meatballs and cream sauce in a walk-in cooler. Also, the interior of the jars holding pickled eggs were adulterated by what appeared to be mold, and so the eggs were discarded. In addition, the interior of the microwave oven was encrusted with food debris, and the inspector observed “what appears to be deceased cockroaches on the floor in the pizza kitchen and dry-storage area near the prep kitchen.” The inspector also reported a buildup of grease and food debris on the exterior of the fryer, the reach-in freezer, the shelves and pizza-preparation table. There was also a buildup of dust and food debris on the floors, walls, and ceilings in the food-preparation kitchen, cook line and pizza kitchen.
• McDonald’s, 912 W. Highway 30, Carroll – During an Oct. 26 visit, a state inspector observed an employee washing their hands without soap, and saw an employee taking out the trash and coming back to the food-preparation line to begin handling food without first washing their hands. One employee returned to the food-preparation area after a visit to the restroom and began helping a customer without first washing their hands. Inside a cooler, the inspector found commercially processed ham that was measured at 56 degrees and commercially processed eggs that were measured at 54 degrees. Both food items were discarded. In addition, the inspector noted that several items on the food-preparation line had no time stamps to ensure freshness. Those items included cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. Several items — including sliced tomatoes and shredded lettuce – inside a cooler were marked with a use-by date of 6:20 a.m., Oct. 25 – although the person in charge stated the items were assembled at 10 a.m. that morning, Oct. 26. The inspector also made note of what appeared to be encrusted food debris inside the “clean” ice cream machine. The inspection was in response to a complaint from a person who alleged they became ill after eating at the restaurant. The inspector deemed the complaint unverified.

The findings are reported by the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing, which handles food-establishment inspections at the state level, at Iowa restaurants, stores, schools, hospitals and other businesses over the past four weeks. The state inspections department reminds the public that their reports are a “snapshot” in time, and violations are often corrected on the spot before the inspector leaves the establishment.

For a more complete list of all inspections, along with additional details on each of the inspections listed, visit the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing website.

ANKENY, Iowa — [KCCI] – An Ankeny man has been arrested after being accused of neglecting a resident at his own health care facility. Vern Tandia is the owner of First Vision Health Care. Ankeny police say he was caring for a non-verbal, non-mobile man from March 2022 to August 2023. Throughout that time, police say he failed to update the victim’s feeding orders and falsely documented what nutrition the man was getting.

Court documents show the man was hospitalized with severe malnutrition, after losing more than 10 pounds. Tandia is expected to be in court next week.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The City of Des Moines has reached a settlement agreement with a man who was tied up by police and arrested in 2019. Officers thought Nick Templeton was on drugs, but he was actually having a seizure while driving. After officers got Templeton out of his vehicle, police body camera footage shows them holding him face down on the ground and tying constraints to his hands and feet behind his back with a device called a hobble. The man told officers several times he couldn’t breathe, when one officer’s knee was on his back, while Templeton was face down on the concrete.

Police reports say Templeton was kicking and struggling with officers as they tried to constrain him. He was originally charged with a drug offense because of the pills found in his vehicle, but that charge was later dropped. The medication was legally prescribed to him.

KCCI reports Templeton and the city of Des Moines came to a settlement agreement of $12,500. City officials say they support the settlement.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — A 66-year old Des Moines woman was killed in a crash that happened early Thanksgiving morning. Des Moines police say it happened just after 1:30 a.m. Thursday at Southeast 8th Street and Emma Avenue. Police say an officer tried to pull over a driver with suspected fraudulent license plates near SE 5th Street and Hughes Avenue. The 46-year-old driver then took off along Southeast 8th Street. According to investigators, about 36 seconds after the chase started, the crash happened as the driver was trying to make a turn before crashing into a ditch on Emma Avenue.

The driver and a female passenger were taken to the hospital. The man is in serious condition and the woman, identified as 66-year-old Connie Allison, of Des Moines, died. Police also say the driver has an active felony arrest warrant that’s unrelated to this incident.

The accident marked the city’s 17th traffic-related fatality so far in 2023.

DES MOINES, Iowa — Cases of a mysterious dog illness are showing up in Des Moines. One central Iowa veterinarian says she first saw it in September. Sick dogs exhibit symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, nasal or eye discharge and lethargy. It can also cause a respiratory illness and pneumonia that does not respond to antibiotics, perpetuating the dog’s symptoms and, in a few severe cases, leading to death.

To keep your pet safe, veterinarians recommend making sure your dog’s immunizations are up to date and avoiding contact with other dogs, especially if they are exhibiting symptoms. If your pet is exhibiting symptoms, contact your vet “sooner rather than later” to ensure the issue doesn’t worsen.

(Radio Iowa) – The Board of Regents recently approved an increase of 32 percent in the budget for the CY-Town development on the Iowa State University campus. I-S-U’s Heather Paris presented the details of the project. “Phase one and two combined would build extensive underground infrastructure, completely replace all parking services, and raise the project site so future development would be five feet above Ioway Creeks’ 100 year floodplain,” she says. The project covers 40 acres of land between the Iowa State Center and Jack Trice Stadium and includes thousands of parking spots. “These lots are heavily used by students and visitors to Iowa State University. The existing parking lots have multiple maintenance issues and need replacement,” Paris says.

The athletic department and private giving would fund the nine-point-two million dollar increase, bringing the total budget to nearly 38 million dollars. The University of Northern Iowa was given permission to tear down the West Gym, which has been the home of several sports teams since it was built. U-N-I vice president Michael Hager, says they’ve determined it is not cost effective to renovate the structure. “The West Gym has served the university since 1925 and has served us quite well. However, the building is clearly telling us that it is at the end of its life cycle,” Hager says. He says the east and west exterior walls are bowing and separating from the structure.

” One has an intriguing S curve that seems to get the urgent attention of architects and structural engineers when they come and look at it,” he says. “Inside one can see those walls separating by as much as two inches from the flooring system, which is well outside the established standards of wall movement.” The building was shored up and all services moved out of it after the bowing walls were discovered. He says they don’t know yet what might go into its place on campus. “For now the basement will be taken out, the utilities we patched, and then it’ll become a green space,” Hager says. “It’s a critical building location, we’d want to be cautious about what we put in in the future. It’s on a an axis with the campanile, and so it would remain a high value building location at some point.”

It will cost between one-point-three and one-point-five million dollars to demolished the building. The wresting program had taken up a majority of the space in the West Gym in the last several years, and a new wrestling practice facility is planned.

(Radio Iowa) – While retailers nationwide are bracing for a shopping extravaganza on this Black Friday, locally-owned merchants across Iowa are hoping for a bigger boost tomorrow. Jayne Armstrong, director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Iowa District Office, says Small Business Saturday is a crucial day for the state’s consumers to “Be Loyal, Buy Local.” “It’s just a special day where we get to put the spotlight on small business and say we recognize how important you are,” Armstrong says. “We really want to encourage people to get out and support you this holiday season but really every day is Small Business Saturday.”

Armstrong says 97-percent of Iowa’s businesses are small businesses and embracing them improves the backbone of our state. Armstrong says, “If we really want to get out there and support our economy, we need to be supporting small businesses 24/7, 365 days of the year.”

If you’d like to support Iowa’s wealth of merchants who are outside of your immediate area, dozens of businesses are now offering their wares at shop iowa dot com, which Armstrong says makes it easy to patronize even more hometown heroes in -other- Iowa towns. “ShopIowa has become very popular,” Armstrong says. “A lot of retailers have really put themselves out there online through ShopIowa.com. With the excellent customer service and everything that they provide, we see a lot of people going through that to buy Iowa-made products.”

The website covers a wide array of goods, including artwork, furniture, food, toys, t-shirts, beauty care products, jewelry and more, all crafted in the Hawkeye State.

https://www.shopiowa.com/