Low gas prices and the last holiday of the summer will combine to possibly make this weekend one of the busiest of the year on Iowa’s highways and interstates. Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nate Ludwig also points out that the University of Iowa’s first football game kicks-off this (Saturday) morning in Iowa City, while UNI plays at Iowa State tomorrow night.

“So, there’s going to be a lot of people on the interstates traveling,” Ludwig says. “We just ask that everybody takes their time getting to where they’re going, make sure you wear seat belts, and at all cost avoid texting while driving or distracted driving.” Last weekend, law officers in Iowa and 15 other states took part in a stepped-up enforcement effort along Interstates 80 and 35. Just over 5,900 motorists were issued speed citations, including more than 11-hundred speeding tickets in Iowa.

Ludwig says over 1,100 seat belt citations were issued, but only 41 were in Iowa. “That’s pretty indicative of our 93 to 94 percent seat belt compliance rate in Iowa,” Ludwig says. There were 18 arrests for OWI and 9 for drug offenses in Iowa. The goal of last weekend’s enforcement effort was to reduce serious crashes. Authorities says there were zero fatal crashes over the three-day period along Interstates 80 and 35 in the 16 states.

(Radio Iowa)

Here is the latest Iowa news from The Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller says since Iowa has no laws governing the transfer of fetal tissue his office has no authority to investigate abortion providers about the practice of donating tissue for research. Republican lawmakers delivered a letter in August to Miller asking him to investigate abortion practices. Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, which operates 13 Iowa clinics, voluntarily offered answers, saying it has never accepted donated fetal tissue for research.

MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) — Police have charged a Marshalltown school board member with child endangerment and animal neglect after finding numerous pets in her home, including two dead cats. KCCI-TV reports someone called police Tuesday to express concern about the living conditions of school board member Kendall Derby’s 13-year-old child.

WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — A surge in absentee ballots is forcing Black Hawk County officials to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new voting machines and vote-counting equipment. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports the county Board of Supervisors this week received bids from three firms.

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — University of Iowa president-select J. Bruce Harreld has erased doubts about his qualifications before, but this time could be an even tougher sell. Many faculty, staff and students are revolting against Harreld’s appointment as Iowa’s president, arguing the businessman was the least qualified out of four finalists. But a former colleague says Harreld will succeed by listening and leading.

Cass County Assessor Brenda Nelson said she was essentially blinded-sided by the decision Thursday night by the Cass County Conference Board, not to re-appoint her to the position beginning January, 2016. Earlier, Duane McFadden, who represented to Board of Supervisors at the Conference Board meeting, had said there were several questions Nelson could not or would not answer. Nelson told KJAN News that’s because those questions required specific facts and figures which she did not have available because she was not requested to produce them prior to the meeting.

She says she was questioned on the number of working hours (which she says was approved by the board many years ago), the use of an outside appraisal company (that the board approves every year in her budget), and that the Conference Board told her there were complaints her staff had been rude to the customers, and she [Nelson] had not done anything about it.

Nelson said she was also asked why commercial property taxes are so high. She explained that when sales come through on a commercial property, she has to indicate what the assessment is. She says that within the last year or two, assessments have generally been 13-percent too low. A building assessed at $100,000 should bring that much at sale, but they are selling for about 13-percent more than the assessed value.

Part of the problem she says, is that the assessment is based on the building and land alone. Its contents or permanent fixtures inside, may be unknown to the assessor unless they are reported to the Recorders Office. For example, when the Atlantic Animal Health Center was sold, Dr. Leonard noted the building was being sold with examination tables, animal chutes and kennels.

She says if the seller doesn’t disclose the contents of the building is being including when documents are given to the Recorder at the time the sale is registered, it tends to skew the numbers the Recorder sends in to the State, because State officials will think it’s only for the building and the land. One or two or types of artificially inflated sales in the County, according to Nelson, can inadvertently give her a State-ordered increase because it appears she is way too low on the assessments.

Nelson says if she could have been given 15-minutes to go into her office and retrieved the information she asked for, that would have helped.

As for the Geographic Information System position, Nelson says the Director is an AMU employee who contracts with the Assessor’s Office two-days per week. Nelson’s employee, Mike Onnen, wanted the bigger office that was occupied by the GIS Coordinator because that person is only there two days per week. Nelson says the Board of Supervisors gave conflicting information as to what office space was available and where Onnen would be located. She said the move didn’t involve her, and was between the Board of Supervisors, Onnen and the GIS Director. She said also, the other County departments which utilize GIS mapping, have not, as has been stated to the contrary, contributed to the cost of the employee. Brenda Nelson says she doesn’t know what the future holds for her, including whether she would re-apply for her job.

She said Saturday that ‘Several people have called” and want her to run again, and that she has received “A massive amount of calls, emails and texts of support,” urging her to run again for her job.