The Iowa Department of Revenue estimates individuals and corporations in Iowa will pay 33 MILLION dollars MORE in state taxes this year due to federal tax law changes. That estimate — released Friday — is three times higher than the department’s January guess. It’s welcome news for officials struggling to ensure the CURRENT state budget remains in the black. Dave Roederer is the governor’s budget director. “It’s positive,” Roederer says, ” but we also need to be very cautious.”

Iowans are projected to pay one-point-eight BILLION dollars LESS in federal taxes this year. However, the estimated INCREASE in STATE tax revenue is due to a deduction Iowans get on their state income taxes. It’s a deduction for what they’ve paid in FEDERAL taxes. The Iowa House and Senate are considering budget-cutting plans to deal with lower-than-expected tax revenue in the current year before starting to develop a state spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1st. Roederer helped draft the state government spending proposals Governor Reynolds submitted to legislators in January.

“It should give us all some confidence that the numbers aren’t going to drop from what the governor’s budget was looking at in January,” Roederer says.

Courtney Kay-Decker — director of the Iowa Department of Revenue — says the report is a “good sign” that Iowans ARE seeing more tax-home pay because of the FEDERAL tax law changes. “We’re continuing to gather data every single day as tax returns come in, we get another little tidbit of data,” Kay-Decker says. “…I think the economic signals out there are generally good, so hopefully that will mean that incomes are going to continue to increase.”

Governor Reynolds and Republicans in the legislature have signaled they want pass a tax cut package yet this year. It would affect the income taxes Iowans pay the state in 2019.

(Radio Iowa)

Police in Council Bluffs are investigating an assault that took place late Friday night. Authorities say Police and Medical Units responded at around 11:26-p.m. to the victim of an assault in the alley behind 162 W. Broadway. A male subject had been assaulted by another male. The unidentified victim was transported by rescue squad to an area hospital with serious injuries. The Council Bluffs Police Department is requesting anyone with information in reference to the assault contact the Council Bluffs Police Criminal Investigation Division at (712) 328- 4728 or Crime Stoppers at (712) 328 – STOP (7867).

One person died and two people were injured during separate accidents Friday night in northern Iowa’s Worth County. The Iowa State Patrol reports 65-year old Johnnie Lee Waslick, of Mason City, died in a crash that took place at around 9:30-p.m. on southbound Interstate 35, just north of Highway 9. Authorities say Waslick was driving a 2011 Ford Focus in the southbound inside lane. A 2017 Chevy Tahoe Police SUV was stopped on the inside shoulder-lane providing advance warning of a traffic accident ahead, when the car struck the SUV from behind. The Ford came to rest on the shoulder of the road, while the Tahoe was pushed into the median, facing east. Waslick, who was wearing a seat belt, was transported by Forest City Ambulance to Mercy Hospital, where he died from his injuries. Injured in the crash was 30-year old Deputy Zachary Schrupp, who was treated and released. Mercy Air Med, Hanlontown and Fertile Fire Department assisted the Patrol at the accident scene. The crash remains under investigation.

And, at around 7:50-p.m., a semi traveling southbound on I-35 near mile marker 207 in Worth County, entered the median and continued in the median until it became stuck on the bridge supports at the 203 Interchange, in the median. The driver, 70-year old Thomas WIlliam Torkelson, of New Hampton, was injured, and transported by Life Flight to Mercy Hospital in Mason City. The Patrol says he was wearing his seat belt.

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reports Deputies, with assistance from Red Oak Police, responded at around 8:04-p.m. Friday to a Domestic assault that took place in the 400 block of 4th Avenue, in Red Oak. Taken into custody was 47-year old Richard “Ricky” Bryan Jenkins, of Red Oak. Jenkins was charged with Domestic Abuse Assault/2nd offense, a serious misdemeanor. He was brought to the Montgomery County Jail and held without bond.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:00-a.m. CST

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — The Pottawattamie County attorney says an investigation has found a Council Bluffs police officer was justified in shooting a suspect. The Daily Nonpareil reports County Attorney Matt Wilber joined with other law enforcement officials Friday to announce officer Trevor Benson’s actions in the Feb. 1 shooting were justified. Benson shot 21-year-old Daton Petrey, of Omaha, during an early morning altercation. Petrey will be released from a hospital soon and will face charges.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Jurors have convicted one person and acquitted another in a 2016 Waterloo shooting that left one man dead and others wounded. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports jurors Friday found 17-year-old Doncorrion Spates guilty of murder, attempted murder and intimidation with a weapon. Jurors acquitted 22-year-old Shavondes Martin of murder and other counts against him. The jury was still deliberating in the case of 18-year-old Armand Rollins Jr., who also is charged with murder.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Magazine and broadcasting company Meredith says it’s closing a customer service center in Tampa, Florida, as it integrates the operations of Time Inc., which it acquired last week. Meredith spokeswoman Jenny McCoy says 600 Time workers will lose their jobs as the company switches customer service and renewal processes for Time’s magazines to CDS Global, a company providing similar services to Meredith’s existing publications. CDS is based in Meredith’s hometown of Des Moines, Iowa.

CHICAGO (AP) — Police counted up 16 semitrailers among 38 vehicles involved in a chain-reaction crash amid heavy snowfall that blocked Interstate 94 in southwestern Michigan for several hours. Michigan State Police say no one was seriously hurt in the Friday afternoon pileup in the highway’s eastbound lanes just east of Kalamazoo. The crashes started to happen as emergency crews were working to remove a jack-knifed semi from the highway.