(Updated 6-a.m.)
A hot and slightly humid airmass will be in place this weekend into early next week accompanied by gusty south to southwest winds. Temperatures will peak in the middle 90s to near 100 degrees from Saturday into Monday, which will be near record to record values. In addition, dewpoints in the low to middle 60s combined with
these temperatures will create heat indices, or what it feels like, ranging from 95 to near 105 degrees.

If your plans over the next several days take you outdoors, make sure to drink plenty of water, stay in the shade if possible, and take breaks to rest. Also, watch out for pets and children in locked vehicles.

Some Iowans refer to the full moon in June as a “strawberry moon” because it’s often bright enough to go out at night and pick berries, but that will NOT be the case this year. While we’ve had several so-called “super moons” in the past year, astronomer David Kriegler says what we’ll see tonight (Friday) is just the opposite, what’s known as a micro-moon or mini-moon. Kriegler says, “Because it’s farther from us, it will be fainter in its brightness when it’s full and it will also be smaller.”

The moon’s orbit this month is much more distant from the earth than usual, so while the moon won’t actually be any smaller, it will appear so to the trained eye. “The mini-moons occur fairly often, about once every year or year and a half,” he says. “You have a full moon which is close to its apogee. It’ll be about 30% smaller and probably 20% dimmer than normal.”

For dedicated sky gazers, this moon may be something of a letdown compared to the spectacular full moons we’ve seen lately.  “This particular full moon occurs when the moon is farthest in its orbit,” Kriegler says. “For the last couple of months before this, we’ve had the full moon occurring when the full moon was closest to us, so right now, it’ll be farthest from us.”

Kriegler teaches physics and astronomy at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.

(Radio Iowa)

Red Oak Police report the arrest on Wednesday, of Bobbie Jo Bruce, from Red Oak. Bruce was taken into custody at around 12:20-p.m. following a report of a domestic disturbance that happened near Summit and Eastern Streets, in Red Oak. As Police were interviewing Bruce, it was determined he had been driving a vehicle while holding a revoked license. He was taken into custody and later released on a $300 bond.

And, Red Oak Police say two people were injured during an accident Thursday morning. The crash occurred just before 8-a.m. at the intersection of G Avenue and Highway 34, when a 2003 Mazda 6 owned and driven by 40-year old Dana C. Crouse, of Red Oak, struck the rear of a 2013 Kia Rio driven by 52-year old Ruth C. Burns, of Red Oak. Burns, and her passenger, Sara Batten, were transported to the Montgomery County Memorial Hospital to be checked out. Burns had complained of neck pain following the impact. Crouse was not injured. Damage from the accident amounted to $13,500.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:40 a.m. CDT

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Board of Regents has approved a tuition increase at each of the states three public universities, starting in the fall. The Press-Citizen reports that the nine-member board voted Thursday to approve an across-the-board $216 tuition hike for students at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. Increases for out-of-state, graduate and professional students at the University of Iowa will range from $1,078 to $2,578.

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) — An agreement between the University of Northern Iowa and Drake University Law School will allow students to shave a year off the time it normally takes to earn both a bachelor’s and law degree. The Courier reports that the 3+3 Program will see UNI students earn a bachelor’s degree in three years, then earn a law degree from Drake in the next three years.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After more than two months without a winner, the Powerball jackpot has grown to $435 million. The jackpot for Saturday night’s drawing would tie for the nation’s 10th largest lottery prize. No one has matched all the balls drawn in the Powerball game since April 1, when a player in Arizona won $60 million. The chance of winning the jackpot is one in 292.2 million.

SIBLEY, Iowa (AP) — A former Sibley-Ocheyedan football coach and teacher fired after the superintendent found him sleeping in a classroom next to a 10-year-old boy has pleaded not guilty to sex assault. The trial of Kyle Ewinger is set to begin Oct. 17. He’s also pleaded not guilty in Nebraska to a charge of sexually assaulting a child. No trial has yet been scheduled.

A handful of Iowans with chronic epilepsy are waiting for the state to grant their request for a card that shields them from state prosecution if they are caught using cannabis oil to try to reduce their seizures. The 2014 law that had granted state registration cards to chronic epileptics was repealed last month when Governor Branstad approved a NEW medical marijuana law.

Sarah Reisetter, deputy director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, says “At this point in time, we don’t have a way to approve applications for patient and primary caregiver cards that we’re getting, even for patients with intracible epilepsy.”

That’s Today (Thursday), the State Board of Healh voted to ask a legislative committee to approve EMERGENCY rules for issuing the medical cannabis registration cards.

Because of the NEW state law allowing Iowans to use cannabis oil as treatment for more than a dozen conditions, the board’s PROPOSED rules call for issuing cards for patients who have diagnosed with a terminal illness like cancer or debilitating conditions like M-S, Parkinson’s and A-L-S as well as chronic epilepsy.

The legislature’s Administrative Rules Review Committee will consider the issue at its meeting next Tuesday.

(Radio Iowa)

An Iowa research group says the number of manufacturing jobs continues to fall in the state, even after a new sales tax break was given to manufacturers, likely costing the state tens of millions of dollars. Mike Owen, executive director of the Iowa Policy Project, says backers of the tax break cited a common policy idea that lowering taxes leads to more jobs, but that’s not what’s happening.

“What we can clearly see is that from the first nine months, that certainly hasn’t produced — with the sales tax break,” Owen says, “and it’s costing us more money than we expected, so it’s kind of a double hit.”

The tax break allows more exemptions for manufacturers when they’re purchasing supplies. The report says it could cost the state 80-million dollars more than the original projection. Owen says mixing politics with economic analysis may have led to overly-optimistic revenue projections.

Owen says, “At the same time, we’re seeing lower revenues in the sales tax, we’re also seeing jobs continue to decline in the manufacturing sector.” Governor Kim Reynolds is now weighing options to deal with the additional revenue shortfall.

(Radio Iowa w/Thanks to Katarina Sostaric, Iowa Public Radio)

The Iowa Board of Regents today (on Thursday) approved another tuition increase for resident undergraduate students who will attend Iowa, Iowa State, and UNI. The vote was unanimous. The tuition increase for the upcoming fall semester amounts to five-percent, or $358, more than last fall.

The board had approved a two-percent tuition hike back in December, but decided to boost it another three-percent after the Legislature cut state support to the Regents institutions by nearly 21-million dollars for the current budget year and 9.6-million dollars in 2018.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After more than two months without a winner, the Powerball jackpot has grown to $435 million. The jackpot for Saturday night’s drawing would tie for the nation’s 10th largest lottery prize. No one has matched all the balls drawn in the Powerball game since April 1, when a player in Arizona won $60 million.

Powerball drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturdays and Wednesdays. To win the jackpot, players must match six numbers drawn from a drum. There are five white balls drawn from a drum with 69 balls and one red ball drawn from a drum with 26 balls.

The chance of winning the jackpot is one in 292.2 million. Powerball is played in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The state treasurer is “raising the red flag” about state government finances. Michael Fitzgerald says the state had to dip into cash reserves to pay all its bills in April. “We have a serious issue here,” Fitzgerald says. “Our financial condition has deteriorated tremendously.”

April is a significant month in the state’s fiscal year. The state must make its monthly payment to public schools and another 325-million or so to health care providers who treat Medicaid patients. In addition, April is the month the state is writing tax refund checks before all the state income taxes owed to the state are paid. “We just squeeked by,” Fitzgerald says. “We came dangerously close to not being able to pay our bills on time.”

Fitzgerald, a Democrat who has been state treasurer since 1979, is asking Republican Governor Kim Reynolds to give her blessing to some “cash flow” borrowing. The state treasurer has the authority to sell short-term bonds to investors to raise money to cover cash flow problems. “Our surplus has been wiped out,” Fitzgerald says. “Our reserve funds are being eaten into and the trend continues to slide.”

Fitzgerald says the state has engaged in cash flow borrowing “many times” in the past. He suggests issuing short-term state bonds in September. “We’re on the brink of not being able to pay our bills on time,” Fitzgerald says. “…I’m raising the red flag.”

Governor Reynolds plans to meet with Republican legislative leaders soon to discuss the state’s troubling finances. The latest report from the non-partisan Legislative Services Agency indicates that over the last 11 months, state tax collections were 100-million dollars below expectations. Reynolds says the numbers “fluctuate daily,” but she isn’t ruling out calling legislators back to Des Moines for a “special session” to enact a plan that ensures the state budget doesn’t slide into a deficit.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Nearly 1,000 Iowa residents have contacted a state agency about sickly oak tree leaves, and officials say the problem was likely caused by farm chemicals and made worse by weather fluctuations.

Iowa Department of Natural Resources district forester Mark Vitosh tells The Des Moines Register that little can be done to stop the deterioration of the oak leaves besides stopping the use of herbicides. The condition, called leaf tatters, causes leaves to appear as if they’ve been eaten down to the veins.

Department forest health program leader Tivon Feeley says there have been more oak tatters this year because the leaves emerged at the same time chemicals were at peak ambient levels. U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service officials say Iowa makes more reports about sickly oak trees than other Midwest states.