Iowa has fallen from 7th to 14th place in a national study that ranks the states on overall financial security. Study author Solana Rice, at Prosperity Now, says despite an improving economy, many Iowa families struggle in low-wage jobs that don’t allow them to save for a better future. Rice says only about 59-percent of Iowa credit users have “prime credit.” “Prime credit is essential now-a-days especially for being able to access all kinds of opportunities,” Rice says. “Prime credit is having a credit score that allows you to purchase a home, to make small purchases, big and large.”

The report found more than one in four Iowans, or 27-percent, have virtually no savings and roughly the same number face “volatile incomes.” A quarter of Iowa households are considered “liquid asset poor,” meaning, they have so little savings they couldn’t live at the poverty level for just three months if they lose a job or suffer another significant income loss. Iowa ranks number-one in the country for the affordability of homes: at the median, home values are only two-and-a-half times higher than incomes.

“Iowa comes out pretty good across a lot of the state data, especially around financial assets and income,” Rice says. “Sixty-one percent of families report being able to save in the last 12 months for emergency savings.” The report found more than 25-percent of Iowans are in low-wage jobs, about one-percent more than the national average. “A quarter of jobs is still a lot of jobs to be low-wage because that means families are just getting by,” Rice says, “they’re not able to really save and get ahead.”

The annual Prosperity Now Scorecard ranks the states based on five categories: financial assets & income, businesses & jobs, home ownership & housing, health care and education. Vermont places first in the overall outcomes, while Mississippi is last. See the full report at: scorecard.prosperitynow.org.

(Radio Iowa)

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Federal charges have been filed in Nebraska against a man suspected of being the “AK-47 bandit,” accused of robbing banks in five states. Richard Gathercole is accused of interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle and stolen firearms in a complaint filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Lincoln. FBI officials believe Gathercole is “the AK-47 bandit,” who has robbed banks in California, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska and Washington.

Court documents say Gathercole was arrested June 20 at a gas station near Lexington, Nebraska. A sheriff’s deputy had spotted a pickup truck there that Kansas authorities had reported stolen by a man who fired at but missed a state trooper.

Officers with the Creston Police Department arrested a man and woman on assault charges, Thursday afternoon. 25-year old Amanda Marie Steinbach and 34-year old Joseph Dean Gaiser, both of Creston, were arrested at Gaiser’s home in the 200 block of S. Lincoln Street, at around 1:20-p.m. Steinbach and Gaiser were subsequently released on $300 bond, each.  Both face a charge of Domestic Abuse Assault.

The Des Moines Register reports a central Iowa couple who adopted nine former foster children has been charged with felony child endangerment causing bodily injury. Authorities in Ankeny gave the newspaper the files from 68 different reports of police calls to the home. State Senator Matt McCoy, a Democrat from Des Moines, has been criticizing the state agency in charge of investigating child abuse allegations and he didn’t let up last (Thursday) night. “This is the result of what happens when you cut government beyond the bone and that’s where we’re at right now with the Department of Human Service,” McCoy said. “And Terry Branstad and Kim Reynolds and the Republican legislature own it.” ‘

McCoy made his comments in a speech after receiving the Iowa Democratic Party’s 2017 “outstanding elected official” award at a party event last (Thursday) night. The Des Moines Register reports 55-year-old John Bell and his 57-year-old wife Joyce were booked into the Polk County Jail yesterday (Thursday) afternoon for abusing the children they’ve adopted over the years. All of the children — ranging in age from 16 to 38 — have disabilities.

The Des Moines Register reports two teenage boys who were still living in the home were removed by state officials after a mid-July police call at the residence. The Government Oversight Committees in both the Iowa House and Senate met in June to review the state’s child welfare system after cases in which two teenagers adopted out of the foster care system died and the parents who adopted them were charged. Also last month, a new director took over the Department of Human Services and launched a “top-to-bottom review” of the system.

(Radio Iowa)