Some analysts say spiraling gasoline prices are causing significant instability in stock markets, agricultural commodities markets and elsewhere. In a survey of bank C-E-Os in Iowa and nine other Midwestern states, Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says pessimism is contagious. “With grain prices down, with beef prices down, pork prices down, it’s spilling over into the broader economy,” Goss says. “Agricultural equipment sales are down to a record low level. We’ve got farmland prices continuing to decline.”

While Iowa is the nation’s top ethanol producer, falling prices for grain and fuel are impacting the entire region’s ethanol industry. About one-fifth of the bank CEOs surveyed reported ethanol plants in their area had reduced production. “It’s not good out there,” Goss says. “With the global economic slowdown, our trading partners are buying less and less of our agricultural products.” The rollercoaster stock market leaves traders with no idea what to expect after huge drops, especially following the shake-up in China’s economy.

“The market was over-priced to begin with and now profits have weakened and we’ve got a Federal Reserve that’s raising rates,” Goss says. “This is not a time to be buying or selling, like the old saying, don’t try to catch a falling knife.” In the January numbers, Creighton’s Rural Mainstreet Index fell for the fifth straight month and is now at the lowest level since August of 2009.

(Radio Iowa)

CRESTON, Iowa (AP) — A man representing himself in court has pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the December killings of two people in southern Iowa. Union County Attorney Tim Kenyon says 37-year-old Jerry Dillinger represented himself in court Friday and pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of Dillinger’s former sister-in-law, Loretta Dillinger, and another person, whom Dillinger identified as Michael Robinson.

Loretta Dillinger’s body was found Dec. 2 in a farm pond near Lorimor. A second body was found near a house in Thayer. The identity of that body hadn’t been confirmed by DNA testing, but Dillinger said in court it was Robinson, who was in a relationship with a Dillinger family member.

Dillinger asked to be sentenced immediately and received two consecutive life terms.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa has received a nearly $97 million federal grant to tackle the state’s water quality and flood challenges. Gov. Terry Branstad, along with state and local leaders, announced Friday that the state was awarded the money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in order to help speed up flood reduction and water quality efforts in Iowa’s key watersheds over the next five years.

Among the identified flood reduction and targeted water quality efforts, is the East Nishnabotna and West Nishnabotna Rivers. Iowa is among 13 states and cities to receive the award, which is a part of the Natural Disaster Resilience Competition. The state was awarded the fourth-largest grant of any applicant.

More than one-third of Iowa’s population is either diabetic or prediabetic and a new campaign is being launched here in hopes of reversing a dangerous trend. Dr. David Grayson Marrero, past-president of the American Diabetes Association, says they’re focusing on the several hundred-thousand Iowans who are prediabetic with the goal of getting them to make a few key changes that could mean saving their lives.

“Risk factors would be: excess weight or obesity; it would be family history of type 2 diabetes, a first-degree relative, mother, father, sister, brother,” Dr. Marrero says. “It could be age. Older people are more likely to have prediabetes. It can be a woman who’s had gestational diabetes or diabetes during pregnancy.”

The website, Do I Have Prediabetes-dot-org (doihaveprediabetes.org), features a simple test people can take to determine if they might have the condition. He says prediabetes can be headed off before it worsens. “Very modest changes in your lifestyle,” Marrero says. “Losing five to ten-percent of your body weight and increasing your physical activity to the equivalent of 150 minutes a week of walking, that’s 30 minutes a day. It can really make a huge difference and reduce your risk between 60 to 70-percent.”

Studies find about 300-thousand Iowans, or about 12-percent of the population, has diabetes and perhaps 20-percent of them don’t know it as they haven’t been diagnosed. There are several long-term risks of prediabetes, including stroke, heart attacks, blindness and amputation. Research suggests once people are aware of their condition, they’re more likely to make the lifestyle changes necessary to prevent or delay progression to type 2 diabetes. Marrero is director of the Diabetes Translational Research Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

(Radio Iowa)