Gomers -- What's going wrong

MORE CRASHES: As the number of mo-peds and ATVs registered in Iowa steadily grew over the past five years, so have the number of crashes - from 77 in 2001 to 153 last year. Through late August this year, there have been 68 crashes with nine deaths - the most fatalities of any full year except 2009, which had 11.

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MORE BAD DEBT: The news on college student debt just gets worse. But with the average debt levels growing, poorer job prospects in the sluggish economy and continued tuition hikes, it's no surprise that the default rates on federal loans are up from 7 percent of borrowers in fiscal 2008 to 8.8 percent last year. In Iowa, the latest official default rate is 11.5 percent.

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DYING BEES: The honey bee colony collapse disorder, first identified in the United States in 2006, is hurting Iowa's beekeepers, too. They're losing up to 70 percent of their bees every year. That's not only bad for their honey business, it threatens Iowa's apple, fruits and vegetable crops, which rely on bee pollination and are worth about $180 million a year. State researchers are working on the problem, but so far, there's no single cause identified.

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