(Radio Iowa) — Today (Friday) could be the hottest day yet in this latest heat wave, with high temperatures in parts of Iowa forecast to hit 99 degrees. Air conditioners are getting a workout with Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories posted for much of the state. Alliant Energy spokesman Mike Wagner says overnight low temps are staying quite warm and customers should plan ahead to avoid sticker shock from their utility bill. “On that overnight, your air conditioner is not going to get a break,” Wagner says. “These machines are going to be running in a pretty long cycle here for the next couple days. We think it’s important for customers to recognize that and then also try to look for ways to control their energy use so they don’t get a big surprise in August when their bills come and they’re surprised at the amount of energy they’re using.”

Wagner says make sure your air conditioner has had a tune-up recently.  “A friend of mine was having problems with their air conditioner and found out that it was down to about 20% coolant,” he says. “They had a service tech come out, clean it, do the service on the machine but also add more coolant, and then the machine was working much more efficiently, it wasn’t running as often and was cooling at a much better rate.” He also suggests you have a clean filter inside and out so airflow isn’t restricted. Wagner says to use ceiling fans and box fans to keep cool.  “Think of it kind of like using those fans as creating your own wind chill,” Wagner says. “I don’t know if I’d necessarily rely on them to circulate air around the house, but to have that cooler air blowing on you helps cool you down, and also allows you to maybe turn the temperature in your thermostat up a couple degrees so that you don’t necessarily need to have your air conditioner working quite so hard.”

Wagner says this is not the time to use your oven.  “Use the stove top if you need to, use a toaster oven, crock pots, instant pots are really popular,” he says. “I can find an excuse to grill just about anything. You don’t want to turn the oven on. This is not really the time during the heat wave here to start baking a cake or maybe put a pizza in the oven if you don’t need to, because those are things your air conditioner has to compete with.”

For more energy-saving tips, visit: https://alliantenergy.wordpress.com/2019/07/15/be-cool-control-costs/

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

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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — The city has joined battle with a legion of rats that have invested a condemned home in Sioux City. Neighbors have complained to the city, fearing the rats will spread to their properties in the city’s Leeds neighborhood. One resident says rats have been seen coming from the house for more than a year. Several neighbors call the conditions at the property disgusting.

Mayor Bob Scott says the city has been trapping and poisoning the rats. The Sioux City Journal reports that a wire mesh barrier was erected around the property, although Scott says he realizes the rats can and have climbed over it. One neighborhood resident reports once seeing up to 15 to 20 rats a day, a figure that’s fallen to two or three a day since the city took action.
It’s unclear why the condemned home hasn’t been renovated or razed.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa man who shared methamphetamine-laced greeting cards, letters and other paper goods with fellow jail inmates has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.
Prosecutors say 47-year-old Kelly Mitchell, of Burlington, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Davenport. He’d pleaded guilty to conspiracy to conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine and phentermine, and providing contraband to an inmate.

Mitchell acknowledged to authorities that while in custody at Muscatine County Jail on unrelated drug charges, he regularly received coloring pages, greeting cards, letters, envelopes and other paper goods that had been soaked in a liquid containing meth and another controlled substance. He then provided those papers to other inmates.

The Taylor County Sheriff’s Office reports an additional suspect was arrested Wednesday, in connection with an ongoing narcotics distribution investigation. 25-year old Jacob Jones, of Bedford, was arrested in Bedford on an active Taylor County Class-C and Class-D Felony Warrants for Controlled Substance Violations/Delivery of Controlled Substances.  Jones was being held in the  Taylor County Jail on $15,000 bond.

The Creston Police Department reports three separate arrests took place, Thursday. A little after 3-a.m. 59-year old Tracey Allen Simmerman, of Cromwell, was arrested following a traffic stop at the intersection of Highway 34 and Cromwell Road. Simmerman was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense, and Possession of drug paraphernalia. He was later released on a $1,300 bond.

At around 7:40-a.m. Thursday, 32-year old Anthony Gene Keller, of Creston, was arrested for Driving While Barred. He was released on a $2,000 bond. And, at around 10-a.m. 40-year old Dustin James Seley, of Creston, was arrested at the Adams County Jail, on a Union County Warrant for Parole Violation.  He was being held on a $5,000 cash bond.

The area’s latest and/or top news stories at 7:06-a.m. From KJAN News Director Ric Hanson.

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EDGEWOOD, Iowa (AP) — Authorities say a man was killed by a logging accident in northeast Iowa. First responders were sent around 12:25 p.m. Tuesday to the worksite about 2 miles from the Mississippi River in the southeast corner of Clayton County.

The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office says 38-year-old Jason Steger, of Greeley, was struck by a falling tree that had been knocked over by a log that was being moved. Steger was pronounced dead at the scene. He worked for Kendrick Forest Products, which is based in Edgewood.

Work safety authorities have been notified.

Officers with the Red Oak Police Department, Thursday night, arrested 27-year old Phillip Kenneth Dalton Johnson, of Red Oak. Johnson was arrested on two Montgomery County warrants charging him with Domestic Abuse Assault with intent to inflict serious injury, and Obstruction of Emergency Communications.

He was arrested at around 9-p.m. in the 100 block of W. Coolbaugh Street and transported to the Montgomery County Jail, where Johnson’s bond was set at $2,300.

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press at 3:35 a.m. CDT

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A police spokesman says a woman killed along with her two young children this week had come to Des Moines to work with the man charged in their deaths. A Guatemala national, 31-year-old Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and her and 5-year-old son. Their bodies were found Tuesday night at the home they shared with Escobar-Orellana.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — A spokesman for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds now says a mass email praising rapper Tupac Shakur wasn’t why Reynolds ousted an agency director. Reynolds spokesman Pat Garrett was asked last week whether the agency-wide email sent by Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven was linked to the governor’s request that he resign the next work day. He said only that a “number of factors” went into the decision. On Thursday, he told the Des Moines Register that “of course” the email wasn’t one.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — More bankers surveyed in parts of 10 Plains and Western states say President Donald Trump’s trade skirmishes are having a negative effect on their local economies. The Rural Mainstreet survey released Thursday shows the survey’s overall index falling from 53.2 in June to 50.2 this month. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pope Francis has selected a priest from the Dubuque Archdiocese to become bishop of the Des Moines Diocese. The selection of the Rev. William Joensen was announced Thursday. Joensen replaces Bishop Richard Pates, who turned 75 last year and, as required by the church, submitted his resignation. He’s held the post since 2008.