(Radio Iowa) – An economic development group is launching a competition for entrepreneurs in four northwest Iowa counties. The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation is sponsoring the Big IDEA challenge in Buena Vista, Clay, Dickinson and Emmet Counties. Trevor Smith, the group’s senior vice president, says business owners are invited to submit a 90 second video that will be posted online in January. “(It) will then go to a voting period where the public can vote on the best entrepreneurship idea,” he says, “and then the top five finalists for that will then go to a final ‘pitch off’ in late May where they will present their idea to a panel of judges and compete for a prize.” Each of the five finalists will get a cash prize.

“It’s $5000 for first place, $3000 for second, $1000 for third and $500 for the fourth and fifth place finalists,” he says. Smith says the money and attention from the competition could be a great opportunity to turn a dream into reality. “We have plenty of entrepreneurs in our region and plenty of people who have great ideas,” Smith says. Similar contests are held throughout the state. Last week, a business pitch competition in southwest Iowa called REV 2024 handed out 19-thousand dollars in prize money to two start-ups.

This past spring, the Red Rock START Up competition in Marion County connected four businesses with mentors and investors. And in 2012, the City of Grinnell sponsored a competition to attract a restaurant to a vacant spot. The winner got three months of free rent, 10-thousand dollars in cash and 30-thousand dollars worth of food, dishes, silverware.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – Nishna Valley Family YMCA Executive Director Dan Haynes, today (Tuesday), responded to a comment made during the November 13th meeting of the Atlantic School Board, with regard to the Jack and Jill Preschool. As we reported, during that meeting, Atlantic School District Superintendent Dr. Beth Johnsen said the district’s pre-school numbers are down. She said also, that while the Jack and Jill preschool is free, they are “maxed-out” on capacity. Dr. Johnsen said the Atlantic Head Start pre-school is maxed-out too, but they could grow up to 20-percent. Anything more than that, she said, and they’ll have to find the space to teach those students, somehow.

Haynes says:

• Jack and Jill in the past has run 2-3 separate four-year-old classes depending on the demand. “This year we could see the numbers where going to be lower for this group so we decided to only run two 4-year-old classes. These classes have 18 in the am leaving 2 openings and 16 in the pm leaving 4 openings. These classes can have a maximum of 20 kids each. We are sure open for additional students.”
• Jack and Jill in the past normally runs two three-year-old classes. “This year,” Haynes said, “we have two classes again with 22 in the morning and 13 in the afternoon. We have room in our pm class for up to 9 more students.  Again, we are open for additional students here as well.”
• And, “After checking with Head Start they have two openings as well in their 4 year old class.”

Dan Haynes said also, “In other news, we were disappointed to get the cancellation notice of the MOU we worked on for our shared usage of the Wickman playground and Lincoln gym. We did removed our play things from the gym. We do get in the gym occasionally in the am when time allows and appreciate that time. Lunch, naps, snack, and wrestling doesn’t allow for us to use the gym any other time.”

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Officials with the Red Oak Police Department says their 9th Annual “Toys for Tots” drive is underway. The event serves children and families who may not otherwise experience the full joy of the holiday season. Last year, more than 130 children from Montgomery County received toys through the program, enabling them to enjoy the holiday with their families.

Donations of NEW unwrapped toys for kids age 0-to 14, or monetary donations, are being accepted through December 14th. Toys may be dropped-off at the following locations in Red Oak: The Police Department; Fareway store; Red Oak Express; YMCA; Val’s Sugar Shack; Dollar General; Tractor Supply; the Buck Snort; Dollar Tree/Family Dollar Store; Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, and the Red Oak Library.

Monetary donations may be made payable to: Behind The Shields. Child sign-ups for the “Toys for Tots” program will take place at the Red Oak Fire Station on Thursday, Nov. 21st, from 3-until 5-p.m., and at the Red Oak Fareway Meat and Grocery, on Dec. 2nd, from 4:30-until 6:30-p.m.  Children ages 0-14 may be signed-up. Please bring the child’s birth certificate or medical card.  The deadline to sign children-up is Dec. 3, 2024.

If you have any questions, please call Amber Jennings at 712-623-6500.

(Radio Iowa) – A new report shows a state pilot program raised the number of children who could enroll in childcare services in select communities, which improved wages and benefits for local childcare workers. The “Iowa Childcare Solutions Fund: A Model for Closing the Childcare Gap” report analyzed the effect the Childcare Solutions Fund had in pilot communities, matching private investments from businesses and individuals with state funding. Iowa Women’s Foundation president and C-E-O Deann Cook says she’s proud to see a public-private partnership successfully address this issue.

“These are funds that were raised with private investment in local areas, local communities, and then matched with state dollars,” Cook says. “It was really the merger of those public and private dollars that created an investment fund into the childcare workforce, and it’s really made a difference.” In Cerro Gordo County, a two-dollars-an-hour wage supplement program was started to address a workforce issue, but Cook says each area taking part in the program has its own unique way to address the childcare shortage.

“They’re doing all slightly different things. What Iowa Women’s Foundation has found is there’s a local ‘secret sauce,’ we can’t impose any solution across the state,” she says. “It has to really be driven from the ground up. All of them are being invested in childcare workforce wages, some in retention bonuses, some in a higher increased hourly wage. They have the freedom to do that.” Now that the pilot program has shown positive results, Cook says state leaders will need to look into the next steps on how to address the childcare crisis statewide.

“That’s exactly why we did the report, to determine how successful these communities in our pilot program were and determine if it’s worth pursuing and replicating across the state,” Cook says. “What the report is telling us is just in this pilot program, it increased 22 childcare slots per 1,000 children in each pilot community. That statistic alone would tell you, it’s definitely worth considering how public and private dollars can merge together to make a difference in childcare.”

The report shows that if the pilot program was expanded statewide, it would create 8,000 new jobs, enable 5,000 more parents and guardians to join the workforce, add 11,000 new childcare slots, and increase Iowa’s gross domestic product by $13-billion.

(Radio Iowa) – An Iowa inmate who has spent almost 50 years behind bars for a quadruple murder is hoping for another look at his case for what is claimed to be a new legal development. Jerry Mark was convicted of murdering his brother Leslie Mark, his sister-in-law, and their two children at their rural Cedar Falls home on Halloween 1975. Sioux City attorney Brian Vakulskas is an advocate of Jerry Mark and says he first heard about the case from his attorney father many years ago.

“When I became a lawyer, I started looking at the case closer and studied the transcripts. And I realized all the problems with the original trial and the prosecutorial misconduct that came with that,” he says. Black Hawk County prosecutors say Jerry Mark killed his brother and family because his brother inherited the family farm. Mark was a lawyer who lived in California and says he was on a cross-country motorcycle trip at the time of the murder. The State Public Defender’s Office recently filed paperwork asking for a new trial or for the conviction to be overturned. Vakulskas says the killings appeared to be a Mafia hit after a family friend had testified against a drug cartel.

“The fact that they never developed any suspect other than Jerry, this is a classic case of tunnel vision for prosecutors — you find a person, we can put a crime to it, and you can make all the evidence point to one person if you can and that’s our argument on appeal,” Vakulskas. Mark has made several appeals based on the evidence at the scene of the crime. A federal judge threw out Mark’s conviction in 2006, but an appeals court overturned the ruling.

Mark’s lawyers said in legal filings he was convicted of “junk science” and testimony that could have proven his innocence was not allowed. Vakulskas hopes things move quickly since Mark is 81 years old.