Much of the state came under an air quality alert Friday. The Iowa Department of natural Resources issued the warning over high ozone levels. Iowa D-N-R environmental specialist Sean Fitzsimmons says ozone levels rise with warm temperatures and clear skies.  “When we have an eight hour average when the ozone level exceeds 70 parts per billion that’s a level that falls in the sensitive groups category.”

Fitzsimmons says most people can go about their business without noticing any problem. “A typical person wouldn’t have difficulties at those levels but if you had an asthmatic child or elderly individual or people with respiratory problems, some of those large sensitive groups will start to have issues with breathing difficulties at those levels.”

He says ozone levels fall at night and when clouds move into the forecast.

(Radio Iowa)

Severe storms pummeled western and southwest Iowa with strong winds, heavy rain and dangerous cloud to ground lightning, early this morning. Here in Atlantic, winds at the airport gusted up to 66 miles per hour at around 1:55-a.m. There were also scattered power outages and numerous tree debris on the streets. A power line was on the ground at around 2:41-a.m. in the 600 block of Palm Street. Atlantic Fire responded to the scene. And, social media posts report a tree limb fell very close to the side of a house, landing on a set of steps.

Tree limbs were blocking some streets in Council Bluffs at around 12:50-a.m. today. In Monona County, a semi tractor-trailer was blown over on Interstate 29 at around 12:15.am., three-miles south/southwest of Blencoe. A 60-mph gust of wind was recorded near Little Sioux, in Harrison County, at about the same time. Thunderstorm wind damage was reported in Sarpy and Douglas Counties in Nebraska, between midnight at 1-a.m., as well. There were numerous other reports of high winds and damage scattered across Nebraska.  Mid-American Energy reported there were scattered power outages across southwest Iowa. The latest report indicated 313 residences were affected (as of 6:15-a.m.).  Nishnabotna Valley REC reports 113 people were without power in Pottawattamie County, 14 in Cass County, 8 in Shelby County, 1 in Audubon County, and seven others total in Montgomery, Adams and Taylor Counties.

No injuries were immediately reported.

A man from northwest Iowa died in Dickinson County late Friday night, after the motorcycle he was riding collided with a tractor towing a piece of farm equipment. The Iowa State Patrol says 56-year old Charles Glenn Paine, of Spirit Lake, died at the scene of the crash at around 11:15-p.m. on Highway 9, just west of Highway 86. The Patrol says a Case IH tractor driven by 32-year old Joshua Frank Huff, of Harris, IA, was traveling west on Highway 9 and beginning to turn into a private field drive. The 2003 Harley Davidson Paine was driving was traveling west also, and attempting to overtake the tractor, when his cycle collided with the towed piece of farm equipment as the tractor and implement were turning into the private drive.

Paine died at the scene. Huff was uninjured in the collision. The accident remains under investigation.

The Adams County Sheriff’s Office says two men were arrested on separate charges at around 12:30-a.m., today (Saturday). At around 12:30-a.m., Deputies conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle operated by Shaun Reich, of Kent. Upon further investigation, Reich was arrested for Possession of a Controlled Substance, and cited for Failing to Have valid Insurance. As the scene was being processed, a vehicle driven by Joshua Reich, of Nodaway, drove past Adams County Deputies and Shaun Reich’s vehicle, at a high rate of speed, and honking its horn. Adams County Deputies located Joshua Reich at his home and arrested him for Interference with Official Acts. He was also cited for Failing to Yield to an Emergency Vehicle and for Operating a vehicle without a valid license.

Joshua Reich was being held in the Adams County Jail on $1,035 bond. Shaun Reich’s bond was set at $1,000.

Police in Red Oak, Friday, arrested 27-year old Jamiee Renea Miner, of Red Oak. Miner was taken into custody at around 9:43-p.m. in the 200 block of W. Reed Street, and charged with OWI/1st offense. She was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $1,000 cash bond.

There are congressional contests on the ballots in Tuesday’s Primaries. In the third congressional district, Republican Congressman David Young of Van Meter is seeking reelection and three Democrats are hoping they’re selected to challenge him in November.

Cindy Axne of West Des Moines worked in state government for nine years when Democrats Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver and Republican Terry Branstad were serving as governor. She and her husband run a digital design firm. Pete D’Alessandro of Des Moines has worked for Tom Harkin and Tom Vilsack and he was state coordinator for the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign here.

Sanders has endorsed D’Alessandor and helped him raise money. Eddie Mauro of Des Moines is a former teacher and coach at the high school and community college level. He is currently president of a wholesale insurance firm that does business nationwide. Simpson College political science professor John Epperson says Mauro’s last name is well-known in populous Polk County because his relatives have won office.

Axne may benefit from being the only female in the race. “I think she absolutely does,” Epperson says. “That doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll win. And Epperly says D’Alessandro mainly presents himself “as the Bernie guy. That’s an interesting strategy which if you look nationally hasn’t worked all that well in most places.” There is also a Libertarian candidate running in the third district. Bryan Holder of Council Bluffs is a Creighton Law School graduate who runs his family’s photography business.

(Radio Iowa)

Republican Congressman Steve King has a primary opponent and three other candidates are competing to be the Democrat who runs in the fourth congressional district this fall.

King is seeking a ninth term in the U.S. House. The district is decidedly Republican, but the Democrats who’ve lined up to run against King are hoping King’s headline-grabbing comments may be a turn-off for Republicans and independents, while Democratic turn out may be higher in a mid-term election.

Thirty-eight-year-old J.D. Scholten, a paralegal from Sioux City, is a former professional baseball player who says his competitive energy extends to the political field. “I’m fighting for your job. I’m fighting for your wage and your paycheck and I’m fighting for your health care and I’m fighting for your kids’ education,” Scholten says. “That’s what it boils down to.”

Fifty-five-year-old LeAnn Jacobsen is a member of Spencer’s city council who helped start a farmers market and a coffeehouse/wine bar in Spencer. “I don’t think candidates that have run in the past have done a really intentional job of holding Steve King accountable for the fact that he does nothing and gets nothing done,” Jacobsen says.

Fifty-eight year old John Paschen, an Ames pediatrician, says running for office wasn’t on his bucket list, but Paschen says he felt he had no choice but to run given the current political climate. The Republican running against Congressman King in the primary is 46-year-old Cindi Hanson of Sioux City, an administrator at the community college campus in South Sioux City, Nebraska. Hanson, who says she is a moderate Republican, argues it’s time for some collaboration in congress, “instead of being severely entrenched and in an extreme position.”

Congressman King says he believes he has a “reasonable chance” to win in November. Libertarian Charles Aldrich of Clarion is also running for congress in the fourth district. Aldrich, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016, is an industrial engineer.

(Radio Iowa)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has given final approval to a roughly $7.4 billion state budget and issued a handful of vetoes to conclude this year’s legislative action.

The Republican governor announced Friday afternoon she signed the bills making up the state budget, which goes into effect on July 1. The GOP-controlled Legislature was forced to make mid-year spending cuts the past two years. Legislators hope next year’s budget avoids a similar fate, even as the state cuts income tax rates starting next year.

Reynolds vetoed a proposal to immediately halt a pilot program for pretrial assessments, which will conclude this winter. She also vetoed a bill that would have allowed self-employed workers to qualify for small-group health insurance coverage, which she said would “further destabilize” Iowa’s health insurance market.

In addition, Reynolds vetoed portions of bills dealing with pooling employee benefits, regulation of the Iowa Insurance Division and a $195,000 appropriation she said could go through a competitive bidding process.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Supreme Court says an all-male church board’s characterization of female congregants who were pressured into sex with the pastor as sinning “adulteresses” who gave into “temptation” was constitutionally protected religious speech.

In a ruling Friday, the court held that members of the Covenant Reformed Church’s board of elders didn’t defame the two women because they were expressing their religious beliefs. The court also found that the Pella church wasn’t obligated to provide counseling to the women that went against its religious teachings.

The pastor, who was later removed from the ministry, was convicted of sexual exploitation by a counselor. Iowa law treats religious leaders as counselors and bars them from having sexual contact with congregants they’re counseling.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A judge will temporarily block the most restrictive abortion law in the country from taking effect in Iowa next month under an agreement between lawyers for the state and abortion rights groups.

Attorneys for the state and Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds agreed Friday to prevent the law from taking effect on July 1 after discussions with the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa, Planned Parenthood Federation of American and the Emma Goldman Clinic.

The advocacy groups have sued the state to block the law, which bans most abortions if a fetal heartbeat can be detected. An attorney for the state says the goal is to quickly get the case before a judge to argue the law it’s constitutional.

Judge Michael Huppert said during a court hearing Friday that he’ll issue a temporary injunction later in the day. Reynolds signed the law May 2, two days after lawmakers approved it.