Republican Congressman Steve King says he does not anticipate voluntarily going back into the business world. King, who is 62 years old, owned and operated a western Iowa earth-moving company when he was elected to the state senate in 1996. He’s been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2003.  “I don’t anticipate going back to the private sector. I’m all in on public service,” King says. “I love this work and I’ve told people a number of times that this is nine years in congress — it’s gone by like it was a single year.” King plans to seek reelection to congress in 2012 and he will likely face Democrat Christie Vilsack, Iowa’s former first lady whose husband is a cabinet secretary in the Obama Administration. King predicts the contest will be among the top five most closely-watched congressional races in the country.

“I take the reelection effort for the new fourth district very seriously,” King says, “…seriously enough to put out some effort to raise some money the last quarter.” King raised over 600-thousand dollars in the first three quarters of the year. Christie Vilsack raised over 750-thousand during that period. But there’s a major political event before the November 2012 election — the Iowa Caucuses. King sponsored a forum last February in Des Moines that featured a handful of politicians who said at the time they were mulling a race for the White House. King says there are a “couple of things” that are “holding him back” from endorsing one of the 2012 candidates.

“I don’t yet see a presidential candidate that’s laid out a financial plan for America, that fixes this financial problem that we are in. I am calling upon them to do that, put that plan out,” King says. “The second thing is I haven’t heard yet from any of them the ‘Shining City on a Hill’ speech that lets me understand that they have the vision for the destiny of America. Those two things are a couple of things that could settle me on a candidate, if I heard them.” King has been a long and ardent critic of the concept of “amnesty” for illegal immigrants and he says the views Newt Gingrich holds on that issue make it “hard” to think of endorsing Gingrich. King made his comments during taping of the Iowa Public Television program, “Iowa Press,” which airs tonight (Friday) at 7:30 or find a video link online at www.radioiowa.com.

(O.Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

A Cass County man is scheduled to appear in court next month on felony charges related to the theft of money from his grandmother. 26-year old David Allen Coenen, of Lewis, faces four counts of Forgery, for allegedly writing checks from his grandmother’s account. He’s scheduled to appear in Shelby County District Court on December 20^th.

David Allen Coenen

Coenen entered a written plea of Not Guilty to the charges, on November 14^th. His pre-trial hearing will take place Monday, November 28^th. If convicted of the class D Felony charges, Coenen faces a maximum of 20 years in jail, with additional fines totaling $20,000.

According to complaints filed through the court system October 4^th, Coenen allegedly signed his grandmother’s name on four checks from August 30th through September 5th, 2011. The checks were written to a bar and two separate gas stations, all of which are in Harlan.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – In a year of tornadoes, flooding and farmland fires, some northwest Iowa residents might find the holiday season of giving a little hard to celebrate with donations to charities. The Salvation Army says it recognizes the obstacles facing some area residents and has slightly lowered its hopes for donations. Capt. Von Vandiver says that the Salvation Army has dropped its area goal by $1,500, to $178,500 this year. Despite the tough times for some, the giving spirit endures. Vandiver says two $100 bills were found folded inside one of the local red kettles earlier this week.

w/ Ric Hanson

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COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Seventeen aging laptop computers have been stolen from an Iowa Department of Human Services office in Pottawattamie County.Nine of the social workers’ laptops were missing when workers arrived on Sept. 26. Department spokesman Roger Munns says police found no sign of forced entry. When workers arrived on Sept. 30, eight more laptop computers had been taken. The door locks have been changed and the county is getting estimates for installing an electronic-key entry system. Munns says the computers were 5 to 6 years old and were scheduled for replacement. He says no private information was stored on them.

A Meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Johnston says there were 50 tornadoes in the state this year, which is just above the 30-year average of 47 tornadoes. Altogether, 16 people were injured by the events, but there were no fatalities. Craig Cogil says the season started-up rapidly in March and early April, but lost steam as the season progressed. Cogil says two significant tornado days occurred early in the season, on March 22nd over southwest to south central Iowa during the late afternoon and evening hours. The event produced 8 tornadoes over a 2-hour period, including an EF-2 in Madison County, which caused property damage to several farms and one home.  EF-2’s produced winds of 111-to 135 miles per hours.

An event on April 9th was the largest outbreak of tornadoes for one day across Iowa since May, 2004, when 20 tornadoes twisted their way across the state. The event started during the mid-evening hours when the first tornado, an EF-3 (with winds of 136-to 165-mph), hit Mapleton, in Monona County. Nearly 100 homes were destroyed and many other severly damaged in a 12-to 15-block area. The event resulted in 14 injuries and 500 residents being displaced. Several other tornadoes formed over the next several hours that day, from west central into north central Iowa, including one that tracked more than 29-miles from northern Sac through southeastern Buena Vista and western Pocahontas Counties.  It had the distinction of being 1.5-miles wide at times, and produced numerous “Satellite” tornadoes, which tracked around the main tornado. One of the satellites was an EF-4 (winds from 166- to 200-mph). It destroyed a farmstead and tossed a combine nearly 300-yards.

Two significant tornado events occurred in May, including two on May 11th that hit the town of Lenox within a span of 5-minutes. Both tornadoes were rated as EF-1’s, producing winds of 86 to 110-miles per hour. Both tornadoes caused extensive roof and tree damage. The other tornado event in May was in eastern Iowa’s Howard County.

The remainder of the season saw 10 more tornadoes occurr on six different days. The most occurred on June 20th, when four twisters were observed. The last tornado of the season was on July 11th. It caused extensive damage in portions of central and eastern Iowa. The fact the last tornado was confirmed on that date marked the earliest cessation of tornadic activity in the state since reliable records started in 1980, beating the previous earliest cessation record set on July 24, 1992.

For more detailed info., surf to www.weather.gov/desmoines.

Rural Iowans who have to make a long trek to a drug store might consider buying their prescription medications online, but they’re being warned against it. Carmen Catizone, executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, says most of those websites are flaunting the law, in addition to selling bogus drugs.

“It’s a $75-billion industry and you really can’t buy medications online without a prescription, legally, but unfortunately, you’re able to do so and you’re able to do so with websites that are operating illegally, are dangerous and are probably selling counterfeit drugs,” Catizone says. An association study of online drug stores revealed just how crooked most of those businesses have become.

“We looked at over eight-thousand websites selling prescription drugs,” Catizone says. “Ninety-six-percent of those websites were fake, rogue or illegal sites that were breaking both federal and state law.” He says it’s even more disturbing to hear that any type of drug, from diet pills to pain killers, can be purchased online and without a prescription. 

Catizone says, “You can order virtually any prescription drug in the world that you want, but the other side of the issue is, if you’re not using a legal, on-site pharmacy or talking to your doctor, the chances of what you are getting being a real med are probably nil and the dangers of using or taking or buying those meds are high and very significant.” He says counterfeit medication manufacturers have become very skilled at producing convincing products that look like the real thing, but they’re usually made in unsanitary conditions and contain dangerous substances, like rat poison or lead. Erectile drugs are the most-counterfeited. The study also found one in six Americans bought medications online last year.

(Matt Kelley/Radio Iowa)

A spokesman for Iowa’s Attorney General says you can save yourself a lot of holiday hassles if you take a little time to keep know some shopping rules. Geoff Greenwood says the first thing to know is that stores set the conditions on things like returns. Greenwood says a lot of people get confused because they think that state law requires stores to accept returns, but he says there isn’t such a law for a refund, exchange or credit unless a store advertises such a policy. Many stores are offering layaway plans this year in an effort to boost sales. The stores also set layaway rules.

“Make sure your eyes are wide open what the rules are, and also pay attention to how much they’re charging you, in some cases they will charge you a storage fee for the layaway,” Greenwood says. He says make sure you know what the storage cost is up front on an item. Greenwood says the return polices vary widely, so don’t think what works at one store will also work at another.

He says some stores require a receipt for a return, others don’t. Some can look up your purchase, while others can’t. There are set rules stores have to follow when it comes to gift cards.
Greenwood says money on a gift card cannot expire for at least five years from the time you buy it or from the time you load it with money. He says it is possible to charge you an inactivity fee if you don’t use the card. Greenwood says you should ask the stores about their policies if you are unsure of their rules.

(Dar Danielson/Radio Iowa)

As  meteorologists had expected, record high temperatures were set across the state this (Thursday) afternoon. Here at KJAN, the OFFICIAL National Weather Service reporting and record-keeping station for Atlantic, a 96-year old record high temperature fell by the wayside when we topped out at 68-degrees.  The old record of 62, was set in 1915.  A record high of 64 in Shenandoah was broken when the community topped out at 70-degrees at around 3:15-p.m..

In Des Moines, the record high was broken just after 3-p.m., when the temperature hit 67-degrees. The old record was 65 set in 1915.