(Radio Iowa) – The season of ghosts and ghouls is nearly here and many Iowans will be heading off to Halloween parties over the next two weekends. Juanita Cameron, a clerk at The Theatrical Shop in West Des Moines, says plenty of adults are mimicking their favorite movies for costumes this year. She says guys are channeling their inner Tom Cruise as a “Top Gun” pilot while gals are mirroring the “Hocus Pocus” witches.

Kids are snapping up costumes from Disney’s “Encanto” line, or they’re falling back on Winnie the Pooh. After two COVID years, Cameron says she’s seeing an uptick in theme parties this October, while more businesses are having company parties.

(Radio Iowa) – Early voting for Iowa’s General Election began this week and a proposed amendment to the state’s constitution is on the back of the ballot. Richard Rogers of the Iowa Firearms Coalition says gun rights advocates began lobbying for it 12 years ago — after they realized Iowa is one of only six states without state level constitutional protection of the right to keep and bear arms. The amendment says any gun restrictions would have to be judged by a legal standard called strict scrutiny. Rogers says the U.S. Supreme Court set up an even tougher legal standard in a ruling this summer.

“Frankly, the strict scrutiny thing I believe has largely been muted, but we can’t go back 12 years and rewrite the amendment and this is an all or nothing deal, I think,” Rogers says. “We’ll have this one chance and we won’t see another opportunity to put this in the state constitution in our lifetime.” Critics say if this STATE constitutional amendment is adopted, it will be nearly impossible to pass new gun safety measures in Iowa. Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner has joined Iowans for Responsible Gun Laws, a coalition of 30 different groups.

“We are not anti-gun, we are not anti-Second Amendment and we are not here to suggest taking your guns away,” Gardner said. “We are, however, here to inform you of a very poorly worded amendment that definitely will not make Iowans safer.” The only other states with similar constitutional amendments are Alabama, Missouri and Louisiana.

(Radio Iowa) – Data from the Iowa Association of Realtors indicates the number of existing home sales in Iowa continues to decline and the overall prices for Iowa homes sold remain above last year’s levels. The median price for an Iowa home sold in September was 225-thousand dollars. It’s down slightly from the record set in July — but it is 13-and-a-half percent higher than the media sales price of Iowa homes sold in September of last year. The NUMBER of homes sold last month was down nearly 24 percent compared to last September.

The president of the Iowa Association of Realtors says there’s typically a slow down in sales in September — plus the number of homes on the market remains lower than normal.

Iowa homes up for sale in September spent an average of 31 days on the market before being sold. The president of the Iowa Realtors Association says industry experts project homes will start spending longer on the market and there will be slower growth in home prices soon.