DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) — Davenport police arrested a man Thursday in the death of his mother after officers were called to a home and found her body. Police charged 36-year-old McKinsley Steven Watson, of Davenport with first-degree murder in the killing of 59-year-old Victoria Watson. The Quad-City Times reports officers were called to an apartment complex a little before 5 a.m. Thursday to investigate a report of an unresponsive woman. They found Victoria Watson, and medics pronounced her dead. Police didn’t say how she died. An autopsy is planned. McKinsley Watson was held in the Scott County Jail without bond.

(Radio Iowa) — Gasoline prices in Iowa are averaging almost a dollar lower than last year, but it won’t be enough to lure most of us to take a road trip for Memorial Day weekend. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Rose White, at Triple-A-Iowa, says the motor club isn’t releasing a holiday weekend travel forecast for the first time in 20 years. “Last year, 43-million Americans traveled for the holiday weekend, it was the second-highest travel volume on record since we began tracking information,” White says, “but with social distancing guidelines still in practice, this holiday weekend’s travel volume is likely to set a record low.”

Travel Iowa ran a full page ad in some newspapers last week featuring a couple on a deck overlooking a wide vista of green hills with just four words — “Dream Now, Visit Later.” White says many Iowa families will be doing exactly that. “We anticipate that people are going to hold back. For those who maybe had planned a long-distance, maybe an overseas vacation, they’ll likely revert to a local or regional destination,” White says. “We do anticipate as the states relax their laws and regulations pertaining to social distancing, more people will travel, but it will be a slow recovery.”

In recent weeks, highway travel in the state was said to be down 44-percent from normal, according to the Iowa D-O-T, but over Mother’s Day weekend, the numbers crept up to 75-percent of normal. Even with that increase, Triple-A is still expecting a potential record low for travel this coming weekend. “The CDC does still recommend that Americans stay home and avoid non-essential travel, but if you do travel this holiday weekend, we do advise you to pack essentials, especially those toiletries that might be needed at rest stops,” White says, “and also, anticipate early closures of restaurants.”

Gasoline is averaging a dollar-75 a gallon in Iowa, that’s 13-cents below the national average. A year ago, gas prices in Iowa were averaging two-67 a gallon. The last time the average national gas price leading into the Memorial Day holiday was under two-dollars a gallon was 17 years ago — in 2003.

(Radio Iowa) — A new estimate from the U-S Census Bureau shows an eastern Iowa town is the fastest growing.  “The fastest-growing city was Panorama Park — it’s a smaller town — the current population is 319, according to Gary Krob, coordinator of the State Data Center at the State Library of Iowa. “It is a small town, but they grew by almost 150 percent since 2010. And they are over by the Davenport area. Tiffin near Iowa City — which increased by 113 percent to 41-hundred-57 (4,157). The suburbs of Des Moines and nearby towns also continued to see growth.”Both Bondurant and Grimes were in the top five in the state of Iowa and they are here in the Des Moines metropolitan area. And then Waukee, Ankeny, Johnston, and West Des Moines all saw pretty significant growth since 2010,” Krob says.

Bondurant grew 80 percent to 69-hundred-58 (6,958) and Grimes, increased by 79 percent to 14-thousand-804 (14,804). Waukee grew nearly 75 percent (24,089 population), Ankeny nearly 48 percent (67,355 population)Johnston grew by 31 percent (22,582 population), and West Des Moines nearly 20 percent (67,899 population). Krob says the growth patterns haven’t changed much. “Most of the smaller communities that we saw some large growth really are going to be centered around the metropolitan areas. Really that’s been pretty standard for us for quite a while,” he says. He says the data now available doesn’t tell if the growth is people moving in from other parts of the state or from out of state. “At some point we are going to start being able to look at some county migration data — not through this program — but through other census programs, so we can get a better sense of what is going on,” Krob says. “Historically what we have been seeing in our state, we do some movement of people living in Iowa to outside the state. We do see a significant amount of Iowans moving from rural counties to more metropolitan counties.”

Krob says the pace of the growth leads to speculation about what is happening. “You look at the slower growth rate for the state — but then you look at some of these metropolitan communities and see how quickly they’re growing — you do get a sense that is it not just people moving from the rural counties into the metropolitans,” he says, “that we are getting people moving from outside the state and outside the country into the state of Iowa.”

The data shows 213 cities have gained population since 2010 — while 712 have lost population, and 18 have had no change.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office reported Thursday, that they had received several calls from residents, who said they received a call from MidAmerican Energy. A recording tells the resident they will have their services disconnected if payment is not received. The Audubon County Sheriff’s Office contacted MidAmerican Energy, and verified this is a scam. They are working with their Cyber Security Company to get these calls stopped.