State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald is reminding you to take advantage of the state tax deduction for contributing to you kid’s College Savings Iowa account. The deductions are based on the calendar year when you deposit funds to the account.  “Parents and grandparents must get their contributions in by December 31st, or it must be postmarked by December 31st to be able to claim this on your Iowa income tax as a deduction for 2012,” according to Fitzgerald. You can have accounts for each of your children.

“Anyone can put up to two-thousand-975 dollars in for each child. And that’s a whopper of a deduction,” Fitzgerald says, “you know if a typical family with two kids, mom and dad put it in, they can deduct 11-thousand-900 dollars from their Iowa taxes. So it can mean a lot.” Fitzgerald says relatives wanting to help out can donate.  “Most parents raising kids don’t have that kind of money, but a lot of grandparents do, and whatever they put in — if they have 10 grandchildren — they can put money in for each one of them and it adds up,” Fitzgerald says. He says one third of the accounts in the program were started by grandparents.

Fitzgerald says you can start an account with 25 dollars, and that is the minimum you can make with each deposit.  “Most people do not put in the max, because putting in 29-hundred and 75 dollars for each child is a little bit steep, a little too challenging for most folks financially. But the average account by the time a child goes to college in Iowa, they’ll have 14-thousand dollars saved,” Fitzgerald says. Investors in the program do not have to be Iowa residents. The child can take out the money for qualified college expenses including tuition, books, supplies and room and board at any eligible college, university, community college or accredited technical training school in the United Sates or abroad.

You can call 1-888-672-9116 to sign up or go to www.collegesavingsiowa.com.

(Radio Iowa)

Christmas was a few days ago, and the big crowds are gone from Iowa’s malls. Now would be a good time to return that ugly sweater or the toaster oven you didn’t need. Kimberly Hazen, with the Better Business Bureau, says stores aren’t required to exchange an item unless it’s defective or was wrongly advertised. “It really is up to the store’s policy to take — or not take — an item in return,” Hazen says. “They can decide if they offer a full refund, if they offer just a store credit or if they offer just an exchange.”

Stores must honor their written policies, but those might not always be clear. Some Iowa stores print those policies right on the receipt, which she says is very helpful, but most don’t. “Then you want to really hope you got a gift receipt from the person that gave you the gift,” Hazen says. “Also, making sure you don’t take the tags off and you keep the original packaging.” Consumers need to beware, Hazen says, as retailers may charge a fee to put the items back on the shelf. “A restocking fee can be as high as 25% of what you paid for the original item which can be kinda’ hefty,” she says.

If you encounter a problem at the store, consult the Better Business Bureau website at b-b-b-dot-org and enter your town in the search window.

(Radio Iowa)

Snow covered, slipper roads contributed to a two-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon, in Atlantic. The Police Department reports vehicles driven by Michael Bald and Danny Anderson, both of Atlantic, collided at around 1:25-p.m., at the intersection of 10th Street and Hospital Drive.

Officials say Bald was traveling eastbound when he lost control of his vehicle due to the road conditions. The vehicle slid and hit a SWITA bus driven by Anderson, as the bus was traveling west in its normal lane. No injuries were reported. Damage to the SWITA bus amounted to $500, while Bald’s vehicle sustained $3,000 damage. No citations were isssued.

The Fremont County Sheriff’s Department reports three South Dakota residents were arrested early this (Friday) morning, on drug charges. 33-year old Florencell James, Jr., 29-year old Roseanne Weddell and 23-year old Rochelle Bordeaux, all of Sioux Falls, SD, were taken into custody at around 2:40-a.m., on Possession of a Controlled Substance/Methamphetamine, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia, charges.

The trio were arrested at the Pilot Truck Stop in the 2400 block of 210^th Avenue in Fremont County, after deputies responded to investigate a reported suspicious vehicle. Each of the individuals were brought to the Fremont County Jail and held on $1,000 bond each.

The snow is still falling across northwest and north-central Iowa, with two to four new inches of flakes on the ground. 13 counties across the region are under a Winter Weather Advisory through noon. Meteorologist Mindy Beerends, at the National Weather Service, says the flurries will be flying for a while yet. The light snow and flurries should linger throughout the morning and may start to taper off mid- to late-afternoon. She reminds — the roads are slick and visibility may be reduced by blowing snow.

Here in Atlantic, we received nine-tenths (.9″) of an inch of snow for the 24-hour period that ended today at 7-a.m.  That melted into four one-hundredths (.04″) of an inch of liquid precipitation.

From 7-a.m. to 8-a.m., we had picked up an additional tenth-of-an inch (.1″), and light continue was continuing to fall as of 8:40-a.m.

w/ Ric Hanson

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The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office says no injuries were reported following a two-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon, just south of the Audubon County Airport. Officials say 59-year old Keith Vokt, of Audubon, was traveling south on Highway 71 at around 2-p.m., and in the process of turning east onto 215th Street, when his 1996 Chevy struck a northbound 2011 Jeep, driven by 50-year old Edward Cooper, of Des Moines.

Damage from the accident amounted to $5,000. Authorities say Vokt was cited for making an Unsafe Turn.

w/ Ric Hanson

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Two people have been arrested on drug charges in Red Oak. According to the police department, 22-year old Nicholas Dean Wright, of Carson, was taken into custody shortly after 10-p.m. Thursday, on a possession of marijuana charge. Wright was being held in the Montgomery County jail this (Friday) morning, on $1,000 cash bond.

And, 34-year-old Joshua Duane Mohn, of Red Oak, was arrested early this (Friday) morning, on charges of forgery, counterfeiting, driving while revoked and possession of drug paraphernalia. Mohn was transported to the Montgomery County jail where he was being held on $5,000 cash bond.

Some Iowa farmers had a very rough 2012 due to the drought and it’ll translate to a more expensive 2013 for consumers. A report from the U-S Department of Agriculture predicts food prices will be rising in the months ahead. U-S-D-A economist Ricky Volpe says the big hike in livestock feed prices means beef, pork and chicken will cost more.  “We’re going to see strong food price inflation for a lot of animal-based products,” Volpe says. “That’s expected to happen relatively early in the year, in the first quarter or the first half of 2013.” Food prices rose about two-and-a-half percent this year and the agency predicts they’ll rise three-to-four percent in the year ahead.

Volpe says meat prices will go up initially, with many other items costing more by late summer.  “That’s when we can expect to see more significant impacts for all these more packaged, processed, shelf-stabled foods, things like soups, condiments and side dishes, and then even things like breakfast cereals and packaged breads,” Volpe says. “That’s where we’ll start to see the impacts of the drought happen a little bit later. Consumers are going to feel it more for those foods. It’ll be a little bit smaller but it will happen in the second half of 2013 and maybe even in 2014.”

Volpe says the effects of the summer-long drought will continue to have ripple effects in all grocery aisles. “We’ve seen, in the last couple of months, fluid milk prices ticking up,” Volpe says. “It does appear as if, for this food, the drought has really started to hit it. We always expected that fluid milk and dairy would be kind of a good bellwether of where the drought is headed because we’re looking at a food group that is not very storable and doesn’t require a lot of processing. Expect to see dairy products, this large category, on average go up about 4% in 2013 as a result of these higher feed prices.” The report says the price of milk and other dairy products could double if price supports are not addressed by Congress in a new Farm Bill by the end of the year.

(Radio Iowa)