RED OAK, Iowa (AP) – A southwest Iowa man accused of planting audio recording devices in a woman’s home now faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of firearms. As we reported earlier this week on KJAN, 38-year-old Aaron Johnson was arrested Monday at his Red Oak home on a federal warrant. He’d been freed on bond. He’s pleaded not guilty to state charges of eavesdropping and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Johnson originally was arrested Nov. 3 on the state charges. The woman reported finding one of the audio bugs, and then authorities found another in her bedroom. She says the only person granted access to her residence was a pest control technician, Johnson.

Police say a search of Johnson’s home turned up similar devices and guns and ammunition.

Quitting smoking is a popular New Year’s resolution, but a federal study finds teenagers who use e-cigarettes are twice as likely to say they intend to smoke traditional cigarettes in the next year. E-cigarette retailers are popping up in cities across Iowa, though state law forbids their sale to anyone under 18. Tobacco researcher Michael Fiore says the report from the Centers for Disease Control confirms long-held suspicions.

Dr. Fiore says, “One of the biggest concerns about e-cigarettes is that they will serve as a gateway drug to lifelong nicotine dependence and all of the harms we know result from cigarette smoking.” The population tracked by the C-D-C study included kids in grades six through 12, years when they’re considered particularly vulnerable. “We know that the adolescent brain is very sensitive to nicotine,” Fiore says. “Use of e-cigarettes, with its exposure to nicotine, puts these adolescents at risk of lifelong nicotine addiction.”

The C-D-C study found more than 263-thousand young people who had never smoked used an electronic cigarette last year, three times the number from 2011. About three out of four teen smokers become adult smokers, according to the report. Fiore says the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes among young people is worrisome. He says, “We are at risk of having a generation of young people who are exposed to e-cigarettes, begin using them and both have changes in their brain related to this nicotine exposure but also tend to go on to use combustible cigarettes.”

The overall smoking rate in Iowa is 19-point-six percent, just slightly below the national average of 19-point-seven percent.

(Radio Iowa)

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A February trial has been scheduled for a Sergeant Bluff man accused of head-butting his teenage son. The Sioux City Journal reports that 47-year-old Bradley Graff entered a written plea of not guilty on Monday in Woodbury County District Court. The charge is child endangerment causing injury. His trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 3.

Court documents say the incident occurred while Graff was practicing wrestling with his 11- and 13-year-old sons at his business, Wall of Fame. The documents say the older boy asked to stop practicing, but Graff threw him onto a mat several times and head-butted him. The documents also say Graff later stomped his son’s head onto the mat, giving the boy a bloody nose.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say two frozen hydrants hampered efforts to extinguish flames that destroyed a mobile home in Sioux City. Firetrucks were sent to the mobile home park around 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Sioux City Deputy Fire Marshal Frank Fulton says firefighters couldn’t tap into the two frozen hydrants, so they had to go to a third hydrant farther away to get water. Fulton says the problem may have cost the residents more property than they would have lost otherwise.

The three adults and three children who lived in the home escaped safely.