COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Iowa’s annual sales tax holiday set to coincide with back-to-school shopping also brings Nebraskans looking for bargains across the Missouri River. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports that Iowa’s sales tax holiday this year is being held Aug. 7-8. Nebraska doesn’t have a sales tax holiday, although the idea has been kicked around from time to time by Nebraska lawmakers.

The Iowa holiday allows shoppers to buy select clothing and footwear priced at less than $100 without paying sales tax or local option taxes. The two days are usually among the best of the year for Iowa retailers. Although the sales tax holiday falls during the back-to-school shopping season, the tax exemption applies to merchandise for adults, too.

In an update to our story that posted Friday afternoon, officials say it was an Omaha man who died and whose wife was critically injured, during a motorcycle crash in Monona County. The Sioux City Journal reports that 81-year-old Willard Crowl was killed and 78-year-old Sonya Crowl was injured in the Thursday morning crash near Onawa on Interstate 29.

The Iowa State Patrol says the motorcycle was northbound when it began to drift into the right lane, then switched back to the left lane and crashed into the median. Investigators say Willard Crowl died at the scene. Sonya Crowl was taken to an Onawa hospital, then transported to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City.

It is not known who was driving the motorcycle at the time. The investigation into the crash continues.

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Police in Ames are warning of a phone scam targeting Iowa State University students. The Des Moines Register reports that multiple Iowa State students have received calls demanding money. Police say the callers threaten to take a student’s diploma, issue an arrest warrant or cause problems with a visa. Often, the callers mask their phone numbers through caller ID, posing as police departments.

Police are asking on-campus residents who have given money to the callers or who think they have received a call from a scammer to contact ISU Police. Off-campus students are asked to report incidents to the Ames Police Department. All are urged to contact the Federal Trade Commission through the commission’s website.