The state’s unemployment rate continues on its downward trend with February dropping down to four-point-one percent from January’s rate of four-point-two percent. Iowa Workforce Development spokesperson, Kerry Koonce, says it’s the fifth straight month with a drop. “We continue to see drops in the number of people who are unemployed. We are down four-thousand from a year ago for the number of people who are unemployed,” Koonce says. “And our number of people who are actually receiving unemployment insurance is down almost 12-thousand from last month as well.”

The number of unemployed dropped, even though the state lost some jobs in the month, the first decline in jobs since September.”We dropped 400 jobs, which isn’t very big. Most of that being in the trade, transportation and utilities area. We saw a larger growth in that last month than really was expects, so I think that was just some leveling out,” according to Koonce. “We saw nice growth in manufacturing, nice growth in education and health services — so those really helped the state as well,” Koonce says.

Workforce Development figures show manufacturing added 12-hundred jobs, the education and health care areas increased jobs fueled entirely by gains in private education of one-thousand jobs. The number of unemployed Iowans dropped to 70-thousand-100 in February from 71-thousand-800 in January. Koonce says warmer weather should lead to more job gains.

“Because you will have a lot of those people who are on temporary unemployment coming back to work. And we saw some gains in construction this month, the biggest gains are coming in industrial, which is good, because that shows overall growth,” Koonce says.

The national unemployment rate was five-point-five (5.5) percent in February.

(Radio Iowa)

No injuries were reported following two separate accidents in less than 10-minutes Thursday, in Atlantic. The A-PD reports both collisions happened at 14th and Plum Streets. The first occurred at 7:49-a.m., when a vehicle driven by Dawson Walter, of Atlantic, crossed the centerline of the road and collided with a vehicle driven by Brandon McConkey, of Atlantic. Officials say Walter was blinded by the sun as he was traveling east on 14th Street. The left sides of both vehicle struck each other,  causing a total of $1,600 damage. No citations were issued.

The second accident at about the same location, happened at 7:59-a.m. Thursday, when a vehicle driven by Cain Stuart, of Atlantic, rear-ended a vehicle driven by Heather Schorle, of Atlantic. The collision occurred as both vehicles were traveling east on 14th Street. When Schorle stopped for traffic ahead of her, Stuart didn’t see her until the last moment and failed to stop in time. He was cited for Failure to Have Control. Damage from the mishap amounted to $2,700.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court has suspended the law license of the former Madison County Attorney for 18 months for violating attorney rules of ethical conduct including having sex with a client and then assaulting her when the relationship deteriorated. It was significantly more lenient than an attorney disciplinary board’s recommendation of a four-year suspension.

Court documents filed Friday say 57-year old Anthony Zane Blessum engaged in a sexual relationship with a client in 2011 and was convicted of repeatedly striking her in 2013. He also was found to have improperly handled client funds. Blessum was the Madison County attorney from 1986 to 1997. He recently has practiced law in his own office in Des Moines.

Police in Creston say a resident of the community was arrested Thursday morning on a Union County warrant for Probation Violation. 30-year old Nick Wilkinson, of Creston, was being held in the Union County Jail while awaiting a bond hearing.