Officials with the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office report this (Friday) morning, that “Due to a water line break within the Jail facility, the Pottawattamie County Jail Administrative Offices will be closed today. Due to the closure, there will be no visitation at the facility. It is anticipated that the office will reopen on Monday June 12th for normal business.”

Authorities apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

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

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

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In an update to our story first posted Wednesday morning on KJAN.com’s News page, authorities have charged a Council Bluffs man accused of spanking his 2-year-old so hard she was left with several bruises. Court records say 25-year-old Ryan Rapier is charged with felony child endangerment resulting in injury.

The girl’s godmother had noticed bruises on the girl’s face, legs and bottom, and she told investigators that Rapier had said the girl had fallen out of her crib. Rapier told investigators that he’d spanked the girl twice Monday because she kept getting out of her crib and throwing things around the bedroom. He said he lost his temper and didn’t mean to hurt the child.

(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)