Officials with Casey’s General Stores say the company is teaming up with the Iowa Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (IAICU) to help students and parents in the college planning process. The convenience store chain is providing fuel discount coupons to families traveling to tour private college campuses during Iowa Private College Week, July 31 to August 4.

During the week, Casey’s General Stores will provide 5-cent per gallon fuel discount coupons to those participating in a campus tour.  As an additional incentive, each of the 25 institutions will provide up to two $500 bookstore vouchers to be given away in drawings for students who visit at least three campuses and mail in an entry form.

The first week of August is traditionally Iowa Private College Week (IPCW), when Iowa’s non-profit, private colleges and universities synchronize campus tour schedules across the state, making it easy for students and parents to schedule up to ten campus visits in only one week. During the week, Iowa private colleges and universities coordinate start times for twice-daily, morning and afternoon tours at each campus. To make arranging the tours even more convenient, students can go to one registration website and schedule tours at any of the 25 campuses. The registration site includes information about each of the colleges and universities and has tools to help families map out a tour schedule.

Students are encouraged to go to the website IowaPrivateCollegeWeek.org to find out more and to register for visits during Iowa Private College Week, July 31st to August 4th.

DES MOINES, IOWA – Iowa’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate increased slightly to 3.2 percent for June. The state’s jobless rate was 3.8 percent one year ago. The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 4.4 percent in June. Beth Townsend, Iowa Workforce Development Director, said “Iowa businesses experienced unusually high job growth in June. Annual growth in the state has been weak since the beginning of the year; however, this month’s expansion in total non-farm employment helped solidify improvements in Iowa’s job market including growth in the service industry, manufacturing and financial services.”

The number of unemployed Iowans increased to 53,600 in June. The current estimate is 10,500 lower than the year ago level of 64,100.  The total number of working Iowans decreased to 1,633,100 in June. This figure was 2,900 lower than May and 3,200 lower than one year ago.

Seasonally Adjusted Non-farm Employment:

Iowa establishments displayed strong hiring in June and added 11,200 jobs. This month’s increase is historically large and due to both gains in private and public sectors. Industries that are seasonal in nature all grew this month with the largest increases being in recreation and eating and drinking establishments. Government also added jobs this month (+4,000) with gains being largely attributable to local governments. Compared to last year, government is now up 600 jobs, whereas private sectors have now advanced by 25,000 jobs following this month’s surge.

Leisure and hospitality added the most jobs this month (+3,100). This was the largest increase among private sectors and breaks a string of seasonal losses stretching back to January. Restaurants and drinking establishments helped boost employment in accommodations and food services this month (+2,000). Manufacturing followed with its second-consecutive gain in June (+1,600). Once again, gains were evident in both durable and non-durable goods factories. The monthly increase pulls manufacturing back into the green versus this time last year. Other gains this month included education and healthcare services (+1,500) which experienced its first gain since March. Finance, insurance, and real estate added jobs again this month (+1,100) and hasn’t pared payrolls since last August.

Alternatively, losses this month were light and limited to just two sectors: trade, transportation, and utilities  (-700) and other services (-400). Annually, total non-farm employment rebounded from lackluster annual growth this month and now rests up 25,600 jobs versus last year. Education and healthcare services have added the most jobs over the last twelve months and have been fueled by the expanding healthcare industry (+8,700). Growth in private education services has been stagnant since last June. Trade and transportation continues to trend above last year’s mark despite this month’s drop and has advanced 5,100 jobs. Finance has steadily climbed over the past several months and is now up 4,700 jobs annually. The only sector still trending below last June is information services (-1,200).

A Minnesota woman has been sentenced to nearly three decades in prison for a sex crime involving a nine-year-old relative. Forty-nine-year-old Cynthia Mitteness of Mayer, Minnesota, was arrested last July after authorities learned of “explicit” text messages sent by Mitteness and a registered sex offender in central Iowa. Mitteness ultimately pleaded guilty to “conspiring to transport a minor child” across state lines “with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.”

She was sentenced this week to 27 years in a federal prison. Michael Williams of Runnells, Iowa, is the convicted sex offender who allegedly had sex with the child Mitteness brought to Iowa. Earlier this month he was sentenced to life in prison.

(Radio Iowa)

More area and State news from KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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CLIVE, Iowa (AP) – The state has shared the lack of luck with people who played Iowa Lottery games over the last fiscal year. Lottery figures released Thursday show the lottery generated nearly $81 million for the state in the year ending June 30 – down around $7 million from the record $88 million the previous fiscal year. The Des Moines Register reports that the record fiscal 2016 sales were bolstered by Powerball purchases for a jackpot of nearly $1.6 billion in the multistate game.

Iowa Lottery CEO Terry Rich says “there simply won’t be a world record jackpot every year.” Iowa Lottery sales for fiscal 2017 totaled $352.2 million – a drop of 4 percent from a year earlier. Prizes paid were down nearly 3 percent.

A central Iowa dentist who admits he used his patients’ prescription drugs faces up a decade in federal prison. Thirty-eight-year-old Shawn Michael Kerby has pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining hydrocodone by misrepresentation along with one gun-related charge. He’ll be sentenced in November. Kerby has admitted he was a drug addict who wrote prescriptions for patients who agreed to give the pills back to him.

In the fall of 2014, state regulators fined Kerby 25-hundred dollars and placed him on probation for two years after a pharmacy in the Des Moines area reported Kerby was phoning in a lot of prescriptions for drugs that can be addictive. In the spring of 2016, after D-E-A agents raided Kerby’s home and offices, he voluntarily agreed not to practice dentistry.

(Radio Iowa)

The Creston Police Department reports one recent arrest. Thursday, 32-year old Jared James Wilmeth, of Creston, was arrested on a Union County warrant for Violation of Probation. Wilmeth was being held in the Union County Jail on a $2,000 bond.

And, a Creston man residing in the 400 block of New York Avenue reported Thursday, that sometime between 10:30-p.m. July 19th and 7:30-a.m. July 20th, someone broke into his home and stole a safe. The loss was estimated at $200.

The area’s top news at 7:06-a.m., w/KJAN News Director Ric Hanson

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A red wooden wagon, a piece of one of the most infamous cold cases in Iowa history, is going to be on display at this year’s Iowa State Fair. Ron Sampson of Des Moines has possession of the wagon – which was being used by Johnny Gosch on the morning of September 5, 1982 to deliver newspapers. The wagon was left behind when the 12-year-old boy vanished. So, why does Sampson want to showcase the wagon at the Fair? “We’re certainly not trying to commercialize anything,” Sampson says.

Gosch’s apparent kidnapping remains unsolved 35 years later — despite countless news reports, a documentary, and books about his disappearance. Sampson says he wanted to put the wagon on display for all fair-goers to see as a “tribute” to Gosch’s parents.  “John and Noreen went on a crusade to make things safer for young children, for parents, and helping law enforcement with getting things done and reported,” Sampson said. “I guess I would reach back and say they were the very beginning of the Amber Alert. They were the first people to have a child on milk cartons.”

John and Noreen Gosch divorced in 1993. Sampson, now a real estate agent, became friends with the couple after their son disappeared. At the time, Sampson was owner of the Ankeny Press Citizen and he wrote a series of articles about the case. “They plowed some important ground legislatively and just everyday life. Things changed because of John and Noreen,” Sampson said. “I think if this wagon symbolizes anything it’s the great changes that they made happen for today’s parents.”

Johnny Gosch wagon

The Iowa State Patrol has agreed to include the wagon among its displays inside the Grandstand at the Iowa State Fair. Gosch’s father, John, sent the wagon to Sampson around a year ago. “He had the wagon and just said, ‘There needs to be a better place for it, a place that will touch people and mean something to people.’ He was going to start traveling at this point in his life and didn’t want anything to happen to the wagon,” Sampson said.

On the back of the red wagon, the name “Gosch” is painted in black lettering. The Iowa State Fair in Des Moines is scheduled for August 10-20.

(Radio Iowa)

A Jefferson man is jailed on charges including attempted murder after an altercation last week. Twenty-three-year-old Niko Lee Rice, of Jefferson, was taken into custody by the Jefferson Police Department Wednesday. According to authorities, officers were called to the scene of a physical altercation on Thursday, July 13 in Jefferson around 5 p.m. after a neighbor reported screaming. When officers arrived on scene, they found a female victim who showed signs of obvious injuries and trauma.

She told law enforcement Rice had struck her with closed fists and attempted to choke her with his belt. She was transported to Greene County Medical Center by Greene County Emergency Medical Services and later taken to a Des Moines hospital. Rice turned himself in soon after the incident and informed police he had ingested a large amount of prescription medication. He was taken to the hospital in Jefferson and later transported to a facility in Council Bluffs.

Authorities arrested Rice immediately after he was released from the facility Wednesday. He is currently being held at the Greene County jail and has been charged with attempted murder, a class B felony; willful injury, a class C felony’ domestic abuse assault and impeding airflow, a class D felony and second degree harassment, a serious misdemeanor.

(Radio Iowa)