OMAHA, NE (IRN) – Worries about the coronavirus that’s infected tens of thousands of people globally are making a mark on the economy of a nine-state region in the Midwest and Plains. A new survey report says the Mid-American Business Conditions Index sank in February. Creighton University economist Ernie Goss oversees the survey, and he says the softer reading and the economic harm from the virus should concern policymakers.

JOHNSTON, IA (IRN) – A missing Mississippi teenager is safe in Iowa, and a man who police say is involved in her disappearance is facing charges. KCCI-TV reports twenty-one-year old Jared Michael Wright, of Lawton, Oklahoma, is charged with harboring a runaway. Authorities believed the girl was in jeopardy considering the area’s sex trafficking risk and her learning disability which causes her behave like an 11- or 12-year-old.

DAVENPORT, IA (IRN) – 16,000 tires at a home in Davenport are being removed by the city. WQAD-TV reports William Peters lives in the home and owns B&M PitStop, a tire removal company. He’s the middle man between a tire store and a tire recycler, but the tires he’s collecting aren’t making it to that destination. Since Wednesday, the city’s been loading 300 tires in 16 truckloads every day to the Scott County Landfill. Peters will have to pay a disposal fee close to $100,000.

CORRECTIONVILLE, IA (IRN) – A Powerball ticket sold in northwest Iowa is worth $1 million.
Iowa Lottery officials say the ticket was sold in Correctionville.

WEST DES MOINES, IA (IRN) – A taxicab driver saved a West Des Moines woman from being scammed. KCCI-TV reports the 83-year-old woman was about to give a scammer $40,000 when he stopped her. Scott Kilmer was driving a woman to a bank when he discovered that she was about to pull money from an account to give to a man she didn’t know. He told her not to do it, and reported the scam to the Iowa Attorney General’s office. Kilmer said he was just doing what anyone would have done.