Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says the state is getting over 40 million dollars in settlements with companies that used “deceptive practices” to enroll consumers in discount and membership buying clubs. “People are cheated out of small amounts of money many, many times,” Miller says.  Miller argues most consumers had no idea they’d been signed up for the clubs after an unrelated transaction with a bank or retailer. Miller says the companies marketed the buying club memberships as free, 30-day trial offers.

“Forty-five days go by, you get the bill and there’s $8 on there,” Miller says. “You think: ‘Well, I don’t remember that, but it’s only $8.’ And again, they focus group it and see what the breaking point is of people not checking — large numbers of people, that is — might be $8 or $10, so you leave it on there and it’s on there for a few months, maybe a year.” Miller’s prosecuting team estimated Americans lost about two-billion dollars a year in these kind of “buying club” schemes.

“And Iowa’s one percent of the population, so we estimated that Iowans lost $20 million a year, so we sued Vertrue, the largest of these companies,” Miller says. After two trials in Polk County District Court, the State of Iowa won — and the court in 2011 ordered the company to pay 28 million dollars. The company appealed the case to the Iowa Supreme Court — which required posting a 32-million dollar bond. Miller says the company filed for bankruptcy before the Supreme Court issued its ruling this past summer.

“The Supreme Court then found for us on basically all the issues, increased the judgment to $40 million,” Miller says. “We won’t get the $40 (million), but we’ll get $32 million that’s on a bond through an insurance company and because we were successful on this case we were able to settle with the other (buying club) operators for another $11 million, so it’s about $43 million that we, over the next year, will be distributing to Iowans.” Companies like Vertrue run multiple discount clubs that offer credit monitoring, discounts on travel and even roadside assistance for a monthly fee.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press…

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Iowa City schools soon will begin using a new scanning system to check the identification of visitors. The City Press-Citizen says the Iowa City Community School District has spent about $600 at each school to install the Raptor visitor management system.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa judge increased a teenage girl’s bond to $500,000 after her murder case was moved to adult court. KCRG reports the 16-year-old girl’s bond was increased on Wednesday. Linn County Attorney Jerry Vander Sanden the change was warranted because of the severity of the crime. The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify juveniles charged with crimes.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — A 22-year-old man convicted of shooting a Sioux City police officer has pleaded not guilty to federal robbery charges in a separate case. Jamal Dean entered his pleas Wednesday to robbery, conspiracy and other charges. Authorities say Dean, his brother, Levon Dean, and Sarah Berg of Sioux City were involved in the gunpoint robbery at a Sioux City home in April. A few days later Dean shot and wounded Sioux City Officer Kevin McCormick during a traffic stop.

CLEAR LAKE, Iowa (AP) — Firefighters donned rescue suits and ice cleats to help two deer that had been stranded on slippery Clear Lake in northern Iowa. The Clear Lake Fire Department was notified around 2:15 p.m. Wednesday that the animals were floundering about 400 yards from shore before being rescued.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 22-year-old man convicted of shooting a Sioux City police officer has pleaded not guilty to federal robbery charges in a separate case.  Jamal Dean entered his pleas on Wednesday to robbery, conspiracy and other charges. Authorities say Dean, his brother, Levon Dean, and Sarah Berg, of Sioux City, were involved in the gunpoint robbery at a Sioux City home in April.

A few days later Dean shot Sioux City Officer Kevin McCormick during a traffic stop. McCormick returned to work two weeks later. Dean was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. Levon Dean and Berg also have pleaded not guilty. The trial for all three is scheduled to begin Feb. 3rd.

The City of Harlan is welcoming a return to an old tradition to the holiday season. The downtown square of Harlan will host a lighting ceremony on Friday evening to boost the holiday spirits. Shelby County Auditor Marsha Carter says the lighting ceremony has been a joint effort. “The city of Harlan was looking at new Christmas lights and then the more conversations we had, we kind of threw it out to have the animated lights. It started out as wouldn’t it be fun? And everyone jumped on the idea. I made the comment in initial meetings, I have never seen a project where the county, the city and HMU and everyone involved was so excited about on project. It has been a lot of fun putting it together.”

Off Kilter Media out of Harlan is actually programming the lights for the ceremony on Friday along with crews from Harlan Municipal Utilities. The Hotel/Motel Tax Committee has also played a big role as they donated funding for the project. Carter says she hopes that this is the start to bring the old tradition back to Harlan. “We always referred to it as Christmas City a lot when we were kids and that’s what this is all about, to try and get the Christmas City idea back to Harlan.”

The whole event starts on Friday at 5pm in downtown Harlan. Carter says “Santa will arrive on the Fire Engine. We plan to have Christmas Carolers up here. There will be coffee, hot chocolate and Christmas cookies. If everything works, weather wise, we are going to set up three fire pits out on the south side of the square to roast marshmallows. Santa will turn the lights on sometime between 5 and 5:15pm.”

Horse and buggy rides will be provided to families during the ceremony and some of the businesses around the square will be open later to get some holiday shopping completed. Carter says the lighting on the square will not be designated to one night either. She says  “The shows will be done every night through Christmas until 10pm. It will play so many songs and then shut off for a few minutes and start again. I wanted everyone to know we will do Christmas music through Christmas Day and then starting December 26^th through New Year’s we will do a salute to the troops. So there will be military music playing.”

The festivities on the square Friday will wrap up around 7pm but the lights will stay on until 10.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)