The Iowa chapter of the American Red Cross is wrapping up a busy 2013. It was a year of deadly tornadoes, fierce wildfires, and destructive floods around the United States. The regional communication officer for the Red Cross, Kara Kelly, says nearly 1,600 Iowans volunteered to help recovery efforts. “We sent a pretty large number of people, 21 volunteers, to the flooding in Colorado in the fall and we sent about 16 people to central and southern Illinois to assist with the tornadoes that happened in October,” Kelly says. However, most of the volunteer efforts take place within Iowa assisting people displaced by house fires.

“Normally what we do is attend to immediate needs, so generally it’s lodging, food, and clothing right away, then we’ll have a Red Cross caseworker meet with the family in the next couple of days and go over what a recovery plan would be,” Kelly says. The Red Cross responded to more than 400 house fires in the state during 2013.

(Radio Iowa)

The Council Bluffs Police Department reports an attempted robbery and subsequent arrest on Friday (12/27/13).

At approximately 1:12pm 33-year old Kelton E Houts of Carter Lake entered the Union Pharmacy at 235 West Broadway in Council Bluffs and demanded that the clerk give him all of the Oxycotin they had and claimed he had a gun but never displayed it.  Houts was given a bottle of the drug and as he attempted to exit the store he was pursued by employees that were able to catch him and hold him on the ground until officers arrived.

Houts was arrested and a BB pistol with CO2 cartridges were found on him and the pills were recovered.  Officers also located Houts’ vehicle a short distance away and it has been secured pending processing.

Houts was first taken to Mercy Hospital for treatment of minor injuries he received during the scuffle with store employees.  He was later taken to the Criminal Investigation Division where he provided detectives with a statement that led officers to believe he is linked to several other Robbery’s in the metro area.  Houts was booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail on one count of 1st Degree Robbery with additional charges pending.

One person was killed and another injured during a head-on collision Friday afternoon, in Union County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 22-year old Samantha Neely, of Creston, died from injuries she suffered in a collision between her car and a pickup driven by 24-year old Brittany Marshall, of Clearfield. The accident happened just before 3-p.m. Friday on Highway 34, about 2-miles north of Kent, or about a mile east of the Adams/Union County line.

Officials say Marshall was driving a 2007 Dodge Ram pickup westbound on Highway 34, when she reached into the back seat.The truck crossed the center line of the road and hit an eastbound 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix driven by Neely. Following the collision, the pickup came to rest in the south ditch, while the car stopped on the shoulder of the road. Both women were wearing their seat belts.

Marshall suffered serious injuries and was transported by Union County Rescue to the hospital in Creston. Neely died at the scene. A passenger in the pickup was not injured.

The period of “extended” unemployment benefits for nearly four-thousand Iowans will soon end. The budget deal passed earlier this month by congress does not continue the program into 2014. Iowa Workforce Development spokeswoman Kerry Koonce says the extension began almost five years ago. “This has been the longest period in time that congress has ever authorized extended unemployment compensation for those individuals who’ve exhausted their regular benefits during a time of economic downturn,” Koonce says. “There wasn’t even this large of a number of extensions during the ’80s farm crisis.”

State officials have notified the 3,952 Iowans who are currently eligible for “Emergency Unemployment Compensation” that this is the last week they can file claims. Their final unemployment check will come next week. “At one point in time in Iowa, individuals could have been eligible for up to 73 weeks of benefits,” Koonce says. “Keep in mind that regular benefits are for 26 weeks, so that’s a pretty lengthy time period added on.”

According to federal officials, almost 229-thousand Iowans got extended unemployment benefits at some point between January of 2008 and September of this year. Nationally, about one-point-three million Americans who’ve qualified for extended unemployment benefits will be cut off at the turn of the year. The benefit averages about three-hundred dollars per week. The Obama Administration has asked congress to renew the program, saying those benefits are a “critical lifeline for struggling Americans.”

A bill pending in the senate would continue the extended unemployment benefits for three more months. Republicans in congress have said there’d have to be cuts elsewhere in the federal budget if the program were to continue.

(Radio Iowa)