It’s back-to-school season and Iowa parents have something new to worry about: super lice. Iowa is among the Midwestern states where the creepy-crawlers are being found. Jennifer Stiles, a disease prevention nurse at the Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health in Mason City, says the lice have mutated and are tough to kill.

Stiles says, “These super lice are resistant to the typical medications that are used, the over-the-counter medications, that are used for lice.” Stiles says the most important thing for parents to do — whether it’s lice or super lice — is to comb the child’s hair daily with a lice comb and use over-the-counter treatments twice.

She says each lice kit has shampoo and a brush and a little comb in it, and combing the hair for 10-15 minutes every day to get those nits and any active bugs out is the most effective way of getting rid of lice. Stiles says if you spot your child itching his or her head a lot, that’s a big clue.

“Most of the time, you’ll see that they itch behind their ears or at the bottom of the neck,” Stiles says. “If the child’s complaining that they feel something crawling around their hair. Or if the child’s been exposed to somebody with head lice, they spent the night at someone’s house, it’s always a good idea just to make sure that you’re actively looking to make sure that child doesn’t develop lice.”

Stiles says if over-the-counter treatments don’t work, seek professional help.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Red Oak arrested three people this week in connection with stolen vehicles and alleged attempts at identity theft. Tuesday afternoon, a Pottawattamie County man was arrested for felony Possession of Stolen Property. 21-year old Timothy Allen Stubbs, of Council Bluffs, was taken into custody after officers investigated a citizen’s report of a van that had driven south along the four-wheeler off road trails in the vicinity of the West Coolbaugh Street boat ramp to the East Nishnabotna River.  The officer was told the van was parked in a wooded area of the river, and the driver took off on foot.

Officers approached the van and recognized it as having been reported stolen last Sunday. The van in question had Colorado license plates, while the vehicle reported stolen to police had Iowa plates. A check of the VIN confirmed the vehicle was reported stolen to Red Oak Police. With the assistance of Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies, Stubbs was located and taken into custody.

One day earlier (Monday), Red Oak Police were notified by authorities in Mills County, that a vehicle was recovered in Mills County that bore Iowa license plates assigned to the van reported stolen in Red Oak on Sunday. The vehicle they recovered had been stolen from a residence in rural Treynor. On Tuesday, Red Oak Police received word from a Pott. County Sheriff’s investigator, that the van discovered Tuesday had been in the Council Bluffs area and individuals who had occupied the vehicle, tried to open lines of credit in other persons’ names.

A search warrant was executed Tuesday by Red Oak Police and Montgomery County Sheriff’s Deputies at a residence in the 300 block of 2nd Avenue in Red Oak, with regard to the recovery of the stolen van and incidents in Pott. County. As a result of the warrant, authorities arrested 28-year old Richard Dean Pierce III, and 30-year old Katie Marie Pierce. Richard Pierce III was charged with felony Possession of stolen property and Possession  of Drug Paraphernalia. Katie Pierce was charged with Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.

Late Tuesday night, Red Oak Police and deputies with the Montgomery and Mills County Sheriff’s Offices executed a search warrant at a residence in Mills County, with regard to the stolen vehicles and thefts. Additional arrests were made, but no further details were immediately available.

Red Oak Police want to thank the Montgomery, Mills County and Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Offices as well as the Montgomery County K9 Unit, for their assistance in investigating the incidents.

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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Police in Creston, Monday afternoon, arrested 34-year old John Foster, of Creston, on a Union County warrant for Violation of Probation, on an original charge of Domestic Abuse/3rd or subsequent offense. Foster was taken into custody at the Union County Law Enforcement Center, and held on a $2,000 bond.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Two people have sued Sioux City over its ordinance banning pit bulls. The Sioux City Journal reports the lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City. In it, Jennifer Frost and a woman referred to as Jane Doe ask the court to bar the city from enforcing the ordinance and to outlaw it as a violation of their constitutional right to due process.

The lawsuit says the ordinance, passed in 2008, is inconsistent and bans animals that are not harmful. The ban prohibits residents from having dogs that are at least 51 percent pit bull. City officials declined to comment about the lawsuit.

It’s a below-average year for tornadoes in Iowa. While they can strike during any month of the year, the peak time for twisters in the state is usually during May and June. Kevin Skow, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in metro Des Moines, says Iowans should not let their guard down as dark clouds could still spawn dangerous, swirling cyclones.

“So far this year, we’ve seen 33 tornadoes across the state and our average number of tornadoes is typically around 48 to 49 in a given year,” Skow says. “However, even though the bulk of our tornado season, the typical climatological peak is past, we can still see late-season outbreaks as was the case last year with our November 11th and even some December tornadoes. We’re certainly not out of the woods quite yet.”

Of the 33 tornadoes confirmed in Iowa this year, 24 of them were rated in the weakest category of E-F-zero, while seven were E-F-ones and only two got big enough to rank as E-F-twos. There have been no E-F-threes, fours or fives. “Most of our tornadoes, generally the vast majority, are weak EF-0,” Skow says. “They’re very short-lived and have path lengths a mile or two at best. Many times, they didn’t impact any structures and again, they’re very weak, which is what we’d like to see.”

The first three confirmed tornadoes this year all touched down on March 15th in Scott and Clinton counties, while the most recent tornado was just last week in Council Bluffs. That twister on Thursday afternoon was a relatively rare “rope” tornado or waterspout that churned up Lake Manawa. Hundreds of people in the metro area saw it and took pictures and video, including one passenger on a jetliner landing at Eppley Airfield in Omaha.

“We were very, very thankful it didn’t move anywhere,” Skow says. “It just sat out over the lake there and didn’t move. It didn’t impact anything. It was just stationary and lasted at least five to ten minutes.” Something else that’s unusual this year, there were two days where five tornadoes were reported on the same day: April 27th saw five twisters in southwestern Iowa and July 17th brought five more in eastern Iowa.

(Radio Iowa)

Farmland values in Iowa have dipped for the second year in a row according to the U.S.D.A. The U-S-D-A’s National Agricultural Statistics Services estimates the average price for Iowa “cropland” is now eight-thousand dollars ($8,000) an acre. That’s a nearly two-and-a-half percent decline from 2015. Experts say the drop is fueled by low commodity prices. The average price for Iowa land used as pasture for livestock is 34-hundred dollars, unchanged from a year ago.

A spring survey of realtors who sell Iowa farmland indicated a bigger drop in the price for Iowa cropland, of nearly nine percent. The U.S.D.A.’s report concluded the total value for farm real estate in Iowa is 244 TRILLION dollars. That’s the value of all the agland as well as the barns and farmhouses in Iowa.

The RENTAL price for cropland in Iowa averaged 235-dollars ($235) an acre for this growing season. That’s down 15 dollars an acre from a year ago.

(Radio Iowa)

An “anti-Trump” Republican plans to run for president as an independent — and he has until Friday, August 19th to collect enough qualifying petition signatures to get his name printed on Iowa’s General Election ballots. Forty-year-old Evan McMullin is a former C.I.A. counter-terrorism operative. He’s left his job as the chief policy director for Republicans in the U.S. House and is running as an independent candidate for president. He’s already missed the filing deadline in two dozen states.

To get his name on Iowa’s 2016 General Election ballot, McMullin and his supporters must do this: They have to circulate nominating petitions and get the signatures of at least 15-hundred Iowa registered voters — and Iowans from at least 10 counties must be represented on those petitions.

In 2004, Ralph Nader’s supporters had to collect petition signatures to get his name printed on the Iowa ballot. A John Kerry supporter challenged some of the signatures, but a three-member panel approved the petitions and Nader was listed as an independent candidate that year. In 1992, Ross Perot’s supporters completed a similar petition process and Perot was listed as the Reform Party candidate on Iowa ballots.

In 1980, former Republican Congressman John Anderson of Illinois ran for president as an independent in every state.

(Radio Iowa)

Iowans are being reminded to beware of phone calls from someone claiming to be with the Internal Revenue Service. One of the would-be scammers called a radio station in southwest Iowa recently and the entire call was recorded.  “Sir, the reason behind the call is to inform you there is a lawsuit filed against your name by the IRS regarding the tax evasion,” the caller said. “Are you aware about this lawsuit before?” When the radio station employee said no, the caller began with the scam.

“We came to know there were some miscalculations, some errors in your tax filing,” the caller said. “I’m not blaming on you that you’ve not paid your taxes. I know you pay your tax regularly, but the amount you’re filing as your tax was not correct. You were filing some of the wrong amounts which you actually have to pay to the government as your tax.” The caller didn’t like being questioned.

“I want to notify you that this line are being recorded and monitored by the IRS,” he said. “Please do not interrupt me and listen to me very carefully. Once I complete my part, after that, I will give you time to ask me the question, but until that time, you have to listen to me very carefully.” The scammer claimed the IRS was owed nearly 39-hundred dollars which needed to be paid immediately.

Upon being informed he’d called a radio station and that the conversation was being recorded, he hung up. Iowans are warned to not give this sort of caller any personal information and to just hang up. The I-R-S does not conduct business this sort of business on the phone. It’s done by mail.

(Radio Iowa)