A slow-speed tractor pursuit early Saturday morning in northwest Iowa, was a little more exciting than you might think. According to reports, Jeremy Starkson was arrested on charges that include eluding, theft and assault, after he allegedly stole a tractor. Spencer Police saw the machine in a parking lot at around 1:30-a.m., Saturday and tried to make a traffic stop. Authorities say Starkson swerved to try and hit law enforcement several times as they tried to deploy stop sticks. Starkson rammed a squad car, which caused the tractor to become disabled and allowing him to be placed under arrest.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Board of Regents is expected to vote Wednesday on a proposal to buy the Cedar Falls business that sells and rents textbooks and classroom materials to University of Northern Iowa students. The nearly $3 million requested would be used to buy University Book and Supply’s inventory, equipment and other assets, as well as Hawkeye Bookstore, which the business operates at Hawkeye Community College in Waterloo.

Iowa State University and the University of Iowa own and operate bookstores on their campuses. Michael Hager is University of Northern Iowa’s senior vice president for finance and operations, and he says the university would operate the bookstore as a “not-for-profit entity, which will offer students the lowest possible pricing.”

A colder, snowier winter may be ahead for Iowa and much of the region, as most weather watchers now agree that a La Nina weather pattern has developed. Meteorologist Dennis Todey, director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub, based in Ames, says the indications for La Nina conditions are steady and the pattern may last another three months or more. “We have about a 65% chance of it persisting through winter which is fairly good from a climate perspective,” Todey says. “The expectations are, typical La Nina conditions are what are reflected in the outlooks. The Northern Plains has a little better chance of being colder than average and potential for wetter than average conditions.”

A La Nina occurs when Pacific Ocean surface temperatures trend below normal for several months. Todey says this La Nina pattern appears to be only moderate in force. “This is not going to be a really strong La Nina so our outlooks don’t reflect a real strength,” Todey says, “but at least when we have a La Nina, we have a little better chance of being able to say what we’re seeing going through the wintertime.” This weather pattern usually brings certain conditions, namely more colder temperatures and more snow than usual. “If you like snow, we have a little better chance of having some snow on the ground but there’s not a ton of confidence behind this that it’s going to be exactly like this,” Todey says, “but with the La Nina, we have a little better chance of saying that it will be like this.”

He adds, the expectation is that the La Nina will fade rather quickly next spring.

(Radio Iowa)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has been sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to charges related to the misapplication of casino funds.
U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Monday sentenced 63-year-old John Blackhawk to five years of probation and 150 hours of community service. He also must pay $36,000 in restitution.
Blackhawk pleaded guilty in September to theft from an Indian gaming establishment.

During 2013 and 2014, Blackhawk took unauthorized disbursements from the WinnaVegas Casino and Resort in Sloan, Iowa, totaling $36,000 in the form of gift certificates.
Blackhawk is one of nine former council members accused of a conspiracy to steal money from the casino.

An Iowa State University rural sociologist has identified a dozen small towns in Iowa where the quality of life is thriving despite losses in population. Among them are Elk Horn, Hamburg, Pacific Junction and Sac City. Dave Peters calls them “shrink-smart” towns. He says a high quality of life doesn’t depend so much on a strong local economy, but rather on solid social connections. “People in shrink-smart towns tend to be more frequently involved in community improvement projects and they were members of a lot more local organizations in the community,” Peters said.

Iowa State has been tracking life in towns with fewer than ten-thousand (10,000) people in each of the state’s 99 counties since 1994. In these shrink-smart towns, citizen have managed to bridge divides created by economic class, ethnicity and gender. “People in these towns rated their communities as having a culture of openness and support,” Peters explained. “So, residents said they felt safe in their towns, they felt they could trust their neighbors, and they felt the community was supportive of themselves and others.”

The shrink-smart towns Peters identifies range in population from 460 in the Mills County town of Pacific Junction to around 21-hundred (2,100) in Sac City. Nine of the 12 towns named by Peters to the list have populations fewer than one thousand (1,000). The shrink-smart towns, in alphabetical order, are Allerton, Bancroft, Correctionville, Elk Horn, Elma, Everly, Grand Mound, Hamburg, Mediapolis, Pacific Junction, Radcliffe and Sac City.

(Radio Iowa, w/Thanks to Rob Dillard, Iowa Public Radio)

Many Iowans will be making their year-end donations to charities soon and the experts say you’d better look closely before you give. Teresa Fritz, with the Better Business Bureau, suggests Iowans do some research before donating even a dime. Fritz says the bureau evaluates many hundreds of charities at the website Give-dot-org based on 20 different factors, with one of the biggest being accountability.

Fritz says, “We look to see if they are using their money wisely and that it’s going to actually run the organization and not just paying for the administration.”  Many charities receive one-third of their annual donations during the holiday season, so these year-end gifts are important. Fritz says sometimes the names of organizations will sound alike, but their support is very different. “Before you give, be sure you have the exact name of the charity to avoid a case of mistaken identity,” Fritz says. “Sometimes, charities that do not use their money wisely will try to have a similar name.”

If you get a phone call from a charity you’re not familiar with, don’t give, especially if someone is pressuring you. When you’re making a gift, she suggests plastic may have advantages over cash or a check. “We encourage people to use their credit cards, because you do have some assistance and safety with using your credit card,” she says. “If you would find out the organization is a scam, you can stop the donation on your credit card or stop a check, if you can talk to your bank right away.”

Anyone can access the Better Business Bureau’s Give-dot-org website for free. It’s part of the Wise Giving Alliance. (give.org)

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CST

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Republican senator says his comments were misinterpreted when he defended GOP efforts to scale back the federal estate taxes because it helps those who invest rather than people who spend their money on “booze or women or movies.” Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley says his point regarding the estate tax was taken out of context and the government shouldn’t “seize the fruits of someone’s lifetime of labor after they die.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Severe thunderstorms raked portions of the Plains as a cold front swept away warm weather and replaced it with conditions more typical of December. Temperatures fell behind the front, but not before hail and high winds crossed much of the nation’s midsection Monday. Snow fell in the northern Plains, where a blizzard warning was posted for Monday evening.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A former chairman of the Winnebago Tribe of Nebraska has been sentenced to probation and community service after pleading guilty to charges related to the misapplication of casino funds. U.S. District Court Judge Laurie Smith Camp on Monday sentenced 63-year-old John Blackhawk to five years of probation and 150 hours of community service. He also must pay $36,000 in restitution. Blackhawk pleaded guilty in September to theft from an Indian gaming establishment _ a casino in Sloan, Iowa.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The U.S. Navy says it will give a posthumous combat medal to the family of a northeast Iowa sailor on the 76th anniversary of his death on the battleship USS Oklahoma during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Aloysious H. Schmitt, who carried the rank of chaplain lieutenant junior grade, has been awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry in action.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Republican senator is defending GOP efforts to reduce the hit to the wealthy from the federal estate tax because it helps those who invest rather than people who spend their money on “booze or women or movies.”

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley made the comments late last week in an interview with the Des Moines Register. “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.”

Under current law, when someone dies the estate owes taxes on the value of assets transferred to heirs above $5.5 million for individuals, $11 million for couples. The Senate bill doubles those limits but does not repeal the tax.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A northern Iowa radio station has fired a sports announcer and an elementary teacher who worked as a board operator for the station for racial comments about high school basketball players during an online game broadcast.

KIMT-TV reports that announcer Orin Harris confirmed he was fired Monday from Forest City radio station KIOW. The station manager for KIOW, Karl Wooldridge, confirmed that two employees were fired Monday.

The Forest City School District says it placed teacher Holly Jane Kusserow-Smidt, who worked as a KIOW board operator, on administrative leave. In a video of last Tuesday’s game between Forest City and Eagle Grove, Harris refers to Eagle Grove boys he believes to be Hispanic because of their names as “foreigners” and says they should “go back where they came from.” Kusserow-Smidt agrees and laughs.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s top elections official says his office is beginning to mail paper identification cards as part of a new law requiring voters to show ID at the polls. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate says Monday that 123,000 registered voters will be sent the non-photo ID cards automatically. The Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed legislation last spring requiring voters to show acceptable identification at the polls, arguing it’ll maintain election integrity. There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Iowa.

Acceptable identification will be an Iowa driver’s license, a non-driver’s ID from Iowa, a U.S. passport, military identification or veterans ID. The state provides the paper ID cards to certain registered voters. The identification requirement goes into effect in 2019, though voters without acceptable ID in 2018 must sign an oath acknowledging they will need it soon. In 2019, those voters will be offered a provisional ballot.