(Creston, Iowa) – Officials with the Creston Police Department report 41-year-old Robert Hudek, of Creston, was arrested this (Friday) morning, on an Assault charge. Hudek was taken into custody at around 6:35-a.m. in the 600 block of N. Cherry Street, in Creston, and charged with Domestic Abuse Assault 2nd Offense. He was being held without bond in the Union County jail, until seen by the Judge.

(Audubon, Iowa) – Officials with the Audubon County Secondary Roads Department report a bridge replacement project in the County, is finished. Bridgework was being conducted on 130^th Street between Nighthawk Avenue and Oriole Avenue. Officials say 130^th Street is once again open to through traffic.

(Radio Iowa)  – Triple A shows the statewide average price for a gallon of regular unleaded in Iowa is three-36 ($3.36). That’s 20 cents lower than the national average and more than a dollar-30 ($1.30) lower than a year ago. The cheapest gas is in Henry County, where Triple A found it for sale at three-11 ($3.11) a gallon on Thursday. The most expensive fuel prices in the state were in Winneshiek County, where Triple A shows regular unleaded was selling for three-51 a gallon yesterday (Thursday).

(Radio Iowa) – A celebration of the only draft horse bred and developed in the United States is planned for this summer with special programs in three central Iowa communities. What’s known as the American Cream Horse originated in the three towns, Jewell, Ellsworth and Radcliffe. Richard Steffen, spokesman for the Jewell History Museum, says the premiere program about the horse is scheduled for this weekend.  “The first is Saturday at four o’clock at the Jewell Museum,” Steffen says, “and it deals with Eric Christian, who was a local veterinarian in Jewell who had a role in this development.”

Two more presentations about the unique breed are being planned for July to educate people about the historic horse from Iowa. “The first one will be in Ellsworth at the library,” he says, “and then a third program will be the following week at the city park in Radcliffe.”

The horse is characterized by the cream or gold champagne color of its coat. It was developed during the first half of the 20th century. The horse is considered an exceptionally rare breed, with only perhaps 400 remaining worldwide. It’s listed as critically endangered.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa is back in the “Drought Watch” category on the system put together last year to keep tabs on the situation. D-N-R Hydrology coordinator, Tim Hall, works with other state agencies in assessing the issue. “We take a number of factors and look at them together. And we we decide whether a region of the state is normal, drought watch, drought warning, or drought emergency,” Hall says. He says the drought watch is similar to a thunderstorm or tornado watch.

“Which is really just a call for people to be very careful and pay attention. Because things are looking on the dry side,” he says, “and right now they’re getting a little bit worse all the time. So we’re just trying to keep an eye out and work with folks to make sure everybody has the information they need.” Hall says the state is also seeing the start of what could be a “flash drought,” or rapid increase in drought conditions in some areas. “Particularly in the eastern part of the state where things just got really dry really fast. We saw the U-S Drought Monitor pop up with severe drought in in parts of northeast Iowa and southeast Iowa. So you know, we were kind of on the mend there for a while and then March and particularly April and May have just turned dry on us and they have not done us any favors,” Hall says.

He says there are some indications the conditions might change and bring more rain, and June is normally the wettest month in the state. Hall says until we see more rain, everyone should do what they can to stop water waste by fixing any leaky fixtures. “Which is which is about as pure and simple wasting water as you can get. If you’re just dribbling it down the drain, you’re using resources to pump the water, to treat the water to get it to your house. And if you’re just letting it go down the drain, that’s an absolute waste of resources,” Hall says. “So figure out how to get those leaking faucets fixed and leaking toilets fixed.”

Hall says the situation may soon call for other measures as well. “Unfortunately, it looks like we’re getting into a situation where we’re going to have to start to remind people that water conservation is a necessary thing,” he says. “And we’re going to have to try to work on that a little bit in the state as we get through these dry, these dry weeks here.”

Hall says the best case scenario would be for normal June rainfall to return and turn the drought conditions around. But he says we have to be prepared if that does not happen.

(Radio Iowa)- State Treasurer Roby Smith is having what appears to be a rare Michael Jordan rookie card appraised before including it in an auction. The trading card was in an unclaimed safety deposit box turned over to the state treasurer’s office. Smith says the card is being sent to a California company that determines if sports memorabilia is legit and how much it might be worth.

“It might take a couple of months, then we’ll try to continue to get the owner or will probably put it up for auction,” Smith says. “We’ll see.” A company called Fleer released a set of N-B-A trading cards in 1986 that included a rookie card for future hall of famer Michael Jordan. The state treasurer says experts from the Professional Sports Authenticator company will consider the Jordan card’s condition and come up with a grade.

“If it’s a 10, it’s worth $150,000,” Smith says. “It could be fake, so we want to make sure it’s worth that.” Smith’s office hired a national firm that handles auctions for state and local governments to sell valuables from some of the safety deposit boxes that have been declared unclaimed property and turned over to the state. An online auction currently underway through next Wednesday initially included the Michael Jordan card, but Axios Des Moines was first to report it had been pulled for an appraisal.

The proceeds from these auctions will be available — just in case someone discovers their name or a relative’s listed on the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt website or comes forward to claim a long-abandoned deposit box. “We have the right to be able to auction it off after a year, but some of this stuff is over 10 years so we’ve kept it an extra long period of time auction to make sure we can return it to the owners,” Smith says. “When we do sell it, the money still goes back to the owners of the box and there’s no time limit. They can wait 10 more years, 20 more years. They will still get the money.”

The state currently has three THOUSAND unclaimed safety deposit boxes and is running out of secure storage. Smith was given a tour shortly after he took over as state treasurer in January and got to see the contents of one of the boxes. “The one they opened up, it was just a random one. I think it had some bicentennial quarters in there. It had some old credit cards,” Smith says. “…It’s kind of like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get when you open it up, but there’s always a story behind it.”

Last year, someone paid over a million dollars for a rookie Michael Jordan trading card, but it had been signed by Jordan. The value of Jordan trading cards went up in 2020 after the release of a documentary about Jordan’s career and the Chicago Bulls’ last championship season.

(Radio Iowa) – Republican Senator Chuck Grassley is the only member of Iowa’s congressional delegation who’s commented on former President Trump’s announcement that he’s been indicted by a Florida grand jury. In a tweet, Senator Grassley said having Trump indicted on the same day House Republicans had to view a redacted document that contains allegations against President Biden fuels the belief that there are two standards of justice.

Some of the G-O-P presidential candidates who’ve been campaigning in Iowa have weighed in, too. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the country is seeing an uneven application of the law based on political affiliation and DeSantis asks why Hillary Clinton or Hunter Biden haven’t faced charges. G-O-P candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says if he’s elected president, he’d pardon Trump.

Perry Johnson, another Republican running for president, is calling on President Biden to pardon Trump now. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson was the only candidate in the race to call on Trump to end his presidential campaign. Hutchinson says Trump’s actions should not be allowed to define the G-O-P or the country.

Former Vice President Mike Pence made comments in Iowa BEFORE Trump announced he’d been indicted. Pence said such a move would be extraordinarily divisive and would send the wrong message to the world. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott says the 2024 election should be decided by the voters rather than a Justice Department Scott says has been weaponized.

Trump, when he campaigned in Iowa last week, said an indictment would be election interference.

(Council Bluffs, Iowa) – Officials in Pottawattamie County have announced a temporary change to its parking structure at the courthouse, beginning Wednesday, June 14th.

As part of the ongoing construction of a 22,000 square foot addition to the Pottawattamie County Courthouse, work is now moving to the parking lot. The lot on the east side of the courthouse will close Wednesday, June 14th. Parking will move to the property just south of the lot under construction, at the intersection of 5th Avenue and Pearl Street. On-street parking will remain available around the courthouse.

Project coordinators expect demolition and reconstruction of the existing parking lot to be complete by September.

(Radio Iowa) – MidAmerican Energy plans to ask state regulators for an increase in its natural gas delivery rates for the more than 600-thousand customers in Iowa. MidAmerican spokesperson, Tina Hoffman, says this is the portion of your bill that is set and covers the cost of the infrastructure to pipe in the natural gas. “It will be the first time that we’ve requested a gas rate increase since 2002. So we’ve been maintaining and upgrading our system for more than 20 years and keeping those costs the same for customers,” Hoffman says.

Hoffman says there have been changes in delivery area and security issues that are addressed in the increase. “Our customer base has grown, you think about the communities around the state that have grown, that requires new infrastructure, upgrades to infrastructure, and cybersecurity and physical threats to the gas delivery system are different than they were 20 years ago,” she says. The other portion of your gas bill is the cost of the gas that is delivered to your home or business.

“For the last few years, that cost of gas has been pretty high. Fortunately, the prices of gas are coming down pretty significantly for a while,” She says. “So that will really lessen the impact of the delivery rate increase. And even with the small increase to our delivery rates, gas bills, year over year are expected to be lower than they were in 2022 overall.” MidAmerican estimates the average residential customer would see a monthly gas bill increase of less than five dollars, or 60 dollars per year.

Hoffman says there will be an interim increase of five percent until the Iowa Utilities Board rules on the permanent six percent increase. “Around the end of June, that interim rate would go into effect. And then if the Utilities Board makes a different decision, those rates, the you know the difference in that would be refunded to customers,” Hoffman says. The I-U-B will seek comments from customers and interested parties and make a final determination on the proposed rate increase in May of next year.

Public meetings on the topic are scheduled across MidAmerican’s Iowa service area at the dates, times and locations below:
Sioux City – 6 p.m. Monday, July 24, 2023, Sioux City Convention Center, 801 Fourth St.
Waterloo – 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, 2023, Majestic Moon, 1955 Locke Ave.
Des Moines – 6 p.m. Thursday, July 27, 2023, Holiday Inn Des Moines-Airport Conference Center, 6111 Fleur Drive.
Davenport – 6 p.m. Monday, July 31, 2023, The River Center, 136 E. Third St.
Cedar Rapids – 6 p.m. Tuesday, August 1, 2023, The Olympic South Side Theater, 1202 Third St. S.E., Suite 200.

Virtual – 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Thursday, August 3, 2023.

Details about participating online and at the customer comment meetings are available on the IUB’s website, iub.iowa.gov.

(Radio Iowa) – University of Iowa researchers are studying the electronic gadgets car insurance companies are asking customers to install in their vehicles to monitor driving habits. Richard Peter, a U-I professor of finance, says the devices are typically provided by the insurance company to promote safe driving, and they usually bring significant discounts on insurance premiums. That sounds like a win-win, right? Well, Peter says, no.

“They measure people’s driving behavior in real time,” Peter says, “so they look for things like speeding, sharp acceleration and braking, hard cornering, and these types of things.” While the devices were introduced in the late 1990s, few drivers are installing them to take advantage of the cost savings. Peter says only about five-percent of motorists in the U-S are using the tiny monitors, and he’s considering the reasons why they’ve never caught on.

“The most obvious one might be the ‘Big Brother’ argument that people have privacy concerns about how their data might be used,” Peter says, “but at the same time, we think that this explanation doesn’t seem to be particularly convincing, while consumers state privacy concerns at the same time they give up their data voluntarily in all kinds of contexts.” The sensors monitor a driver’s actions and use algorithms to create a score that’s the basis for how large of a discount the driver may receive. Safer drivers will save more money. Still, it’s not a perfect system, as your score may be dinged if you slam on the brakes.

“The context matters, so if you have to brake hard to avoid an accident, isn’t that a good thing,” Peter says, “and can you really be sure that the technology picks up the context of that particular driving situation?” That algorithm may be too complicated for some people to follow, and Peter suggests policyholders fear they’ll be misclassified as a bad driver even when they’re driving safely, which is why many people may pass on the devices.

“The main benefit for the insurance company is, obviously, to have access to data about people’s actual driving behavior,” Peter says. “There is some preliminary evidence that feedback from new technologies can also lead to favorable changes in people’s driving behavior, so it can help people become safer drivers.” Peter says a German insurance company quit using the devices after its customer service lines were flooded by drivers calling to explain their driving behaviors which may have registered on the device as erratic.

The U-I study will be published in the Journal of Risk and Insurance, the flagship journal of the American Risk and Insurance Association.