(Radio Iowa) – Governor Reynolds says she’s reviewing the situations in Cedar Rapids, Davenport and Waterloo where HyVee stores are closing for good next month and will take a look at options that might address the situation. Reynolds was in Cedar Rapids Wednesday for a bill signing ceremony. The governor and Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell spoke briefly about the closure of a HyVee in a downtown neighborhood.

“I told the mayor that we would do everything we could to work with them and take a look at, you know, where’s the food bank, where’s the opportunity…maybe we could have some type of a scaled down food mart for them,” Reynolds says. “I haven’t had a chance to sit down with HyVee yet to understand where the movement is, but our number one goal is to make sure that the constituents, the individual residents have access to food.”

The City of Cedar Rapids provided HyVee nearly a million dollars in incentives to build a new store across the street from an older, smaller HyVee. HyVee has said that location, which opened in 2002, has consistently failed to meet financial goals over the past several years. HyVee has made a similar statement about the stores in Davenport and Waterloo that will close. Advocates for residents in the neighborhoods around the three stores warn once those HyVees close, there will be no access to affordable, fresh food in those areas. Reynolds says there may be creative solutions.

“Maybe it’s a bus line that they don’t have in place where they can get on and get to one of the existing grocery stores,” Reynolds says. “…It might be as easy as that until they can figure out maybe a more long term solution.”

In June of 2018, a HyVee in Des Moines was temporarily closed after flash flooding hit the store. HyVee set up a free busing system to give customers in the neighborhood rides to and from another HyVee.

(Des Moines, Iowa) – A spokesperson for Alliant Energy, today (Thursday), said residents in Cumberland and Massena who have experience numerous, seemingly random outages of power for two or more hours, since Sunday, shouldn’t have to worry about that much longer.

Alliant Senior Communications Director Melissa McCarville tells KJAN News, “There was an equipment issue at the substation in the area. Our crews isolated the situation and are resolving it. We do not expect any further issues.”

McCarville added, “As always, we encourage our customers to contact us and report if they experience an outage. Alliant Energy Help Center can be reached by calling 1-800-ALLIANT (800-255-4268) or online at alliantenergy.com/outage.”

(Burlington, Iowa) – A man who authorities say was hearing impaired, was struck and killed by a garbage truck this (Thursday) morning, in eastern Iowa. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2016 International garbage truck driven by 65-year-old Dale Deitrick, of Mediapolis, was backing southbound on Isabell Avenue, in Burlington.

49-year-old Brian Whittaker, of Burlington, was crossing the street, when he was hit by the truck. The accident happened at around 10:08-a.m.

Whittaker was transported by Burlington Fire/Rescue to a hospital in Burlington, where he died from his injuries.

The accident remains under investigation.

(Creston, Iowa) – A crash this (Thursday) afternoon in Creston resulted in one person being transported to the hospital. Creston Police report a 1999 Cadillac Deville was driven to the park by a male passenger. The male driver and female passenger then changed positions in the vehicle, so the female – who had just received her permit – could practice driving.

The woman – identified as 73-year-old Clarina P. Lee, of Creston – told police the male told her to “go.”  He then told her to press the brake, but she got flustered and was said to have stepped on the accelerator pedal instead. The vehicle went out of control and crashed, causing about $4,000 damage to the car. The accident happened at around 12:30-p.m.

Lee was transported to the hospital by law enforcement, after she complained of pain and unknown/possible injuries. No citations were issued.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – A man working for the Iowa Department of Transportation was struck and killed in a Pottawattamie County construction zone this (Thursday) morning. The Iowa State Patrol reports 36-year-old Matthew Dickerson, of Neola, died in the crash that happened northeast of Council Bluffs at around 9:15-a.m. on Interstate 80 eastbound.

The Patrol says a 2024 International tractor-trailer registered to UPS and driven by 41-year-old Clifford Miller, of Millerstown, PA, was traveling on I-80 eastbound in a line of traffic, as two lanes merged into one. Two DOT maintenance crash attenuator (with illuminated arrow sign) vehicles notified traffic of the left lane closure.

Matthew Dickerson was at the rear of one of the DOT vehicles conducting patch work in the left closed lane, when the semi changed lanes between the DOT crash attenuator and a DOT 2021 Dodge RAM 3500 pickup, in order to pass other traffic. The semi struck Dickerson and the pickup truck. The driver of the pickup, 45-year-old Jordan Hargens, of Council Bluffs, was injured in the accident. He was transported by private vehicle to a hospital.

Jim Mayer, Senior Director of UPS Media Relations, told KETV in a statement, “”We’re aware of an accident on I-80 this morning involving one of our vehicles. We are saddened to learn of the death of a highway worker and our thoughts are with his family. We are cooperating with authorities as they investigate and are referring any additional questions to them.”

(Radio Iowa) – The April unemployment rate dropped to 2.8% compared to 2.9% in March. Iowa Workforce Development director, Beth Townsend, says there were no major ups or downs in the month.

“Overall not a bad report, our labor force participation rate went down slightly again, We think that’s primarily due to retirements and then earlier in the year I think the decrease has been related to people going back to school,” Townsend says. Townsend says the economy shows signs of easing with several industries inching back from huge hiring sprees earlier in the year. “The job market is tightening in the sense that we did shed some jobs in April and it looks like employers are not hiring at the same rate that they were earlier in the year so that’s concerning,” she says.

Townsend says there appears to be some concern about the national economy. “You get the sense that everybody’s kind of waiting to see what happens,” she says, “there just seems to be, you know we’re not seeing big movements in hiring, we’re not seeing big layoffs either so that’s good….you know we’re in an election year and maybe that’s what’s going on,” Townsend says.

The number of unemployed Iowans decreased by 15-hundred to 47-thousand-200 in April. Workers at the Tyson pork plant in Perry are slated to lose their jobs in June, and Townsend says they are holding a job fair there today. She says they are trying to find the workers new jobs that are close. “And that’s kind of you know where we’ve been focusing our efforts is connecting and with employers in the Polk and Dallas County area,’ Townsend says. “Right now there are 165 job openings in Perry itself. Dallas County has about 1,100 job openings. Overall, Polk County has over 12,000 job openings, but we’re doing our level best to connect folks with manufacturers.” The Perry plant has some 1,300 workers.

(Radio Iowa) – Due to challenging market conditions, Deere and Company is reducing is prediction of profits for its current operating year. Over the past three months, net sales and revenue for Deere products worldwide were down 12 percent. Deere’s chairman and C-E-O points to a decline across the global agricultural sector. Corn and soybean prices are falling, production costs are increasing, and the U-S-D-A predicts farm income in the United States will be down over 25 percent this year.

Deere predicts sales of large farm equipment, like tractors and combines, will be down between 20 and 25 percent for the year. Still, the world’s largest farm equipment maker projects net income for its current fiscal year will be seven BILLION dollars. That’s about half a BILLION below its previous estimate.

Deere’s C-E-O says the company is managing production and inventory levels to adapt to demand. Over three-hundred workers at John Deere’s Waterloo Works were laid off indefinitely at the end of April. Last week, Deere announced 34 workers at one of its plants in Moline, Illinois would be laid off at the end of May.