(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa bobcat trapping season is underway and D-N-R wildlife biologist, Vince Evelsizer, says trappers should be able to fill their quotas. “Bobcat populations are doing very well across the southern part of Iowa, the extreme western part of Iowa, and they’re continuing to expand northward up through eastern Iowa,” he says. Evelsizer says it’s one of the positive conservation stories. “The bobcats story is a happy one. Their numbers are stable to increasing in almost all counties of Iowa that have ideal habitat, which is typically early successional forest and in fields, natural grass fields, that sort of thing where there’s a good prey abundance,” Evelsizer says.

The limits on bobcat trapping continue based on the populations for each county. “The north-central part of Iowa is still closed to bobcat harvest. And then there’s several counties across central Iowa that are open to one bobcat bag limit for that county,” he says. “And then the three tiers of southern Iowa counties is open to a three bobcat bag limit.” Evelsizer says the trapping helps keep the populations from getting out of control.”They don’t have many natural predators in the Midwest which you know out in the western U-S — or the far north — they would have to watch out for bigger cats such as mountain lions or even gray wolves with their kittens you know that sort of thing,” Evelsizer says.

You can find out more about bobcat trapping on the Iowa D-N-R’s website.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak, Tuesday afternoon, arrested 52-year-old Kristen Marie Hughes, of Red Oak. Hughes was taken into custody on a valid Mills County warrant for Contempt of District Court, by act or omission. She was transported to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond, while awaiting extradition to Mills County.

(Radio Iowa) – A G-O-P candidate for a seat in the Iowa legislature will seek another recount of her race. Last week, ALL of the ballots in Scott County were fed into a machine for a recount, but the machine kept jamming, so the ballots were recounted by hand on Thursday. A final machine count was done Friday. The result flipped the outcome of the Iowa House District 81 race to Democrat Craig Cooper of Davenport — by a six vote margin. Republican Luana Stoltenberg watched last week’s recount in the Scott County Auditor’s office.

“According to their own office, the amount of ballots that came in were 23,397 ballots and so the number they’re saying today they’re going to reconcile to is 23,362 ballots,” Stoltenberg says. “That does not reconcile to me.” On Election Night, Stoltenberg was shown to be leading by 29 votes, but there were discrepancies in absentee ballot tabulations. The Secretary of State ordered an administrative recount of all ballots and all races in Scott County.

Stoltenberg has until next Monday to file the paperwork to request another recount.

(Radio Iowa) – The Republican who’ll be the new member of Iowa’s congressional delegation next year is hoping to be appointed to the House Ag Committee — the panel that will write the 2023 Farm Bill. Congressman-elect Zach Nunn, who’s from Bondurant, is also aiming for a seat on the House Committee on Financial Services. The panel oversees the nation’s housing, banking, real estate and insurance sectors.

“This year, more than ever, we need to have some real responsibility in helping tame the economy,” Nunn says. Sometime in 2023, congress will have to vote to raise the debt ceiling so the federal government can pay its bills. Nunn expects the Republican-led House to seek spending concessions from Democrats before agreeing to increase the debt limit.

“I think this is going to be a big stick that the House is going to hold over both the Senate and the administration,” Nunn says, “so we need to get to a point where we feel comfortable that our budget is not only sustainable, but it’s returning real economic growth back to our states and the private sector.” Nunn is back in Iowa after a week in Washington, D.C. for new member orientation sessions. Starting in January, all six members of Iowa’s D-C delegation will be Republicans.

“This is the first time we’ve all been Republican in the Senate and the House since the Eisenhower Administration,” Nunn says. But Nunn says with a Republican-led House and Democrats in control in the U.S. Senate, there’s a chance to pass pragmatic bills that both parties can support.  “You know, the 80% of things we all agree on can be things that we can move forward with directly,” Nunn says. Nunn says he intentionally sought-out newly-elected Democrats this past week and he posted a photo of a bipartisan group on social media.

“It’s an amazing freshman class. Both the Republicans and Democrats put forward some really stellar candidates who ended up winning,” Nunn says. “…I made a point to reach out to some of my Democratic colleagues in similar districts, particularly farm states like Illinois across the river here, to have breakfast with and say: ‘This might be the best opportunity to forge a friendship, before we get into what happens in Washington, people go to their sides of the court and they never get a chance to talk to each other.'”

Nunn, a former Air Force intelligence officer, recently reconnected with people at U.S. Cyber Command.  “I was privileged to work as professional staff under the Obama-Biden Administration on the National Security Council,” Nunn says. “I’ve reached out to those colleagues as well at the staff level.”

Nunn finished about 21-hundred votes ahead of Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne in Iowa’s third district race. The third district stretches from Clarinda to Ottumwa and up to Des Moines.

(Radio Iowa) – A central Iowa woman is the new Ms. Wheelchair Iowa. Kelly Richmond of Altoona was crowned at the competition last weekend. The 42-year-old mother of four was born with spina bifida, a condition which impacts the spine, and she’s been using the wheelchair for mobility for about five years. Richmond says she likes to be approached and have people ask about the wheelchair and why she’s in it, and she’s hoping to lead by example with her new role.

“There’s so many kids and even adults that don’t have that opportunity or they’re too embarrassed or they’re not as secure in it as I am,” Richmond says. “It’s nice to be able to show them you can do this. You can be a family person, you can go to school, you can go to college, you can travel, you can experience everything you want. It just requires a little bit more adaptability.” As Iowa’s new titleholder, Richmond will be traversing the state, speaking to civic groups, schools and government leaders about the abilities of people who have disabilities. She says she already likes to get out and meet people and see the sights.

“We go out and explore as often as we can as I just love gravel travel, so anywhere I can go,” Richmond says. “My fiance takes me all over Iowa to the less-seen places and I just get to experience openness which I never really did back home.” A native of southern California, she left the West Coast several years ago and fell in love with Iowa — saying California is too crowded, too expensive and too much asphalt. Her children range in age from five to 20 years, and the 20-year-old is in the U-S Army, preparing to deploy. Richmond says she’d like to make the Veterans Home in Marshalltown and Iowa’s V-A hospitals among her first stops as Ms. Wheelchair Iowa.

“Veterans, especially some of the ones that are coming back with injuries and ending up in wheelchairs after having all of that freedom and mobility,” Richmond says, “going in and being able to show them that, I know this is a big setback for you, but you can still do everything you want to do as long as you have that mindset.” Richmond works full-time as a maintenance coordinator in the corporate offices of Casey’s General Stores in Ankeny. She’ll represent Iowa at the Ms. Wheelchair America event in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which begins in late August of 2023.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds pardoned two tom turkeys today (Tuesday) — signing a proclamation in a video. “Iowa’s turkey pardoning event is something that I look forward to every year — but with a statewide order currently in place to protect flocks from the threat of avian influenza — we’re honoring the tradition a little bit differently,” Reynolds said. The video showed Ben Slinger and his family, who provided the two turkeys for the virtual event.

“A special thanks to the slinger family from Ellsworth who raised Iowa’s official turkeys this year affectionately known as Stars and Stripes,” she said. Reynolds wrapped up the event by reading a proclamation.

“Now therefore, I Kim Reynolds governor of the great state of Iowa do proudly proclaim Stars and Stripes as symbols of Iowa’s great turkey industry they are free to roam this Thanksgiving Day,” Reynolds said. The governor thanked those who own the 130 turkey farms in the state. A majority of Iowa’s turkeys are processed into deli meat for restaurants.

(Neola, Iowa) – Fire fighters are battling a field fire this (Tuesday) afternoon, near Neola. KJAN listener Zach Ploen provided us with a view from the Tri-Center Neola High School. He said it was across I-80 and making its way east. The closest towns are Minden and Neola. Minden Fire was enroute to the scene early today.

Photo courtesy Zach Ploen.

(Radio Iowa) – Retailers are facing a dilemma with their return policies as the holiday shopping season is upon us. I-S-U assistant professor of supply chain management, Robert Overstreet, says return policies that are too restrictive can turn off customers. He cites online retailer L.L. Bean’s decision 2018 to change the return policy that allowed you to bring something back with or without a receipt. “They just changed it to one year with a receipt,” he says. “…I think I’m a rational person and that seems fair — but they receive quite a backlash for that decision.” Overstreet says L-L Bean made the change after they found some people were taking advantage of the policy.

“What had happened is people would go to thrift stores and find things and return for it credit. Or dumpster dive. One article said people were dumpster diving, ” he says. Overstreet says increased costs and supply chain backups now have focused attention again on return policies. “Things flow really well out toward the customer. I mean, we in supply chain, we’re really good at that. But trying to get stuff back into the supply chain is harder, it’s more expensive,” he says, “we don’t know what’s coming back, we don’t know what shape it’s in, we don’t know if it can be resold.” Overstreet says some companies figure in the cost of returns in their sales — but many can’t. He says some retailers have decided to deal with it in another way. “I was just reading an article recently where companies are just not even taking the material back, just giving the person a refund, and allowing them to keep the material because it’s just cheaper to do that and then take it back into the system,” Overstreet says.

He says has says having overly lenient return policies in an effort to get customers can backfire. “What it did is it took all of the burden of the purchase decision away from the consumer and place it on the retailer because he made a bad choice, you didn’t have to pay for that,” Overstreet says. He thinks such policies will be an incentive to people who already are abusing the system. “And I think what’s going to happen with those we allow you to keep the item even though you’re using it have used it may actually continue to use it but you’re claiming you want to return it that’s going to create a whole new issue and people act in bad faith and says ‘I’ll just keep it for free, tell them I want to return it. I’m just gonna keep it anyway,” he says.

The National Retail Federation says if consumer habits mirror previous years, 20 to 30 percent of the merchandise they buy this holiday season will be returned.

(Griswold, Iowa) – The Griswold School Board has two, upcoming Work Sessions on different topics. During the first session on Monday, December 5th at 5:30-p.m., the Board will meet in the Conference Room, with the purpose of developing an action plan that supports their 2022-23 Board of Education goals. The second work session will be held 4:30-p.m. Monday, Dec. 19th. The Board will gather in the Conference Room and proceed to tour the District’s facility, with the purpose of conducting a facilities assessment.

(Wright County, Iowa) – A collision a little after 7-a.m. today (Tuesday) in northern Iowa, claimed three lives. All three of the victims were occupants of a 2007 BMW 525 that collided with a 2020 Mack tractor-trailer. The accident happened at the intersection of Hancock Avenue and 160th Street, north of Holmes. The Iowa State Patrol said the victims died upon impact with the truck. The driver of the semi, 20-year-old Braxton William Matthew Murphy, of Eldora, was not injured.

At this point, only one of the victims have been identified. That person was 27-year-old Jorge Marih Lopez-Lopez, of Britt. He was wearing a seat belt. It’s not known if the remaining victims were wear a seat belt, and we also don’t know who was driving the car.

The crash remains under investigation.