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Attorney General Bird Announces Top Five Tips for Avoiding Online Shopping Scams

DES MOINES — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird today announced her top five tips for avoiding online shopping scams. Online shopping scams are reportedly the second most common form of fraud in the United States. Americans lost $8.8 billion to fraud in 2022 alone.

“While we’re all taking advantage of the online shopping deals this season, so are the scammers,” said Attorney General Bird. “Online shopping scams are on the rise, and it’s more important than ever that Iowans stay vigilant. To avoid scams, we recommend that Iowans shop local, learn how to recognize the red flags of a scam, and contact our office. We’re here to help.”

1. Be Wary of Too-Good-To-Be-True Deals

If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. Exercise caution with steep discounts and offers from unknown sources. Validate offers directly on official websites to avoid falling for enticing yet potentially deceptive promotions.

2. Protect Your Pocketbook

When making online purchases, use credit cards rather than debit cards, prepaid cards, or wire transfers. Most credit cards provide greater protection by offering safeguards for users to dispute and challenge a fraudulent transaction.

3. Enhance Password Security

Create complex passwords for your accounts and avoid using the same password across multiple sites to enhance security. Using two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of protection.

4. Beware of Phishing Emails

Be cautious of unsolicited emails claiming to be from retailers. Verify their legitimacy by directly visiting the official website instead of clicking on links.

5. Guard Your Banking Information

Avoid making online purchases over public Wi-Fi networks, which may not be secure. Instead, use a trusted, private connection. Regularly monitor your financial statements for any unauthorized transactions and report them immediately.

For more information, visit the Iowa Attorney General’s office’s website here. To report a scam, contact the Consumer Protection Division at 888-777-4590.

Mia Walker and Jackson Montgomery are the 2023 Oskaloosa Main Street Young Ambassador Contest Winners

OSKALOOSA — The Oskaloosa Main Street Young Ambassador Contest winners were announced in an enjoyable event at Penn Central Mall on Monday evening. In attendance were 20 contestants and their families and friends. The winners were announced, and gifts were presented by Santa.

“The contest is open to children ages 3 to kindergarten. We had 20 children in the running this year,” shared Deb Bruxvoort, Oskaloosa Main Street/Mahaska Chamber. “The funds raised support the Oskaloosa Main Street Lighted Christmas Parade, but each year we also donate a portion of the proceeds to a local preschool. This year, that recipient is Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Preschool.”
This year’s 2023 Young Ambassador Princess is Mia Walker, daughter of Madison and JT Walker. The Prince is Jackson, son of Katie and Jacob Montgomery. 
Those participating in addition to our winners were Adalynn Mabee, Ariana Adams, Eden Kenney, Haley Van Donselaar, Hannah Lusk, Hermione Shrader, Kami Martin, Laney Ward, Piper VanderBeek, Roselyn Versendaal, Serenity Asher, Trinity Bannister, Kane Evans, Leo Schultz, Logan De Groot, Milo Malloy, Noah Lusk, and Reese Schultz.
All children received gifts donated by local merchants, including Mahaska Drug and Hy-Vee. All will be invited to help spread the magic of Christmas by riding on the Clow Train during the “Heart of Christmas” Lighted Christmas Parade this Saturday, December 2, at 7 pm.

OHS to Host Madrigal Dessert Theater in December

OSKALOOSA — Oskaloosa High School is inviting the public to attend their upcoming annual Madrigal Dessert Theater. This event has been a staple in the Oskaloosa community for 20 years and there will be over 100 students participating in this year’s event.

Details:

WHO – Oskaloosa High School Madrigal Singers, Chamber Choir and Concert Choir

WHAT – Annual Madrigal Dessert Theater

WHERE – The location for this event will be at the large gym at the MIDDLE SCHOOL

WHEN – Saturday, December 9th at 6:00 pm and Sunday December 10th at 2pm.

TICKETS – Are $15 and can be purchased on the high school activities website OR purchased at the door (online is preferred).  This includes your dessert, wassail, and a TON of entertainment.

The link for ticket purchase is here https://www.vancoevents.com/us/eventlist?aid=271

Pope Francis says he has a lung inflammation but will go to Dubai this week for a climate conference

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday revealed that he has a lung inflammation but will go later this week to Dubai to address the climate change conference.

Francis skipped his weekly Sunday appearance at a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, a day after the Vatican said he was suffering from a mild flu. Instead, Francis gave the traditional noon blessing in an appearance televised live from the chapel in the Vatican hotel where he lives.

“Brothers and sisters, happy Sunday. Today I cannot appear at the window because I have this problem of inflammation of the lungs,” Francis said. The pontiff, whose turns 87 on Dec. 17, added that a priest, sitting beside him, would read out his day’s reflections for him.

In those comments, Francis said that he was going to the United Arab Emirates for the COP28 gathering on climate change and that he would deliver his speech, as scheduled, on Saturday to the participants.

“Besides war, our world is threatened by another great peril, that of climate change, which puts at risk life on Earth, especially for future generations,” the pontiff said in the words read by the priest.

“I thank all who will accompany this voyage with prayer and with the commitment to take to heart the safeguarding of the common house,” the pontiff said, using his term for Earth.

In the footage, it could be seen that the pope had a bandage on his right hand and what appeared to be a cannula. The Vatican didn’t immediately respond to a query from The Associated Press about whether he was receiving intravenous or some other treatment.

Not immediately explained was the discrepancy between the pope saying he has lung inflammation and the Vatican saying a day earlier that Francis had a CT scan at a Rome hospital “to exclude the risk of pulmonary complications” and that the exam was negative.

Earlier this year, Francis was hospitalized for three days for what he later said was pneumonia and what the Vatican described as a case of bronchitis necessitating treatment with intravenous antibiotics.

This weekend has been very windy and unusually chilly for late autumn in Rome.

The pontiff’s voice dipped low, and at times he seemed almost breathless in his brief introductory remarks explaining why he didn’t make the window appearance, and at the end when he added his usual request to “don’t forget to pray for me.”

GovConnectIowa portal open for individual taxpayers

By O. Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa)

There’s a new online portal for Iowans to pay next year’s state income taxes. It’s called GovconnectIowa.

“That’s where people can go and have access to their individual tax information,” says Iowa Department of Revenue director Mary Mosiman.

Iowans can make estimated state income tax payments up to a year in advance through the new portal. “A continual request from not only taxpayers, but tax professionals,” Mosiman says, “so that’s now a live feature on our GovConnectIowa portal.”

Taxpayers with questions may also send a message through the portal to the Iowa Department of Revenue. “You can send secure messaging to the department and we can work directly with you that way,” Mosiman says. “We’re not taking away any of our other customer service features. We will still have our call center and you can still send emails through out website.”

GovConnectIowa replaces what was called the “e-file and pay” system. Mosiman is urging Iowans who file a tax return as an individual and Iowans who are married and file a joint state income tax return to check out the portal. “We strongly recommend that they initiate a GovConnectIowa or a portal account so they can see tax history, they can see payment history, they can make tax payments,” Mosiman says.

The portal is part of a five year plan to modernize the state system for handling all taxes paid to the state. State sales taxes and corporate income taxes are now part of the updated system. “The reason we are doing this is because quite frankly prior to 2021 Iowa had an aging, unsustainable — we called it a legacy system,” Mosiman says.

There had been over 20 stand-alone computer systems for each of the major taxes paid to the State of Iowa. It cost $18 million a year to maintain those networks. “And now we are an integrated tax system, so we can easily see all the tax types for an individual taxpayer in basically one system,” Mosiman says.

Next year, state tax distributions to local governments will shift to the centralized system, In the final year of the upgrade, license fees and other payments to the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division will be included. The agency is the state wholesaler to more than two-thousand privately-owned businesses in Iowa.

Young Ambassador Contest Winners to be Announced Tonight

OSKALOOSA — If you have not placed your monetary votes for your favorite Main Street Young Ambassador, now is the time. Twenty local children ages three through kindergarten are seeking support to become this year’s Young Ambassadors. Voting for contestants will close this morning at 11am.

Local merchants who are sponsoring the children have banks with the name and picture of the child on the bank. Money placed in the canister of your choice is considered votes. As a reminder any amount of money may be deposited. A portion of the proceeds will go to Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Preschool and the Lighted Christmas Parade.

The winners will be announced this evening at 6:00 p.m. in a gala event at Center Court, Penn Central Mall. Show your support by voting for these youngsters now. As a reminder the Main Street Lighted Christmas Parade is Saturday, December 2 at 7 pm.  For more information, call the Main Street office of the Mahaska Chamber & Development Group at 641-672-2591.

Fatal Crash in Keokuk County on Saturday

KEOKUK COUNTY — A crash north of Richland on Saturday resulted in the death of a West Chester man.

According to traffic reports, 47 year old Kathy Wagamon of Brighton was driving northbound on 323rd avenue in a 2017 Chevy truck when her vehicle crossed the center line and collided head on with a 2019 Ford SUV driven by 82 year old Frank Patterson of West Chester. 

The accident resulted in the truck coming to rest in the west ditch, while the SUV came to rest on the east shoulder. Patterson was not wearing a seatbelt and was declared dead at the scene. A passenger in his vehicle, 79 year old Marsha Patterson of West Chester, who was wearing a seatbelt, was airlifted to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Wagamon, who was also wearing a seatbelt, was transported via ambulance to the University of Iowa Hospital in Iowa City.

The accident remains under investigation.

Amazon and NFL hoping to establish a tradition with the first Black Friday game

NEW YORK (AP) — It is not a stretch to say the Black Friday game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets is Amazon’s Super Bowl.

Not only does it mean an additional game on Prime Video that Amazon hopes to make into a yearly tradition, but it comes on the busiest shopping day of the year.

“When we talked with the NFL, this is a perfect marriage. Black Friday is a huge event for us every year. We’re really putting everything behind this,” Prime Video Vice President Jay Marine said.

Hans Schroeder, the executive vice president of NFL Media, said the league had been exploring the possibility of adding a game on Black Friday for a while. The Thanksgiving Day tripleheader has been among the most-watched games during the regular season for the past two years.

Adding a Black Friday game gives the NFL another day to take over. Combine it with it airing on Amazon, and it was a match made in football and commerce heaven.

“It’s an opportunity for us to continue to innovate with Amazon. I think some of what they’ve done this year on Prime Vision is exciting with seeing that intersection of data and AI predictability and taking fans deeper inside of X’s and O’s,” Schroeder said. “I think the viewing experience will feel a little bit different and unique for that day and appropriately. We’re excited about that.”

Even though Amazon will highlight some deals and promotions throughout the day, it will not feel like Home Shopping Network meets a football game.

Marine said some of the Black Friday deals will be highlighted during commercials, and there will be a QR code to scan and shop during the game.

There will be one major promotion per quarter and other deals during the pregame, postgame and halftime shows.

The game will be available for all fans to stream for free. According to Nielsen, the most-viewed Amazon game came in Week 2 this season when the Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Minnesota Vikings.

NFL games are averaging 17.1 million viewers through 11 weeks, which is a 6% increase over last season. The league remains on track for its highest viewership since 2015.

Amazon also will air a concert by Garth Brooks following the game.

“I’m fascinated to see how it plays out in terms of the Amazon component because they’ve taken it out from behind the paywall. So you can watch the game, and if you want to do additional Christmas shopping alongside the game, you will be able to do that. So this is kind of a brand new frontier,” said Al Michaels, who will call the game with Kirk Herbstreit and Kaylee Hartung. “I’m curious to find out how this works. I mean, there’s a chance in my mind that this could be spectacular.”

With three games on Thanksgiving, a Black Friday matchup, three windows on Sunday and a Monday night game, half of the week’s 16 matchups need national appeal.

During Christmas last year, the league showed it can schedule games on four days and spread the wealth with matchups across all of its media partners.

All 32 teams are playing this week, with 10 of the 16 games being a matchup between teams in the same division.

While college football has taken center stage in the past on the day after Thanksgiving, the 3 p.m. Eastern kickoff still gives colleges an early window and prime time. More of the college rivalry games on Thanksgiving weekend have been on Saturday.

Even though it will be Tim Boyle at quarterback for the Jets instead of Aaron Rodgers, the AFC East-leading Dolphins have ascended to national prominence with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and wide receiver Tyreek Hill leading the offense.

Black Friday sales are important break-even point for many Iowa merchants

By Matt Kelley (Radio Iowa)

Tomorrow’s Black Friday shopping extravaganza, followed by Small Business Saturday, marks a vital kickoff to the holiday shopping season, which a University of Iowa College of Business professor says could be make-or-break time for countless Iowa merchants.

Professor Peggy Stover, who directs the UI’s Marketing Institute, says some businesses may have a so-so 11 months and they rely on this weekend’s events to kickstart consumers for December to meet their margins and stay afloat.

“They’re very important, especially for the small retailers in Iowa, since so many of them are competing against your big box retailers,” Stover says, “and then you have, of course, the online retailers who have managed to carve out a significant market share of the holiday shopping.”

Not too many years ago, a majority of stores opened on Thanksgiving Day to beat the Black Friday deals, but there was a backlash that returned the holiday’s focus to family, reserving Friday for the shop-’til-you-drop enthusiasts. Now, very few retailers are open on Thanksgiving, and even many grocery stores will be closed.

“I think it’s both a great PR move by retailers, but it also comes on the heels of consumers just really realizing that the unsung heroes during the holiday season are the retail workers,” Stover says. “They oftentimes are not able to enjoy the holiday season, much like the rest of us, because they have to work.”

Many factors may impact the shopping season ahead, including high interest rates, inflation, record credit card debt, and the restart of student loan payments. Stover also says there’s a demographic change and a shift in mindsets coming, for which retailers will need to brace.

“You have Gen Z and then the younger Millennials, who they would prefer to pay for an experience versus goods or a product,” Stover says. “Another thing to take into account is that Gen Xers are starting to retire, so now you’re losing a consumer base that could have had more disposable income.”

One regional economist predicts holiday sales may rise three to four percent, but when inflation is factored in, retailers may only see a boost of between zero and one-percent compared to last year.

Enjoy Sounds of the Holiday at Central College

PELLA — Central College’s music program welcomes the public to a host of holiday concerts, including the 49th annual Christmas Candlelight Concerts.

The Central Community Orchestra will host a concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 28, in Douwstra Auditorium on Hoekstra Family Stage, under the direction of Phil Peters, orchestra director. Admission is free.

ALMA Holiday Concert will kick off the holiday music season at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 29. The concert will be directed by Gabriel Espinosa, a 1979 Central graduate and associate professor emeritus of music. Admission is free.

Join the Symphonic Wind Ensemble for an instrumental concert at 7 p.m., Friday, Dec. 1, in Douwstra Auditorium on Hoekstra Family Stage, under the direction of Brad Lampe, lecturer of music. Admission is free.

The Flying Pans Steel Band Caribbean Christmas Concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, in Douwstra Auditorium on Hoekstra Family Stage. Stan Dahl, senior lecturer of music, will direct the performance. Admission is $5 or free with the donation of a new, unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots.

A Cappella Choir, Chamber Singers and College Community Orchestra will perform Christmas Candlelight Concerts under the direction of Mark Babcock, a 1991 Central graduate, professor of music and M. Joan Kuyper Farver Endowed Chair in Music. “Comfort and Joy” is the theme for this year’s concert. Peters, who recently joined the Central music program, will direct the orchestra.

The first performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 7, at Westminster Presbyterian Church, located at 4114 Allison Ave. in Des Moines.

Two Christmas Candlelight concerts in Pella will be at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8, and Saturday, Dec. 9, in Douwstra Auditorium on Hoekstra Family Stage. Tickets for adults are $15; students up to age 12 and senior citizens are $12; and admission is free to those who present a Central ID. To reserve seats, visit events.central.edu.

A Christmas Candlelight dinner will be Friday, Dec. 8, and Saturday, Dec. 9, in Graham Conference Center in Vermeer Banquet Room. Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. A cash bar will be available. Reservations are required, and the deadline to register is Thursday, Nov. 30. Tickets for adults (public, faculty and staff) are $20, children ages 5-12 and Central students are $10. Children ages 4 and under are free. To reserve seats, visit events.central.edu.

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