(Radio Iowa) – With this week’s arrival of spring comes new warnings about the potential poisoning risks in our homes and garages in the season ahead. It’s Poison Prevention Week and Linda Kalin, executive director of the Iowa Poison Control Center, says certain types of poisonings are more likely to occur during this time of the year. “People are spending more time outdoors, meaning, you can be exposed to just spring products, poison hazards from plants and mushrooms, garden chemicals, stinging insects, household cleaners.” Most people understand the potential threats caused by chemicals like pesticides and herbicides, but there are quite a few other chemicals that are equally dangerous, even deadly, in our homes.

“Gasoline, kerosene, charcoal lighter fluid, I don’t think we think of those as much,” she says. “Paint thinners, turpentine, that whole group we call hydrocarbons, can be very dangerous if children inadvertently swallow them and it doesn’t take much at all.” While spring cleaning, Kalin says take care -not- to mix certain chemicals — especially things like bleach with ammonia, acids, or other cleaners, or a very harmful liquid or vapor could result. Should you have an emergency, or just a question, the experts are on call around the clock.

“Our center is based in Sioux City and serves all 99 counties in the state of Iowa,” Kalin says. “It handles about 23,000 cases every year, and approximately 38% of those cases involve children under six years of age.” She suggests putting the Iowa Poison Control Center’s phone number of 1-800-222-1222 in your contact list, so it’s always available.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports a Red Oak woman, 44-year-old Brooke Rena Scott,was arrested at around 6-p.m. Tuesday. Scott was taken into custody on a warrant for Violation of Probation. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $25,000 bond.

(Shenandoah, Iowa) – The Shenandoah Police Department, Tuesday, released a report on arrests that occurred from March 1st through March 11th.

***All charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty in a court of law**

(Radio Iowa) – West Liberty Foods is laying off more than quarter of its Iowa workforce in April. The layoff of workers on the turkey slicing line was announced in February after its customer Subway announced it is going to slice meat inside its sandwich shops. The executive director of West Liberty’s economic development corporation, Ken Brooks, says the cut in demand only impacts one part of the West Liberty business

“I do not anticipate the demand for the poultry products that West Liberty produces diminishing in any way,” he says. “What I think the market right now is realizing is a decrease in demand for some of that post-secondary processing that they have offered in the past.”

The company is working with the 260 laid off workers for reassignment opportunities elsewhere in the company and in the community. The City of West Liberty is offering utility billing extensions for individuals affected by the layoffs. West Liberty Foods currently employs 865 people in Iowa. It also runs facilities in Illinois and Utah.

(Radio Iowa)- The state law requiring state inspection of hotels and motels every other year is likely to be repealed soon. State officials haven’t been doing inspections that frequently and the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing has proposed that hotel inspections be triggered by customer complaints. Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have sent the governor a bill to accomplish that goal. Senator Carrie Koelker, a Republican from Dyersville, says state inspections of hotels and motels are prioritized according to the kind of complaints.

“They also prioritize food inspections over hotels in general because there’s a greater potential for public harm, so customer complaints are sufficient and more frequent,” Koelker said. “We need to have hotels step up and take responsibility for their reputation, their bed bug problems, their own communities.” Democrats opposed the move and many who spoke during debate mentioned bed bug problems. Senator Tony Bisignano of Des Moines says the bill sends the wrong signal.

“When people come to this state to spend the night — come for the basketball tournaments, travel to do work, your relatives visit from out of town — you’d like to at least be able to say: ‘Hey, we keep an eye on our hotels. It should be good,'” Bisignano said. Senator Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo, says he got the willies when he checked into a southeast
Iowa hotel due to dirty sheets and a filthy bathroom.

“We want to sell Iowa as a great place to live, visit and enjoy yourself and so this bill just smacks against all that,” Dotzler said. “I know that our inspectors are overworked. Let’s add some inspectors.” Koelker, the bill’s floor manager, says the hotel Dotzler described was alarming, but Koelker says most hotels are part of chains that have higher standards than state law. “We all know I love tourism, I represent tourism and I invite people to Iowa,” Koelker said, “and so I obviously would not bring a bill to us that would damage our reputation.”

The Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing has authority to inspect 580 hotels in the state, with 22 people on staff to inspect hotels as well as food processing plants, food establishments and home-based food businesses.