Legislators have tabled a bill that would have required minors to have parental permission to pierce anything BUT their ears. Representative Ashley Hinson, a Republican from Marion, says the bill isn’t specific enough in describing what actually would be covered as a forbidden-for-teens piercing. “One of our fellow representatives brought up gauging as covered in this because it involves your earlobe,” Hinson says.

Gauging is the process of stretching the earlobe. It widens the hole in a pierced ear. Hinson says other states regulate businesses that pierce other parts of the body, but it’s unclear whether this bill is needed in Iowa. “A lot of the regulation has surrounded what are tattoo artists held to for their standards and I think a lot of people are good practitioners and they are double-checking before they…do something like that, making sure that it’s the right decision and that maybe the parents are involved,” Hinson says.

But Hinson says legislators will continue to investigate the issue, since that may not be standard practice for all body-piercing businesses. It is illegal for tattoo shops in Iowa to give tattoos to minors. Supporters of the bill say body piercing needs to be policed, like tattoo parlors, for health and safety. Critics say the bill infringes on freedom of expression.

“These are decisions that can impact your body for a long time and I also respect the idea that you own your body,” Hinson says, “so I think we need to be mindful of all those concerns going forward and that’s why we decided to just indefinitely postpone the bill.”

Hinson says the bill, as currently written, doesn’t make it clear whether the minor or the person who did the body piercing would be fined if a parent hadn’t given permission for piercing.

(Radio Iowa)

A new service is being launched in Iowa this Super Bowl weekend that offers to give anyone who’s had too much to drink a free ride home in a tow truck as their vehicle is carted along behind. Kevin Bakewell, vice president of Triple-A, says the Tow To Go program will be available to Iowans anytime from Friday through 6 A-M on Monday by calling a toll-free number. “It is a confidential phone call,” Bakewell says. “We do not take information on your name. We simply take your location, the location of your vehicle. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a AAA member. We will come out and pick up you and your car and take you safely home within a 10-mile radius.”

Before this weekend, the program was only available in Georgia, Florida and Tennessee, as well as in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska. It’s now being rolled out for all of Iowa and Nebraska. “It’s an opportunity for a safe ride home for those who may not have planned ahead with a designated driver, recognizing that Super Bowl is one of those big, celebratory holidays where there tends to be a lot of drinking,” Bakewell says. “This is a way people can ensure a safe ride home for themselves, for their friends, and ensure safer highways for all of us.”

Super Bowl weekend is the first of nine weekends when the service will be offered in Iowa. Since the program was first launched in 1998, the motor club says Tow to Go has safely removed more than 24-thousand impaired drivers from roads across the Southeast and the Midwest. Bakewell isn’t putting a dollar figure on each tow.

“It’s really something we’re measuring in lives saved or potential lives saved,” Bakewell says. “If you think about those 24,000 individuals who have been removed from the highways, literally, every single one of those could have been a traffic fatality, either themselves or by causing a crash and killing somebody else on the highway.”

Iowa reported 403 traffic deaths last year and authorities say more than 100 of those were alcohol-related. Tow trucks can usually carry up to two people in the cab. If there are more people in the party, you will need to make other arrangements to get home safely. The number to call is: (855) 2-TOW-2-GO or (855) 286-9246.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Red Oak are investigating incidents of theft from two vehicles and vehicle vandalism. Authorities were called to the Red Coach Inn parking lot at around 8:15-a.m. today (Wednesday). On the scene, officers met with a man from Williamsburg, who reported that sometime after 7:30-p.m. Tuesday, someone broke the passenger side window out of his 2005 Chevy Tahoe, and stole a Dell laptop computer belonging to the University of Iowa. The victim said there was nothing of importance in the laptop or hard drive that would be of use to anyone.

While speaking with the victim, a man from Wellsburg approached officers and advised a blue tie down on his 2016 Ford pickup had been cut, and a Stanley roll-away toolbox containing a power strip, 50- and 25-foot extension cords, brochures, pens and paper were stolen. The pickup was in the stall adjacent to the Tahoe.

The loss from the break-in, vandalism and thefts amounted to about $4,400. The incidents remain under investigation.

The Union County Sheriff’s Office says an Afton man reported early Tuesday morning that someone had stolen items from his property valued at about $21,450. The theft happened sometime between 5-and 6-a.m., Tuesday. Taken from the property in the 2700 block of Rose Drive in Afton, was a 2003 camo-colored Yamaha Grizzley, a 2004 black Harley Davidson, a Stevens 12-gauge shotgun, and a Ruger 1022.

(9-a.m. News)

STORM LAKE, Iowa (AP) – A Storm Lake man accused of keeping Iowa authorities from taking custody of his children has agreed to deal with prosecutors. Online court records show 33-year-old Scott Banks pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor child endangerment after prosecutors dropped kidnapping and perjury counts. The agreement includes a recommendation for a two-year suspended prison sentence and two years of probation. The judge is not bound by the agreement, however.

Court documents say Banks hid the two children from child welfare employees on Dec. 14, 2015, and lied while under oath at a court hearing that same day. The children were found later at the home of a relative who wasn’t aware of a court order regarding the children.