(Radio Iowa/KJAN) — The next two weeks represent the most difficult time of the entire year for the LifeServe Blood Center, as donors become scarce due to things like holiday travel, flu season and the winter weather. Danielle West, a spokeswoman for LifeServe, says they’re taking donations six days a week at seven Iowa donor centers, in addition to mobile blood drives across about 90-percent of the state. “We have a lot of fun blood drives going on — on Christmas Eve, the day after Christmas, the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s,” West says. “We’re just trying to remind people that we still need blood donors to come in because unfortunately, there’s still a lot of people in hospitals that need those blood transfusions.”

A single blood donation can save the lives of up to three local hospital patients. “We really could use all blood types, definitely the O-negative and O-positive, those are used most often in hospitals, so we truly bug our O donors pretty often,” West says. “Platelets are always in need as well. It takes a bit longer to make a platelet donation but a lot of those go to cancer patients.” LifeServe Blood Center is the sole provider of blood to more than 120 hospitals across Iowa, South Dakota and Nebraska. “If you’ve never done it before, it takes 45 minutes to an hour from start to finish to give that pint of blood,” West says. “We take that and separate that out into red cells, platelets and plasma, so it truly is going to impact three different lives in this community because we’re the only ones supporting these local hospitals in our areas.”

LifeServe has donor centers in: Ames, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Marshalltown, Mason City, Sioux City and Urbandale.

Here are some American Red Cross blood and blood platelet donation opportunities:

Adair County:

• Orient – 1/15/2020: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., at the Orient-Macksburg High School.

Audubon County:

• Audubon – 12/27/2019: 12 p.m. – 6 p.m., at St. Patrick’s Parish Center (2050 Hwy 71 N)

Cass County:

• Atlantic – 12/26/2019: 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Cass County Memorial Hospital; 12/29/2019: 11 a.m. – 5 p.m., Cass County Community Center.
• Griswold – 1/10/2020: 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Griswold High School.

NORFOLK, Neb. (AP) — An Iowa man has died in Norfolk, Nebraska, after the Jeep he was driving crossed a raised median and crashed into a truck. The Madison County Sheriff’s Office says the crash happened Thursday morning when 30-year-old Donovan Rasmussen, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, apparently lost control of a Jeep on Highway 81. The vehicle crossed a raised median and hit a cargo truck. Rasmussen died in the crash. The driver of the truck was 34-year-old Westley Lyon, of Columbus, Nebraska. He was treated for minor injuries. The crash forced the closure of Highway 81 for about four hours.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:50 a.m. CST

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some farm groups and farm-state lawmakers are expressing anger at the Trump administration over final ethanol rules that they say fail to uphold the president’s promises to the industry. The Environmental Protection Agency has released final renewable fuel standard rules for next year that do not include language President Donald Trump agreed to that would guarantee 15 billion gallons of ethanol is blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. The EPA contends it’s fulfilling the promises. Industry groups say the language in the final rule is too vague and could allow EPA to miss the mandated ethanol requirements.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says his office has uncovered misuse of at least $1.8 million by a former employee of the Metro Waste Authority. The organization is the trash collection and disposal agency for one county and 16 cities in central Iowa including Des Moines. Sand said the state auditor’s office was contacted in October 2018 by the MWA executive director who noticed financial irregularities. Sand says an audit has discovered former Director of Operations Jeff Dworek had set up his own company to provide services to MWA without a bidding process and paid it $1.1 million. Another $458,000 was paid other vendors who paid Dworek kickbacks. He resigned in March 2017. He has not been charged.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An election watchdog is filing a complaint alleging than an outside group founded by top political aides to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst violated campaign finance law in its efforts improve the Republican’s chance of reelection next year. It comes after The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Ernst’s work with the political nonprofit Iowa Values to raise money and build an electoral “firewall” potentially violated campaign finance and tax law. The complaint by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center requests that the Federal Election Commission launch an investigation. An attorney represent both Ernst and Iowa Values did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NEVADA, Iowa (AP) — A man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for burning an LGBTQ flag that was flying at a church in central Iowa. Story County court records show 30-year-old Adolfo Martinez, of Ames, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years for the hate crime of arson, as well as a year for the reckless use of explosives or fire, and 30 days for harassment. The sentences are to be served consecutively. A jury convicted Martinez in November. Martinez has said he burned the flag from the United Church of Christ in Ames because he opposes homosexuality.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Auditor Rob Sand says his office has uncovered misuse of at least $1.8 million by a former employee of the Metro Waste Authority. The organization is the trash collection and disposal agency for one county and 16 cities in central Iowa including Des Moines.

Sand said the state auditor’s office was contacted in October 2018 by the MWA executive director who noticed financial irregularities. Sand says an audit has discovered former Director of Operations Jeff Dworek had set up his own company to provide services to MWA without a bidding process and paid it $1.1 million.

Another $458,000 was paid other vendors who paid Dworek kickbacks. He resigned in March 2017. He has not been charged.

(Radio Iowa) — Plush toys that were once stuffed with fluff are now also bristling with technology, and Iowa parents are being warned to use caution when buying so-called smart toys as holiday gifts. Bess Ellenson, with the Better Business Bureau, says those fancy internet-connected playthings could put your family at risk.

“We’re seeing that some of these smart toys are collecting personal information, like names or email addresses, from the children that are using them,” Ellenson says. Some toys may also be able to report the user’s geolocations — and even recordings of the child’s voice.

Ellenson says some toys are capable of gathering personal data on a child which third parties can use to illegally open a credit card account. “They might not do it until years later because it doesn’t take a whole lot of personal information to be opening up accounts in somebody’s name,” Ellenson says, “but it’s probably not going to get known until they’re 18 years old and they go to open up their own credit card.”

The B-B-B urges consumers to research smart toys before buying them, and be sure to read the company’s privacy policy on data collection practices.

WASHINGTON (AP) – An election watchdog is filing a complaint alleging than an outside group founded by top political aides to Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst violated campaign finance law in its efforts improve the Republican’s chance of reelection next year. It comes after The Associated Press reported earlier this month that Ernst’s work with the political nonprofit Iowa Values to raise money and build an electoral “firewall” potentially violated campaign finance and tax law.

The complaint by the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center requests that the Federal Election Commission launch an investigation. An attorney represent both Ernst and Iowa Values did not immediately respond to a request for comment.