Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

No injuries were reported following a car fire Friday evening on Interstate 80 in Cass County. According to dispatch reports, the fire occurred at around 7:40-p.m. on I-80 eastbound at the 50.85-mile marker.

Firefighters look over the burned out vehicle. (Mike Kennon photo)

Car fire on I-80 (Courtesy MIke Kennon/Cass Co. Emergency Management Agy,)

Firefighters from Marne and Atlantic responded to the scene. Authorities said the driver of the car, and only occupant, escaped unharmed. Cass County Emergency Management Coordinator Mike Kennon told KJAN News the driver and another motorist were on their way back to Des Moines after purchasing the car at an auction, when the blaze broke out.

Earlier in the afternoon, Friday, a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer caught fire on I-80 near the Cass/Adair County line. The truck appeared to have been a total loss, but no animals or humans were injured.There is no more information currently available.

And, firefighters from Anita and Wiota were called to help extinguish a grass fire that was burning dangerously close to a barn and residence, Friday afternoon. The blaze was reported at around 1:50-p.m., at about 140th and Delta Avenue, in northwestern Adair County. No other details are available at this time.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s unemployment rate edged up to 5.3 percent in July. State labor officials say the preliminary rate was two-tenths of a point higher than June’s revised rate of 5.1 percent. The rate was 6 percent in July 2011. Iowa Workforce Development says in a report issued Friday that the state gained 2,300 jobs in total nonfarm employment last month after two months of decreases. The state says the gains occurred only in the sectors of wholesale and retail trade, other services, local government and health care. The number of unemployed people in Iowa was estimated at 88,200 in July, compared with 85,300 in June. A year ago, an estimated 99,100 people were unemployed in Iowa.  The national jobless rate rose a tenth of a point in July, to 8.3 percent.

An incident that began with the theft of a motor vehicle from Pottawattamie County, resulted in a chase but no arrest Thursday evening, despite a coordinated effort by several law enforcement agencies. The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office reports Police officers in Harlan observed a vehicle known to have been stolen from Pott. County inside the Harlan city limits. The officers engaged in a pursuit of the vehicle, a 1996 Oldsmobile. The chase continued east onto Oak Road, before the H-PD officers requested assistance from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department. The officers and deputies lost track of the vehicle however, in the 1200 block of Oak Road.

At around 11:30-p.m., the Sheriff’s Office was alerted to suspicious activity in the 1900 block of Oak Road, where authorities recovered the stolen vehicle. The Sheriff’s office requested and received assistance in locating the suspect, from the Cass County K-9 Unit, along with sheriff’s deputies from Audubon County. Deputies recovered property from the suspect in the area, and cordoned-off a corn field, where the suspect was though to be hiding.

Additional assistance was requested from the Omaha Police Department, which sent their helicopter, “Able 1” to the scene. The chopper was equipped with a FLIR (Forward looking infrared Radar), which detects heat signatures. Despite the concentrated effort, the suspect was never located, and the search called-off during the early morning hours.

An investigation into the theft continues. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Last month, Iowans saw an array of new record high temperatures set, but this morning, many of us woke up to the coolest weather since early June. Kevin Deitsch is a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Johnston. “Most of the record lows were confined to northwest Iowa,” Deitch says. Sioux City’s record low this morning was 43 degrees, Lamoni was at 50 and Webster City reached 44. The temperature in Webster City shattered the previous record of 46 set on this day in 1897.

In Atlantic, we bottomed out at 40-degrees on the thermometer at KJAN, which was just two-degrees shy of tying our record low set in 1897. KJAN is the official National Weather Service reporting and record-keeping station for Atlantic. For a welcome change of pace, Deitsch says Iowa’s weather will be pleasant for the weekend, the final weekend of the Iowa State Fair. “Dry weather we’ve had makes it pretty easy to cool down at night and to warm up during the day and that looks to be the trend as we head through this weekend,” he says. Highs will be in the 70s today through the weekend with lows in the 40s and 50s. There is no precipitation forecast for the next seven days.

An expert on droughts says the one that’s settled over Iowa and most of the region isn’t likely to go away anytime soon. Michael Hayes, director of the National Drought Mitigation Center, says a big ridge of high pressure has built up over the central U-S, diverting rain elsewhere. Hayes says Iowa’s long-range forecast calls for hot, dry conditions into October. “Maybe there’s some hope beyond that, but it’s a little bit early to say,” Hayes says. “So, that’s not the best news, certainly. Those are expectations. Those outlooks can change and we certainly hope that’s the case.”

Despite withering crops, brown lawns and shallow waterways across Iowa, Hayes says the drought’s affects are not deep yet, because this is a severe one-year event — at least so far. “If this were to extend into a second year or a third year, then we certainly would have more of those concerns,” Hayes says. While some have made comparisons to the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, Hayes says this drought is most comparable to the 1988 drought. One unusual note, he says the drought which now grips the entire Corn Belt actually began this past winter.

Hayes says, “What’s been interesting about this drought is we had such warm temperatures over the wintertime and in the early spring that a lot of our soil moisture was already depleted and then that just allowed the temperatures to get pretty extreme across a large part of the central U.S.” The National Drought Mitigation Center is based at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

(Radio Iowa)

w/ Ric Hanson

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A reminder from the Mills County Sheriff’s Office: Motorists should expect heavy traffic today, when the Des Moines heavy metal rock band Slipknot and other acts perform at the Mid America MotorPlex, during “KnotFest.” Gates at the complex, located near Pacific Junction, will open at 2-p.m.  The concert will not end until 11:30-p.m.

Officials say to expect heavy traffic at Exit 35 off Interstate 29 and Highway 34. Anyone not attending the concert, is strongly encouraged to find an alternate route to home and/or work. You should expect delays also, on southbound I-29 from Council Bluffs.

w/ Ric Hanson

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