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Car crashes into Elk Horn restaurant

August 26, 2011 By

A car crashed into the side of the Danish Inn restaurant in Elk Horn.

Dinnertime at a popular restaurant in the Shelby County community of Elk Horn was disrupted Thursday evening when a car crashed into the building, injuring three people.

The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office says a 2007 Toyota driven by 66-year-old Patricia Miller, of Harlan, went out of control at around 5:40 P.M.  as Miller was attempting to park her car outside the Danish Inn.

Vern Kline owner of the Danish Inn, says it was a normal night, when all of the sudden there was a crash.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

New law seeks to get out more info on concussions

August 26, 2011 By

Most high school football teams will kick off their seasons tonight and coaches and parents are being reminded of a new state law about concussions. The legislation went into effect in July.

Alan Beste, with the Iowa High School Athletic Association, says it requires parents to sign a fact sheet stating they understand the signs and symptoms of concussions. The law also requires players to be immediately removed from practice or a game if they’re experiencing any of those symptons.

Lastly, Beste says athletes suspected of getting a concussion cannot return to action until cleared by a medical professional. The law not only covers sports like football, but also extra-curricular activities like dance and cheerleading for 7th through 12th grades.

Beste says his organization has been issuing warnings about concussions for several years. “I think this legislation is going to make kids safer because it’s certainly going to heighten the awareness of people…that if somebody does receive a concussion, it’s not something we should just blow off, we really should take it seriously,” Beste said.

He notes the new law was not the result of an increase in concussions. “The legislation is really a result of the fact that, as more research has been done, we found out concussions are maybe more serious than what we used to think,” Beste said. “When somebody gets their bell rung or gets dinged, as we used to call it…even those carry some serious consequences.”

A couple of former standouts at Iowa State University backed the legislation during a press conference at the statehouse back in February. Matt Blair, who played for the Minnesota Vikings for a dozen years, and former Cyclone quarterback Sage Rosenfels talked about their experiences with the injury.

Filed Under: Health & Medicine Tagged With:

Scott County farmer dies in tractor rollover

August 26, 2011 By

An accident has claimed the life of an eastern Iowa farmer, the fifth such fatal tractor accident statewide in recent weeks. It happened a little past noon Thursday about 15 miles west of Davenport in Scott County.

The victim has been identified as 77-year-old Donavon L. Sievers. He was driving a farm tractor that overturned in a ditch in rural Stockton. The accident is under investigation.

By Phil Roberts, Davenport

Filed Under: Agriculture, Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Missouri River drops below flood level at Sioux City

August 26, 2011 By

Residents of Sioux City are finally seeing some positive signs that the flooding Missouri River is going back down. Woodbury County Emergency Management Director, Gary Brown, says the Missouri dropped below flood stage late Wednesday.

“It’s been 81 days since the Missouri River has been below flood stage in Sioux City, Iowa,” Brown said. The river crested on July 21st, and Brown says it is now almost five feet lower. The receding waters are showing how much work is ahead in the recovery.

Brown says they are seeing damage to property in collapsed sidewalks, farm fields damaged, and trees toppled over. “So we’re seeing what we expected we would when the water started going back down,” Brown says. He says the race is on now to get as much cleaned up as they can before winter sets in.

He says they’re starting to clean up some of the mud and muck cleaned up. Brown says they really hope to get a main intersection at Hamilton Boulevard and I-29 re-opened as quickly as they possibly can so businesses in the area can get running again.

While the floodwaters are going down, Brown is warning residents to stay away from flooded areas as they are still dangerous.

Filed Under: Fires/Accidents/Disasters

Corn prices have doubled in past 15 months

August 26, 2011 By

The price for a bushel of corn has dramatically increased in the past year.

Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist, says corn prices are soaring because the demand from the ethanol and livestock industries, plus demand for U.S. corn exports, are larger than yield projections.

“Last summer we had corn prices in some cases down around $3.50 a bushel,” Hart says. “Now we’re up in the $6 to $7 range, so we’ve seen nearly a doubling of prices, if you will, over the past 15 months.”

The U.S.D.A. predicts corn prices will remain high over the next year, as flooding and drought hit other parts of the corn belt. Iowa, however, is pegged to produce a record amount of corn – 2.43 billion bushels — and the value of that crop will be high as purchasers compete for the limited supply.

“China’s been a very early buyer of the corn crop we’re growing now,” Hart says. “…That’s something that’s got the market a little worked up right now.”

The grocery bills for consumers are hit by the higher corn prices, as products like meat, milk and eggs get more expensive as farmers spend more to buy the corn they feed their animals.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Business Tagged With: ,

Iowa rural and city residents eat about the same amount of veggies

August 25, 2011 By

A study finds rural residents don’t eat as much produce as city folks, even though rural people live closer to where the fruits and vegetables are grown. Nawal Lutfiyya, a research scientist and epidemiologist at the Essentia Institute of Rural Health, says the findings were unexpected.

Lutfiyya says, “When you took information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture about the high-producing agricultural states and looked at consumption of fruits and vegetables, rural residents were less likely by state to be consuming the recommended levels of fruits and vegetables.”

The study showed that among the states growing the most fruits and vegetables, Hawaii is the only one where rural residents eat more produce than urban residents. “I thought that was interesting because, as we know, the production of fruits and vegetables are typically done in rural areas,” Lutfiyya says.

“That really brings up an issue of access and cost.” She notes, you could be a rural person living next to a huge farm that produces fruits and vegetables and not have the means to buy them, so people in the city, who are farther removed from the source, tend to be the more likely consumers.

The difference in Iowa is very small, according to the study, as about 17.8% of rural Iowans eat the recommended allowances of fruits and veggies, compared to almost 18% of Iowa’s city dwellers. Researchers also learned women are more likely to eat the recommended amount of produce than men, while married folks consume more than singles.

“In households where there were no children, both adults were more likely to consume five or more fruits and vegetables,” Lutfiyya says. “People getting at least moderate physical activity were also more likely to consume the recommended levels of fruits and vegetables as well as people with lower BMIs (body mass index).”

The study found fruit and veggie eaters are generally better educated and more economically stable than those who skip the produce aisle. Adequate fruit and vegetable consumption reduces the risk for a number of diseases and early death, she says. The study aims to identify groups that are at risk.

The Duluth, Minnesota-based Institute is part of Essentia Health, a non-profit health system serving primarily rural residents in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho.

Filed Under: Agriculture, Health & Medicine

New Mexico firm to buy Iowa mortgage company

August 25, 2011 By

A New Mexico company has signed a letter of intent to buy the Iowa-based home mortgage firm Iowa Mortgage Professionals of West Des Moines. I.M.P. president, Randy Stevens, says the sale should not impact Iowans who have a mortgage through the company. Stevens says the deal will help the company, which he says has done well despite problems in the housing market.

Stevens says a lot of companies have gone out of business, but his company has survived and expanded, and this will allow them to expand in Iowa and the midwest region.

Ron Hanna, the president of PSM Holdings, which is buying the Iowa company, says they have completed four similar deals since March.

Hanna says they are in a “very aggressive” growth pattern right now and are acquiring companies all over the U.S., which will increase their loan production up to $100-million a month. The sale of the Iowa company is expected to close in early October.

Filed Under: Business
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